Intervallo

And now... a rest from football. To ponder the skill of the Italians and the folly of Zidane, among other matters.

Hold on... the Millwall game's in a fortnight?

Jimmy Floyd Road

Charlton appear to be winning the race to sign Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, as the Dutch striker will head to The Valley on Monday to undertake a medical, according to Sky Sports News. (more)

Blimey. What in heaven's name are we offering him? Gold? The freehold to a street in Abbey Wood? I'll believe it when it happens, but can you imagine Hasselbaink and Bent together? Dear me, I think I've just got all over-excited.

Other transfer nonsense - the Daily Star on Sunday has been told by a nice man in N17 that we're selling Darren Bent to Spurs (altogether now... bullshit!), while the Sunday Mirror now puts Steve Sidwell's price to us as £2.5m.

New home and away shirts

According to a post on Netaddicks, here's Charlton's home and away kits for the forthcoming season.

Can't say I'm so sure about that away kit, but hopefully this tells us more about the kits than those irritating "sneak previews" on cafc.co.uk.

And as an extra treat, here's the new Premiership ball.

Dowie's down with the kids

As you've probably read everywhere else, Iain Dowie's made his first signing for Charlton in the shape of Leeds midfielder Simon Walton, the 18 year-old leaving Elland Road in a deal that could reach £1 million.

It was also announced with the news that Lloyd Sam has signed a new contract. Perhaps this marks a move away from the ultra-cautious end to the Curbishley years, where players seemed to have wait until their 24th birthday before getting a decent sniff at the first team. By which time, it was someone else's first team.

"It's part of a dual approach; we're looking at established talent but also youth talent we can develop and if you can dovetail those two then that's good for the future of the club." (more)

I'm starting to like the cut of Dowie's jib - I think he's identified where we'd gone stale last year, where the poor chances offered to young players frustrated fans and footballers alike.

But as for established talent, rumours abound once again about Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, although I imagine he'll be able to name his price at a club with more money than sense.

Today's Mirror claimed we were after 20-year-old Leyton Orient defender Gabriel Zakuani, but the O's have indicated he's on his way to Fulham instead.

And another of last season's duds has found a new home - Jonathan Johansson has turned up at Sweden's Malmo.

Honour the 32!

According to the club's e-mail bulletin, our away game season ticket is being withdrawn due to a lack of demand.

"Only 32 supporters took advantage of the scheme last season and with the
number of changes to fixture dates that occur in the Premier League there is
a lot of administration involved," Sir Reg Varney said.

Just 32 sales? Is this the lowest figure of any Premiership side? Mind you, considering the dreck served up for most of last season, and the customary buggering about with the fixture list, perhaps this shouldn't be a shock.

But these 32 are heroes. Who are they? Where are they? They deserve our respect and honour. Let's place their names on a plaque somewhere. For they are braver men and women than you or I are.

In other news, Steve Sidwell's turned down another deal at Reading, according to the Reading Chronicle.

Valley Flags Campaign launched

The first in a line of promised fan-based schemes kicks off this morning - The Valley Flags Campaign is raising funds to help replace the huge flag which used to do the rounds of The Valley before, erm, somebody left it out in the rain and let it go mouldy. The design is the Che Killer one from Burro's T-shirts...

It also hopes to raise cash for banners in the Covered End, along the lines of those you may have seen in Old Trafford's Stretford End. Here's a possible design:

There is discussion about using the cash from topping the public behaviour league, but the more fans get behind this now, the more chance the board will see it's what the fans want.

(I should declare an interest here, as I've helped the campaign organisers on a couple of things.)

It's easy to help - you could simply donate cash to the campaign, or you can help in more subtle ways, by using its Amazon and iTunes links to buy your music, video, books and all that. So do it, and help get the atmosphere at The Valley back on track.

Leeds youngster for Charlton?

Today's Yorkshire Evening Post claims we're about to sign 18-year-old Leeds midfielder Simon Walton after agreeing a £500,000+ deal with the Elland Road side. I know nothing about him - can anyone fill me in? - but it's encouraging that we're looking for young Championship players. Young, mean, keen - could almost be an ideal Curbs signing, eh? Could this be our long-awaited first Dowie deal?

