Iain Dowie has been the 'head coach' at The Valley for just over 24 hours and he has already released Chris Perry and Jay Bothroyd. Sadly I thought these were both good players, but lets hope he has other players in his plans to strengthen the team!

The press rumours have been confirmed, Iain Dowie has been confirmed as the new Charlton Manager but as usual Palarse Chairman Simon Jordan had something to say. Les Reed has been named as Head Coach, Mark Robson named as Development officer and Andrew Mills named as General Manager

Firstly at 1200pm Charlton had a press conference unveiling Dowie as the replacement for Alan Curbishley. After many questions about him leaving Palace and talking about Charlton, a Palarse representative interrupted shouting out that they are issuing a Writ towards him as he left Palarse under false claims saying he wanted to move up North. But as Dowie said he wanted a "New Challenge".
Jordan blabbed his mouth on Sky Sports News after the conference and started shouting his mouth out about Dowie and Charlton.
To be honest, men like Jordan do not need to be in this game, but Iain has chosen to join a much better club!

Good luck to Iain and lets hope to see great things at The Valley

Tomorrow Charlton will announce their new management team with Ian Dowie looking most likely to take over. Since I have heard this, I have been wondering about a few transfers.
Last season saw Spurs sign Wayne Routledge from Palace after the Eagles were relegated by us on the last day. This season, Wayne has not seen much action in the white top and was shipped out to Pompey on loan. This must mean he is not needed by Spurs so I wonder if Dowie would put an offer in for him?
Also Andy Johnson has had three bids accepted by Palace from Wigan, Everton and Bolton. Could we put a bid in on Tuesday??
Although it is not confirmed, it looks probable that it will be Dowie, and he could be the key to getting some quality players into the club.
The look on Jordans face will be classic!

Billy Davis has been told by Charlton that they will not be pursuing his application for the vacant managers position. This is quite surprising as he looked the most likely candidate. Now the most likely person is former Palarse manager Ian Dowie. Also Graham Souness has been rumoured to be in the picture.

It seems that Shaun Bartlett, Francis Jeffers and Jonatan Johansson have been released by the club as well as Jason Euell who is apparently talking to Cardiff. This of course is according to various 'sources' around the internet and nothing has been confirmed by the club.

... of the England squad due to the re-occurance of his ankle injury he obtained at the West Hame match in April. Sad for him but I hope he will continue his great form and get into the Euro 2008 squad

Peter Taylor has pulled out of the race of being the next Charlton Manager. As he seemed the most likeliest to take over Curbs' reigns, he has surprisingly pulled out saying he wanted to keep on taking Hull forward. Oh well, his loss!

Yep Sorondo has chosen wisely! He has signed a Pre-Contract agreement with Charlton today after his contract at Internazionale has expired. Good news in my opinion, he has been a strong defender in the games he has played and will be a welcome addition to the side!

The Charlton Board have released first Team Coach Mervyn Day and Assistant Manager Keith Peacock on Tuesday with mutual consent. Sad news for the fans but the club has promised a management strucure shake up and already has appointed a general manager Andrew Mills in what I believe to be a director of football kind of role. This is going to be an interesting summer!

Luke Young has been named in the standby squad, Darren Bent hasn't been named at all. WHAT THE F***. Has Sven lost the plot, he names unexperienced Theo Walcott and lankmeister Peter Crouch as well as Rooney and Owen in the confirmed squad, Pala*se star AJ and Spuds Defoe. I am sorry but how can the top English scorer in the Premier League this season not be named in the squad is ridiculous.

Good Luck Luke Young and my deepest sympathies go out to Benty. Show Sven what he missed next season!

Charlton have signed USA international Cory Gibbs today on a free transfer from Feyenoord. Not too sure about him but if he is a strong defender in practice then I will welcome anyone.

Thats it, Curbs has left the building. Ok not literally, but he has stepped down as Charlton Manager after a glorious 15 years. Unfortunately we couldn't give him a send off that we would have all wanted. Frankly it was an embarrasing 4-0 defeat and ridiculous performance.
To be honest, I didn't think our first 10-15 minutes was too bad but in the 19th when Saha headed United ahead that when we fell apart. To make matters worse, their 3rd before half time was a Jason Euell own goal. Kieran Richardson settled the match with a great 4th in the 2nd half and that was it.

Alan has done great things for this club and he will remain in our hearts forever. Another season over and a completely different one awaits us come August. We finished a disappointing 13th this season and I am sure we can improve on that in 2006/2007.

Thanks to all the regular readers this season, we have some great memories of this past year.

We will keep you up to date with the goings on during the close season.

Once again - Heres To Curbs

These are the latest odds from Paddy Power:

G Hoddle 9/2
I Dowie 7
A Boothroyd 7
M O Neill 15/2
A McLeish 8
M Allen 9
G Graham 10
P Taylor 12
M McCarthy 12
G Souness 14
D OLeary 16
M Newell 16
B Davies 20
G Burley 22
M Adams 25
B Kerr 28
C Ranieiri 33
K Keegan 50
J Gregory 50
Bryan Robson 50
S Bruce 50
G Taylor 66
G Houllier 66
Sven G Ericsson 80
G Vialli 100
D Jones 100
J Tigana 100
L Scolari 100
K Dalglish 100
R Hodgson 100
N Clough 100
J Charlton 200

To be honest, I'd love to see Martin O'Neil and I think he would work wonders for the club. He'd be expensive but so worth it! Rumour has it that he would like to manage a premiership club again. If Glenn Hoddle came to the club, the board would be making a mistake. Ranieri would be a good bet, he did do well at Chelsea and is out of a job. But the board want an English manager, although good for Tradition is it really what the club need? Maybe a foreigner wouldn't be a bad idea, someone who has had experience in Europe could be the man to take us to the next level. Time will tell who we get but I hope it is not the case that we will be looking for a manager again this time next year and possibly facing relegation because of a mistake of a manager. Come on Charlton, give it some thought!