For the rest of it, see the
BBC:Sir Alex Ferguson wants to land a new forward and Charlton's Darren Bent tops Manchester United's January transfer window shopping list. (Sunday Express)
I'm going to dread this January window, especially after what happened with Murphy. This will be one billion times worse!
Sporting Lisbon's Portuguese forward Nani is another option. (Sunday Mirror)
Much better than Dazza, take him!
David Beckham says he is enduring the worst period of his career but has no intention to leave Real Madrid. (NOTW)
Unless it's for Les Reed at Charlton.
Former Luton player Iain Dowie is being lined up as the club's new manager after Mike Newell's recent disputes with chairman Bill Tomlins. (Various)
Go on Iain, get back in the saddle, again!
The FA could investigate reports of irregular betting activity ahead of Iain Dowie's Charlton sacking. (People)
Yikes! I hope CL isn't implicated!
US winger Clint Dempsey will choose Charlton ahead of London rivals West Ham and Fulham in January. (People)
Whether there's anything in this, who knows, but he could have the cocksure attitude we need to stay up.
Watford's Chris Powell could be in line for a third spell at Charlton to work alongside new coach Les Reed. (People)
Would do a lot to make us fans feel better and could be what the players need, in terms of coaching in organisation, leadership and passion for the club.
Comments
I'm resigned to losing Darren Bent at some point this season - either in the Jan window or at the end of the year. If he does go in January let's hope we have a bout of realism from the club and they don't fight and fight the sale until the point where we don't have time to get a replacement in as with Parker and Murphy.
Let's say he goes for a net £10m after we pay off Ipswich...I'd say get Healy and Nugent in, Sidwell (out of contract and Reading will cash in before he leaves on a free, more so if they look safe from relegation in January) and Clint Dempsey - who is also coming to end of his MLS contract and therefore should be relatively cheap.
Sell if necessary Marcus Bent and bring back Walton.
Try and get some money for Holland and Hughes.
the more you look at Dowie's signings - the more you can see the irritation from the board at how the budget was blown - in at least 3 cases we signed Premier League failures - Reid, Traore & Faye - all of whom had fans from their previous clubs laughing at us for taking them off their hands
we totally failed, except for maybe Walton, to bring in any young, upcoming talent from abroad or lower leagues
this is where we will have to look come January & somehow i doubt, given our track record in this area, we are making any serious effort to do this
I think the club were looking to pick these types of players, those underachieving at bigger clubs. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes it will come off and sometimes not. But it's a sensible tactic for a club in our position, money-wise.
In terms of what we paid for them, and the piss taking we took from fans of their previous clubs, well that is supposedly down to Mills & Murray, not Dowie. So Murray could hardly be irritated in how the budget was blown.
Faye had been successful to some extent at Portsmout but pretty poor at Newcastle
Traore had a bit of mare when he started at Liverpool but came through those I think he has looked good when fit so far and will prove to be a solid signing if he can get and stay fit.
Walton I assume would have played yesterday and looks the sort to lead from the front and get stuck in he is a muct to come back in January I should think
If say Reading came in & paid $3m (sorry no pound sign on this keyboard) for M. Bent we would all be laughing at them - nobody would be saying he's just underperformed, he's got potential. He's been pretty much sussed by now as not being up to it & not having a great attitude - exactly what Everton fans said.
In the cold light of day & flittering glimpses of what they might be capable of aside, Reid is overweight, unfit & doesn't influence a game - he's a very poor man's Claus Jensen.
Faye doesn't convince me at all, he's better than Holland by virtue of being a couple of years younger - but seriously what does he bring us that say Kishishev doesn't??
Traore - i reserve judgement on of course - but according to Liverpool fans he was abysmal - read this for god' sake !!!!!!
Basically these were panic buys - all players that were relatively easy to pick up as they were out of favour with their clubs & i don't recall we had to fight off other clubs to get them.
I hope i'm proved wrong - but our league position suggests otherwise.
Many Ipswitch fans said Benty wouldn't cut it in the Prem. Agree, fans can be an indicator, but often their opinions when losing a player must be taken with a grain of salt.
I think that had we brought in these players to compliment an already strong spine, we'd have been laughing. But we brought this lot in to be that strong spine and they don't seem capable at the moment, though we had glimpses early on. We just had too much re-building to do. But, with our money and status, I'm not sure we'd have done much better (that's the only thing I'm disagreeing with you about)...
I wish we'd have taken a gamble and gone for Pedro Mendes before he went to Portsmouth. Maybe, as part of the Murphy deal at the time. See, there's a case where taking a flop/underperformer from another club worked. It works for old Harry, not yet for us though ;-( What the feck has he done to Kanu!!!
I don't know, just hope we can find some strength from somewhere and not go down (or at least go down fighting!)
Diawara, Traore, Faye and Walton...who knows.
Carson...we were offered him by Liverpool as a loan signing.
That leaves Pouso, and I presume he was a club signing rather than a Dowie signing.
I think Gibbs was signed before Dowie as well. So Curbs/Mills and Varney/Murray must have chosen some/most of this lot.