The circus of Karel Fraeye

The timing of Guy Luzon’s sacking was a surprise to a lot of people but not to Karel Fraeye. He was waiting patiently in the wings confident and ready for the job that he had long been earmarked for. The Interim tag was to appease us, Duchalelet and Meire hopeful that his articulate and open manner would grow on Charlton fans. More engaging with the players especially Johnnie Jackson, all he had to do was turn around the disastrous form of Guy Luzon before being given the job of his dreams full time.

I wrote after Fraeye took over as Interim Head Coach that his ability or lack thereof would stand on its own two feet. His appointment was another piss take, but there would be no hiding place. Time would judge him in front of us all.

After his 9th game which has yielded two wins in Fraeye said “To be fair, we’ve had an away game at Middlesbrough, an away game at Birmingham, an away game at Burnley and a home game against Ipswich.” Yes Karel my old son this is The Championship. It does not suffer fools gladly.

Fraeye had been courting this job ever since he helped get Chris Powell the sack, he has been very involved in the scouting and selecting of many of the players that now play for him and would be seen in the Directors Box when Powell was in charge making notes for Duchatelet. 

After he ‘left’ the club 18 months ago Fraeye remained in the background, still on the payroll and a frequent Valley visitor telling fans if they cared to listen that one day he would be back. Jose Riga never knew of him when he was handed him as his assistant. Peeters was preferred to Riga and Duchatelet told Fraeye to go and get himself some coaching experience whilst he still performed a valuable scouting and analytical role within the network. 

Next time he criticizes the players or dumps Bergdich on the transfer list, remember who was responsible for recommending these same players that mostly have given nothing in the name of Charlton Athletic. 

Since taking over Fraeye has come across confident to the point of arrogant knowing that he has the support of the owner and that there is no recruitment process going on to replace him full time. The job is his, the name sign for his office made. All he has to do is throw a few results together like Riga and Luzon did and we’d all be fawning over him. Remember every decision has been better than the last.

But there is a vital flaw in the plan, Karel Fraeye is not up to it. He is completely out of depth. We can’t defend, are not organized and there’s no obvious plan to his tactics except to play numerous forwards. We lack leadership, game management and there appears little commitment from his players, especially those that were playing well under Luzon such as JBG, Makienok, Cousins and Fox. 

Worse, he is a sycophant. He is not going to ask for better players and a more capable squad like Peeters or Luzon did. Or be ungrateful of those players handed to him like Powell. No, he reckons the squad is good enough. Recently he said that you only need 11 players and 7 on the bench. Genius.

What did Meire say 5 weeks ago: “We hope Karel Fraeye will change things and bring us back to mid-table which we have the squad for. We believe we have a better squad than our position. He has identified problems. We will give him all the help he deserves.” Well hurry up Karel, we are all waiting dear.

His comments after the game on Saturday are an embarrassment to the club, but he thinks he can say what he likes. He talks like a employee who has complete job security but they sound to me like they come from an amateur. 

Which is of course what Roland Duchatelet gave us.