In other transfer news, the Luke Young saga took a twist yesterday - he's committed himself to Charlton, but with no news yet of a new contract. The Mirror claimed he failed a medical at West Ham - funny, he is injured, after all - a sour grapes story planted by the Irons? The upshot of all this is that Tyrone Mears is all set to go from Preston to West Ham for a fee believed to be in excess of £3m, keeping the Boleyn overdraft ticking over nicely.

Meanwhile, Chris Perry has gone to West Brom on a Bosman - he had been hoping to stay in London and in the Premiership, but his class will surely shine in the Championship - good luck to him.

Sparky's dream?

Is Mark Hughes some kind of genius, or has the Blackburn boss gone mad? Still, I suppose Ewood Park is a bit far from the New Cross Venue for Franny Jeffers, so there's a chance his move to Rovers could actually be productive.

Remember that day, the day we signed Jeffers and Murphy? Curbs splashing the Parker cash? How good the future looked then...

"This should be a day we'll remember for years to come. For all the right reasons. We're signing England internationals." All Quiet In The East Stand, 10 August 2004.

Hahahahaha! What pillock could have written that?

But, imagine... what if the signings had been a success? There's an alternate reality where Jeffers played like a dream, taking a while to settle but helping us to eighth place in 2005, with a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Crystal Palace to send the Eagles down. Alongside Darren Bent in 2005/2006, they formed a deadly strike partnership, becoming the leading English-born scorers in the Premiership, only being pipped to a Champions League place by Arsenal on the final day of the season. Jeffers was unlucky to miss out on joining England's World Cup squad while his team-mates Young, Murphy and Bent went, but ex-Charlton manager Alan Curbishley has hinted he will use him when he takes over from Sven Goran Eriksson in August. Now Jeffers is leaving for Real Madrid in a £12m deal, giving new Addicks boss...

Sorry! Daydreaming again. But, with hindsight, could Murphy and Jeffers ever have been a success at The Valley?

Beware Jason and Tyrone's little Willie

This is why Charlton don't do their business in public:

"Wigan are looking to bring in a new striker and Jason feels the time is right to move on. Jason just wants to draw a line under it and move on to Charlton." Jason Roberts' agent Willie McKay, 30 June.

"Blackburn have signed Wigan striker Jason Roberts on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee." BBC Sport, 3 July.

In related news, defender Tyrone Mears is in talks with an un-named Premiership club in London. He's been linked with us before, thanks to a leak from his agent, one Willie McKay. Sky Sports, however, claims the club he's talking to is... West Ham. (However, that theory isn't being repeated by Sky Sports News on TV.)

Wasn't it Margaret Thatcher who said every prime minister needed a Willie? Footballers on the make don't do bad out of one either...

Meanwhile, there's radio silence over Luke Young, following a flurry of claims last Thursday, and then then last Friday, which prompted a rare denial from Charlton on Saturday, which seems to have stopped the tap-tap-tap noises coming from Upton Park. Whether Young's fate is connected with that of Mears remains to be seen, but hopefully we'll see our first proper transfer movement soon.

I-Spy: Cheating little shitbags

Tick 'em off as the summer continues.

( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo denies all responsibility for Wayne Rooney's sending off.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo becomes centre of hate campaign led by national newspaper.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo recieves death threats from alleged England fans.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo's mother condemns death threats against her son.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo threatened in nightclub.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo hate campaign condemned again by national newspaper.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo "has difficulties" on return to Manchester United.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo hit by mobile phone at friendly match.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo hate campaign condemned again by national newspaper.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo invited for talks by Sir Alex Ferguson.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo guarded by police.
( ) 5 points: Cristiano Ronaldo transferred to Real Madrid.

It's unlikely we'll see Cristiano Ronaldo in the Premiership again. He's a marked man on the pitch, off it, and I doubt many other nations would piss on him if he was on fire either. It's only a game, but games are played by rules. Bend those rules and you deserve all you get. As for Carvalho... will the anti-Chelsea mood get nasty?

I wonder what Darren Bent thought as today's England game unfolded - there's an alternate reality where Bent scored an extra-time winner, and we then had to sell him for £25m. Or where Bent was on the bench and bloody Defoe got the winner. But either circumstance would have made more sense than picking Theo Walcott, whose career now has the Curse of High Expectations looming over it.

On the positive side, as somebody I spoke to earlier mentioned, perhaps we should bite Bayern's hands off for Owen Hargreaves. After all, if we suddenly come into four million pounds on Monday (you heard), isn't he the kind of player Charlton need? Discuss...