must be a bit brassed off.
He came to us, supposedly to better himself, and finds himself in division 3 whilst his old club could be in the Prem next season. Not forgetting a play off final at the new Wembley.
Still he probably earns more with us than he did at Burnley which sugars the pill I daresay.
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He has had much worse to worry about this year though to be fair.
one of the main reasons we are in Division 3 is because he has been such a letdown - both last season when he arrived and also this season, personal circumstances acknowledged
I really don't think he is one of the main reasons we are in Div 3
Technically, yes, but Big Chris hardly played second half of the season, and was sold because we had Gray - Pards even said as much at one point, if I remember correctly.
who nobody thought would play again, (they were almost right ....).
At the time, with both Todorov and Reid injured, and Ambrose being injected prior to each match so that he could at least start, we had lost our creative spark .... as witnessed by our almost solitary tactic - hoofing the ball high out of defence somewhere vaguely in the region of Iwelumo.
The idea then, was to have an experienced and intelligent hold up player, so that Varney could feed off him - and no doubt also to chip in particularly with headed goals - but of course, as we all know, crossing delivery was noticebly absent, so little service provided from the wings. Strikers don't tend to score too many without a decent service.
Gray is also an accomplished penalty taker in the mould of Mendonca.
So in theory, Gray ticked all the boxes. It didn't help that the team was underperforming and morale wrecked by a multitude of loan signings. But then nobody, surely even the player himself realised it would be so hard to settle on his own so far from his family, and then his wife developed a life-threatening illness.
He did finish that season strongly, however, lest we forget - in the last few games he scored twice and provided a handful of assists. Then he got injured in the pre-season and tried to shrug it off.
His wife's health deteriorated further and she undertook critical major surgery, but he still had the guts to play despite everything, including not being able to run and turn properly. He was then diagonised with a stress fracture of the pelvis, and had been trying to play on with that injury since the summer.
It might have been a desperate period for Charlton Athletic, but it's not really been a good time for Andy Gray either.
wasn't this season with Wolves similar?
Pardew said immediately after Iwelumo's transfer to Wolves, that a player needed to be sold to free wages, and that a forward was the most expendable.
It was deemed by Pardew ( but not by Parky, so it's transpired), that Iwelumo was the player most expendable because of his comparatively high wages - but just as significantly, because the team played more of a passing game when Iwelumo was not on the pitch.
Painful memories of the post-Andy Reid period of that season, when the defence just lumped the ball high out of defence bypassing midfield, hopefully towards the heavily marked solitary Iwelumo ..... certainly made the point.
But ........ we missed Big Chris big time last season. We missed his 'have a go' character and his bravery - but we badly missed his goals too.
Exactly, Shrew.
It wasn't so much Big Chris lost form, as you say he was hopelessly outnumbered by defenders outside the box with his back to goal, trying to get underneath a hoofed clearance out of defence, with defenders clambering all over him.
You'd have to be Ronaldino to score goals in those circumstances.
It all went wrong for Iwelumo (and Charlton) when Andy Reid was injured at West Brom - and Iwelumo's service was suddenly cut off.
I'll always remember the winner Big Chris scored at Bristol City that previous November..... in the last minute Fortune laid a dodgy centre circle pass that just reached Reid under challenge, who turned, skipped past 2 tackles and flew down the left wing, and then floated over the most immaculate cross imaginable ..... right on Iwelumo's head, as he came charging in at the far post.
Absolute text book goal, a real picture to see.
And after Reid went, there wasn't really anyone to give Iwelumo that kind of service.
Let's hope a fit AG will demonstrate why AP signed him - again, and again , and......
Let's hope a fit AG will demonstrate why AP signed him - again, and again , and......[/quote]
Here hoping that we actually FORM a Partnership of two syriker in a 442 formation too. :-)
One of them alongside someone quick that likes to get in behind the defence would be ideal.
Parkinson a while ago said he wanted to sign Kandol, but nothings happened yet so he went back to Leeds after our last game.
Don't think we can rely on Dickson, McLeod or Fleetwood next season.
In the end we'll keep some of the strikers here, not sure which ones, but we've got to bring in at least one or two. Maybe that's a good League Two striker, or a young striker on loan from the Prem, will come down to what's the best available that we can afford.
valleyman...your take on Burton is open to discussion....to call him pony is somewhat OTT don't you think and you must consider what league we now find ourselves in.
Another thing you need to think about is that, pony or not, he's probably the best striker we have on the books at this present time.
We are where we are mate.....you can no longer call a player pony who will most likely do a great job for us in the first division, which is exactly where we are...so my take is that he's a pretty good player by the new standards we are now having to accept.
We can but hope.
McLeod can naff off too.
Gray and/or Burton should be okay in league one , to which we need to add A. Goalscorer (preferably proven, experienced and a strong character)