We really are on a shoe-string budget. I do hope the wages freed up from Crofts and Novak allow us to sign someone like Lambert on a free as real competition for Mag.
I'm pissing myself laughing. I assume all week they have been training with the plan of Novak playing up front, but on Saturday at 3 o'clock it will be "Ricky, meet Mr Dodoo - please can you pass to him when you get the chance".
We are playing a team who have lost all 4 league games & sit rock bottom of the table - We should be going at then all guns blazing, trying to get a goal up early on & demoralise them further - yet we are going into the game with no striker with any League experience.
Charlton Athletic transfer deadline day 2016-17 repeated tonight at 11.00pm on UKGold.
Watching it again now, all very sad
Why sad. Best window for years. Not perfect, and it won't be with these owners, but I for one am looking forward to Oldham.
If the train is on time.
Yup. I'm guessing I'll miss ten mins :-(
There's clearly a move to balance the books. A huge clear out of high earners, and those coming in have cost peanuts. Karl has stuck some plasters on the wooden leg and, imho, has done a great job. Had he signed duds, there'd be rioting down Charlton Church Lane. But the lack of investment in a striker or two at the death has emphasised that financial prudence is all.
This is surely because;
either
a) RD is setting the club up for sale, because his Network experiments have failed. Owning Charlton is no longer interesting to him.
or
b) his experiment continues. Running a club on the cheap, within the rules of FFP, something he is a believer in.
I know which one I'd prefer.
I couldn't agree more - I think the whole close-season looked like he was trying to make the club sustainable on a day-to-day basis. So with Watt, Tex, Ceballos etc. gone, the liabilities against the club are smaller and the club will be more attractive to a potential buyer. I really think we are looking at him selling Charlton in the near-to-medium future.
So our only senior CM back up is a 35 year old player-coach who will have to play at LB anyway, and we have no senior striker back up. Absolute lunacy.
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
A word on Dodoo, Forest wanted him according to the Nottingham post, Warburton obviously thinks highly of him if he fancied him in the championship, suggests he could do a job at our level.
So our only senior CM back up is a 35 year old player-coach who will have to play at LB anyway, and we have no senior striker back up. Absolute lunacy.
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
Crikey it does look like they were attempting to free up some wages for another decent striker but failed to land the one they wanted.
Crofts will almost certainly have been paid off.
Maybe the player wanted to be released because he could get first team football elsewhere, and thus was happy to sacrifice the rest of his contract? I can imagine Crofts being the sort who in his final years wants to play regularly, maybe he'll go back to Gillingham where he started?
Last year we had Kevin Foley, Jackson Crofts and Ajose starting surrounded by kids, I would say the present side is a vast improvement ... only player I would put in today's team would be Lookman
Also surrounded by Pearce, Holmes and Magennis, all signed under Slade, to be fair. Presumably you would keep them, as well as Solly and possibly Rudd. And Konsa? And Bauer was here, although injured.
See Konsa was sold before the window closed in which you did forecast.
So our only senior CM back up is a 35 year old player-coach who will have to play at LB anyway, and we have no senior striker back up. Absolute lunacy.
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
You forget the cancelled contracts for network clubs ploy.
So our only senior CM back up is a 35 year old player-coach who will have to play at LB anyway, and we have no senior striker back up. Absolute lunacy.
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
On the other hand if Kashi or JFC was absent, and KR had chosen Crofts to play there instead of Aribo, Konsa or even Djiksteel, he would have been slaughtered here
So our only senior CM back up is a 35 year old player-coach who will have to play at LB anyway, and we have no senior striker back up. Absolute lunacy.
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
Konsa is decent there.
If you want a big lump up top Nabby is 6'5"
I disagree re Konsa - I've not seen one decent game at CM from him.
I don't want to see Nabby Sarr - our 4th/5th choice CB - up front unless it's chasing a 90th minute goal. He's not a replacement for Magennis should he miss 5-10 games through injury. Worse still is that Robinson describes Dodoo as someone who can change our style - a different option to Magennis. If Magennis gets injured we now have to change our preferred style of play as we have no one else who can play that role.
