Watford 1 Charlton 2
Charlton 2 Feyenoord 0
These last few days I have been fulfilling the statement which comprises the strapline of the blog, and which I perceive I shall have to change quite soon. In other words, I have been out quite a lot - in fact on two nights out of the last seven, I haven't returned home until after 6. Indeed last Saturday morning it was 6.30 when I got in, as, having fruitlessly waited for a taxi from 5.30 to 5.55 (on the Calle Arenal, for those of you in search of local colour), I gave up, walked down the steps into Opera station, and caught the first northbound tube train of the day. Of course this what Madrid nights used to be all about, for me, and I assure you that even now I did not return home on account of having been asked to leave a place that was shutting down; the fun was still going on unabated in both places.
Of course, as I am no longer as fit and youthful as in the days of yore, recovery from these two nights out has been long and arduous, leaving me disinclined to do much more than lie around reading.
Excuses, excuses. I am also failing in my plans to complete the organisation and classification of all my books before I depart for England next Wednesday. The blog has thus fallen into virtual disuse since the thrilling days, early last month, when I learned some HTML, changed things round a bit, altered the colours and had all kinds of ambitious plans lined up.
However one of the functions of the blog, as it has developed over the last 15 months, is to record my feelings about the doings of Charlton Athletic, as well as other footballing matters. I am trying to put together a piece about terms and nomenclature used in football reporting, and I have masses of notes and examples, so this cannot be far away now. However, the new season is now upon us. The Scottish leagues began last weekend; the English leagues tomorrow, except for the Premiership and the Conference, which begin tomorrow week. But all around the clubs are buying and selling, frantically trying to complete their squads before the transfer window slams shut in their eager faces, and friendly matches and run-outs abound.
This year, unlike last, Charlton have managed to acquire a few useful players long before the start of the season and give them some time to get used to one another, though it seems that the two new Darrens were youth squad members at Ipswich a while back, and are used to each other's style of play. Certainly, the various try-outs and friendlies over the past two or three weeks make for a degree of optimism, although I have a pessimistic side which persists in worrying that the gods have allotted Charlton x wins and y penalties for the whole year, so why use them all up in meaningless games? I'm sorry; I can't help thinking like this at times.
As I have frequently pointed out, being based in Madrid means I don't get to see Charlton that much, so I cannot do reports, but my online friend The Inspector can inform about actual games, as can the CAFC site. However, although the 2-1 win at Watford was not terribly convincing, Wednesday night's 2-0 defeat of what we have discovered to be a full-strength Feyenoord side was very creditable, with 2 (well 1½) more goals for Darren Bent (above). On Saturday Charlton host AEK Athens in their final friendly before the season starts in earnest at Sunderland.
There is every reason to feel reasonably confident that Charlton will have a good season, by which I mean that they will consolidate their status (and they have been up continuously for five years now) in the Premiership and finish in the top eight or nine. That is all I want, myself, a good, respectable run in the top tier of English football. Unlike the increasingly desperate Newcastle United, of whom more when I can, I don't see that there is any mileage in trailing off to obscure places just inside the Arctic Circle to try and get a couple of games in the UEFA Cup before being dumped out of it by Sporting Lisbon or somebody. The Premiership, and doing well in it, ought to be enough for anyone.