Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the; a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards c) Overall cap limit by £500k d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
Great post Grapevine... I'd also add another condition that needs changing as part of the Salary Cap
Doesnt matter your age... If you've come from that clubs Academy then you're exempt from the Cap regardless of age - Whether they add a rule stating that player had to play U18 minimum to stop clubs from taking the piss slightly then so be it
But its farking ridiculous we're losing Doughty because we have to be concsious of what we offer the lad
We've bloody well produced him, he's our player effectively, as shown by the stats that endlessly get produced, we're one of the biggest producers of Academy to First Team in the whole of the 92
Yet still at the end of the day, we cant keep our kid because he's got to a stage in his progression where his wage demands alone have grown beyond the club... Am sorry thats crazy, especially when you consider Dillon Phillips who has admitted he may well have stayed this season himself had it not been for the Salary Cap!! - If a Academy player feels their progression has out grown the level of the club in question and want to play at a higher level then fair enough, but we're at another stage where being in League One is forcing us to lose a player for peanuts when we dont even want to
Honestly the way Youth Academies are in this country now I'd almost say do away with the damn things
They're either filled with clubs who stockpile them (Yeah fair enough we've seem from some loans how the best kids playing together work what with Conor Gallagher) but combined with this Salary Cap what is the genuine point of having them
Might as well go down the US route and have kids in education teams which get picked up in a draft style system when they get to a certain age
Of course I'm being sarcastic here as the two school systems are very different (let alone the who infrastructure of the Sport itself) and it would be difficult to do
But might as well find a different way to how the Academies are done at the moment!!
We need a energetic box to box midfielder that will play for the manager and badge who can chip in with a goal here and there, shame we don't have one out on loan that we can recall that is definitely better than what we have on offer
Got to wonder what Bowyer thinks he is or will get from the current midfield that he won’t get from Lapslie. I make Bowyer right that the midfield did not work hard enough. Morgan was really poor and is going backwards in his development, Gilbey had his best game since injury but was still way below the standard we need, JFC I’ve defended many times in the past and he was at least trying but I’m getting tired of watching our midfield refuse the forward pass and choosing to turn back and sideways. Sure, the forward pass isn’t always on but we take the momentum and tempo out of our own attacks too often.
I’m not a massive fan of Lapslie, and I don’t necessarily believe he’s the answer long term, but if Bowyer wants a midfielder who will get around the pitch and make tackles, well we won’t find a player who works harder than Lapslie. Hard to understand why he’s the one who has been told he’s free to leave.
Got to wonder what Bowyer thinks he is or will get from the current midfield that he won’t get from Lapslie. I make Bowyer right that the midfield did not work hard enough. Morgan was really poor and is going backwards in his development, Gilbey had his best game since injury but was still way below the standard we need, JFC I’ve defended many times in the past and he was at least trying but I’m getting tired of watching our midfield refuse the forward pass and choosing to turn back and sideways. Sure, the forward pass isn’t always on but we take the momentum and tempo out of our own attacks too often.
I’m not a massive fan of Lapslie, and I don’t necessarily believe he’s the answer long term, but if Bowyer wants a midfielder who will get around the pitch and make tackles, well we won’t find a player who works harder than Lapslie. Hard to understand why he’s the one who has been told he’s free to leave.
Can’t get Shinnie back soon enough.
If that was Gilbeys best game since his injury, his other games must have been dreadful.
Great post Grapevine... I'd also add another condition that needs changing as part of the Salary Cap
Doesnt matter your age... If you've come from that clubs Academy then you're exempt from the Cap regardless of age - Whether they add a rule stating that player had to play U18 minimum to stop clubs from taking the piss slightly then so be it
But its farking ridiculous we're losing Doughty because we have to be concsious of what we offer the lad
We've bloody well produced him, he's our player effectively, as shown by the stats that endlessly get produced, we're one of the biggest producers of Academy to First Team in the whole of the 92
Yet still at the end of the day, we cant keep our kid because he's got to a stage in his progression where his wage demands alone have grown beyond the club... Am sorry thats crazy, especially when you consider Dillon Phillips who has admitted he may well have stayed this season himself had it not been for the Salary Cap!! - If a Academy player feels their progression has out grown the level of the club in question and want to play at a higher level then fair enough, but we're at another stage where being in League One is forcing us to lose a player for peanuts when we dont even want to
Great post. I don't usually agree with you (well not recently) but you have this spot on.
