Well obviously into the Chamipionship, barring a miracle that's it for this season and relegation beckons. To be fair that's been the most likely outcome all season, and I'm not sure that we've done enough to deserve to stay up. One away win, and four away draws isn't good enough, and neither has been our ability to grind out results, or even maul newly promoted sides. Four points from the promoted sides against ten lost isn't good enough for a team that was going to struggle. Elsewhere we have had a bad habit of letting in clusters of goals and not capitalising when we've been in contention. A struggling team can't afford that.
First up, we needed a good striker to take some of the pressure off of Darren Bent, JFH and Marcus Bent haven't delivered, and Lisbie has been injured. You can't sustain a premiership campaign on one striker. Moreover opponents know that, and can afford to man mark Darren Bent. A good goal scorer to help Darren Bent would have hidden a lot of problems elsewhere.
In midfield...ZZ, Romm, Faye, Reid, Ambrose, Thomas, Song, Holland, Hughes, Kish etc, all have been tried, all have their strengths, but they have their weak points and no amount of shuffling them around will hide the flaws.
Defensively, Scott Carson has grown in stature through the season and will return to Anfield a better player than the one that left. El K, Diawara (was he injured or dropped yesterday??) undoubtedly played better with a stronger midfield in front of them once Pardew arrived. Young, and Thatcher and HH, again they had their moments they tried but it's asking a lot of a full back to get you out of trouble.
So on to next season, fortunately/hopefully we'll get to keep Pardew, and if he does go we'll get serious money for Darren Bent, that and the parachute payments should be a springboard, rather than a safety net. If Darren Bent does leave then we need from somewhere to find two goal scorers. Marcus Bent, if he stays will be playing at his level, although it's debateable whether he does enough or cares enough to create goals. JFH, who is out of contract, I'd say adios to, along with Lisbie. Will Dickson be a genuine contender? Who knows, but playing in the CCC will make it easier for the club to bring through players like him, Weston, Ashton and one or two others. Maybe Healy could be tempted, more so if Leeds go down? Remember we picked up Mendonca in similar circumstances when Grimsby were relegated and decided to cash in on him.
Midfield, we have this Danish winger, and hopefully a deal can be worked out for ZZ, if it's true that he doesn't want to play for us in the CCC then I find it in some way heartening, if he can find a premiership club, then good luck to him, ambition isn't a bad thing, but if he can't then maybe a deal could be worked out. Walton could come into contention, from most accounts he's played well for Leeds, Ipswich and Cardiff at CCC level, so why not for us? He'll be a year older and more mature and maybe needs to be given a trial with us before we make up our minds about his long term future. Reid hopefully will be back and fitter than this season, with his injury problems he only had a stop/start year and because of that I can't see a Premiership club taking the risk on him. Certainly playing on the left he can create and score a few goals.
Defensively, we have El K and Diawara, along with Gibbs, Thatcher at LB will do a job and there is Youga and Ashton behind him, that leaves Young, if we can get good money for him then fine, if not he stays. I'm sure we can find a RB from somewhere. Boughera has also played well at CCC level and is under contract, so we appear to have some good defensive players already on the books.
Goal keeper is the real problem, if Scott Carson does go back to Liverpool then we need an experienced keeper, Randolph has never played first team football for us, so is an unknown quantity and I'd be nervous about going into a full season with him as the number one keeper. Maybe there's an argument to be made for giving him a start in the last two games, one of which Carson will have to sit out anyway.
The good news is we have the coaching team in place - Pards, Parky and Kins, and they'll have had a good six months or so to look at the squad and work out who stays and who goes. The fight back starts here, we've been in this situation before, and no doubt will be again, that's part and parcel of supporting a club like Charlton.
Financially we'll be playing at a level where we are one of the big boys in the league, a luxury we'll never have in the EPL.
Thoughts anyone?
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Comments
Very difficult to be positive after yesterday's shambles, but there is no doubt we should be strong enough to compete for the top places. From what I have seen of that division this season it is not as strong as some would say. If Colchester can spend most of the season hoping for a playoff place, then we must have a very good chance.
A lot will depend on who we bring in especially on the golalkeeping side and,if Benty goes (which is not a definte situation - remember AJ stayed at Palarse for a while) who replaces him. We do need to get midfiled sorted but the return of Reid should help there.
