Respect and sympathies to Charlton season ticket holder David Bonney who joins us for the second time this season to sift through the wreckage of a dire season at The Valley.
A disastrous season so far, can you try and sum it up for us?
DB: First four games were great, couple of wins (one against your good selves), couple of draws, rest of the season an absolute wreckage. We’ve lost 3-0 on seven occasions this season ( the highlight month being October when we were beaten 3-0 three times in a row ) as well as being beaten 4-0, 5-0 and 6-0 so it’s safe to say team confidence is on the flimsy side and can fall to bits when hit with the slightest setback.
You've been through two managers and ended up back at Jose Riga, how's that happened?
DB: It started with poor unfinished player recruitment in the summer which resulted in a small squad of players not used to the rigors of Championship football. This led to inevitable problems with injuries compounded by the use of poor loan signings and youngsters who weren’t ready to fill squad gaps and the unbelievable decision to hire a manager from the Belgium third division to turn our season around (which didn’t work).
And how is he doing in his second stint?
DB: Rigas ok, decent guy but it’s all too little too late really and though results have picked up a bit with a couple of wins and a draw in the last four as I said before the team’s confidence is on a tight rope and any ill wind seems to send us tumbling into the abyss of another 3-0 defeat e.g. Sheffield Wednesday defeat which stopped our mini revival.
We all saw the protests at the Boro game, any end in sight? How is this going to play out?
DB: No, more protests are planned for the coming home games but the Chairman has put out I’m going nowhere vibes so both sides are entrenched at the moment. Sales of early season tickets are by all accounts disastrous with many fans vowing not to renew while the Chairman remains so you’d think something will have to give soon.
Any way back for this board if they did things differently?
DB: No can’t see any way back now too much has gone on the trust has totally been lost between the board and supporters. It’s not just on field that things have been bad the club is being run ineptly behind the scenes with good long serving staff quitting. Also the newly hired head of communications at the club felt she had to resign recently following the Middlesbrough game after a bizarre statement accusing the fans of not wanting the team to win was put on the clubs website. The statement seemly came from on high, written by someone whose first language wasn’t English and not attributed to anyone but obviously not with head of communications approval who had earlier put out a more conciliatory statement on the website.
Consequences of a drop into League One?
DB: Not good, if we drop you won’t see us back anytime soon would be my guess.
Do you think you'll avoid the drop, and if so who is going down instead?
DB: I think it’ll be a minor footballing miracle if we stay up. We have a tough run in and the toxic home atmosphere makes things even harder. It’ll most likely be Bolton, Us and one other. Fulham seem to be dropping down the league like a stone I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them.
Stand out players and weak links in the side?
DB: I wouldn’t know where to start with standout players this season but weak links wise if I was your manager I would pay special attention to set plays. We are not only wasteful of the ones we get but are extremely vulnerable when defending free kicks and corners.
Short, medium and long term aims for the club?
DB: I’d say most fans short, medium and long term aims for the club are:
Short term — Get out of the relegation battle.
Medium term — Get rid of the Chairman.
Long term — Get the semblance of a decently run football club back.
Pictures — Action Images