Dowie leaves the Valley

Guardian Unlimited Football: "Charlton tonight announced they have parted company with manager Iain Dowie."

Pheww. The season must be truly underway now. First P45. While I enjoy the race/gag to become the first managerial scalp/casualty, this one is a stupid move. For the simple reason stats:

Charlton have played 12, won 2, drawn 2 and lost 8. Sounds awful, but.

Look at the losses and you will see that they have been unlucky meeting the top guns and the in-form teams early in the season. List the conquerors:

ManUre (currently No.1)
Chelsea (currently No.2)
Arsenal (currently No.3)
Arston Villa (currently No.4)
Portsmouth (currently No.6)
Wigan (currently No.8 ----they shouldn't have lost to Wigan over the weekend, but Wigan is on a resurgent streak)
Fulham (currently No.10 -- okay they shouldn't have lost this one either)
West Ham (currently No. 16, but also defeated Arsenal)

West Ham is the only club outside the top 10, and West Ham also beat Arsenal!
Fulham have been lucky, lucky, lucky.

Contrast these losses to:

West Ham's 7 losses: Liverpool, Toons, Man City, Reading, Portmouth, Tottenham, Boro. WHFC have lost to just 1 team that is currently in the Top 10, i.e. Liverpool (currently No. 9). The rest have been in the bottom half of the table!

Newcastle's 7 losses: Villa, Fulham, Liverpool, Manure, Bolton, Boro, SheffUtd)-- has had similar misfortune.

But Charlton took the Bolton scalp, and they won against Man City. Both the Addicks and the Toons have had casualty lists the length of the Sears Tower. but Roeder still has his job. And so does Pardew, and Pardew shoulf have won more games against the bottom feeders.

Based on the stats alone, this was a foolish decision by the Charlton board. I can only surmise they fired him for non footballing reasons. I'm with Simon Jordan on this one.