Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
I totally take your point, but I'd rather have him available as an experienced back-up (along with a new signing) than have two as-yet-unknown players as back up to Josh. Most likely, the players we get in will be last-minute loans. I've always felt with Novak that if he had got his confidence back, he could've been decent for us.
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
A northener so most likely to stay up north and they often don't seem to settle at Charlton (Lee Novak).
Said all summer I'd clear out the entire strike force and only keep Magennis, Hanlan and Umerah.
That said we no doubt need a replacement for Novak good enough to challenge Magennis for his place in the team.
It'll be difficult to find another Magennis though, we did well to sign him about this time last year, how often do those type of bargains come round?
Not sure we need 2 strikers 1 will be hard enough to get while Clarke can play there too. Hadn't seen Hackett-Fairchild before but he looks a good prospect too.
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Rumour has it that KM has been watching this player for sometime and we expect to sign Geoff Hurst from World Cup winners West Ham very soon.
If Robinson has known for a while about Novak being homesick then you'd think they would at least have been talking seriously to one or two strikers. Hopefully Taylor will be allowed out on loan now they've signed the Fulham lad but we'd still need another big bloke if Novak goes.
If Robinson has known for a while about Novak being homesick then you'd think they would at least have been talking seriously to one or two strikers. Hopefully Taylor will be allowed out on loan now they've signed the Fulham lad but we'd still need another big bloke if Novak goes.
Novak did not know he was home sick until he heard we were after a striker 'better than we have got already'.
If Robinson has known for a while about Novak being homesick then you'd think they would at least have been talking seriously to one or two strikers. Hopefully Taylor will be allowed out on loan now they've signed the Fulham lad but we'd still need another big bloke if Novak goes.
Especially with Josh wanting a new contract or threating to leave, then potentially we could have had no recognised forwards!
Katrien wanted Watt out. "Why should we keep giving him chances when he hasn't showed up for two years - the problem is nobody wants to buy him"
Safe to say when we said "we had plenty of interest in him but the offer had to be right for us" it meant we wanted to sell him not loan him again.
Ajose is, was and will continue to be shit. Vetojele is currently and constantly is injured.
Yes we are light on strikers but we are no weaker than we've been for ages.
And why has Vetoleke struggled with injuries? It's because this regime's medical stuff rushed him back onto the field when he wasn't ready. They ruined a decent Championship forward.
Ajose might be 'shit', but who signed him? Not Slade. Katrien? Katrien's scout?
Who employs these people? Roland.
Apologist to the extreme. So ridiculous that it's laughable.
Did I say I'm happy with it? NO so drop this apologist bullshit.
igor has had 2 years to get fit and hasn't managed it. He pulled his groin didn't he? There's clearly some other underlying issue(s) that may or may not have been exacerbated by us but wasn't our medical team the same as before RD's arrival? (Genuine question)
It's irrelevant who signed Ajose - he's never been right for us (I said it I'm the first time I saw him in a pre season against Bromley). He was however widely lauded as a great signing for us at the time so the club did what it thought was right and not many disagreed.
Since these signings we have started to do things differently so there is evidence of progress but this striker situation is hugely shit - that we all agree on. We've done what we always do and left it to the last minute and will end up paying over the odds or being light up top and this isn't good enough if we have genuine promotion ambitions - which I believe we have. Still time to go but not signing anyone will undo much of the good work done so far. And it has been good so far.
Good points raised here. I'm deeply sceptical of the conspiracy theory that Vetokele was ruined by our medical staff, as many folk believe. I watched him closely in plenty of games and after the brief initial flourish (a brace at Brighton, wasn't it?) he lacked an application of some of the basic skills, let alone a willingness to hunt for the ball. A simple pass to him all alone in the box at home against Millwall that skidded under his boot and out of play springs immediately to mind. There were many other howlers. He went to Belgium and didn't score in the first 20 games. At some stage you just have to accept he isn't much of a player.
And I agree about Ajose. My mate and I watched him play 45 minutes in the pre-season friendly at Welling, and despite him scoring a hat-trick of tap-ins from two yards, we were both convinced he was far too lightweight to make an impression in the League with us. How he scored 25 goals in a season at Swindon is a mystery; perhaps they had wingers and midfielders who supplied him with laser-like passes directly to his feet. We all know we haven't got the players capable of consistently delivering that quality of service.
Novak played for 45 minutes in that Welling game, too - and it was patently obvious that his lumpen physique and slow wits weren't nearly good enough. My mate predicted he would be dropped from the first team by October. He was on the bench by September.
Katrien wanted Watt out. "Why should we keep giving him chances when he hasn't showed up for two years - the problem is nobody wants to buy him"
Safe to say when we said "we had plenty of interest in him but the offer had to be right for us" it meant we wanted to sell him not loan him again.
