It's been a whirlwind few days for me, but I have to start by saying how becoming Charlton manager fills me with great pride.

Everyone knows my affinity with this club. I’ve been here three times already, but to come back for a fourth time as manager in such a short space of time - I can’t tell you how great it feels.

Walking into Sparrows Lane on Monday morning was very special.

That first meeting with the players is something I’ve thought about for a long time, because I’ve always planned to go into coaching and be a manager, and I remembered particularly how Sven-Goran Eriksson approached that first meeting when he was appointed as manager of Leicester City, where I was a coach.

Of course, I already know some of the players. I played with Jonathan Fortune at Charlton, with Christian Dailly at Derby County and West Ham United, and Kyel Reid and Rob Elliot were youngsters when I was at West Ham and Charlton respectively.

But I haven’t got any preconceived ideas. I want to look at all the players. There are a number who haven’t been involved who might just be inspired and make a difference for us.

I shook the hands of all the players before Saturday’s game at Sheffield Wednesday, but that was the extent of my involvement at Hillsborough. I wanted them to focus on the game and wanted to get down to business on Monday morning.

Keith Peacock and Damian Matthew will be staying at the club in the new regime, although we’ve still got to sort out everyone’s roles, and I just felt it was better I left things to them at Sheffield.

And if we start the first six minutes of every game as we did at Hillsborough, it will be great!

We also showed some resilience when Wednesday came back into the game, and although we’d have liked to have won, if you pick up points on the road, it’s about what you do on your home ground.

That’s one thing we've got to change, we've got to make The Valley a fortress again.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been kind in my first week, with the sodden conditions outside restricting training at the start of the week and forcing a scheduled behind-closed-doors friendly to be called off.

I’ve also been busy addressing the media and posing for photographs, which is an important part of the job, but I’ve been glad to swap my suit and tie for a tracksuit later in the week.

A lot of hard work lies ahead. I know what the fans want and what they’ve been through. We need to get the Charlton feeling back, and that’s what I'll be looking for from the team.

I want the players to be proud of playing for Charlton and the fans to be proud of them, because throughout my time here, the fans were always proud of their team, not matter what was going on.

It all starts against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.