Having been at The Valley on Saturday and subsequently read some of the comments on this site, I feel we have to remember where we are.
We are in the 3rd division.
The players we have aquired this summer are 3rd division players who cost little or no money.
We have been spolit over the last ten years watching players with excellent touch and ball control. The Di Canio's and Murphy's and Parkers have all gone.
We are where we are.
The current crop of players to wear the shirt are limited in abillity but look to me to be a well assembled and ballanced group of players. As Parkinson says, A new team takes time to gel !
I also think that we have played three very decent sides at the Valley this season. Notts County were a very good outfit who went about us superbly, never giving us a second on the ball. Bournemouth look like they are a good bet for the play offs.
So it is time that is needed. How long did Curbishley take to get a good side together and don't forget Curbs had money to spend as Murray worked wonders behind the scenes to put money together culminating with the purchase of Mendonca.
Murray is trying to work the oracle again, If rumour is to be believed, Benson cost a six figure fee. Give him a chance, give Charlton a chance and stop slagging everything off. It's depressing !!!
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But they are in fact a mixture of,in the main, 3rd division players too.....so I dont think its that unreasonable to expect us to compete. Quite a few teams have had this massive transition in playing staff this year too, so we are far from alone.....I just hope we start to pull it together really soon, otherwise RM's investment will be wasted....again.
Other than Orient away, it's the same old story this season. Dropping Wagstaff and Solly, playing two defensive midfielders in a home game etc, suggests to me that nothing has been learned and promotion once again will be missed out on. Last season the rose tinted spectacle brigade were constantly saying "we're still second from top, stop moaning etc" whilst others were pointing out that we were there by virtue of our great start and that if we carried on playing as we were, we would miss out, which unfortunately we did. If we want to go up, we have to start playing better football.
That's down to Parky and the coaching staff.
I agree in the main what you are saying but make one important point. The phrase give the team time to gel is an easy excuse for poor performances. I accept that players take time to get used to the others thought process and style of play, however when you are working every day together on the training pitch and some games have been played it isn't that hard to adapt and our players in the main should be by now.
My counter to this and what I believe is nearer to the true fact, is Parky hasn't yet managed to get the balance of the team correct. Therefore taking Saturdays game as an example, peoples criticism of playing Semedo & Mac, 2 work horses in a game needing to be more enterprising after 2 defeats was valid. Parky corrected this at half time but it leaves question marks.
Football is about opinions and we will all disagree at some point I don't see it as a problem that people make their feelings and opinions felt. Some might as they say find it depressing because they don't like hearing it as other people see it. However for people not to stand up and say what they see and think is more damaging.
I personally, am prepared to give Parky time and am not on a witch hunt but if I feel criticism is warranted I like many will say so, surely debating is what these sites are for.
If you accept mediocrity for what ever reason that is what you will finish up with. Many of the people that don't like hearing negatives comments when they are valid are the same people that tell us CAFC is a bigger club than all the rest in this division, then its aspirations should be higher than the rest. Scunthorpe and most other unfashionable teams that get promoted from this division do it on smaller funding and support than our club.
Jon....you had to be there on Saturday mate....it was right up there with the infamous Wycombe game, so its hardly surprising alarm bells are ringing
Agree....If Ive come across as on a witch hunt by the way, then sorry...not the case.....I just want us to do well......I see this season and RM's investment as a last chance saloon and I just dont want to see us blow it....I want us to be proud of who we are once again. Maybe I need to move back to Oz to chill out :-)
No you didn't come across as on a witch hunt you made a fair and valid point and nothing to apologise for. That is the point every one has the right to say as they see it.
Come on Tel that's a bit strong.
The Wycombe game was lost because so called Premiership prima donnas couldn't be arsed and didn't put a shift in possibly because they didn't like Les Reed as manager.
Nobody, even the harshest critic, could accuse our players of lack of effort on Saturday and it is because they stuck at their task so well that we eventually got the 3 points.
The game wasn't a classic, though not as bad as some have said on here in my view, but it was a typical third division war of attrition and we prevailed. We are a third division club now and this is the fare we will get.
There is a fair debate to be had re Parky's team selection, especially the midfield, but to compare saturday with Wycombe is WAY over the top in my view.
Just saying it the way that I saw it personally...youre quite entitled to your opinion Len and I will always respect that.
I think few teams (even in this division) have seen quite the turnover in players that Charlton have - must be something like 35-40 ins or outs. That kind of change is always going to need time to settle down.
