As we prepare to tackle our first season since WW11 without Betty Hutchins at the helm, it devolves on me to step up and deliver a pep talk in her place. Think of it as my take on a new President’s inauguration speech, a case of out with the old, in with the six months younger.
Betty was a cockeyed optimist when it came to life and Charlton. She’d decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow. Me too. We were scrupulous about not walking in each other’s shadow, in case it caused Charlton to lose. We collided occasionally but it’s funny how superstition takes over. For instance, a few weeks ago, I wore the same shoelaces I wore in 1998, the first time we played Sunderland at Wembley. And I used Colgate to clean my teeth both times. Daft I admit but you can’t be too careful.
“You know something, Kev?” Betty mused earlier this year, “I’ve begun to think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs from the brim to the dregs”. I didn’t have a clue what she was on about because she rarely took a drink but I was sensitive to the mood and counter-mused. “Bet, I hear what you’re saying, but the record shows I took the blows and did it my way.” Then for some reason we broke into “My Old Man’s a Dustman”, which made far more sense to us. She was flat for once. But I digress.
Bet would probably agree that with less than three weeks until it all kicks off again at Blackburn, there is cause for concern about our prospects. You don’t need me or her to tell you that any midfield which, in one fell swoop, loses the likes of Josh Cullen, Krystian Bielik and Joe Aribo, is in trouble. That sheer quality is all but impossible to replace. Patrick Bauer’s departure is probably adequately covered by Tom Lockyer but midfield is where we’ll be found out, unless Lee Bowyer and his staff’s uncanny nose for disregarded talent comes into its own again. Bet trusted them. So do I but I wish they’d hurry up.
Our goalkeepers (Dillon Phillips and Ben Amos) are sound and the defence solid-looking. We boast two excellent right backs (Chris Solly and Anfernee Dijksteel), three experienced centre backs who possibly need an extra body (Lockyer, Naby Sarr and Jason Pearce), a couple of first-class left backs (Lewis Page and Ben Purrington). Lyle Taylor might find it tough up front without proven support (Tom Eaves fits the bill perfectly), which brings us back to the department where games are invariably decided.
Both George Lapslie and Albie Morgan are impressive graduates from the academy’s peerless assembly line but have only recently discarded their L-plates. Jake Forster-Caskey’s return is well-timed but we look threadbare in the middle of the park. We need a midfielder or two cast in the manager’s mould.
Whatever state we’re in, we’ll be pulling out from Anchor and Hope Lane on August 3rd with the indomitable spirit of Betty Hutchins not so much fording every stream but still doggedly following her dream. Which was usually a bacon-and-egg fry-up at the motorway stop on the way there and a large Magnum to cool her down on the journey home. She sometimes bit off more than she could chew but she never spat it out. Which is more than that full-of-himself bloke in the song can claim.
Spot on, Kev, I’m sure. and I’m in no position – not even midfield – to argue because I’ve not seen enough, not by a long ball.
Talking of which, I’d like to take on what seemed to be our conflicting views on retaining possession the last time we discussed the Addicks and football in general. Your view, as I recall, was something along the lines of why do they (all footballers these days) pass backwards instead of forwards?
I won’t give my answer straight away but go back four or five years (five or six?) to when the much-loved Chris Powell was in charge and for a season or two I watched most home games from the press box alongside my musical manager and Charlton fan, Carl Picton. I used to bore Carl rigid with my hatred of endless balls ‘into the channel’.
I also took it up in a roundabout way with Chris Powell himself when I had the idea of taking Jens, a young Finnish journalist I was mentoring for his millionaire dad, to the midweek press conference at the training ground for a bit of local experience.
I anticipated a room full of hacks and Jens just taking it all in without the need to ask any questions, as he’d never been to a game at The Valley. Imagine the situation then with just three of us present – me, Jens and that lovely old pro from Kent Radio.
As the Kent man asked about goals and groin strains and knowing there would be no sense from Jens, I desperately tried to think of a question for Chris. My turn came and I went for it. “Chris,” I said, “now that Barcelona have revolutionised football and everyone realises that this is the new football that all coaches must aspire to on one level or another – even Yeovil pass it – where do you stand on it all?
Chris gave me one of those inscrutable smiles of his and said (I’ve got it in shorthand): “I just try to win football matches.”
Fast forward three or four seasons and there’s me watching Charlton in a televised match and then again in the televised play-offs, including the final, and – begorrah! – they’re passing it! They’ve got skilful players! So that’s why they’re doing so well! So that’s my answer, Kev!
Okay, so teams that keep possession meaninglessly are indeed wasting their time. The point is that you keep possession until one of the three or four players in your team have the skill, ability and intention to take a man on and really hurt the opposition. Charlton, on my limited evidence, went up because of it. There was hardly a ball in the channel.
The other thing I’d like to emphasise to coaches the country over is the importance of left-sided players,
all to do with body angles. But I’m going on a bit, as usual…and I daren’t ask Chris.
Over to you, Kev!