Ajose is, was and will continue to be shit. Vetojele is currently and constantly is injured.
Yes we are light on strikers but we are no weaker than we've been for ages.
And why has Vetoleke struggled with injuries? It's because this regime's medical stuff rushed him back onto the field when he wasn't ready. They ruined a decent Championship forward.
Ajose might be 'shit', but who signed him? Not Slade. Katrien? Katrien's scout?
Who employs these people? Roland.
Apologist to the extreme. So ridiculous that it's laughable.
Did I say I'm happy with it? NO so drop this apologist bullshit.
igor has had 2 years to get fit and hasn't managed it. He pulled his groin didn't he? There's clearly some other underlying issue(s) that may or may not have been exacerbated by us but wasn't our medical team the same as before RD's arrival? (Genuine question)
It's irrelevant who signed Ajose - he's never been right for us (I said it I'm the first time I saw him in a pre season against Bromley). He was however widely lauded as a great signing for us at the time so the club did what it thought was right and not many disagreed.
Since these signings we have started to do things differently so there is evidence of progress but this striker situation is hugely shit - that we all agree on. We've done what we always do and left it to the last minute and will end up paying over the odds or being light up top and this isn't good enough if we have genuine promotion ambitions - which I believe we have. Still time to go but not signing anyone will undo much of the good work done so far. And it has been good so far.
Good points raised here. I'm deeply sceptical of the conspiracy theory that Vetokele was ruined by our medical staff, as many folk believe. I watched him closely in plenty of games and after the brief initial flourish (a brace at Brighton, wasn't it?) he lacked an application of some of the basic skills, let alone a willingness to hunt for the ball. A simple pass to him all alone in the box at home against Millwall that skidded under his boot and out of play springs immediately to mind. There were many other howlers.
And I agree about Ajose. My mate and I watched him play 45 minutes in the pre-season friendly at Welling, and despite him scoring a hat-trick of tap-ins from two yards, we were both convinced he was far too lightweight to make an impression in the League with us. How he scored 25 goals in a season at Swindon is a mystery; perhaps they had wingers and midfielders who supplied him with laser-like passes directly to his feet. We all know we haven't got the players capable of consistently delivering that quality of service.
Novak played for 45 minutes in that Welling game, too - and it was patently obvious that his lumpen physique and slow wits weren't nearly good enough. My mate predicted he would be dropped from the first team by October. He was on the bench by September.
Agree re. Novak and Ajose but Vetokele was a baller before his injury, don't think our medical staff ruined him though, just think the injury ruined him
You say it's irrelevant who signed Ajose? Sorry you are wrong. A player was signed without consultation with a new head coach. 800k on a player who did not fit into both Slade's and Robinson systems and this is still having an impact on Robinson as he can't spend that money on getting the forward he wants. Whose fault? Meire is to blame as she is CEO who made the decision to buy him on the recommendation of Steve Head ( Where is he now....Oh yeah another Meire apppointment).
It's not irrelevant who signs players that is the point and why mistakes are made with so many players under this regime that is still impacting on the club 3 years on
Ajose was available at the time so they got him based upon stats presumably. Yes - risky. But we as fans were largely excited at the time
If we hadn't fans would criticise saying " another one we missed out on"
Steve Head had held many prestigious jobs so the club hired him (again fans were positive) and listened to him ( no point hiring him and ignoring him) - it didn't work out for either. It still impacts us. These things happen in football. The knock-on is we need at least one striker now. I expect there's a bit of mind games from KR and he has a little more to spend but clubs know we are desperate so are bumping up the prices. Again this would have been averted had we sorted our shit out earlier. As ever.
Who made the decision to hire Steve Head before getting a head coach then getting rid of him months later?
Ajose is also on big wages. Only one person to blame for that.
You really are an angry birdie!
In every other club in the land, strikers will be on the most wages. When we signed him, Ajose had just had his best ever season and scored a hatful of goals. You can be sure he didn't come to us because we are the mighty Charlton, he came because we offered him more money than he was on at Swindon, that's all players are interested in these days.
Most fans were excited when we signed him thinking we had signed a striker to score plenty of goals for us, did anyone care how much we had to pay to get him, no of course not!
Still don't let that get in the way of you blaming the management will you.
Like I keep saying, Ajose was shite before Swindon and shite since, and now can't even get into Bury's team!
Apologists out in force today. Is there any other League One club that would pay him over £5k a week? And if he was 'shite before Swindon' then you've got to question the extent of our scouting and salary offered haven't you?
Just because I question Katrien Meire rather than believe everything she says, doesn't make me an 'angry birdie'.
Just as well there are a few 'apologists' to give a balanced view on here!
