Been thinking this weekend as no footie. After watching newcastle and preston the other night the quaility in the championship seems to go up a notch every season. When we do return are we gona be ok or are we going to be struggling from the off? Were gona need at least 5 new faces and we don't have a spare penny anywhere so what is the plan? As soon as we have a 'p' before our name on the table then we sell to the highest bidder and hope for investment? Or stick with what we have with maybe a few free signings and hope for the best. This could be seen as doom and gloom but just wonderd what your thoughts are on next season if we do get up, would this squad do ok? Challenge for playoffs or would survival on the final day be deemed a success? Most of the current squad were involved in the last 15 games last term in the championship and we really struggled have things changed around so much that they could take the championship by storm? Anyway thoughts on this subject would be good.
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I think if, and it's a big if, we go up then we should be getting to mid-table quite easily and with a few new faces and the retention of a few key players then I can't see why we cannot sneek in the playoffs.
That being said - let's sort this seaosn out first!
Not even half way through this season yet.
Other promoted teams manage to survive so why not us.
Although that said, if we did keep our key players then mid table, but if we manage to sign a couple then could challenge play offs
A Championship club in London, dare I say close to the Olympic village, ticks a lot of boxes.
Owning our own ground, assuming 20,000 crowds, and manageable debt is a good platform also.
New buyers would know that it is in their own hands to transform Charlton back into a Premier league club within a reasonable timescale. And would invest accordingly.
No doubt the, there would be funds made available for some of the better proven Championship players.
Our present midfield can cope and did ok last season.
In defence we'd need another CB as I think Dailly might be considered too old and/or Llera too much of a liability, but other than that we have the basis of a young squad and players like Shelvey, Tuna, Wagstaff etc should benefit from any experience they'd gain this year.
Very good champ player: Bailey, S. Sodje, Shelvey
Good champ player: Richardson, Sam, Youga, Racon, Semedo, A. Sodje, Elliot
Will get by: Burton, Spring, Mooney, Basey, Dailly (too old)
Not good enough: Mcleod, Lllera
Mckenzie and Holden I have as yet no idea about
Some may seem harsh but there's a fair bit of money and some real quality in the championship these days. Burton for example, as effective as he is, might be found a little wanting should we go up. I think the division is more likely to reward genuine quality and hence Shelvey will probably do well there once more (plus he'd be a year older than last time)
I'm very unsure on at least 5 or 6 of these, and it's all very speculative, so feel free to rip it to shreds
.............
Dailly, Spring and Burton may make good squad players in the CCC, but I definitely think that Mooney is capable of being a regular starter and Basey may yet surprise us all. He's not the quickest player, but slower players usually learn to develop other areas of their game to compensate.
Semedo has the potential to be 'very good' and I'd stick him in that bracket.
I'd move Mooney up to 'good' as I think we will see even better from him (if we keep him). Dailly I also move to 'good' ... although as you state, age may prove me wrong here.
Llera 'will get by' ... just. Happy to keep him as he will always do his best and worth having as back-up.
Burton is the one who I am not sure about ... but I tend to think he will be 'good'.
Fair point on Basey ... although my son totally disagrees. I believe he may yet surprise us and we will see a good player developing here..
I don't think you're being harsh there Sussex, I think you're being generous! I'm going to put a dampener on things here. If those players were that good, we wouldn't have got relegated last season. Those players in your 'good' bucket should probably be classed 'average champ player'. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, I mean in that they can compete in the Champoinship, but wouldn't be above an average player in that division. Again, if they were good Championship players we'd have been selling them in the summer.
And can we please stop talking about Dailly being too old/needing a rest etc. He hasn't looked tired once this season, hasn't been substituted once and looks to me to be a top athlete. If only we'd had him last season instead of Hudson.