The squad is woefully short in two key areas - par for the course under RD and KM.
Last year we had Kevin Foley, Jackson Crofts and Ajose starting surrounded by kids, I would say the present side is a vast improvement ... only player I would put in today's team would be Lookman
Also surrounded by Pearce, Holmes and Magennis, all signed under Slade, to be fair. Presumably you would keep them, as well as Solly and possibly Rudd. And Konsa? And Bauer was here, although injured.
See Konsa was sold before the window closed in which you did forecast.
Yes, because both Robinson (privately) and Bowyer (publicly) expected it to happen and planned on that basis.
Last year we had Kevin Foley, Jackson Crofts and Ajose starting surrounded by kids, I would say the present side is a vast improvement ... only player I would put in today's team would be Lookman
Also surrounded by Pearce, Holmes and Magennis, all signed under Slade, to be fair. Presumably you would keep them, as well as Solly and possibly Rudd. And Konsa? And Bauer was here, although injured.
See Konsa was sold before the window closed in which you did forecast.
Yes, because both Robinson (privately) and Bowyer (publicly) expected it to happen and planned on that basis.
IF we had sold Konsa in July say, and used the money to buy Grigg or similar, would that have been better for our promotion chances?
The thing that concerns me the the most is that we've recently seen such a huge shift in experience vs youth:
Many of the players we've seen leave in recent months (Rudd, Ajose, Johnson, Chicksen, Tex, Watt, Novak, Crofts etc) have all racked up many appearances at this level and above, but have been shipped out and their places in the squad replaced by the likes of Dodoo, Fosu, Aribo, Djiksteel & Hackett-Fairchild.
Not denying we should have kept Johnson, Tex etc and that some of our incomings are of a great standard for this level (Marshall, Reeves...), but can't help but feel the overall mix of youth/experience has shifted hugely, and for League One I don't believe that's a good thing. It then seems very strange to let the likes of Hanlan/Umerah go out on loan whilst we're bringing in equally as inexperienced loans to cover this? Bonkers.
Couple this with the complete lack of depth (heaven forbid Magennis, who is injury prone, gets crocked this weekend) and letting Novak go for free to a rival team, has brought us all back to earth with a bump, reminding us that as hard as Robinson tries, ultimately Roland & Meire still don't have a clue.
Last year we had Kevin Foley, Jackson Crofts and Ajose starting surrounded by kids, I would say the present side is a vast improvement ... only player I would put in today's team would be Lookman
Also surrounded by Pearce, Holmes and Magennis, all signed under Slade, to be fair. Presumably you would keep them, as well as Solly and possibly Rudd. And Konsa? And Bauer was here, although injured.
See Konsa was sold before the window closed in which you did forecast.
Yes, because both Robinson (privately) and Bowyer (publicly) expected it to happen and planned on that basis.
IF we had sold Konsa in July say, and used the money to buy Grigg or similar, would that have been better for our promotion chances?
The money received is always earmarked to cover operating losses, so I am not sure if it would have made any difference. I do wonder if Robinson kept him out of the L1 team so that he couldn't make too good an impression in the run-up to the deadline. If so that was a good plan, IMO. The regime were clearly willing to resist £3.5m for now, but whether that is because they think they can get more in January or to assist the team is a matter of debate.
The thing that concerns me the the most is that we've recently seen such a huge shift in experience vs youth:
Many of the players we've seen leave in recent months (Rudd, Ajose, Johnson, Chicksen, Tex, Watt, Novak, Crofts etc) have all racked up many appearances at this level and above, but have been shipped out and their places in the squad replaced by the likes of Dodoo, Fosu, Aribo, Djiksteel & Hackett-Fairchild.
Not denying we should have kept Johnson, Tex etc and that some of our incomings are of a great standard for this level (Marshall, Reeves...), but can't help but feel the overall mix of youth/experience has shifted hugely, and for League One I don't believe that's a good thing. It then seems very strange to let the likes of Hanlan/Umerah go out on loan whilst we're bringing in equally as inexperienced loans to cover this? Bonkers.
