If a significant percentage of Lookman fee was to be spent on strengthening the squad or football side of things then I would think it was great business and the club ought to be lauded. Why should a non Charlton fan just bankroll a club....would be fair enough to progress by selling and strengthening, selling and strengthening as 99% of clubs do and most normal owners. Disappointing seeing young talents leave always but that's the nature of the business and regardless if the likes of Richard Murray rejoiced at their takeover heralding the end to all that most pragmatically accept the reality for clubs like us.
The sale of Jenkinson gave parts of the funding for Powell to buy a league winning side and whilst money doesn't guarantee success selling your best players (or any players) and failing to replace them with players of the same standard or potential are unlikely to yield success even if you had the most experienced and gifted of managers in the game running the show.
Like a downtrodden naive fool I still cling to a glimmer of hope and optimism that the owner has a clue and that lessons have been learned and the masterplan and method to the madness will somehow kick in and move the club forwards...or at least to where we were in footballing terms when they arrived.
Unfortunately with each window, regular revolution of manager and failure to replace the quality going out the door the rose tinted glasses slip again to reveal the utterly turgid outlook this fruitcake has brought from a football perspective. It becomes clear that the experiment is still in full swing despite any soundbites and protestations to the contrary.
Yes he is keeping the club turning over week to week but we are going backwards as a football club. What is more integral to a football club and football fans than the football first and foremost.
We will probably have our pants pulled down by Millwall as per usual next saturday and play the remainder of the season out in truly boring style finishing mid table and the wally CEO geeing everyone up again in the summer with tales of more lessons being learnt and this season is the really the proper one when they will get their shit together.
Hope I am wrong and it works out and we show signs of progressing I really do but the past 3 years and to date have shown me nothing to the contrary.
And I also remind myself he is the wealthiest owner we have had in our history. He could transform our footballing fortunes or at least chances at the stroke of a pen if he chose to do so. He chooses not to which leads me to conclude he is playing a warped game....he doesnt even come to games and has no passion or interest in our club and just using it for his weird amusement until he gets bored. Freakshow
We've lost one of our main goalscorers but have Watt back. We could rely on Lookman being a goal threat. Not sure we can with Watt, as talented as he is.
Lost a left back that many fans didn't rate. Brought in a young replacement though he may be second choice to Chicksen.
Lost a back up right back but signed someone that should improve central midfield.
Signed a promising young player but he's only on loan and has no first team experience. Seems he's mainly player left back for the Chelsea youth sides but looks like he'll be used in midfield for us.
Doesn't look better to me although the window has only just opened. Still need a proper number 10 (vital for the way KR wants us to play) another winger (we lack options, CMs out wide isn't really an option in a five man midfield) and a right back (could get by with Solly and Konsa but it's not ideal).
At least Lookman and Fox have left early in the window. Makes a change for us, we usually sell them with a few days or even hours to go.
Notice the other players we've been linked with are all fairly young, Byrne, Potts, Carruthers (not an option anymore) and Reeves. RD has perhaps found an English manager they suits his ideas - someone happy to manage a young team made up of signings and academy players. The Swindon game showed that wasn't going to be Slade, he went for an experienced midfield when so many could see he needed to take a risk with one or two youngsters to give us more pace and energy.
We could be very good to watch if KR can pull it off. Yet he's working for the owner that goes trough 2/3 managers a season. Before anyone leaves we could do with 2/3 more signings. Since RD took over that's usually the number we still need when the window closes. I'm not convinced it'll be any different this time.
Let's face it Duchatelet will eat as much of the transfer money as he can and still leave Robinson with a squad that on paper looks potentially worth a tilt at the playoffs.
It's a shite league, and Robinson has done well before on no money.
But it's painful that an investment of say £2m now would stand a much improved chance of say £10m better off next season.
Let's hope I'm wrong by 31 January and we have significantly strengthened.
