So bang average centre half, who played ok in the run in (we still shifted a lot of goals) is leaving for a club who are prepared to offer a insane contract in the current environment, and people on here are using it as an excuse to attack the ownership of the club, as they won't offer as nutty contract.
Let him go, if Him go, if he's still playing for Freedman by November I'll be stunned
First up, I've skimmed this thread and observed that:
(a) Our support appears to have the testicular weight of a very small mouse; and (b) poor old Duchatelet has his work cut out keeping us miserable bast*rds happy.
To remedy this we need to:
(a) Sit back, look at the situation clearly and grow a pair, (b) give Roland some actual time to do something.
--
Let me get my thoughts on Roland out of the way first, as a form of 'Disclaimer':
I've never subscribed to the all out "I don't like Roland" camp; nor have I subscribed to the "Roland is our saviour, let's worship him." idea. Instead, I view him with a little bit of suspicion and that's all it will remain until I see clear signs that there's a need to worry. Not to take another thread off topic with Powell, but I loved the gentleman and was really sorry to see him go. Truth be told, I was leaning towards the "Lets protest about this!" group - but ultimately it worked out and I can't hold that decision again Roland.
Similarly, I thought Kermorgant was one of the best players I've seen put on a Charlton shirt and thoroughly enjoyed watching him. When we sold him I was gutted and feared the worst for our season. We all know what happened there, as well as with Stephens, but that may have been a great mistake or a shrewd show of force with regards to how how he will be running CAFC: as a sustainable business.
--
Back on topic; we've had 300 posts and as far as I've seen - there's no real confirmation that this has happened. Richard Cawley seems to be very hit and miss with some of his knowledge, and (without digging at him) - we need to remember that. It hasn't happened till it's happened and been confirmed, as such let's not worry too much right now. After all, worrying achieves nothing.
If this is true however, it's hardly a huge surprise - he was at the end of his contract and unfortunately that means he can do as he please. This isn't Roland's fault, and the blame lies solely at the hands of TJ and Co. Roland has a mess to deal with right now, with contract negotiations required for a large number of the playing staff, whilst also getting rid of the likes of Green, Hughes and Evina (with Pritchard, Hollands, Cort, Gower, Wood and so on to follow?) and also looking towards future arrivals. Katrien and Roland have a busy few weeks, that's without even considering the fact we currently have no manager! Those are some pretty heavy changes he needs to deal with.
It would be disappointing to lose Dorian, especially as our defence was playing well above our position in the table, however short of going back 1 year and offering the back four contracts we're out of luck. I fear we may need to get used to this feeling this summer though - I don't think we need reminding that we could also potentially lose Morrison, Hamer and Poyet. We can't make force those players sign contracts.
Lets contrast this to last season though - where we released our strike force (Danny Haynes, Ricardo Fuller..) as well as a few squad players (Kerkar, Wagstaff and so on) and replaced them with... well, Simon Church. (Oh, and a loan: Marvin Sordell.)
The bar has been set incredibly low for Roland to do better this season, lets remember that. Not only did we lose some good options last year, but we failed to replace them and failed to tie down the players that we kept: we created the situation that we are now left with. It's the 14th May and far too early to really see how things are going to pan out.
It's been reported that Roland is prepared to spend a bit of money this year (wisely no doubt, and very carefully too.) by Richard Cawley, if that's as accurate as the report of Dervite signing for Bolton - then we may not have such a painful couple of months coming up.
It's probably agent talk just to get us to put an offer together.
Also, season isn't over yet wait for the playoffs to be decided for our division and teams below. Once this is done I reckon we will see a lot of movement as we try to get good young players from teams below us who could step up to at least championship level as well as a couple of fringe premier players.
Only thing I would like now is Riga signed up, but this could be held up whilst he is discussing contract and budget for players.
I agree Charlton supporters should hold on to see what happens happens with the players contracts / etc before calling it. How many months / years is it before everyone can start to attribute responsibility to on pitch goings on to Roland's reign and not pin it all on to TJ / MS previous ? It is a classic strategy, deflect criticism by blaming it on the people / person that are no longer there.
