Farewell Chris (once again)

So Chris Powell's off again. The out-of-contract defender's signed a one-year deal with Watford, telling the Hornets' official site:

"It was the manager who attracted me to Watford. I was extremely impressed with what he did last year and want to be part of what's he's looking to do for Watford in the future.

"I'm a great believer in going to places where you're wanted so I'm glad to add my Premier League experience to the squad and be part of a successful season at Vicarage Road." (more)

"After last season I felt I owed it to myself to keep playing. I had to make a bit of a decision and as I was out of contract people can talk to you and ask what your plans are. That's how I came to this decision that I am moving on again.

"It's a shame really but I had to look to the future, what I want to do in my career and what role I want to play." (more)

I suppose you can read as much as you want to between the lines here, but with a new manager in it's obvious Powell wasn't going to be at the forefront of Iain Dowie's thoughts when it came to renewing contracts. And if Aidy Boothroyd's going to offer Powell a few more games, you can hardly blame him for jumping at the chance of one final fling. He certainly earned it with us last season, and it's better than jumping into the lower divisions.

Of course, with a question mark hanging over Luke Young, it makes you wonder if we'll manage to put out a first XI at the start of next season. But with the World Cup on, and old contracts expiring at midnight tonight, it's still early days yet. As for Chris, good luck to him - hopefully Watford know they'll need to give the old boy some rest every now and then... and as Richard Murray says, the door's still open. Hopefully we'll see him again soon.

In the meantime, Sky have unveiled their latest butchering of the fixtures - two pain-in-the-arse Saturday lunchtime kick-offs at home, Newcastle away shunted to teatime (a weekend in the Toon it is, then), while we don't have a Boxing Day game for the first time in yonks since we're now playing Fulham on the evening of the 27th! What to do on the 26th?!

With a thrilling World Cup penalty shoot-out just concluded, and the temperatures set to rocket this season, next season still seems a long way away, never mind Christmas...

A not-so friendly start

It's traditional that clubs should start their pre-season workouts at the home of a local minor club. But kicking off 2006/7 at Millwall? The Alan McLeary testimonial's been planned for a while, but who thought we'd start the new Charlton era at the Toolbox, eh? Expect a sizeable Charlton contingent, but a quiet away end, if you know what I mean.

Another slight let-down in the All Quiet household is the date of our annual trip to Welling. Sod the players, we all know our visit to Park View Road is like our little fans' social outing - soaking up the suburban sunshine, catching up on what we've been up to in the summer, practising our moans for the season and retiring to the Guy, Earl of Warwick before falling over. So, naturally, it is... on a Wednesday night! Where's the fun in that? Some of us might even be sober! It's also much later than usual, on 2 August.

If a trip to Welling doesn't appeal, there's also friendlies lined up against Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen and Utrecht on 8 and 11 August. Who fancies a ride on the Eurostar?

Our home friendly is, as previously announced, against New Zealand on 5 August. If he takes part, it'll be a bit odd to see AFC Wimbledon's Shane Smeltz line up for them at The Valley, but there you go.

Now, whatever did happen to those plans to play Lazio, eh?

Ipswich's Holland hint

New Ipswich boss Jim Magilton has told the East Anglia Daily Times he would would like to see Matt Holland back at Portman Road. At present, Holland's dulcet tones can be heard on Radio Five Live's World Cup coverage, but does Captain Cleanshorts fit into Iain Dowie's future plans?

“Like Tommy Miller, Matt's name will come up now and again as he is a former Ipswich player,” said Magilton.

“Agents are on the telephone to me all the while, and this is the nature of their business.

“If Matt showed an interest in returning to Portman Road I would sit down and chat to him. At the moment he is working for the BBC at the World Cup." (more)

Still a bit of a World Cup hush going on, ignoring the usual bollocks about Darren Bent, with only some scrapings from the end of last week to go on: Preston's chairman wanting some cash upfront for right-back Tyrone Mears, Reading still talking to Steve Sidwell.

But there is one exit - academy defender Sheku Kamara is off to Watford.

(Anyone having trouble with PTV sites should use the username and password "screwyou", or consult bugmenot.com for more.)

All Quiet in the North Upper

So, anyway, catching up with Stuart's fine updates from an internet terminal in a bike hire shop in Alexanderplatz yesterday proved to be my first notice that season-ticket swap week started today - ta for the notice, lads.