Good enough: S Sodje, Youga, Richardson, Mooney, Burton, McKenzie
Not sure: Spring, Llera, Dailly (only cause of age), Solly, Wagstaff, Basey, maybe Stavinrou aswell
Can they go now: McLeod, Omuzusi
Irrelevant: Sinclair, Randolph, Dickson, Holden, Fleetwood- they will be gone by next season whatever division we are in
Player of the season so far.
Consistant, leadership, composure, great positional play ..... and a damned good footballer.
Those are much better categories, I couldn't come up the right wording for 'good enough'
I think I was more getting at that, Dan's 'good enough' is a much better phrasing
I was hankering for a massive debate there. Now we've just agreed with each other. No fun ;-)
IMO the team that has played the majority of games this year are better equipped than those last year and could compete in the Champ even now! For example Richardson, Dailly, S Sodje are a lot better than the rbs we had last season, Hudson, Primus, Cranie at cb and even Ward!
Players last year like Sam and Youga who played a lot last season have had this season to restore their confidence and get some consistency and good form. They have also been given a good run of games and not dropped or replaced by a loan after a couple of bad games.
Elliot who played over half our games last year but imo was virtually faultless if he gets back to fitness quickly will have the season to firmly establish himself and gain some more experience. He has also lost weight since last season and improved greatly.
The big problem though for me is upfront. If we keep Sodje and he stays fit, then he is a great asset for the second tier but who else? Burton will not score as many or have such an influence as he has in League 1. On the other hand, his work rate and experience would be valuable. In terms of goals though, I think we all agree what we have now would not be enough and even Mooney I am not sure if could score enough.
Haha, well how about say I that whilst they're average based on what we see now, I believe some are certainly pushing the 'above average at that level' category. I guess if we can group all the premiership quality players that some big teams have brought down with them as 'excellent' or 'exceptional' than a few of the averages probably just squeak into good. Maybe Racon, Sam and Semedo?
I think this squad with Mooney and A Sodje fit would have a very good chance of surviving. We still have the same innate weaknesses and little bit of bad luck with injuries could easily see it marooned at the bottom. Of the sides I've seen promoted in the last two seasons, Scunny and Donny they competed and had every chance if they could find someone to score for them; am convinced Scunny would have survived with Keogh and Billy Sharpe up front for them.
In comparison to those two sides we still lack a competitive edge and sit too deep, our player's better quality often comes out in this league but using Sam as an example when under the kosh he fades badly ; too many players are like that, waiting for Bailey to tackle or gamble. If we were to go up this team will still struggle to dig itself out of bad patches.
We will certainly need a goalscorer. We have seen this season how the likes of MacLean and Mackail Smith who scored for fun in Leagues 1 and 2 have not been able to replicate this in the Champ (sounds like Varney, McLeod etc). Plymouth like Donny and Scunny are another side who will struggle this season and do not really have anyone that could get over 15 league goals.
I Wolves were to come down, maybe we could get Iwelumo back?
Secondly, convert the Sodje and Mooney loanees to permanent,if not already done so.
New investment and build upo the depth of squad.
My response was to Dan's post about MacLean and Mackail Smith who scored for fun in Leagues 1 and 2, and yet the goals have dried up for them since their teams were promoted last season.
As for specifically our Charlton last season, agree that creating chances (and scoring them, in fact) wasn't the issue. Desp;ite finishing dead and buried, it was basically the 18 games without a win sequence that doomed us. Either side of that our form was definitely mid-table and we created and scored plenty - it was our defence that let us down led by ....erm, "Rock" Hudson.
With a midfield like ours, even in the Champ there will be many chances for the strikers, but we do not have anyone that I would constantly bank on scoring.
Agree with Dan; we did create quite a lot last season, we just never had a 'fox in the box' to tuck them away. Mooney certainly looks like a right place at the right time striker which is encouraging.
I'm having a hangover moment. I edited my previous post instead of quoting from it.
If it doesn't make sense, look back to my edited post above.
If it still doesn't make sense, just know that it's not the best idea to go sampling a selection of different single malts on a Monday night ....(!)
;o)