All this talk of Charlton supporters having no b@ll*cks due to expressing some sceptism of R@land's player strategy is total b*ll*ks. Generalising the whole thread to that is not correct. One or two Charlton supporters have gone off the deep end unnecessarily. Most are expressing some concern about Roland's strategy. Barr Riga, there is little evidence to show that Roland's on field dealings are of any particular good. Roland has not demonstrated too much capability in that area yet.
It's probably agent talk just to get us to put an offer together.
I'd be amazed if we hadn't put an offer on the table already. Probably more of a case of agent giving it a last minute squeeze to see if he can get a few more drops out...............
I agree Charlton supporters should hold on to see what happens happens with the players contracts / etc before calling it. How many months / years is it before everyone can start to attribute responsibility to on pitch goings on to Roland's reign and not pin it all on to TJ / MS previous ? It is a classic strategy, deflect criticism by blaming it on the people / person that are no longer there.
All this talk of Charlton supporters having no b@ll*cks due to expressing some sceptism of R@land's player strategy is total b*ll*ks. Generalising the whole thread to that is not correct. One or two Charlton supporters have gone off the deep end unnecessarily. Most are expressing some concern about Roland's strategy. Barr Riga, there is little evidence to show that Roland's on field dealings are of any particular good. Roland has not demonstrated too much capability in that area yet.
Yeah, the fact I felt the need to waste a couple of paragraphs stating that I'm not part of the Riga fan/hate (delete as applicable) club didn't help on the length either.
You make a brilliant point about the blame having to eventually move to the current owner; and in my mind, I'd give it to the end of June or mid July. If things haven't improved then.. well, it's time for Roland to take the buck. He has seemingly set himself a deadline of the end of June for there to be some activity, but personally I still think that's too early. I just don't think we can blame him if we lose a couple of our players who weren't secured by the previous regime.
I agree completely, the bit about a lack of balls was largely tongue in cheek - and aimed specifically at those who have jumped off the deep end. To be fair, it was also a mixture of reading the other thread about "when we should start panicking"; some people seem to think now is an appropriate time! I'm not going to knock them and lie by saying I can't understand them, we've had a lot to panic about of late (and old habits die hard!) - but I genuinely think we're safe not to panic at the moment.
Jackson likely got a decent offer from us as captain & decided he'd prefer to stay where he's very happy.
Wiggins also, likely got a good offer, as he's a youngish player, that could well improve. He possibly accepted as his partner had a baby recently & didn't want the upheaval of moving house.
Dervite has already moved country, so I'm not sure a move up North would unduly trouble him.
He was out of contract and unofficially his agent was looking to get him a deal, rather than leave him without a club.
I was told he had ageed a deal in April & was seen talking to Freedman, so I'm pretty confident he's going.
There's little doubt Hamer, Morrison & Poyet's agents have been making themselves busy in the last few months & it would be no surprise to me if they left as well.
I reckon the chances of them leaving are, Hamer 90%, Morrison 60%, Poyet 50%.
Morro would be a bigger loss than Dervite IMHO and would leave us with a big recruiting job. If you are right about Hamer too, it means we need a complete new "spine".
With Poyet I accept we just can only hope that he values another season being a first choice.
It's on Sky Sports, so i'm thinking it's a fairly accurate assumption that Dervite will be signing for Bolton. He's a good player. Well worthy of a championship place. He's only 25 and liked at Charlton. I'm sorry, but he is one of the players (in my opinion) that the club should be fighting to keep. We won't though. He'll be walking away on a free.
This is all about context. He was much improved towards the end of the season, but before then he was patchy/injured.
It could be that he was finally realising the potential that many (including Spurs) suspected that he had - for this reason, many are disappointed that he appears to be off.
However, if RD is going to bring in some quality replacements for the players that leave this season, then ultimately no-one will give a toss. But that's a big if.
Unfortunately, all we have to go on so far is his performance in the last transfer window which was nothing short of farcical and nearly cost us dearly. For this reason, surely people can understand the scepticism and concern of some on here. An influx of SL reserves will set off alarm bells, that's for sure.