Halfway and not looking all bad, certainly a better place than where we were. We all new some would go, but if player wants to go there's not a lot you can do. At least they are bringing in new blood which is always a good thing and will give the team a lift, could still see a few more. Things certainly seem to be a little different to last season( in some ways). End of the season will prove if they got it right......play offs here we come.
The season will be over in another few months and another transfer window will open and the whole "we've made mistakes and moved on" nonsense will be repeated. We will sign more kids on loan alongside players unable to command a fee in the lower reaches of English football. I see no reason to be optimistic about the future of Charlton Athletic. Roland does have one thing in common with the genius that was Alan, neither of them ever supported or cared for our club.
My only hope is that Roland's liquidating his assets before selling up.
Let us pray this so but I have my doubts. Having read his interview it would appear that short of wrecking his office and threatening actual bodily harm he is not to be shifted. We just have to keep our fingers crossed for a late promotion push in the hope that he might sell if we get back into the Championship.
We've lost one of our main goalscorers but have Watt back. We could rely on Lookman being a goal threat. Not sure we can with Watt, as talented as he is.
Lost a left back that many fans didn't rate. Brought in a young replacement though he may be second choice to Chicksen.
Lost a back up right back but signed someone that should improve central midfield.
Signed a promising young player but he's only on loan and has no first team experience. Seems he's mainly player left back for the Chelsea youth sides but looks like he'll be used in midfield for us.
Doesn't look better to me although the window has only just opened. Still need a proper number 10 (vital for the way KR wants us to play) another winger (we lack options, CMs out wide isn't really an option in a five man midfield) and a right back (could get by with Solly and Konsa but it's not ideal).
At least Lookman and Fox have left early in the window. Makes a change for us, we usually sell them with a few days or even hours to go.
Notice the other players we've been linked with are all fairly young, Byrne, Potts, Carruthers (not an option anymore) and Reeves. RD has perhaps found an English manager they suits his ideas - someone happy to manage a young team made up of signings and academy players. The Swindon game showed that wasn't going to be Slade, he went for an experienced midfield when so many could see he needed to take a risk with one or two youngsters to give us more pace and energy.
We could be very good to watch if KR can pull it off. Yet he's working for the owner that goes trough 2/3 managers a season. Before anyone leaves we could do with 2/3 more signings. Since RD took over that's usually the number we still need when the window closes. I'm not convinced it'll be any different this time.
I've said it from the beginning, Robinson is a man who sees himself as a developer of talent, who considers the development of players under his stewardship as a personal achievement, possibly above that of the club's development. He's spoken more about Dele Alli''s career than he has about getting MK Dons promoted for example.
If things work out then we could well end up with a young attacking exciting side that goes hand in hand with the club's progression.
But I think, almost in complete opposite to Slade, we will often see a side packed with too many young players with too much responsibility handed to them.
Any success under KR will coincide with youth team players getting their chance and improving (which is what he stakes his reputation on) and unfortunately will also coincide with the fattening of calves before selling them (see Konsa playing at RB regardless of potentially better alternatives, and taking the gamble of starting Konsa and Aribo in CM when promotion is said to be the aim).
IMO Robinson is RD's dream manager, with both more concerned about personal gain from developing young players than anything else. KR's ego and reputation, and RD limiting his losses. As fans, we just have to hope that it goes hand in hand with success on the pitch.
Halfway and not looking all bad, certainly a better place than where we were. We all new some would go, but if player wants to go there's not a lot you can do. At least they are bringing in new blood which is always a good thing and will give the team a lift, could still see a few more. Things certainly seem to be a little different to last season( in some ways). End of the season will prove if they got it right......play offs here we come.
You was never gonna win with a post like this with all your lols already! But with you we still could make the playoffs
We hear the clunk of the spades as certain folk try to dig themselves out of a hole. CAFC fell into the hole. Who dug the hole? What now? Celebrate for trying to emerge from the hole? Problem solved? Get real. Organise. Oppose. Remove. Rejoice.