Couple this with the complete lack of depth (heaven forbid Magennis, who is injury prone, gets crocked this weekend) and letting Novak go for free to a rival team, has brought us all back to earth with a bump, reminding us that as hard as Robinson tries, ultimately Roland & Meire still don't have a clue.
Reeves, Clarke and Marshall are experienced though. Amos is similar to Rudd
Of course I would have liked an experienced and proven Goalscorer to come in. We are very thin if Big Mag gets an injury for any length of time. It's quite frankly bad planning and has seriously jeopardised a promotion challange ........but I'm not quite as despondent as some.
Clarke with Reeves behind will be very hard for a lot of teams in league one to handle. Completely different to what they normally face week in week out. Where it falls over is if we are forced to play it game after game. It will need the midfield to win a lot of ball because sure as hell it won't stick up front. Dodoo is supposed to have pace and could be good to come off the bench. Reeco and KAG aren't going to change games.
Duchatelet has proved yet again that he knows eff all about football. He's saved a lot of wages this summer and his failure to invest in a striker of proven pedigree might well cost us and him. False economy Roland. Sell in January or sooner please.
Comments
To put this into perspective our most experienced CM in reserve is Aribo with less than 20 first team appearances (including subs). Our most senior back up striker has 25 senior appearances including subs.
I suspect we will be shopping in the free transfers bin for a couple of extra signings as there's no way we don't get injuries in those positions. Anyone know the list of freebies out there?
And I'll never forget old Crofty and his glorious pass for Ben Reeves debut goal v. Crawley.
And his 'waaaaaay' on @CharltonLive.
We hear the same bollox they have learnt --- judge them on this season / window blah blah
how many times have we gone into seasons --part of seasons with a tiny squad or glaringly short in key areas ---but "they have learnt"
it was Pearce who said we needed to strengthen up front when Watt left---Novac and Hanlon go and we bring one in !!
we were NEVER in for Grigg as their manager had said we didnt bid----but when u spend cart loads on a PR company spin and false info is what u get
anyone who stills believes that RD and the poodles have the good interests of this club at heart is deluded
If you want a big lump up top Nabby is 6'5"
I don't want to see Nabby Sarr - our 4th/5th choice CB - up front unless it's chasing a 90th minute goal. He's not a replacement for Magennis should he miss 5-10 games through injury. Worse still is that Robinson describes Dodoo as someone who can change our style - a different option to Magennis. If Magennis gets injured we now have to change our preferred style of play as we have no one else who can play that role.
The squad is woefully short in two key areas - par for the course under RD and KM.
Many of the players we've seen leave in recent months (Rudd, Ajose, Johnson, Chicksen, Tex, Watt, Novak, Crofts etc) have all racked up many appearances at this level and above, but have been shipped out and their places in the squad replaced by the likes of Dodoo, Fosu, Aribo, Djiksteel & Hackett-Fairchild.
Not denying we should have kept Johnson, Tex etc and that some of our incomings are of a great standard for this level (Marshall, Reeves...), but can't help but feel the overall mix of youth/experience has shifted hugely, and for League One I don't believe that's a good thing. It then seems very strange to let the likes of Hanlan/Umerah go out on loan whilst we're bringing in equally as inexperienced loans to cover this? Bonkers.
Couple this with the complete lack of depth (heaven forbid Magennis, who is injury prone, gets crocked this weekend) and letting Novak go for free to a rival team, has brought us all back to earth with a bump, reminding us that as hard as Robinson tries, ultimately Roland & Meire still don't have a clue.
Clarke with Reeves behind will be very hard for a lot of teams in league one to handle. Completely different to what they normally face week in week out. Where it falls over is if we are forced to play it game after game. It will need the midfield to win a lot of ball because sure as hell it won't stick up front. Dodoo is supposed to have pace and could be good to come off the bench. Reeco and KAG aren't going to change games.
Duchatelet has proved yet again that he knows eff all about football. He's saved a lot of wages this summer and his failure to invest in a striker of proven pedigree might well cost us and him. False economy Roland. Sell in January or sooner please.