However, there is hope. RD is surely a highly intelligent individual and hopefully he will have the humility and common sense to have learnt from his mistake. If that's the case, then we could be in for an exciting summer as players arrive who are of a higher standard than those whom he has let leave. On the other hand, he may allow his headstrong nature to dominate his thinking and implement his network strategy regardless of the fact that it has been already shown to have considerable flaws. I, for one, do not want to be RD's little experiment if January's attempts are anything to go by.
As others have pointed out, the crucial factor here may well be the managerial appointment - in fact, it may be almost impossible to recruit quality players (including the talented young Poyet) if they do not know under whom they will be playing. For this reason, I hope that an announcement is made sooner rather than later. It will also set the tone for the summer, either contributing to further uncertainty, or hopefully putting everyone's minds at rest and pointing to better times ahead.
Whatever our position on this - there's nothing we can do except sit and wait. I hope that Katrien's pronouncement about getting everything sorted early in the summer comes to pass as it will at least let us know where we stand sooner rather than later.
The problem with out of contract players is the ones you want to sign are usually of interest to other clubs. So they tend to be in a position of strength and in those cases you have to pay them more if you want them. Now, I think Dervitte has been excellent since the new year, but I do accept that he won’t be as hard to replace as others. I would put Hamer in that category. If he signs I will be pleased but I do think we can replace him – possibly with Pope. I think the level is less of an issue when it comes to keepers, and he would probably be attracting interest from Championship clubs if he did not already belong to one.
Morro will be harder to replace. I though he was a bit dodgy at the start of the season, but improved greatly to be a serious contender for player of season. What struck me about him was that we could interchange Wood/Dervitte (I preferred Dervitte), but the defence noticeably missed Morro – possibly reflecting his organisational skills. I think we need to give him a decent offer – Maybe TJ and MS are to blame but we have to consider the cost of replacing him. Also young enough to command a decent fee after a good season or two so should fit the RD plan.
As for Poyet, he is irreplaceable. Obviously, we can’t keep him forever, but we will want to get £10m or more for him rather than nothing. And he is the sort of player who will make the difference. If we are serious about progressing on the pitch, RD may have to dig a bit deeper into his pockets for him and Morro.
It is too early to panic, but it is reasonable to report what I have seen so far I think and allow that to worry me. As I have always said, I am ready to be positive, I just want to start seeing a bit more evidence that this is correct.
So bang average centre half, who played ok in the run in (we still shifted a lot of goals) is leaving for a club who are prepared to offer a insane contract in the current environment, and people on here are using it as an excuse to attack the ownership of the club, as they won't offer as nutty contract.
Let him go, if Him go, if he's still playing for Freedman by November I'll be stunned
I'm not a fully paid-up member of the RD fan club just yet but have to say this post sums it up for me. He was okay but we can do better. No point in panicking at this stage.
I am more in "the Roland is good" camp although the selling of Yann remains a nagging thorn. I am concerned however that RDs vision of break even sustainability (Although admirable) is out of touch with the modern game.
If other clubs are prepared to offer more, we will lose out time after time. That's both on renewing our current contracts and in the market for new players.
What will we be left with? Youngsters and journeymen! Doesn't sound like much to look forward to.
So come on RD. Spend some of that enormous wealth you possess and you may get us promoted, then you will be able to recoup your outlay and some!
At half-time of the last game of the season at The Valley, the Academy was paraded round the pitch for our applause: the under-eights, the seven-to-twelves, the under-fifteens: there were literally hundreds of them. Yet not even half-a-dozen will eventually be good enough to play in the first team of any Championship club.
What on earth is the point? For example, I don't agree with all the swooning admiration many Lifers have for Jordan Cousins. He is an ordinary midfielder who, along with his team-mates, was cursorily by-passed by plenty of other "ordinary" teams last season. They beat us regularly, and we were almost relegated.
It's not the Academy we need. To compete properly and to get in to the play-offs any time soon, we must buy experienced players: intelligent and tough guys who can seize possession in midfield, move forward, and pass accurately to incisive strikers who will score.
All the rest is a soft Valley full of mutual admiration, self-congratulation and simple delusion.