Halfway and not looking all bad, certainly a better place than where we were. We all new some would go, but if player wants to go there's not a lot you can do. At least they are bringing in new blood which is always a good thing and will give the team a lift, could still see a few more. Things certainly seem to be a little different to last season( in some ways). End of the season will prove if they got it right......play offs here we come.
I certainly wouldn't say it's a better place than where we were. Unless by 'where we were' you're referring to 9.30pm after the Millwall game.
However i'm not as doom and gloom as some on here and despite everything that's happened this season we are only 5 points off the play offs and are tough to beat (only 4 teams have lost fewer games).
We still need a minimum of 3 new signings (winger, number 10 and a right back) and if we can get those in, keep Holmes fit plus get Watt playing to a respectable level then there's not much in this shit division to suggest we can't at least make the play offs.
I'm not too despondent over the sales, Lookman was always going to go and Fox hasn't progressed and needed to go to get away from the boo boys for the sake of his career. KR has made some early moves in the transfer market and seems to be targeting young, pacy, hungry players which can only be a good thing for a side which at times this season has looked far too pedestrian to achieve anything. The emergence of Aribo and the moving of Konsa to midfield are also big positives. Let's see who else he can get in.
We have lost our only prolific goal scorer, have we replaced him?
Sorry but 1 goal in every 4 games isn't prolific in my book.
Prolific mabye isn't the right word but he's been playing in midfield and likely would have ended up with 10+ by the end of the season.
Dasilva, Botaka or Chicksen will probably do ok but I'm not sure any of them could have done that over a full season. We really need Holmes back and scoring.
In answer to the original question of "Do we think it's looking good?" My answer is "No".
Whilst the transfer window this January may be the best we've had for some time and KR may just be onto something (fingers crossed etc.) it's too early to make any inferences.
I'm still of the opinion that whoever the manager/head coach is or who the players are matters not one bit. It's who the owner and CEO are that counts.
When Duchatalet and Meire are gone, then it will have every chance of looking good - although it will take time to repair the damage that's been done.
My only hope is that Roland's liquidating his assets before selling up.
Let us pray this so but I have my doubts. Having read his interview it would appear that short of wrecking his office and threatening actual bodily harm he is not to be shifted. We just have to keep our fingers crossed for a late promotion push in the hope that he might sell if we get back into the Championship.
I don't think there's any chance of him selling if we get back to the Championship at the first attempt his little scheme will be working. Roland will have sold and got us out of league one,there would be more season ticket holders in the Championship and although the protests would continue the shine would've been taken off them. We could look forward though to roland spending £1 million trying to get us into the premier league. Roland's got a vision of us getting to the Premiership without spending f@ck all.
Football fans are so fickle and desperate for things to be right we clutch at any straws. What he's just done is cash in on his biggest assets and replace them with two players unable to cut it at their current clubs and who have limited experience between them ergo the squad's in a worse position but Duchatelet's bank balance is a lot healthier. This after recouping £5m on Cousins, Gudmundson, Pope etc in the Summer which has seen us struggle this season. We are now looking to establish as an average League One side. How does anyone think it's looking good? There will be no promotion or play-offs this season. They may hang on to Robinson pre-season if he doesn't speak out-of-turn and then I expect more tinkering and sail-trimming in the Summer as we start again with an average League One squad and they shape up to capitalise on Konsa and Aribo. It's the Player Farm model pure and simple. Even if we were threatening promotion come January, their priority would be to cash in if they have the opportunity. Duchatelet has learnt his lesson from the Championship in terms of costs. He isn't here for the long run so isn't interested in the Premier League. He is actively looking for a premium buyer now. We all need to get real.
the next two games will tell us a lot about the new manager and the team .. it's all very well rolling over a limited side like Bristol Rovers, Millwall and Scunthorpe are a different proposition .. I am an optimist and think that we are 'on the mend' .. we will see
In terms of this window, we went into it with clear gaps in our squad
So far we have disposed of players that are wanted at a higher level. We have replaced with players currently not seen as making it at a higher level.
