In
a recent post I digressed (no, really?) to comment that I never really had time
for Shakespeare. Perhaps understandably, given locale, Wyn Grant, came to the
defence of the Bard. So amid all the uncertainty, differing opinions over Sir
Chris and recent developments, maybe it’s time to elaborate, rant a bit, and
perhaps, if we’re lucky, make it somehow relevant to our position (and my
feelings about it). It may go on a bit, but the weekend’s a long way off.
Now
I’ve no problem with a night out at the theatre, all good fun, and I won’t
dispute that the guy wrote well. A couple of hours watching one of his romps
can even lead to entertaining debate on some aspect of the human condition. But
the plays themselves are nothing more than clever ploys to pose questions. You
don’t learn anything from Shakespeare; everything in the performance/interpretation
(and post-event debate) only serves to bring out our own/the director’s basic
instincts and prejudices as there’s no right/wrong answers. If it’s any comfort
I had the same problem with Dostoyevsky, indeed novels in general. Aside from
the fun of a Flashman book, I haven’t read one for donkey’s years. I don’t
advocate burning them, or view them as useless, it’s just that there’s so much
else to focus on and actually learn from, and so little time. Without doubt the
silliest thing I ever read was a review of a novel which stated that “I learnt
more about the First World War from reading this novel than from all the
history books”. No, you didn’t. If you want to learn, rather than being
spoonfed what may or may not be half-truths, read something from someone who
experienced it.
Have
I been neglecting my creative side? Oh no, don’t get me started on that one. Next
I’ll be asked to accept this inane modern tendency to confuse creativity with
making things, to label some activities as ‘creative industries’. There’s
creativity in everything – and far more in a well crafted and executed bond
trade than in most popular music (they actually share a good deal as you are
selecting certain combinations and possibilities to produce the desired
end-result). Some architecture for example can be considered creative, but most
amounts to simply calculating what is the possible outcome given the constraints
involved (money, space etc), just glorified plumbing. There’s no word (I think)
to be the opposite of creative, just uncreative, which implies an absence of
something, something which we tend to view as desirable. True creativity is found
in many places, is rare, priceless, and shouldn’t be debased by an attempt to
brand certain activities as 'creative' by their nature and others not.
But
I digress. Unlike Kenny Rogers’ Gambler (from which I filched unashamedly for
the headline of the previous post), I don’t claim to have made a life from
reading people’s faces. But I can lay some claim to have forged something
approximating a career out of reading people’s bullshit, spoken or written,
from the all-too-frequent technique of stating the blindingly obvious in a
fashion that makes it sound opinionated to recognising when someone is not telling
the full story – and if so to then try to assess why not. It’s made me
something of a cynical old git (the truth is probably that I used to be a cynical
young git and was always that way inclined, so career ‘choice’ was at least
partially predetermined).
There
are inevitably some areas in life where your background, experience, allows
some degree of understanding, even expertise. That allows you sometimes to
realise that someone, or some media outlet, is either ignorant of the topic or
being deliberately misleading. That’s the easy part. However, nobody can have
expertise in all areas and so sometimes it comes down to trust. I’m not a
scientist and don’t claim to have useful opinions on for example global
warming/climate change (and I’ve no time for the ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’
line: have an opinion by all means but please keep it to yourself as it’s
worthless). So when on one side of the debate there is a considerable majority
of scientific opinion (at least I believe so) and on the other there is …
former chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson, my instinct is to put more
trust in what the former might say and note but basically ignore the latter.
Now
I don’t claim to be an expert on football. Best I managed was six goals in my
first three games for the school team and mentions in dispatches, plus later a
runners-up trophy for a five-a-side competition. These proved to be the peak of
accomplishments (to date at least). So when it comes to footballing matters, if
there’s any difference of opinion between for example Sir Chris and a certain
new owner, who to the best of my knowledge has a playing career no better than mine,
I know which opinion I’d put my trust in.
All
of which brings us back to Shakespeare. Not surprisingly, we all welcomed the
takeover, given antipathy to the old owners turning towards despair as they had
lost the means or willingness to take action to help cement our place in the
Championship (or to head off our embarrassment over the pitch). We not
surprisingly thought a new owner would see avoiding relegation as the
overwhelming priority and appreciate that this would require investment to strengthen
the team. Why would anyone buy us without the carrot of the Premiership in
mind? And how could this not square with maintaining Championship status?
These
were our responses, based on our priorities, our interests, and our
understanding of our (ie Charlton’s) position. The current debate over the
merits of keeping Sir Chris seems to be following similar lines (I’m firmly in
the camp that we need him but accept others may have different opinions, based
on the same goals that all of us supporters share). What seems to be dawning,
in the fashion of a Shakespeare play (or possibly an episode of Columbo), is
that there might be another agenda, another set of priorities involved. And
perhaps Doctor Kish in his post today is getting close to outlining what that
could be.
Under
this scenario, Duchatelet has no immediate need to replace Sir Chris – unless there
is a real falling-out, which might be the result of not agreeing with the new
owner. Sacking him would still cost some money and a replacement would need to
be found. If avoiding relegation isn’t the priority, why bother at this stage?
But can we conclude that avoiding relegation isn’t the priority? No, we can
only infer, based on the evidence. For me, the most damning piece to date is
the sadly predictable decision to sell a goalkeeper in fine form, one only
selected by Powell as recently as September as worthwhile, to reduce the net
wages bill of Duchatelet’s regime.
Sir
Chris has not surprisingly talked in terms of players moving on and potential
new heroes coming in. All of the incomings bar one were already on the
Duchatelet wage bill. The exception, Parzyszek, seems like a truly exciting
acquisition. But on what grounds have we landed him, what promises? A cynical
old git might think that if he does well for us, might he end up loaned out to
Standard Liege next season, if needed in the Champions League? On that basis,
buying him is to put him in the Duchatelet stable, available for a move on if
needed for a greater goal: trying to milk the benefits of the Champions League.
Perhaps
our new players will prove to be heroes, if we stay up. But our true strength
over the past couple of years, even the past couple of decades, has been an
uncommon bond between supporters and the club born out of the wilderness years
and the return. That may be a thing of the past, but no enterprise succeeds if different
parts of it are pursuing separate goals. We know our goals and we know that
Powell shares them. Whether our new owner does we will only be able to tell as
we watch the play unfold as we can’t rip up the script, choose the actors, nor
ensure the happy ending we want. Merde, now I can’t get a Bee Gees song out of
my head.
2 comments:
Much as I was disappointed to see Kermorgant leave, I can stomach pretty much everything else that has happened, bar for the goalkeeper fiasco. Admittedly I have only seen Sky's two minute highlights, but we seem to have a keeper who has no idea what he is supposed to be doing. If he gets the nod over a fit again Hamer, we really are in trouble.
Martin Cowan
Indeed. I also think it's unfair on Thuram-Ulien. He's had no time to get acclimatised in new surroundings, to get to know the defenders in front of him, but instead has been thrown into the deep end.
Post a Comment