But I'm all sorted, and I'm moving from the seat which gave this website its name - as of August, I'm a resident of the North Upper. I get atmosphere, I get to sit next to somebody I can moan to, and I get a £175 refund on my East Stand ticket. What's not to like?

And I also avoid the family in front of my seat who became a the bane of my Charlton-going life - the fairy cake-wielding mum (not once in 6 1/2 years did she offer me one), her fat son who spends most of the match plugged into his iPod or texting his girlfriend (who's called Kayleigh), her younger son who looks like I'm about to hit him whenever I shout, and the mysterious bloke with her in a silly cap who seems to take great amusement whenever we play badly. In the old, pre-Covered End expansion days, the fairy cake-wielding mum once berated some lads near me for using the word "cunt". The lads went that season. Now almost everybody around them has gone, and so have I. Begone, fools. This is a new start.

Still, good to hear traditional Charlton attitudes in the queue for ticket swaps this lunchtime, with one large-bottomed couple at the front of the queue demanding seats "near the exit". How about a seat nearer your telly instead, eh? How I've missed Charlton fans for the past few weeks.

Berlin's festival of fanfreundschaft

Well, what can I say? Two-and-a-bit days in Berlin, and all I wanted to do was stay. A trip to the World Cup capital was enough to restore my faith in the beautiful game. The centre of Berlin has become a sort of paradise where everybody smiles and is in a good mood. It's quite a change for a grumpy fecker from south-east London. Mind you, if I stayed, I'd have been crushed by 750,000 Germans watching the Sweden game there right now!

The centre of the capital, around the Brandenburg Gate, has been turned over to the World Cup, with a mini-Olympic Stadium (backed by Adidas) outside the Reichstag, and a mile of big screens stretching out along through the Tiergarten - as if The Mall had been turned into one huge football festival. And Trafalgar Square. And probably Constitution Hill too.

The place is full of smiles, laughter and fans photographing each other. It's a million miles away from the pent-up tension that surrounds anything England get involved in.

At night, there's music (too much Euro-cheese, alas) and dancing, and there's no trouble at all. Just one bunch of English pillocks singing "5-1/ And we'll do it again" at nobody in particular. Which was a shame, because just around the corner, there was music, dancing, and girls.

Actually, the main stopping-off point for most English (and Scottish) fans seems to be the BBC's base in the corner of Pariser Platz - other broadcasters are working from the same building, but nobody else's presenters are getting cries of "Oi, Adrian Chiles! We love Working Lunch, mate!" Still, it's the place to go if you want to see Leonardo flick his hair.

I also went to Ukraine v Tunisia at the Olympic Stadium - a terrible anti-climax but still a fine experience, I had great seats in an amazing stadium. But Andriy Shevchenko's dive for Ukraine's winning penalty showed just what the Premiership's really going to have to watch out for next season.

Funniest moment at the game? Hearing (Is This The Way To) Amarillo played just before half-time. And no, I couldn't help myself...

The Germans are happy hosts and have done an amazing job - there's a lot of fanfreundschaft (fan friendship, a tradition where fans of one team buddy up with another) going on, with some rather pale-looking Angolan fans, and don't assume someone wearing the Three Lions is going to speak English... if we want the World Cup in 2014 or 2018, could we do the same?

Could England really accomodate all this with the generosity the Germans have shown? I really, really hope we could. This World Cup is shattering a lot of out-dated views of Germany - hopefully we can shatter a lot of out-dated views of England in this tournament, and use it as a springboard for the future. Fingers crossed for tomorrow...

We have the technology

Deep in the Premier League basement a computer is churning out the fixtures for the new season.

Now children of the 80s will no doubt be thinking of the malevolent WOPR from Wargames (oh yes you were). Those with longer memories will no doubt be thinking of Ernie the Premium Bond computer.

But whatever the computing power, the fixtures are in (of course subject to heavy tinkering from Sky, etc).

Headline news is that first up we're away to the Hamsters on 19th August. If that stays at 3pm on Saturday I'll be very surprised. Still, a kick off in London is always welcome.

Wet Spam away looks to be one of our easier games in an opening from HELL. Next two fixtures are the visits of Manure and Bolton to the Valley, followed by a trip to Chelsea and then back home in time for Pompey. Could be looking for some of Dowie's famed 'bouncebackability' after that start. Or we could be off to a flyer. Here's hoping.

Charlton hit the first of the newly promoted sides on 21st October when Reginald brings his Watford to Floyd Road. Champions of the Chumpionship Reading host Charlton on 18th November, while it's a 2nd December trip to Sheffield to take on the Blades.

