All change

Just back from a too-brief-break with good friends in Murcia to find out that Steve Waggott's tenure as Chief Executive has finally come to an end. I say "finally" because he has lasted longer than most of us would have thought based upon the worsening disaster he has provided over. Our play-off finish kept him in his post until the season finished but he must have known what fate awaited him.

In any other business, the Chief Exec carries the can and lives or dies by the performance of that company against it's plan and the marketplace. The performance of the football club during the two years he held the reigns was simply unacceptable and he has had to go. An unthinkable second successive relegation followed by a not-so-near miss this season has was a sufficient justification and he can probably count himself fortunate to have survived the relegation season. I suspect the decision not to sack him a year ago was down to the fact that the Chairman, and the Board to a lesser extent, are so hands-on at Charlton and out of a sense of loyalty for a man who had made a real success of his previous role managing the club's Community Trust set-up. For that reason alone, I can't be overly harsh on Waggott, but it was time for him to go. On top of our dramatic decline as a force in English football, Steve Waggott struggled to match his predecessors high profile and went missing on occasions, usually when there was some heat in the kitchen. The debacle over the allocation of tickets for the away-leg of the Swindon play-off game came at a bad time for him and there was some open criticism of his lack of leadership during that fiasco, although our ultimate failure to regain our Championship status was what sealed his fate.

Steve Kavanagh, the current Managing Director, will pick up the responsibilities of the Chief Executive from 1st July, if not actually the position as the club looks like taking the opportunity of combining roles and saving a salary, or more likely, making Waggott's pay-off easier to manage. My guess is that the change in leadership and handover of responsibilities will be used at some point as a justification for any delay in bringing new faces into the club until late July, as opposed to any acknowledgement that it's really our financial position that's determining what's affordable and when.

To the World Cup then and a very mixed bag from the opening weekend. Apart from the obvious disappointment of the England game, there hasn't been much quality on display in any of the other matches. The opening goal in the competition lit the touchpaper but it's been fizzing ever since and has threatened to go out on occasions. At least the Argentinians tried to play the game and the Germans were clinical last night in seeing off the Aussie threat.

So far there appears to have been no trouble and South Africa's violent city crime lifestyle hasn't claimed the lives of any visiting fans although it's early days and I suspect that's a story yet to surface.

The stadiums have been impressive and the attendances better. The atmosphere at the games has also been good although the constant blare of the vuvuzela has drowned out the singing which has been something of a shame. Perhaps as the games progress and demand for tickets from visiting fans increases, the number of locals attending will fall and we will once again be treated to some of the more familiar anthems of world cup football. In the meantime, I'll settle for more goals and a less authoritarian approach from the referees.