This may be the stabilising move for them and for our benefit but time will tell with that. We don't currently look a stronger team than were were a few weeks ago, but it's still early in the window and the wrong time to judge.
Come February we will know whether we've properly used the huge windfall, otherwise we'll start being fed the 'building for next season' excuse
The evidence seems to be about player farming and player churning more than anything else. Under the umbrella of manager churn which removes any chance of a template being established that might at least make the farming and churning happen within some kind of structure. Is there any evidence of ambition, of team structuring, of a pattern or style being established? Roland signalled this player farming method in his first interview, reinforced by Katrien Miere in Dublin and proved by events. The churn is players like Watt, Vetokele, Sarr, Cebellos and others, and harvesting the farm is players like Poyet, THD, Harriott, Cousins, Gomez, Fox, Lookman and others. It seems pretty clear to me that results are almost accidental in the scheme of things, and the fans are supposed to be a passive quaint backdrop.
In terms of this window, we went into it with clear gaps in our squad
So far we have disposed of players that are wanted at a higher level. We have replaced with players currently not seen as making it at a higher level.
This may be the stabilising move for them and for our benefit but time will tell with that. We don't currently look a stronger team than were were a few weeks ago, but it's still early in the window and the wrong time to judge.
Come February we will know whether we've properly used the huge windfall, otherwise we'll start being fed the 'building for next season' excuse
We'll be "building for next season" in League One if they don't strengthen the side in this window. I fear that the emergence of Aribo & Chickeson will make them think "that's those positions sorted" but relying on such young, inexperienced players to perform week in week out at this stage of their career is a recipe for disaster (and not making at least the playoffs is a disaster).
Not sure about looking good; however definitely could have been looking better. Under Roly Stitchup eight of our academy players have gone to clubs with a higher league position. With the right signings we would have had a healthy squad that could compete in the Championship.I realise that in the real world some players do not want to stay; however, we don't try to hard to keep them either do we.
Halfway and not looking all bad, certainly a better place than where we were. We all new some would go, but if player wants to go there's not a lot you can do. At least they are bringing in new blood which is always a good thing and will give the team a lift, could still see a few more. Things certainly seem to be a little different to last season( in some ways). End of the season will prove if they got it right......play offs here we come.
If good is mid table in division 3, then yes, we are doing amazing
Comments
The sale of Jenkinson gave parts of the funding for Powell to buy a league winning side and whilst money doesn't guarantee success selling your best players (or any players) and failing to replace them with players of the same standard or potential are unlikely to yield success even if you had the most experienced and gifted of managers in the game running the show.
Like a downtrodden naive fool I still cling to a glimmer of hope and optimism that the owner has a clue and that lessons have been learned and the masterplan and method to the madness will somehow kick in and move the club forwards...or at least to where we were in footballing terms when they arrived.
Unfortunately with each window, regular revolution of manager and failure to replace the quality going out the door the rose tinted glasses slip again to reveal the utterly turgid outlook this fruitcake has brought from a football perspective. It becomes clear that the experiment is still in full swing despite any soundbites and protestations to the contrary.
Yes he is keeping the club turning over week to week but we are going backwards as a football club. What is more integral to a football club and football fans than the football first and foremost.
We will probably have our pants pulled down by Millwall as per usual next saturday and play the remainder of the season out in truly boring style finishing mid table and the wally CEO geeing everyone up again in the summer with tales of more lessons being learnt and this season is the really the proper one when they will get their shit together.
Hope I am wrong and it works out and we show signs of progressing I really do but the past 3 years and to date have shown me nothing to the contrary.
And I also remind myself he is the wealthiest owner we have had in our history. He could transform our footballing fortunes or at least chances at the stroke of a pen if he chose to do so. He chooses not to which leads me to conclude he is playing a warped game....he doesnt even come to games and has no passion or interest in our club and just using it for his weird amusement until he gets bored. Freakshow
It's a shite league, and Robinson has done well before on no money.