As appears to be the norm Arsenal and Charlton play over the Christmas break, this time on New Years Day. Giving us a chance to wipe bogeys all over their shiny new stadium.

Last game of the season is Liverpool away. Last home game is against the Spurts on 5th May.

Anyone excited yet?

Caretaker boss

Like perennial caretaker boss Tony Parkes, I'm back in the hot-seat while the good Inspector takes in the 'Festival of Football' in Germany.

Last time out all I wanted to do was insult Simon Jordan. Instead I got a huge player cull, the Fair Play debacle and the our captain's transfer request.

This time the permutations coming from the FA computer are my main task. Beyond that I'll aim to keep an eye on the tabloid fodder and try to keep things ticking over.

Mission statement over. I've not forgotten tikka-tinged Simon (or the libel laws) though. Maybe we can have some fun later in the week.

A final thought. Broken Michael Owen is limping away from Germany, to the sound of massed Geordie groans (and fat Freddy heaving). How would you feel if it was L'il Bent who'd been crocked on England duty? I'd look as glum as Tony Parkes does up there.

Decent striker link shocker

Sky Sports News seems convinced we've made a move for Wigan's Jason Roberts - if this is true, it's damn good news because he's a decent striker. Perhaps it marks a move away from the problems we had in the latter part of the Curbishley era, where we had players up front who seemed terrified to get involved. Mind you, West Brom also want him back, although unless he's got a particular attachment to the relegated Baggies I imagine we'd be a far more attractive destination these days. With the Steve Sidwell bandwagon still rolling, I'm starting to feel cautiously optimistic, so long as we can shrug off West Ham's attempts to unsettle Luke Young and the usual twaddle about [Insert So-Called Big Club Here] and Darren Bent.

Anyhow, if Berlin's a good enough place for Iain Dowie to spend some time, it's good enough for me - I'm going World Cup glory-hunting with Ukraine for a couple of days. Stuart will be casting his eye over the fixture list on Thursday (Sheffield United away, 5.15pm, first game) while I'll be casting an eye over some Fan Fests and nice beer. Ta-ra.

E-mail problems (less than thrilling post)

Because of a server problem I'm not getting any e-mails at this site's usual address - if you feel the need to drop me a line you'll find me at a temporary @hotmail.co.uk address for the time being.

Cor, bet you're glad you spent two seconds of your life reading that, eh?

Spector's a Hammer, Jordan's a...

Since some plonker's replaced cafc.co.uk with a splash advert which doesn't link to the proper front page (and has probably sodded off for the afternoon to watch the World Cup), I went to West Ham's website instead. And what did I find...?

West Ham United have completed the signing of Jonathan Spector from Manchester United for an initial fee of £500,000.

The 20-year-old defender has agreed a long-term deal at Upton Park and becomes Alan Pardew's second summer signing following the arrival of Lee Bowyer from Newcastle United last week. (more)

Blimey, I thought Pardew had an eye for a good signing as well! Apparently he's been after Spector for 18 months! Spector proved to be a bit of a lightweight in his season at The Valley, and I doubt he'll be seen as a huge loss to us - sounds more like a good bit of business for wily old Fergie, to me.

In other Hammers news, earlier this week the tapping-up (did I really say that?) of Luke Young was stepped up, although since we've heard little from Luke Young since his transfer request, hopefully that's a good sign.

Also in the transfer bargain basement bin: The Sun reckoned we were in for Shaun Wright-Phillips on loan, and there was something swilling around about Callum Davenport. Not exactly setting the bush telegraph alight so far, although we're still waiting for a conclusion to the Steve Sidwell business. Ex-Spanner Steven Reid doesn't want to play for us, Clubcall have found a newspaper which says we're interested in Stephen Carr, and a local paper in Surrey thinks we're after Ben Watson from Palarse.

Speaking of which... Simon Jordan's carried out his threat to sue Iain Dowie.

Jordan the other day: “I don’t try and nick managers, maybe other people do. If I agree to pay money, then Charlton should pay money to me for Iain. I am many things, but I am not a fool. Why would I waive compensation for Dowie to then go seven miles down the road to enhance his salary? So I can pay for someone else? The spirit of the agreement of the compensation was very clear. Whatever happens, the reality is that I was lied to.

"There is nothing personal with Dowie. I want it to be resolved and we both know the truth. Hopefully, that will happen at the most inconvenient time for Charlton." (more)

Do you think Jordan's ever visited a shrink before? He could do with one...