Parkinson here to stay

After a Summer of Boardroom inactivity and supporter speculation, Charlton Athletic have moved to confirm the managerial team for the immediate future. Surprisingly, they have backed Parkinson's request for an additional member and Tim Breacker has joined as Assistant Manager. Contrary to rumours, Mark Kinsella has also been retained as First Team Coach and Damian Matthews and Phil Chappple remain as part of the back-room team. I think this means that Parkinson is running the show although I've seen nothing to confirm that yet. I can't open the OS again but that might be as much to my rural location this week as another outage for the Club's precarious website.

Breacker's appointment is a curious one bearing in mind the wage bill imperative. You have to assume that his appointment has been prioritised above any new playing staff and with that in mind, you are left wondering whether that indicates that we may be poised to hold on to Bailey and Shelvey in the hope that they will fire the goals to stop the rot of the last three years. Not the worst outcome if that's the case. My West Ham mate who attended the game last night wondered what Breacker was doing on the touchline. Breacker is his favourite all-time Hammers player (other than those who won the World Cup), more than I can say about his view of Christian Dailly, which was as I suspected in this morning's post, not favourable.

These pronoucements might also suggest that the takeover might be closer than ever before. The status of the management team was one of the big takeover questions as well as the futures of Bailey and Shelvey. Of course it could be viewed that the Board have simply run out of time and have had to take a decision to try and stabilise the ship ahead of 8th August irrespective of the takeover. If it's the latter then Bailey and Shelvey could yet be unloaded in order to keep the club going. I can't wait until the football's underway and we all have something more obvious to focus on.