You are right - there is an incredible drop-out rate, but you just can't tell at 8 years old who will continue to develop and who won't. And that continues right up to the late teen years - it's very risky to pay a lot for a teenager even.
The point is that, like a lot of clubs, we can't afford to buy in all our talent so we have to develop it ourselves through the academy. Also, the reality is that if we do nurture someone really good, we're going to sell them on for good money. We are a selling club,as are practically all clubs except the very top Premiership clubs... and even they sometimes have to let their star players go when a big european side comes knocking.
We need the academy and, have a heart, it's good to give those boys and their proud mums and dads a day out.
You are right - there is an incredible drop-out rate, but you just can't tell at 8 years old who will continue to develop and who won't. And that continues right up to the late teen years - it's very risky to pay a lot for a teenager even.
The point is that, like a lot of clubs, we can't afford to buy in all our talent so we have to develop it ourselves through the academy. Also, the reality is that if we do nurture someone really good, we're going to sell them on for good money. We are a selling club,as are practically all clubs except the very top Premiership clubs... and even they sometimes have to let their star players go when a big european side comes knocking.
We need the academy and, have a heart, it's good to give those boys and their proud mums and dads a day out.
The kids will always make their parents proud - playing football on the municipal park, fringed by wilting begonia. The Valley should not be some sort of community help-centre for the disadvantaged - or for players to be nurtured and sold elsewhere.
The Valley is a place of fifteen-thousand punters - you and I - who demand the crossbar be rattled and the net be rifled by heroic men. Other teams do it to us: even Yeovil the other week slid some glorious passes in to our box that were way beyond the inspiration of Sparrows Lane. Routinely in the second half we are attacking the Covered End and have nothing by design, no moves to turn the opposing defenders inside-out: nothing deceitful, nothing clever or rehearsed. Something, possibly, might happen.
We have been comprehensively beaten at home by too many "ordinary" teams over the last couple of seasons. Saga Lout - those players who beat us have plenty of self-doubts, financial insecurity, and pride for their club. Charlton are not exceptional. What we need are good players.
At half-time of the last game of the season at The Valley, the Academy was paraded round the pitch for our applause: the under-eights, the seven-to-twelves, the under-fifteens: there were literally hundreds of them. Yet not even half-a-dozen will eventually be good enough to play in the first team of any Championship club.
What on earth is the point? For example, I don't agree with all the swooning admiration many Lifers have for Jordan Cousins. He is an ordinary midfielder who, along with his team-mates, was cursorily by-passed by plenty of other "ordinary" teams last season. They beat us regularly, and we were almost relegated.
It's not the Academy we need. To compete properly and to get in to the play-offs any time soon, we must buy experienced players: intelligent and tough guys who can seize possession in midfield, move forward, and pass accurately to incisive strikers who will score.
All the rest is a soft Valley full of mutual admiration, self-congratulation and simple delusion.
Viewfinder that is the biggest crock of shit I have read on here for a very long time. Producing good quality players from our academy is the way forward. We produced Parker, he did well for us and sold him for 10 M. There are a number of other players like Bowyer, Jenkinson, Shelvey. We have produced Poyet and Cousins two of our best players last Season. You comment on Cousins being not very good but he has just been picked for the England U21s, do you know more than Gareth Southgate. We have also got a great crop of youngsters coming through like Ahearne-Grant, Gomes, Edwards etc. If we can secure them on contracts they will do well for us. It was wonderful to see so many home grown players turn out for us at the end of the Season, Solly, Fox, Cousins, Poyet, Harriott.
Yes we need some good quality hardened professionals to supplement the youngsters. But closing down the Academy is not the way to go.
I'm still leaning towards the anti-Roland camp but spending big money on experienced, possible mercenary players isn't the answer. Millwall did that this season and were as bad as us. You need a healthy mix.
In terms of us buying players I'd like them to have experience in this division or upper League One but still with something to prove. Beyond a few of those I'm sure that we have academy players ready to step up, some to the first team and some as squad players. Relying on them entirely in this league would probably mean another relegation fight.
At half-time of the last game of the season at The Valley, the Academy was paraded round the pitch for our applause: the under-eights, the seven-to-twelves, the under-fifteens: there were literally hundreds of them. Yet not even half-a-dozen will eventually be good enough to play in the first team of any Championship club.
