Charlton boss Russell Slade likely to be thrown on Roland Duchatelet’s scrapheap – like the six before him

CHARLTON have never played in English football’s fourth tier.

But the Addicks have never been closer to dropping in to it than after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Rochdale – stretching latest manager Russell Slade’s side’s winless run to seven matches.

It’s the club’s worst start to a season at this level for 90 years and Slade was booed off the pitch by the Valley faithful, who at one point resorted to chanting “put two up front” in protest at his baffling formation.

Absentee Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet has already changed his first-team boss SIX times since buying the club in January 2014 - and at this stage few would bet against him making it a far-from-magnificent seven before Christmas.

It’s easier, after all, to keep changing the manager than to face up to the fact that dismal player recruitment under chief executive Katrien Meire means the club is still footing the bill for seven senior players who are effectively unavailable for Slade to select.

Four are out on subsidised season loan; two more – Jorge Teixeira and El-Hadji Ba - have been confined to U23 duties after Meire failed to move them on in August; while Roger Johnson has effectively sidelined himself by rowing with travelling fans behind the goal on the opening day at Bury.

Veteran boss Slade is probably the man most likely to stand up to the barmy Belgians since local hero Chris Powell was sacked two and a half years ago, even if his cautious tactics have had many fans scratching their heads.

His squad is thin in the midfield engine room and overstocked with central defenders, while he has struggled to find a winning combination up top. Starting Josh Magennis as a lone front man in the latest two home games almost suggested he had given up trying.

In a further sign of the madness behind the scenes at The Valley, 20-something computer-geek Belgian scout Thomas Driesen last week gave an interview in which he confirmed his own continuing involvement in recruitment at the club.

Despite playing a high-level role at Charlton since 2014, including being the only other person copied in to a string of emails about the team sent between Duchatelet, Meire and Powell, the Addicks had previously declined to acknowledge Driesen’s existence.

With Duchatelet having failed to attend a Charlton match in Britain for two years and no other board members, 32-year-old former lawyer Meire has carte blanche to do what she likes at the club.

And what she likes has so far included a house music DJ in a matchday family lounge, the nationally ridiculed Fans Sofa next to a corner flag, proposals for Saturday evening kick-offs and a scheme to scrap the paid-for matchday programme.

Poor football leading to relegation, bizarre ideas and a string of foot-in-mouth public utterances have made Meire a toxic figure among Charlton fans, 4,000 of whom gave up their season tickets in despair over the summer.

So regardless of what happens to Slade, this night-Meire is set to continue.

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