Jose Riga staked a great claim last season for the job by keeping Charlton up

Whether Powell would have done the same is up for debate, but Riga now has the experience and achievement on is CV. Indeed he even got two of Charlton's players scoring a decent amount of goals in the end; a bit late coming but possibly vital. Despite this, the managerial post is still vacant at Charlton with the Belgian only having agreed a deal to the end of the season.

June is the traditional time for contracts to begin and end is not yet upon us however, and fellow network club Liege have only just finished their season. They qualified via the Belgian League's complicated end of season play off competition for the Champions League qualifying round, having just missed out on the title.

Events and logic perhaps suggests the fortunes of the major clubs in the Duchatelet network are linked, so it is hoped that some movement may now occur. It is still unclear however what mechanism is employed to obtain new players, although not unreasonably it might be suggested that that the Coach or Manager job whichever the title, needs to be filled first.

Noises in the media and elsewhere are suggesting there may be movement on that this week, and that the future of some of Charlton's out of contract stars will also then be decided. Being part of a network is not a straightforward

TN