What on earth is the point? For example, I don't agree with all the swooning admiration many Lifers have for Jordan Cousins. He is an ordinary midfielder who, along with his team-mates, was cursorily by-passed by plenty of other "ordinary" teams last season. They beat us regularly, and we were almost relegated.
It's not the Academy we need. To compete properly and to get in to the play-offs any time soon, we must buy experienced players: intelligent and tough guys who can seize possession in midfield, move forward, and pass accurately to incisive strikers who will score.
All the rest is a soft Valley full of mutual admiration, self-congratulation and simple delusion.
Viewfinder that is the biggest crock of shit I have read on here for a very long time. Producing good quality players from our academy is the way forward. We produced Parker, he did well for us and sold him for 10 M. There are a number of other players like Bowyer, Jenkinson, Shelvey. We have produced Poyet and Cousins two of our best players last Season. You comment on Cousins being not very good but he has just been picked for the England U21s, do you know more than Gareth Southgate. We have also got a great crop of youngsters coming through like Ahearne-Grant, Gomes, Edwards etc. If we can secure them on contracts they will do well for us. It was wonderful to see so many home grown players turn out for us at the end of the Season, Solly, Fox, Cousins, Poyet, Harriott.
Yes we need some good quality hardened professionals to supplement the youngsters. But closing down the Academy is not the way to go.
Comments
Let him go, if Him go, if he's still playing for Freedman by November I'll be stunned
(a) Our support appears to have the testicular weight of a very small mouse; and
(b) poor old Duchatelet has his work cut out keeping us miserable bast*rds happy.
To remedy this we need to:
(a) Sit back, look at the situation clearly and grow a pair,
(b) give Roland some actual time to do something.
--
Let me get my thoughts on Roland out of the way first, as a form of 'Disclaimer':
I've never subscribed to the all out "I don't like Roland" camp; nor have I subscribed to the "Roland is our saviour, let's worship him." idea. Instead, I view him with a little bit of suspicion and that's all it will remain until I see clear signs that there's a need to worry. Not to take another thread off topic with Powell, but I loved the gentleman and was really sorry to see him go. Truth be told, I was leaning towards the "Lets protest about this!" group - but ultimately it worked out and I can't hold that decision again Roland.
Similarly, I thought Kermorgant was one of the best players I've seen put on a Charlton shirt and thoroughly enjoyed watching him. When we sold him I was gutted and feared the worst for our season. We all know what happened there, as well as with Stephens, but that may have been a great mistake or a shrewd show of force with regards to how how he will be running CAFC: as a sustainable business.
--
Back on topic; we've had 300 posts and as far as I've seen - there's no real confirmation that this has happened. Richard Cawley seems to be very hit and miss with some of his knowledge, and (without digging at him) - we need to remember that. It hasn't happened till it's happened and been confirmed, as such let's not worry too much right now. After all, worrying achieves nothing.
If this is true however, it's hardly a huge surprise - he was at the end of his contract and unfortunately that means he can do as he please. This isn't Roland's fault, and the blame lies solely at the hands of TJ and Co. Roland has a mess to deal with right now, with contract negotiations required for a large number of the playing staff, whilst also getting rid of the likes of Green, Hughes and Evina (with Pritchard, Hollands, Cort, Gower, Wood and so on to follow?) and also looking towards future arrivals. Katrien and Roland have a busy few weeks, that's without even considering the fact we currently have no manager! Those are some pretty heavy changes he needs to deal with.
It would be disappointing to lose Dorian, especially as our defence was playing well above our position in the table, however short of going back 1 year and offering the back four contracts we're out of luck. I fear we may need to get used to this feeling this summer though - I don't think we need reminding that we could also potentially lose Morrison, Hamer and Poyet. We can't make force those players sign contracts.
Lets contrast this to last season though - where we released our strike force (Danny Haynes, Ricardo Fuller..) as well as a few squad players (Kerkar, Wagstaff and so on) and replaced them with... well, Simon Church. (Oh, and a loan: Marvin Sordell.)
