New kit, sky games, transfers & a dumb blonde
Above is the home kit released by cafc.co.uk today. You can buy it for 40 quid here and the players will wear it for the first time in the home friendly against Feyenoord on August 3rd. Lets hope they can rustle up 11 kits together for the occassion!

The official site said that the away kit will be white and black (hopefully with the stripy socks) and will be "unveiled towards the start of August", with a bit of luck before the first two away games in which we meet teams that wear red. In fact will the white kit be acceptable for the visit to the Stadium of Light on the opening day of the season?

With no sign of an official comment, one can only assume that pictures tell a thousand words and all:sports will continue as our kit sponsor for another season, their last contractually.

The official list of Sky fixtures up until the end of the year have also been announced. Being an ex-pat of course, I pay particular attention to these and despite the fact I would watch us play a boy scout XI, they are pretty uninspiring. Here is the full list, which is 2 less than the same period last year:

Middlesbrough away - non-pay-per-view - Sunday, August 28th, 1.30pm
Fulham home - non-pay-per-view - Monday, October 17th, 8pm
Portsmouth away - pay-per-view - Saturday, October 22nd, 5.15pm
Manchester City home - non-pay-per-view - Sunday, December 4th, 4pm
Arsenal home - non-pay-per-view - Monday, December 26th, 12.45pm

Of course the Boxing Day game is the most attractive, cue my Mum & Dad moaning about getting there for the early kick off. The traditional well supported away game at Fratton Park will be badly effected I suspect by the 5.15 kick-off, although at least it makes for a full day's drinking!

The first opportunity, probably for me to watch the boys live will be Middlesbrough away, the 4th game of the season. This is a revised fixture list.

The transfer gossip involving us has warmed up a bit today. There seems to be some weight behind the supposed acquisitions of Spurs' Anthony Gardner and Reading's Steve Sidwell. I like the idea of a season-long loan of exciting Man United winger Chris Eagles, this may mean Lloyd Sam doing the same in The Championship, maybe with Brighton.

Richard Murray stated that no-one would be leaving until players are signed. If this means Kelly Youga in for Paul Konchesky, then it seems more and more certain that the Dagenham boy will be heading to Upton Park. Konch was our best player in our annual nightmare last third of the season, but £2m will add to Curbs' war chest and I wouldn't begrudge him having a fresh challenge after 8 years at the club.

It's kind of ironic though, that plainly Konchesky feels he can win the left-back berth of Chris Powell, something he was unable to do a few years back.

Lastly, in a somewhat busy day for Charlton news, we hear that back in Sweden Matt Svensson had a few parting words to say about his 'glittering' career in England. People that know me will know I was never much of a fan. Anyone who wore the Palace kit before ours, would have to do a tiny bit more for me than just run around the pitch getting booked.

"Alan Curbishley is highly-rated in England - because people don't know what goes on in the dressing room, he only cares about the first team and doesn't give a damn about the rest of the squad. You just get dropped and banished without a word of explanation.

"The only reason I didn't play in my last year was because I told him I wanted to miss a game against Birmingham because my wife was about to give birth. Curbishley doesn't give a shit about any of his players."

Alan Ball, Harry Redknapp and others also get the sharp end of the Swede's tongue (more).

This does prove two things, one that Curbs is an enigma to some and a hero to others, and Svensson's and Jason Euell's comments prove to us that he does have his favourites, which isn't always the best for dressing room harmony.

And secondly there is nothing more ridiculous than a spoit and average player scorned.  ¶ 15:14