Premiership playback

A latest look at the Premiership table, which is mysteriously upside down! Let me start with the bottom and my beloved Addicks. I hate to say this but we have that look, the look of Southampton and Leicester in previous years. When Martin O'Neill left Leicester they went into freefall and I fear we may go the same way.

The thing is Charlton have been in freefall for 2 years and Curbs left the new manager with very little to play with. Ok, he spent 11 million and I think the media have been harsh on his signings. Diawara, Faye, Reid and Carson (who is on loan) have been 4 of our best players this season and the sacking of the ex-Palarse man gets stranger and stranger you more you analyse it.

I worry about Les Reed, not because of his footballing ability - he is one of the best coaches around, and technically probably one of the best in Europe but he's never been a manager before, and why is that? Don Howe, Stewart Houston, Brian Kidd, Glenn Roeder, Graham Rix and Tony Parkes were all great coaches but they were not club managers.

Les Reed will get all my backing but his gentlemanly and calm demeanour is unfortunately not what we want. We need some passion and some tea cups being thrown around because the players look demotivated and like they couldn't give a shit. But all time we are hanging in there and have players of the quality of Darren Bent, Rommedahl, Reid, Thomas, Diawara, Young, Hasselbaink and Carson I believe we have a chance.

Onto our relegation rivals - oh that sends a shiver down my spine. Sheffield United and Watford were described by Alan Hanson as boxers who refused to go down, but eventually they will run out of steam and despite both having managers with the qualities that I want to see at Charlton, I think the players are simply not good enough (I hope). More on the Addicks plight can be found at Chicago Addick by the way.

I also hope that Newcastle, who lets face it are crap, also hang around the bottom of the table. They have some real quality in Parker and Duff, but my they have some donkeys too. West Ham to me seem to good to go down. There's a lot going on down there and the Argies and the takeover are all problems, but if Pardew is given time then they should stay up. But remember they were 'too good to go down' before.

Blackburn and Middlesbrough will both get pulled into the fray, I rate Hughes as for Southgate, he hasn't even got the basic coaching badges - it's a farce, just like its a farce that Portsmouth are allowed to stay in the division when they have one of the worst 5 grounds in the top 2 divisions - Colchester, Southend, Luton and Cardiff are the others, although both Cardiff and Colchester have plans to move.

Tottenham have slipped again and even Man City are above them, which proves what a couple of wins can do.

At the top, it looks like a 2-horse race. Liverpool are 10th, 16 points behind the leaders. That's shit isn't? How much money have they spent? Arsenal meanwhile are rebuilding, and waiver between playing total football to football like tits, especially in their palatial new home.

Meanwhile Portsmouth are having a fantastic season, Redknapp needs to be given serious plaudits for what he has done in his time back there (and before his failed move to Southampton). Bolton are up there and so are the revitalised Aston Villa, who appointed a new manager, he bought 1 player, compared to Dowie's 10 but have lost 1 game. Martin O'Neill's reputation grows and grows doesn't it?

And a word about Wigan and Reading. Wigan had a slow start and I thought the warning signs were there but they have pushed on well with little real quality in their squad. Reading also have only 1 or 2 players that as a Charlton fan I would like. However the underlying message is that they both have excellent managers and a squad of players that will bust their balls, and give everything.

Charlton was once like that.