We will have Solly, Watt and Vetokele available next Saturday - is that enough to make a difference? Buyens will be out suspended and Henderson now out for the season... When is Wiggins back? Once again most can predict the selection for the back five but I've no idea who will be in the front six, how they will line up and how they will play...
I remember posting that quote this time last year!
They have this month to get it right such that we arrive in May in one piece and ideally prepare for the next step up. It's no good people having regrets in February or March saying if only this or that...time to fix the squad to ensure we sort this out and win some games.
Well that is 4 big improvements immediately so I am hopeful at least.
Bad as we were we have seen the team play well and win as well as grabbing a few backs against the wall but deserved victories.
Those wins weren't luck, just close. Same as a few of the defeats such as Ipswich at home. There have been some bad displays too especially in the last few weeks.
Last couple of season's we've had patchy squads and this is no different so far.
Last two seasons we improved near the end of the season.
With the right incoming and the likes of Igor and Wiggins fit and back to form we might do the same.
or not.
Where I disagree with some is when they say just staying up will be a good season.
We finished 9th two years ago without much investment. That should be our benchmark, not staying up with one game to go as last term.
Not feeling optimistic right now but things can turn around very quickly.
Doesn't Henderson have a history of injury problems. Think his good enough when fit but worried about the back up keepers. Imo Ventokele is not the same player as early on in the season, maybe he needs to be taken out of the side for a while especially if Watt proves to be able. Midfield reinforcements are badly needed. We need someone of the Coquelin mould, if not him then someone similar. If not then I fear its going to be a downward slide.
Things are grim, but they have been a heck of a lot worse. We had a taste of what we are capable of at the beginning of the season but that's all evaporated now, so it's understandable that it will look like we're struggling, and that we will feel that we are losing more battles than we are winning.
There have been some comparisons between how we are this year against last year. One important thing to remember is that last season we started with virtually no investment over the summer in either players or infrastructure. Not sure how far the wolf was from the door but the word whispered around The Valley was that we were very near to administration had we not been bought out by Roland Duchatalet. Okay there were bones of contention during the first months of Roland's tenure - clearly the business of buying and selling players was carried out differently - hence the likely daggers drawn between CP and RD when results were poor and CP hadn't been able to bolster the squad as he would have liked. This January we know that we have financial stability - more so than most of our Championship competitors. That's worth an awful lot when you put it into a long term context.
I admire the idea of the network - particularly with the intention of cutting out unnecessary structures and vulture-like agents wherever possible - but not sure how well it's actually working in practise. Admittedly it's seen as being an experiment, and hasn't been running long enough to generate enough data for someone like Roland to analyse as to how he might take this further. I think how he handles the transfer window will indicate if he is prepared to react to short term events or if his plans are solely a longer term strategy. He may well see the push for the Premiership as something to achieve in a 3/4/5 year timescale and the Academy may play a huge part in his plan. I think if we are hoping for a fast turnaround of the club's promotion prospects we will be disappointed.
Roland has said that he wants to improve the match day experience for fans. To be fair his investment in infrastructure is welcome. The pitch is great, the lick of paint makes the ground much nicer and the catering has, by and large, improved (although that wasn't a hard task to achieve). However the match day experience on the pitch is the area which needs attention. How often have we walked away lately feeling that things are very "meh"? It's clear the team needs strengthening - not least because we are suffering when hit by injuries as there is next to no cover within a small squad such as ours.
We have to play our part too. Unleashing our ire on easy targets such as Pope or Fox doesn't help their confidence and certainly is undeserving if they are being asked to step up to a level where they might not easily succeed. Some of the invective I have heard shouted at the team from the stands is horrible. Admittedly it's challenging to take a lot of positives at the moment because we can see that things are not going as well as they ought, but you can't get behind your team by slagging them off like that.
What we do need to do is keep the faith. I strongly suspect that the next three or four seasons will be a pretty bumpy ride, and this is no time to be a fairweather supporter. It's going to be "Charlton 'til I Die" or nothing.
Comments
Those wins weren't luck, just close. Same as a few of the defeats such as Ipswich at home. There have been some bad displays too especially in the last few weeks.
Last couple of season's we've had patchy squads and this is no different so far.
Last two seasons we improved near the end of the season.
With the right incoming and the likes of Igor and Wiggins fit and back to form we might do the same.
or not.
Where I disagree with some is when they say just staying up will be a good season.
We finished 9th two years ago without much investment. That should be our benchmark, not staying up with one game to go as last term.
Not feeling optimistic right now but things can turn around very quickly.
We had a taste of what we are capable of at the beginning of the season but that's all evaporated now, so it's understandable that it will look like we're struggling, and that we will feel that we are losing more battles than we are winning.
There have been some comparisons between how we are this year against last year. One important thing to remember is that last season we started with virtually no investment over the summer in either players or infrastructure. Not sure how far the wolf was from the door but the word whispered around The Valley was that we were very near to administration had we not been bought out by Roland Duchatalet. Okay there were bones of contention during the first months of Roland's tenure - clearly the business of buying and selling players was carried out differently - hence the likely daggers drawn between CP and RD when results were poor and CP hadn't been able to bolster the squad as he would have liked. This January we know that we have financial stability - more so than most of our Championship competitors. That's worth an awful lot when you put it into a long term context.
I admire the idea of the network - particularly with the intention of cutting out unnecessary structures and vulture-like agents wherever possible - but not sure how well it's actually working in practise. Admittedly it's seen as being an experiment, and hasn't been running long enough to generate enough data for someone like Roland to analyse as to how he might take this further. I think how he handles the transfer window will indicate if he is prepared to react to short term events or if his plans are solely a longer term strategy. He may well see the push for the Premiership as something to achieve in a 3/4/5 year timescale and the Academy may play a huge part in his plan. I think if we are hoping for a fast turnaround of the club's promotion prospects we will be disappointed.
Roland has said that he wants to improve the match day experience for fans. To be fair his investment in infrastructure is welcome. The pitch is great, the lick of paint makes the ground much nicer and the catering has, by and large, improved (although that wasn't a hard task to achieve). However the match day experience on the pitch is the area which needs attention. How often have we walked away lately feeling that things are very "meh"? It's clear the team needs strengthening - not least because we are suffering when hit by injuries as there is next to no cover within a small squad such as ours.
We have to play our part too. Unleashing our ire on easy targets such as Pope or Fox doesn't help their confidence and certainly is undeserving if they are being asked to step up to a level where they might not easily succeed. Some of the invective I have heard shouted at the team from the stands is horrible. Admittedly it's challenging to take a lot of positives at the moment because we can see that things are not going as well as they ought, but you can't get behind your team by slagging them off like that.
What we do need to do is keep the faith. I strongly suspect that the next three or four seasons will be a pretty bumpy ride, and this is no time to be a fairweather supporter. It's going to be "Charlton 'til I Die" or nothing.