The bar has been set incredibly low for Roland to do better this season, lets remember that. Not only did we lose some good options last year, but we failed to replace them and failed to tie down the players that we kept: we created the situation that we are now left with. It's the 14th May and far too early to really see how things are going to pan out.
It's been reported that Roland is prepared to spend a bit of money this year (wisely no doubt, and very carefully too.) by Richard Cawley, if that's as accurate as the report of Dervite signing for Bolton - then we may not have such a painful couple of months coming up.
It's probably agent talk just to get us to put an offer together.
Also, season isn't over yet wait for the playoffs to be decided for our division and teams below. Once this is done I reckon we will see a lot of movement as we try to get good young players from teams below us who could step up to at least championship level as well as a couple of fringe premier players.
Only thing I would like now is Riga signed up, but this could be held up whilst he is discussing contract and budget for players.
I agree Charlton supporters should hold on to see what happens happens with the players contracts / etc before calling it. How many months / years is it before everyone can start to attribute responsibility to on pitch goings on to Roland's reign and not pin it all on to TJ / MS previous ? It is a classic strategy, deflect criticism by blaming it on the people / person that are no longer there.
All this talk of Charlton supporters having no b@ll*cks due to expressing some sceptism of R@land's player strategy is total b*ll*ks. Generalising the whole thread to that is not correct. One or two Charlton supporters have gone off the deep end unnecessarily. Most are expressing some concern about Roland's strategy. Barr Riga, there is little evidence to show that Roland's on field dealings are of any particular good. Roland has not demonstrated too much capability in that area yet.
You make a brilliant point about the blame having to eventually move to the current owner; and in my mind, I'd give it to the end of June or mid July. If things haven't improved then.. well, it's time for Roland to take the buck. He has seemingly set himself a deadline of the end of June for there to be some activity, but personally I still think that's too early. I just don't think we can blame him if we lose a couple of our players who weren't secured by the previous regime.
I agree completely, the bit about a lack of balls was largely tongue in cheek - and aimed specifically at those who have jumped off the deep end. To be fair, it was also a mixture of reading the other thread about "when we should start panicking"; some people seem to think now is an appropriate time! I'm not going to knock them and lie by saying I can't understand them, we've had a lot to panic about of late (and old habits die hard!) - but I genuinely think we're safe not to panic at the moment.
Wiggins also, likely got a good offer, as he's a youngish player, that could well improve. He possibly accepted as his partner had a baby recently & didn't want the upheaval of moving house.
Dervite has already moved country, so I'm not sure a move up North would unduly trouble him.
He was out of contract and unofficially his agent was looking to get him a deal, rather than leave him without a club.
I was told he had ageed a deal in April & was seen talking to Freedman, so I'm pretty confident he's going.
There's little doubt Hamer, Morrison & Poyet's agents have been making themselves busy in the last few months & it would be no surprise to me if they left as well.
I reckon the chances of them leaving are, Hamer 90%, Morrison 60%, Poyet 50%.
Just my opinion based on common sense.
With Poyet I accept we just can only hope that he values another season being a first choice.
It could be that he was finally realising the potential that many (including Spurs) suspected that he had - for this reason, many are disappointed that he appears to be off.
However, if RD is going to bring in some quality replacements for the players that leave this season, then ultimately no-one will give a toss. But that's a big if.
Unfortunately, all we have to go on so far is his performance in the last transfer window which was nothing short of farcical and nearly cost us dearly. For this reason, surely people can understand the scepticism and concern of some on here. An influx of SL reserves will set off alarm bells, that's for sure.
However, there is hope. RD is surely a highly intelligent individual and hopefully he will have the humility and common sense to have learnt from his mistake. If that's the case, then we could be in for an exciting summer as players arrive who are of a higher standard than those whom he has let leave. On the other hand, he may allow his headstrong nature to dominate his thinking and implement his network strategy regardless of the fact that it has been already shown to have considerable flaws. I, for one, do not want to be RD's little experiment if January's attempts are anything to go by.
