No, not by hounding our manager all season and stoning opposing coaches.
Without the cash injection that Sunderland had, i think our strategy for next season has already been done this year by Birmingham. Their big signing was McSheffrey, a proven goal scorer at that level, and the rest was taking on long-term loan signings from up and coming youngsters from top Premiership clubs.
By giving us Song and Carson this season, Arsenal and Liverpool proved they are quite comfortable in allowing their young talent to come to our club, and know they will be looked after well. With our budget likely to be tighter than most people imagine, will this be the route we will be taking ?
0
Comments
Not forgetting he signed cameron jerome from cardiff - another u21.
But he did also sign some experience in jahidi.
i think pardew will deffo go down that route - sign a decent striker and top upthe squad with loanees - i get the distinct feeling a certain west london clubs reserves will be tapped for sure
f blocker - ya silly sod lol
The ‘Birmingham’ approach is the way we need to go but with a few caveats:
Birmingham managed to move on quickly players they did not need or could not afford. I am not sure we have has as many shiftable assets. We have plenty of modest players on very good contracts that they may find impossible to match elsewhere. A wholesale clearing of the decks is needed and that involves a lot of work and a significant cost. But the scale is more likely to be that of Birmingham not the more fundamental (but not necessarily more costly) clear out at Sunderland.
I am sure we will use the loan system but the problem is that there will be a 20 other PL/CCC clubs competing for what might be a slightly smaller pool of players next season. If you look at PL loans to the CCC as many are unsuccessful as successful. So Scott Sinclair spent as much time on the bench as starting at Plymouth (although should be a better, stronger player next season and a reasonable target for us).
Strikers are our big need. With Bent D gone Pardew will in effect need to start from scratch. Marcus Bent’s days as a regular goalscorer were 5 years ago. Lisbie’s ability to survive at CAFC is a major achievement; his goal scoring never will be. Even if those two stay because there would be few takers we need to bring in two proven scorers with one able to reach 15-20 and the other 10-15. Harewood might be one. Others in short supply.
In truth, Curbs never managed to make the transition from the team that established itself in the PL and we witnessed a steady decline which then accelerated both under Curbs and in the first part of this season. Next season is a chance to rebuild and in particular to find a new core of players who have the ability and character to move the club forward again.
he broke a meta tarsel against the mancs on wed night dude! shame he looks a decent player!
Agree with that entirely. The problem is ni those situations you need to have a two-year strategy, and i'm really not sure if the fans, the manager and the board are going to have that patience.
I would like to see 1 or 2 signings that are made with the future in mind. These would be younger players who main contribution might be in 2008/9 and beyond but who can still play a part in a promotion push in 2007/8. A few recent fans might not get it but I think the vast majority of longer term fans will. Most will be patient if they can see the club moving forward in what they feel is a Charlton way.
Once the season is under way I think most of us are going to enjoy it, some of us more than the PL (for a season or two at least).The Championship has changed since we have been away. We will draw good crowds away from home, often as many if not more than at home. Doesn’t sound too bad to me especially if accompanied by a clear renewal across the playing squad.
On the other hand we are financially stable and have spent from Christmas onwards picking up roughly 1.5 points a game. Apart from being woeful up front (apart from Darren Bent of course) and wanting to see the back of certain players who lacked bottle or who are only there for the money I do not see a problem - after seeing Randolph today I can see we have sufficient quality and numbers in the back 5 and wait to see who stays and goes in midfield - ideally Song comes back for another year as it can't do him any harm and Kish, Holland, Ambrose (+ Thomas and Sam) will be able to do a job.
We just need to sort out 4 strikers from who we have and who we can sign? That's all !!!! But then people have mentioned West ham players and premier League loans so who knows?
I confess that I have not watched as much Championship footy as in previous years but the promotion of Sunderland and Birmingham doesn't leave much for us to worry about - unlike others I can see us recapturing the form and feeling of our Championship winning season.
I think one of the promoted clubs may go for Song. Birmingham for example who like loaning Arsenal players. You've also forgotten Reid, if he can get fit during pre-season, he will be one of the best players in our division next year.
It's a cliche, but we need a strong spine - at the moment we're looking at unproven keeper (Randolph), unsettled or unproven centre back partnership (Boogy plus who?), a willing but ageing centre mid (Holland) and new strikers. There's an awful lot of work to be done...
Don't underestimate the CCC. Contrary to the commonly held view the gap between teams in the top half of the CCC and the bottom few of the PL has decreased in terms of playing quality. When we were last there and doing well there were several weak teams and really only a handful of very tough games. If you look at the results you will see that apart from Sunderland in the second half of the season the leading clubs seem unable to establish long unboken runs of the sort we had in 2000. I'm not sure if the best teams are any better but it is certain that a lower mid table team will usally give a leading team a far more even match today than when we were last around.
At least half the teams in the CCC have relatively recently been in the PL and most still have the infrastructure and support to compete. The other thing to factor in is an acceleration in the refinancing of CCC clubs which will off set the advantage of the parachute payments.
We should still do very well IF there are good/bold decisions on departures and incoming transfers coupled with the right attitude amongst the players.
S.
Players are more likely to come to Charlton than Watford because we are the bigger club with a sell-out modern 27,000 stadium and a manager who was at the cup final only 12 months ago - the 6 months from July-December may have been a problem but let's not forget that we have spent 8 out of the last 10 years in the Premier league.
Finally, I wonder whether the board can source any extra cash from investors or increasing the overdraft just to ensure a return at the first attempt. They've offered us a £5M bribe through the season ticket offer to keep the ground full so I hope they can find whatever is needed, particularly in the January window when clubs with cash really push on.
Even our previous promotion seasons were the results of good runs late on or in the middle. We're likely to have a changed team, getting used to each other and the CCC. The worst thing the crowd can do is to have expectations of being top of the league after the first 5-10 games. In contention, by which I mean top 6-8, come Christmas, but with the momentum to push on, is my target.