I’m sure even Iain Dowie would admit that the start to his Charlton Athletic career wasn’t exactly what he would have wanted (and frankly who would want a league start that brought only two victories from twelve games?) but to see the former Oldham and Crystal Palace boss removed from his post at this early stage of the season is plainly ridiculous.

Charlton aren’t looking good but I’m quite sure that the workaholic Dowie has been doing everything in his power to set things right and it certainly won’t have been down to lack of effort that his side aren’t performing well.

The simple fact of the matter is that the players Charlton already had before Dowie arrived, and the ones he’s signed, just aren’t very good. Darren Bent and possibly Luke Young are really the only players that could seriously interest other Premiership managers and with a ragtag band of journeymen and has-beens it was always going to be a struggle to do anything of note with Charlton this season.

Detractors point to the fact that Dowie spent ?10m on new players during the transfer window but his hands were tied behind his back with regards the players that he could seriously attract. Andy Reid was a pie eating misfit at Spurs, Djimi Traore is probably the worst player to ever claim a Champion’s League winner’s medal and “Fat Eddie Murphy” Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is well past his sell-by date but they all have Premiership experience and really are the very best that Charlton can expect to attract in this day and age.

With that in mind the knee jerk reaction to sack the manager in mid-November becomes even more disgusting. When Dowie’s former boss and recent nemesis Simon Jordan speaks out on his behalf you start to get even more of a feeling that the Charlton board have made a huge blunder. I hope Charlton fans don’t get their hopes up about getting a quality manager in as a replacement either - word is that Graeme Souness has already been sniffing around.

From bad to worse at The Valley….

I would like to say that I’m astonished that someone can still feel this way in the year 2006 but then I would be lying as I know there are people out there that despise the involvement of women in the game, however, I am astonished that someone has actually come out publicly and admitted it.
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In the forty-six years since its inception the Football League Cup has flirted its way through some six sponsors, helping sell more than the odd pint of milk, coke, lager and bitter to the British Public along the way. You may never experience quite the same stirring in the blood as when you hear the Champions League anthem on European nights (although I?m sure they?re singing ?LASAGNE!?), but for the Liverpool supporter with good memories of the eighties, the League Cup will always be regarded with more than a little fondness. ?If the FA Cup is football?s Ascot, then the League Cup is its Derby Day? were the bold words of Football League visionary Alan Hardaker back in 1960, quite forgetting that the real daddy was and always will be the Grand National.
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The last few games have told us something; we are in desperate need of cover in certain positions in our squad!

Tugay is on magnificent form but he can?t run the midfield on his own, which is basically what he has been doing in the absence of Robbie Savage and Steven Reid! Mark Hughes said that Aaron Mokoena would be the first name on his team sheet in a five a side game, but he just isn?t making the cut in centre midfield this season! We miss Reid attacking from midfield and we miss Sav?s battling spirit and never say die attitude! This is why in January we MUST find adequate back up for out centre midfielders!
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The cracked crest on the back of today?s Scottish Sun confirms it ? Rangers are officially in crisis.

Having fallen 15 points behind Celtic at the top of the SPL and following our 0-2 loss to St Johnstone in the League Cup, probably the worst defeat in our 134 year history, Rangers manager Paul Le Guen is in serious danger of becoming a managerial casualty by Christmas, this at a club who just don?t ever sack managers.
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I was going to write an article on international football and how friendlies should be scrapped in favour of a new international season period in both Summer and Winter. After discussing my proposals with a few friends who pointed out shortcomings in my arguments I have decided against that particular Pandora?s box for now and instead have decided to attempt to revolutionise the football disciplinary system.

It has been a long-serving debate about whether the yellow/red card system should be amended in order to facilitate sin bins. The plusses to sin bins being that if a player commits a small offence then he can be punished by being sent to the dugout where he can calm down and that games will not be ruined as one team is severely handicapped by having a two or three players sent off for an entire match meaning that the spectacle of a competitive match is hindered. On the down side it goes against footballing tradition and players may not be punished severely enough for dangerous fouls that may result in an increase in unsportsmanlike behaviour, or that a mass brawl may see two teams with hardly any players on the field for a short period of the match.
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The year was 2002 and Wayne Rooney was a golden boy of football and the great English hope for the future. However, in December of that year Wayne’s romps with a middle aged prostitute threatened to put him out of favour with the English public.

The visits to a brothel occurred four months into his relationship with Coleen McLaughlin who was informed of Wayne’s wandering ways after a Sunday newspaper prepared to reveal details for the lewd sex antics. Coleen on hearing the devastating news reportedly discarded her diamond and platinum engagement ring which was worth around ?25,000 by hurling it into a densely wooded area close to the pair’s home.
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This weekend went off as a Spurs supporters dream. First Arsenal suffered a defeat at West Ham with Mr Wenger showing that he really is one of the most unsporting men in the Premiership today and then to top it all Spurs beat Chelsea at home taking all three points convincingly.
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Let me get the usual fawning out of the way early before I continue this piece: in his time at Spurs Paul Gascoigne grew from a podgy potentially good midfielder into one of the world’s finest midfield players of his generation.

That’s where the fawning ends. Since his infamous career threatening injury in the 1991 FA Cup Final Paul Gascoigne has been nothing but trouble to himself, those who know him and those who have previously cared for him.
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I’m sure the hundreds of protesting Newcastle fans who made their voices clearly heard after Saturday’s humiliation against Sheffield United will be suitably pacified now that they know that Geordie top dog Freddy Shepherd has been in to see Glenn Roeder and the players and has reminded them exactly what he and the club expect of them.
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