Hail, hail Di Canio

Clubs who fire their managers because relegation threatens rather than because they have lost the dressing room, invariably get relegated. QPR and Reading will prove that point this season from the top flight and Sunderland may just well be about to join them. I will accept here that QPR at least gave Harry a chance and that their demise has rather more to do with the fact that they have handled big money badly and bought mercenaries instead of freedom fighters. Reading have no excuses and neither, frankly, do the Makems.

I cannot understand why Ellis Short, the Chairman at Sunderland, thinks sacking Martin O'Neill after a one-nil defeat by Manchester United is going to help his struggling club. They may be perilously close to Wigan, Aston Villa, QPR and Reading but they only need to grind out a few more results and Martin O'Neill and his squad deserved that chance. The appointment of Paolo Di Canio looks like a desperate act in comparison. It could, of course, be that Ellis saw a cunning way to get shot of the supercilious David Miliband who has had to resign now that politics has entered sport. The irony is delicious.

I will say right now that I love PDC. He brought a swagger and a verve to the Valley like we have rarely seen. He has done wherever he has gone. Who could forget him turning up on the second day at training with a home made cake for the players and the audacity of his football was inspiring. Paying the wages of Danny Hollands and another at Swindon out of his own pocket was typical Di Canio. He is a passionate man and this should be a passionate game. I even admire his honesty about his politics and I trust him when he says he is a fascist and not a racist. Not something I think you can say about fascists in general. I'm not so sure Mussolini was "misunderstood" but I accept Paolo may be.

In some ways, he may be the ideal choice to spark a revival in Sunderland fortunes in the short time left but I suspect the shock of O'Neill's departure will take three or four games to disperse and by then it may be too late. The fickle amongst us at Charlton would do well to heed this warning.

Elsewhere today, it's a heavy league programme and we should be left this evening knowing what an unlikely looking result at the Amex will do for us tomorrow. I have a ticket and will be making the short trip down the M23 if only to see inside the stadium I have often seen from the passing motorway.

In the meantime, the counter on this website tells me that, should I check the site often enough today, that the number of visits since I started gobbing off in 2007 will pass 500,000. It sometimes feels like talking to yourself, so the number of visitors has kept me going.....thank you.