Having said all that, I'm still hanging on to the miraculous escape for a few more days, and hoping that Wigan and Fulham will get stuffed in their last couple of games and we mange to get enough to survive!!!
C'mon you Reds
Darren (and as an aside, hopefully Marcus as well) Bent will go. Quite rightly so.
I fully expect (with the exception of maybe 3-4) to see a completely different side out there on the first day of the CCC season.
I beliueve he is an exceptional manager and givcn the chnace to build a squad in his mould, will give us a very interesting season next year regardless of division.
Good point about the new Danish winger (no doubt to replace the current one).
Would expect Young to go, but if we get decent money for him then fair enough as I don't think he's in the Kinsella mould of wanting to stick with us a year to see if we can come back up.
Think it is time to cut our losses with Lisbie, who I don't remember shining in his loan spells in the Championship.
And it will make it easier to give the likes of Arter and Wright the chance they were never going to get in the Premiership - maybe one of them will prove to be a gem?
The main thing is that we'll need to give it a real good go at bouncing back up first time round, as once we lose the parachute money and more players catch the eye of other teams, we might not get back up for a long time.
The transfer market will be very busy this summer for Charlton - both in and out.
This leaves Herrman, Bougy Thatcher and Sankofa as the defence. Someone told me we have defenders called Gibbs, Walton and Youga but I didn't believe him. Fortune is still a Charlton player but after being sent out on loan I don't know how he'd react to coming back.
Midfield. Romm can't alway motivate himself for the prem, he's got no chance in the championship. Thanks for 'Dennis in the last minute' and good luck with the rest of your career. ZZ has already said he's going. Thanks for Newcastle and good luck with the rest of your career.
Reid, Holland, Kish, Hughes, Faye, Thomas and Ambrose are all capable of perfoming well at prem level but may not have the enthusiasm for the championship. LLoyd Sam, like Lisbie, seems to be in the 'shows promise' group. Hopefully he'll be able to fulfil that promise with Charlton. I also hope our new Danish winger will prove worthy of his build up and pressure JT and Ambrose into performing more consistantly. Kish would shine at championship level, as the reports of his performances for Leeds have already shown.
Forwards. Big Bent is an enigma. he should be able to play at the top level but think he's distracted by lifestlye choices i.e the stories in the papers this week. Motivation will be his problem so I'd let him go. JFH sadly is a shadow of the player who scored 100+ premiership goals and the financial cost of keeping him would be too great so I'd let him go too. Baby Bent will, sadly, also move. Which leaves the promising Kevin Lisbie and the equally promising non league sensation as our main stike force. This will be our main problem and the area we should concentrate our building efforts.
I hope Kins has kept contact with his roots. There's plenty of talent in the Emerald Isle, look at Healy as an example, we shouldn't just look at player from the English leagues.
And I'm sure Pards isn't quite ready in his mind, to pick a team to play away at Barnsley on a wet Wednesday night.
I know we are all gutted after yesterday's last ditch collapse and can't see where, in the last 2 matches, we are going to get a win. We might not be winning but Wigan and Fulham are also both running in treacle, and West Ham must be really looking forward to their last 2 fixtures.
The reality is, as it stands, one flukey win is still all it takes to take us out of the bottom 3 - and the Lord knows we are owed a flukey win. Every relegation threatened team has a sh*t fixture for their last game - so who stays up is the team that keeps their nerve.
The year we sent the Palace down, going into the last game, West Brom were furthest adrift with the hardest fixture.
They needed a miracle and they got one.
The fat lady might be getting ready but she ain't singing yet. Not if Pards has got anything to do with it.
Nothing wrong with a bit of optimism eh? I mean look at the Whammers, they looked dead and buried, but they have got themselves a fair chance.
We may not do it, but it's a funny old game at times.....
Thanks Red_Pete and 3 blokes..... but the real world still says we can still do it IF.....although now it's looking a big If, I know. We may not do it, but we ain't dead yet.......and you're right, it is a funny old game at times........
In a fortnight we'll know if we are are looking up train timetables to Colchester - or 'Operation Stadium of Light' (okay wind-up) and Old Trafford. But meantime, we need 'God on our side', and let's see if Pards has still got it in him to get this team of losers to hang on to Premiership status.
I don't think Pards will leave given his West Ham experiences. He knew it would be tough when he came here and i reckon is prepared to try and get us back.