I'd be pretty certain that there are a number of clubs in this division paying over £5k for their strikers.
We took a chance with Ajose, hoping he would score goals for us, it has failed miserably, that's football I'm afraid! I certainly wasn't a fan that was overly excited by his signing, but plenty were!
You weren't questioning KM, you were blaming her!
Yeah, you're right, I do blame her. She's the CEO. If we've got players who aren't good enough on long-term contracts and big money that the club admit aren't good enough and they now can't afford, who else would you blame?
Had Ajose turned out to be the best thing since sliced bread and was scoring for fun, would you have turned around and said well done to KM for signing him, I doubt it!
We are all living in hope that we can at least sign another striker and keeper before the end of the window, but we have done some good business so far, Reeves, Marshall, Clark, Fosu, kept Holmes and Pearce with improved contracts. I'm sure KM has played her part in making this happen, but no one is going to congratulate her are they!
Ffs have a day off.
You caused a massive row on Wednesday.
Eh! massive row, must have missed that then!
Thought this was a forum for all views not just the blinkered
If Robinson has known for a while about Novak being homesick then you'd think they would at least have been talking seriously to one or two strikers. Hopefully Taylor will be allowed out on loan now they've signed the Fulham lad but we'd still need another big bloke if Novak goes.
Especially with Josh wanting a new contract or threating to leave, then potentially we could have had no recognised forwards!
irrelevant now he has signed a new one
I hope we get rid of Novak and Lennon and use money on a striker. I know we may only have 2 with a load of youngsters behind them, but getting better than Novak to compete with Magennis is paramount.
Rumour reported in the SLP that Novak wants to leave CAFC before the end of the transfer window.
Worrying if true!
Good. He's been stealing £6k a week from us over the last year. Worst senior player at the club. Let him go, bring in a quality striker to rival Magennis and have KAG and Hanlan as our back up players.
Quite. 2 goals in 35 games.
Mainly as sub? How many of those did he start?
16 starts and 17 as a sub.
So even 2 goals in 16 games isn't great. Mind you most of those games were under Mr Negative (Slade), so perhaps he deserves his chance playing up front with our improved midfield. Could be the making of him (or Magennis if he ever gets going properly).
Well, here is a possibility, but a bit of a flyer...
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Rumour has it that KM has been watching this player for sometime and we expect to sign Geoff Hurst from World Cup winners West Ham very soon.
Edited : next Wednesday this may happen!
lol And 18 year old may not be exactly what we need. But as back up, I guess beggars can't be etc etc
I don't know if it's been mentioned but Novak is the only first team player to have last years face shot picture on the website. To me that suggests he's not been around as he's not injured.
Harry Lennon doesn't have a new squad picture but he's got a long term injury. Even the U23s have updated swuad pictures.
Comments
George Hirst.
Only 18 years old but has already scored 12 in 22 games for the English national youth team. Stands 1.91m tall and has a reputation as one of the best young talents in England.
Sheffield Wed are open to a L1 club getting him on loan. They said as much yesterday. Wednesday just turned down a million pound offer from Leicester for a transfer and would rather loan him out.
Said all summer I'd clear out the entire strike force and only keep Magennis, Hanlan and Umerah.
That said we no doubt need a replacement for Novak good enough to challenge Magennis for his place in the team.
It'll be difficult to find another Magennis though, we did well to sign him about this time last year, how often do those type of bargains come round?
Not sure we need 2 strikers 1 will be hard enough to get while Clarke can play there too. Hadn't seen Hackett-Fairchild before but he looks a good prospect too.
We need strikers.
Whatever happened to Gary Goals?
Edited : next Wednesday this may happen!
And I agree about Ajose. My mate and I watched him play 45 minutes in the pre-season friendly at Welling, and despite him scoring a hat-trick of tap-ins from two yards, we were both convinced he was far too lightweight to make an impression in the League with us. How he scored 25 goals in a season at Swindon is a mystery; perhaps they had wingers and midfielders who supplied him with laser-like passes directly to his feet. We all know we haven't got the players capable of consistently delivering that quality of service.
Novak played for 45 minutes in that Welling game, too - and it was patently obvious that his lumpen physique and slow wits weren't nearly good enough. My mate predicted he would be dropped from the first team by October. He was on the bench by September.
Thought this was a forum for all views not just the blinkered
I hope we get rid of Novak and Lennon and use money on a striker. I know we may only have 2 with a load of youngsters behind them, but getting better than Novak to compete with Magennis is paramount.
And 18 year old may not be exactly what we need. But as back up, I guess beggars can't be etc etc
Harry Lennon doesn't have a new squad picture but he's got a long term injury. Even the U23s have updated swuad pictures.