A Long Weekend

After a couple of mis-starts here's the weekend update. 

First of all a miserable defeat at Blackpool which leaves us bottom of the table. There comes a point when the optimism that precedes each game does a 180 degree turn. You then expect the worst. Even a draw or playing well and losing leaves you clutching at straws - or green shoots anyway. But at least resignation and despair makes defeat easier to swallow. 

I feel desperately sorry for the Board at Charlton. Two and a bit years ago they handed over a couple of seasons of transfer money to a new manager in the expectation that we could push on: from mid-table into Europe.    What I don't think they realised is that it was our talismanic manager, Alan Curbishley, that had kept the team punching well above its weight: almost certainly in a false position. Once he went the spell was broken and the team's fortunes sank. Even a good replacement like Alan Pardew found himself unable to stop the rot.

What next? I really don't know. Curbs back at the Valley seems the obvious answer, yet the man is unlikely to want a job outside the Premiership. Anyway they say you should never go back.  Phil Parkinson has a credible claim to the job but as Pardew's former No.2 he will inevitably be seen as part of the regime that got us in this mess in the first place. He will not be given time to turn things round.  All in all I don't have an answer and for that reason I feel desperately sorry for the people who have to lead the club forward in all this - the Board. 

In spite of my unforgivable absence from Mass the weekend was a reminder of some of the things that are important to me. A visit to  family in Devon on Saturday was then followed by a chance to catch up with a greatly missed  old friend in Dorset. It was a reminder that whatever else preoccupies us we need to find time for those dearest to us. I drove back in the glorious winter's morning  sunshine on Sunday in very high spirits.

Back to the here and now. In my mind there is a very confused set of thoughts going round about great leadership,  our lives as Christians and the example set by those in power be they politicians or football managers. It is not going away. But it will have to wait.