As others have pointed out, the crucial factor here may well be the managerial appointment - in fact, it may be almost impossible to recruit quality players (including the talented young Poyet) if they do not know under whom they will be playing. For this reason, I hope that an announcement is made sooner rather than later. It will also set the tone for the summer, either contributing to further uncertainty, or hopefully putting everyone's minds at rest and pointing to better times ahead.
Whatever our position on this - there's nothing we can do except sit and wait. I hope that Katrien's pronouncement about getting everything sorted early in the summer comes to pass as it will at least let us know where we stand sooner rather than later.
Hold on tight folks....
If Morrison, Wood and Cort do not sign/are not offered new contracts we have no first team centre backs on our books. That gives us 4 gaps to fill.
Morro will be harder to replace. I though he was a bit dodgy at the start of the season, but improved greatly to be a serious contender for player of season. What struck me about him was that we could interchange Wood/Dervitte (I preferred Dervitte), but the defence noticeably missed Morro – possibly reflecting his organisational skills. I think we need to give him a decent offer – Maybe TJ and MS are to blame but we have to consider the cost of replacing him. Also young enough to command a decent fee after a good season or two so should fit the RD plan.
As for Poyet, he is irreplaceable. Obviously, we can’t keep him forever, but we will want to get £10m or more for him rather than nothing. And he is the sort of player who will make the difference. If we are serious about progressing on the pitch, RD may have to dig a bit deeper into his pockets for him and Morro.
It is too early to panic, but it is reasonable to report what I have seen so far I think and allow that to worry me. As I have always said, I am ready to be positive, I just want to start seeing a bit more evidence that this is correct.
If other clubs are prepared to offer more, we will lose out time after time. That's both on renewing our current contracts and in the market for new players.
What will we be left with? Youngsters and journeymen! Doesn't sound like much to look forward to.
So come on RD. Spend some of that enormous wealth you possess and you may get us promoted, then you will be able to recoup your outlay and some!
What on earth is the point? For example, I don't agree with all the swooning admiration many Lifers have for Jordan Cousins. He is an ordinary midfielder who, along with his team-mates, was cursorily by-passed by plenty of other "ordinary" teams last season. They beat us regularly, and we were almost relegated.
It's not the Academy we need. To compete properly and to get in to the play-offs any time soon, we must buy experienced players: intelligent and tough guys who can seize possession in midfield, move forward, and pass accurately to incisive strikers who will score.
All the rest is a soft Valley full of mutual admiration, self-congratulation and simple delusion.
And stop swooning you lot
You are right - there is an incredible drop-out rate, but you just can't tell at 8 years old who will continue to develop and who won't. And that continues right up to the late teen years - it's very risky to pay a lot for a teenager even.
The point is that, like a lot of clubs, we can't afford to buy in all our talent so we have to develop it ourselves through the academy. Also, the reality is that if we do nurture someone really good, we're going to sell them on for good money. We are a selling club,as are practically all clubs except the very top Premiership clubs... and even they sometimes have to let their star players go when a big european side comes knocking.
We need the academy and, have a heart, it's good to give those boys and their proud mums and dads a day out.
The Valley is a place of fifteen-thousand punters - you and I - who demand the crossbar be rattled and the net be rifled by heroic men. Other teams do it to us: even Yeovil the other week slid some glorious passes in to our box that were way beyond the inspiration of Sparrows Lane. Routinely in the second half we are attacking the Covered End and have nothing by design, no moves to turn the opposing defenders inside-out: nothing deceitful, nothing clever or rehearsed. Something, possibly, might happen.
We have been comprehensively beaten at home by too many "ordinary" teams over the last couple of seasons. Saga Lout - those players who beat us have plenty of self-doubts, financial insecurity, and pride for their club. Charlton are not exceptional. What we need are good players.
All sounding a bit too homo erotic for me old boy!
It was wonderful to see so many home grown players turn out for us at the end of the Season, Solly, Fox, Cousins, Poyet, Harriott.
Yes we need some good quality hardened professionals to supplement the youngsters. But closing down the Academy is not the way to go.
In terms of us buying players I'd like them to have experience in this division or upper League One but still with something to prove. Beyond a few of those I'm sure that we have academy players ready to step up, some to the first team and some as squad players. Relying on them entirely in this league would probably mean another relegation fight.