But it's painful that an investment of say £2m now would stand a much improved chance of say £10m better off next season.
Let's hope I'm wrong by 31 January and we have significantly strengthened.
Pure bollocks.
Wake up smell the coffee.
Nothing significant has been done in order to indicate
"We really want promotion"
It's a half assed attempt at best.
The sad thing is, the owner has the funds to make it happen but he won't.
Roland does have one thing in common with the genius that was Alan, neither of them ever supported or cared for our club.
If things work out then we could well end up with a young attacking exciting side that goes hand in hand with the club's progression.
But I think, almost in complete opposite to Slade, we will often see a side packed with too many young players with too much responsibility handed to them.
Any success under KR will coincide with youth team players getting their chance and improving (which is what he stakes his reputation on) and unfortunately will also coincide with the fattening of calves before selling them (see Konsa playing at RB regardless of potentially better alternatives, and taking the gamble of starting Konsa and Aribo in CM when promotion is said to be the aim).
IMO Robinson is RD's dream manager, with both more concerned about personal gain from developing young players than anything else. KR's ego and reputation, and RD limiting his losses. As fans, we just have to hope that it goes hand in hand with success on the pitch.
Organise. Oppose. Remove. Rejoice.
However i'm not as doom and gloom as some on here and despite everything that's happened this season we are only 5 points off the play offs and are tough to beat (only 4 teams have lost fewer games).
We still need a minimum of 3 new signings (winger, number 10 and a right back) and if we can get those in, keep Holmes fit plus get Watt playing to a respectable level then there's not much in this shit division to suggest we can't at least make the play offs.
I'm not too despondent over the sales, Lookman was always going to go and Fox hasn't progressed and needed to go to get away from the boo boys for the sake of his career. KR has made some early moves in the transfer market and seems to be targeting young, pacy, hungry players which can only be a good thing for a side which at times this season has looked far too pedestrian to achieve anything. The emergence of Aribo and the moving of Konsa to midfield are also big positives. Let's see who else he can get in.
Dasilva, Botaka or Chicksen will probably do ok but I'm not sure any of them could have done that over a full season. We really need Holmes back and scoring.
Whilst the transfer window this January may be the best we've had for some time and KR may just be onto something (fingers crossed etc.) it's too early to make any inferences.
I'm still of the opinion that whoever the manager/head coach is or who the players are matters not one bit. It's who the owner and CEO are that counts.
When Duchatalet and Meire are gone, then it will have every chance of looking good - although it will take time to repair the damage that's been done.
Roland will have sold and got us out of league one,there would be more season ticket holders in the Championship and although the protests would continue the shine would've been taken off them.
We could look forward though to roland spending £1 million trying to get us into the premier league.
Roland's got a vision of us getting to the Premiership without spending f@ck all.
So far we have disposed of players that are wanted at a higher level. We have replaced with players currently not seen as making it at a higher level.
This may be the stabilising move for them and for our benefit but time will tell with that. We don't currently look a stronger team than were were a few weeks ago, but it's still early in the window and the wrong time to judge.
Come February we will know whether we've properly used the huge windfall, otherwise we'll start being fed the 'building for next season' excuse
Under the umbrella of manager churn which removes any chance of a template being established that might at least make the farming and churning happen within some kind of structure.
Is there any evidence of ambition, of team structuring, of a pattern or style being established? Roland signalled this player farming method in his first interview, reinforced by Katrien Miere in Dublin and proved by events.
The churn is players like Watt, Vetokele, Sarr, Cebellos and others, and harvesting the farm is players like Poyet, THD, Harriott, Cousins, Gomez, Fox, Lookman and others.
It seems pretty clear to me that results are almost accidental in the scheme of things, and the fans are supposed to be a passive quaint backdrop.
Yeah, right!
Under Roly Stitchup eight of our academy players have gone to clubs with a higher league position. With the right signings we would have had a healthy squad that could compete in the Championship.I realise that in the real world some players do not want to stay; however, we don't try to hard to keep them either do we.