Appleton It Is

One of the exchanges with fellow Addicks over the past couple of days has been ‘if it’s Appleton, has there been a Charlton manager (sorry, head coach) greeted with less initial enthusiasm’? Some offered up Fraeye, even Luzon or Peters (basically anyone daft Roland thought suitable after getting lucky with Riga). For those of us with longer memories Mullery was pretty controversial (and didn’t last long), Craggs was just an act of desperation (as was Reed). Let’s also throw into the mix Nelson (greeted with suspicion but despite his absence of social skills got us promoted), Lawrence (also basically just got the job because he was around and look what he did for us), even Curbs and Gritt.

I suppose the point is none of us are going to be thrilled by the choice, but there have been times in the past that’s been the case and it has worked out well. Appleton faces a massive job in winning over the fan base, especially as despite the usual guff with the announcement he most likely wasn’t the first choice (albeit the club apparently didn’t get to speak to those top of the list), plus the fact that the new club management team have come out of the whole episode poorly. Perhaps Appleton’s asset now is that nobody has great expectations and if it all goes pear shaped it will be the owners and club management that take the blame.

There is of course just one (obvious) way in which Appleton will win over the crowd. Results. If there is a material improvement on the pitch – and let’s face it we have reasons to believe it will, given those returning from injury and those brought in, as they learn to play together, and as surely the defence gets sorted out – that will do fine. It isn’t that we can’t learn to love Appleton, just that he doesn’t come across as anyone’s idea of Prince Charming and we’ve been left waiting at the altar so many times in recent times. Whatever our immediate thoughts, we desperately hope he will succeed.

Like all these things the full circumstances around the decision to sack Holden will only potentially be revealed over time. If the rumour that Sir Chris was offered some role before the Oxford game, and/or was approached after it, proves true I hope the person/people concerned feel ashamed. You’d hope they would learn from any such mistake, but these are not people finding their way in football. In those circumstances it would hardly be surprising that he told them to take a running jump. Just as it seemed something rotten had been going on before JJ’s team took to the field at Ipswich, so this time around perhaps the rumours were circulating and had an impact at Oxford.

So like all the times we have been welcoming in a new manager the choice of song reflects hope that it will all turn out well, with the usual sense of foreboding that more often than not over recent years it has not. So perhaps to reflect the behaviour of the club management we could have ‘I’ve Got Friends In Low Places’, even Lee Hazelwood’s classic ‘I’ve Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me’. Just that through this week it’s felt more like ‘What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted’ – and right now still does.