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….

Former Crystal Palace manger Iain Dowie has opened a major can of worms by agreeing to take over from Alan Curbishley at London rivals Charlton Athletic with Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan threatening to take the case to the High Court to get compensation.

Jordan even had a court representative attempt to serve Dowie with a writ as he sat at his unveiling before the press as Charlton’s new manager but was denied access to do so.

Simon Jordan believes that he only allowed Iain Dowie to break his contract as Crystal Palace manager because Dowie assured him that he wanted to take a job further north to be closer to his family in the north west of England. To find that Dowie had taken a job with local neighbours Charlton came as quite a shock to Mr. Jordan who had foregone a ?1m compensation clause in Dowie’s contract to allow him to leave.

Jordan said:

“My football club waived compensation because he wanted to go back to the north.

“I released him from a ?1million compensation clause because he said he wasn’t going to do what he’s done.

“I’ll prove it to the High Court. Iain Dowie had a #1million compensation clause in his contract and there is no reason why I would take that out unless it was as a gesture of goodwill.

“My repayment for that is for Iain to do exactly what he said he was not going to do.”

Iain Dowie has refuted the allegations however and has said that he simply wanted a new challenge after a couple of years in the Selhurst park hotseat.

“The first conversation I had with Charlton was two days after.

“I found them very enthusiastic and I was one of several people they
nterviewed.”

“It’s a job which doesn’t come up too often,” said Dowie.

“Charlton has a fantastic reputation I think it’s been earned over the years.

“It’s a special place to work because they have got a history of being stable.”

He added: “I just think it was time for a new challenge.”

The next actions in the saga now look likely to take place in the negotiating room or else the High Court.