I agree that we maybe haven't got the right combination yet - the striking partnership probably being the prime example. I can remember many seasons when we had a slow start. A few times under Curbs it was more by luck than judgment (eg due to injuries/ suspensions) that we came across the combination that really gelled. In fact we'd have probably got relegated from the Prem a lot sooner (and under Curbs) if there had been this amount of doom-mongering going in at the beginning of September in some of those seasons!!
We're a new team who should make the play offs against a recently promoted confident team who could well finish comfortably in mid table. There isn't a huge gap in quality between play off side the upper mid table sides, in fact it can just be down to a few better players here and there or a slightly better manager. Some were saying Swindon were only up there because of their strikers for example.
yes, curbs was just lucky.
I'm one of Curbs biggest fans, too, TK - but, yes, sometimes he was lucky. We had a few bad runs in the Prem, and could easily have got sucked into relegation battles, but usually he turned it round just in time. A lot of that was probably down to his calm nature - "highs not too high, lows not too low" etc. I think Parky has a similar ethos. It's a shame more on this board don't, with some of the over-reacting to defeats - or even "lucky" wins.
but the dross served up on saturday was well on par with that performance but with out the rumblings that was under and the cause of the wycombe poerformance.
For Parky to come out and say that had we lost on Saturday he would have considered the start of this season as poor, Is very much in line with what people have said on other threads.
i believe that the win has papered over the performance and considering the effort and performance served up against huddersfield and then at Exeter who had not won in 10 games before us in the league and where i expect everyone challeging to get a result is not good enough.
i am all up for nicking a result and i am happy with it
i dont see any over reaction to the win i see paralels with the donny result and unless things change quickly we will be in a situation where RM will have to make a decision on parky before he or anyone would really like to happen. i think we need to stick with him and behind him thats why i have not criticised him since orient as we missed the time to out him with minimal damage.
but for all you who think that mid table will be ok think again because it could kill this club.
personally i think the fans are being very patient and restrained right now
We will play better than that and probably lose at some stage.
The point about third division players is a fact. Otherwise a championship side would have taken them.
I personally think Parkinson has made some shrewd signings. Our biggest miss is a Bailey in the middle and I'm not sure where that player is in this squad.
But it's not all doom and gloom that many on here would have you think.
i agree we dont have a championship squad but we have more than 1 player who could have played there and i will include Racon Semedo Doherty in that so 6 of our 11 could play or turned down the offer to play higher than the 3ed division.
yes county are a good team but they should not come to us and boss the game like they did
where as oldham did the same thing but we tried and looked a more solid and better team than saturday so many were happier with the draw
premiership stadium training ground etc then we have abbott not good enough.
No they weren't. They didn't do anything spectacular they just did the basics well.
They didn't give the ball away and when they did lose possession, they closed down quickly to win it back. That to me is simply doing the basics right, it was the bedrock of Charlton performances under Curbishley and it is something that I've not seen enough of seen under Parkinson.
what is our system of play
If you look around us, we should be pushing for an automatic spot. Giving the turnover from last season and the reduced budget, that may not be possible, but we certainly have the tools for a minimum play-off position, anything less than that is failure and should result in a change in regime.
On the plus side, i think the manager has made a concerted effort to bring in players with the right attitude and character. Given the uncertainty over the last two summers, i think that was not an easy task. Dailly said last night he very much doubted there was a manager who worked harder over the summer than Parky.
On the concerned side, goals win games and get you promoted. I'm not fully convinced of the strikers we have brought in we've fully addressed that point, particularly as we have lost Bailey's midfield goals. Ayinsah appears to be the only option we have up front whose natural game isn't facing his own goal. Sodje, Abbott, and on first glance Benson, are more hold up players where you need an energetic midfield taking gambles. We haven't seen that so far.
I also have a slight concern that although we may well have a very fit team, i'm not sure we have a very sharp team over 5 yards, particularly defensively.
I'm sorry Tel, but i disagree strongly if you viewed Saturday as on a par to the Wycombe fiasco. I think a lot of people are very down with Charlton and football in general at the moment, and it is maybe clouding judgements. Saturday was largely a cagey affair, and i think there was maybe an overly care of caution approach, but we have to remember this was off the back of two league defeats and a couple of key changes.
I'm not raving about the start we've had, its been, well, 'meh', but i think any views of despondency are completely overstated at present, and if we now go on a decent little run, the reaction to Saturday's victory will have looked ridiculously and unfairly reactive.
That's where I worry I will be expecting least a 2 goal win at tranmere
After watching the last two home games it looks like they should be sponsored by Specsavers.
Our new shirts certainly stretch very well.