So Many Imponderables

"So many imponderables" was a line used by someone in government about 20 years ago, to fend off questions from intrusive reporters; it is quite good, as it sounds as though the person being asked is still in a state of reflection, whereas in fact the phrase on closer inspection turns out to be all but meaningless.

"So", I hear you cry, "wherefore its use for today's piece?"

Well, the fact of the matter is that there ought to be a piece today, as there are so many things going on, and yet to find a heading that might cater for all of them is nigh-on impossible, or at least it might be possible, but I have to depart for the Centre in just over an hour, so if I keep on searching for a better headline, then the piece won't get written at all.

First things first; having recovered from the cold I had for most of last week, I needed to alter the little descriptive tag that appears under the blog title (also altered to a fetching blue - 9d9, for all you triple hex enthusiasts) from the reference to sneezing to, er, something different. I had thought of telling the world I felt better, and no doubt would have, but for the major event of yesterday, which, for Charlton fans, was the draw for Round 5 of the FA Cup, in which, as I had surmised on Saturday night, Charlton were duly paired with Brentford. So maybe there's money in this, though I have never seen William Hill and Ladbrokes invite punters to bet on the cup draw, but they might.

Well, probably just a coincidence, there aren't that many teams left in the Cup, anyway, and after Round 5, Charlton might well be one of about four Premiership sides remaining, always assuming that they manage to defeat Brentford, recent conquerors of, er, Sunderland.

Moving on to today; 31 January is of course the final day of the transfer window, during which flurries of activity are expected as players move from one club to another. As I write, it is just after 3 in the afternoon, UK time, so there's still a nine-hour period in which things might happen. Charlton's Jonatan Johansson has already departed on loan to Norwich for the rest of the season; this was announced about an hour ago; but the big story might well involve Danny Murphy. There is now a rumour that he was seen at White Hart Lane yesterday, possibly having a medical (mind you if he was having a medical, no doubt he would be in a state of undress, so how there can be any doubt, I don't know). Today, The Sun newspaper has a perfectly dire headline containing the word 'Spurphy', and while no one takes any notice of the Sun's predictions, the same story is now in The Times (same stable though). The deal is Antony Gardner in part, or heaven forfend, total, exchange. Gardner has been rumoured to be joining Charlton off and on for a long time now, and the feeling among Spurs fans is that they'd be glad to see the back of him, while Charlton fans just hope that the whole thing has been invented by an attention-seeking member of the Sun sports section.

As if all this nail-biting stuff were not enough, there is Premiership action this evening at The Valley, where West Bromwich Albion are the visitors. A more difficult prospect than they were last season, when they arrived in SE7 in 20th place; even the most pessimistic of the Charlton fans felt at the time that there were three points here.

As we now know, the three points went back to Birmingham with the Albion, the scoreline was 1-4, and Talal El Karkouri was sent off quite early on by referee Mark Halsey, who trains with Bolton Wanderers and their manager Big Sam, as he insists on being known (why?), Charlton's main league rivals at the time.

I haven't checked on the referee for tonight's game, so don't know if Mr Halsey will be with us again, but TEK is back in London, after Morocco crashed out of the African Nations Cup, but it is not known whether Curbs plans to use him tonight. Murphy, however, does figure in a probable line-up that I saw somewhere, Sporting Life, was it? Hope so, anyway.

I will sign off by not falling into the predictions trap; I have seen a number of 2-1 forecasts around, and that seems reasonable to me, but then it would have done last season, too.