Got to wonder what Bowyer thinks he is or will get from the current midfield that he won’t get from Lapslie. I make Bowyer right that the midfield did not work hard enough. Morgan was really poor and is going backwards in his development, Gilbey had his best game since injury but was still way below the standard we need, JFC I’ve defended many times in the past and he was at least trying but I’m getting tired of watching our midfield refuse the forward pass and choosing to turn back and sideways. Sure, the forward pass isn’t always on but we take the momentum and tempo out of our own attacks too often.
I’m not a massive fan of Lapslie, and I don’t necessarily believe he’s the answer long term, but if Bowyer wants a midfielder who will get around the pitch and make tackles, well we won’t find a player who works harder than Lapslie. Hard to understand why he’s the one who has been told he’s free to leave.
Can’t get Shinnie back soon enough.
If that was Gilbeys best game since his injury, his other games must have been dreadful.
Think with playing two games in a lot of the coming weeks we could afford to take in a total of 6 incoming loanees. This will give us an extra body to help with the salary cap.
Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the; a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards c) Overall cap limit by £500k d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
Non of which , no matter how much you write about the past excuses LB saying he isn't interested in the injury of a player who is injured.
If a player said he wasn't interested we would ask for his head . The same applies to LB. It is a disgraceful thing to have done.
Player - I am not interested that I am carrying a couple of injuries - I want to play and give 100 % for Charlton
Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the; a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards c) Overall cap limit by £500k d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
A totally superb post that I'm personally totally aligned with.
A football club is a business ( I know we all see it differently) and like any other business it needs leadership, goals, strategy and a culture. None of this can be achieved overnight and often takes much, much longer than a year.
When I read the posts on here and Twitter I'm stunned that fans thought we'd walk this league with so many rushed signings and no pre-season just because we had TS. Utter madness or arrogance.
As for Bows - what you'll find is he talks like most fans and to me that's a breath of fresh air. I don't want to same old clichés trotted out I want his actual thoughts. Has Bow's said anything different to what we as fans say? No! so why chastise him for it. Bow's gave Maddison & Bogle a chance when nobody else did and how has they re-paid him?
Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the; a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards c) Overall cap limit by £500k d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
An excellent post and I'm not denying the incredibly challenging environment which Lee and Steve faced in having to yet again rebuild the squad BUT I would add as a contrary argument that we're not in the Championship against well run and funded clubs with great infrastructure any more
We're competing against teams, many with budgets a fraction of what we have, and facilities far worse than ours, teams really struggling financially having not played between March and September. With bugger all off field employees and executives.
Having to throw together a side quickly is a massive challenge, but it's concerning that we've gone backwards from where we were when the team first played together 3 months ago AND many players who were already at the club have gone backwards. You'd expect a team thrown together to improve as they got used to playing with other, but instead we've gone backwards. I see a rudderless team which doesn't know how to play, whereas the Accrington players know exactly what their roles are. We've only been playing 1 game a week due to postponements, so there's been plenty of time to coach the players.
It was Bowyer's choice to move on Lapslie and Oztumer, and to marginalise the likes of Williams and Maddison instead of making them key members of the side. Or indeed the likes of Purrington and Oshilaja, who've been behind players who don't play in their positions. And where are the academy players in the side, the likes of Barker, Wiredu, Mingi etc
Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the; a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards c) Overall cap limit by £500k d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
i;m sorry grapevine but we know all that and regardless of your fancy words about executive and clubhouse and all that, is LB capable of putting a team together out of the squad of players he has assembled? the answer is no and that has been the case for well over a year now - nothing to do with his post match rants or anything else - i have lost faith in his abilikty as a football manager and that hasn't happened just over the last 6 or 7 games and it isn't because i'm desperate for promotion.
Outstanding post Grapevine, thank you for adding some sanity in the abyss - you’ve articulated my thoughts far better than I could have. I’ve been disappointed in Charlton fans over the past 48 hours.
One thing I’ve always been proud of is the community and family atmosphere we’ve created, particularly since the Roland era. Having people like Lee Bowyer, Chris Powell, Johnnie Jackson, etc. involved with the club was always a point of pride. They may not be the most talented in their particular field, but they’re Charlton and they get it. It’s always been “us and against them” and it’s up to little old Charlton to defy the odds time and time again.
Since Sandgaard has come in, for better or worse that attitude has seemingly disappeared - that’s not his fault. It’s all about instant promotion and wanting free-flowing beautiful football yesterday. Forget all of the scars we’ve suffered in the past few years - constant churn of squads, poor facilities, poor infrastructure, no budget, no plan, the court battles, the media embarrassments, the final day relegation, the embargo, the 2 week period to sign a promotion winning squad and the bloody wage cap; Sandgaard’s here now so we should go up by proxy.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t be questioning Bowyer’s decisions or even wanting a new coaching staff, but use perspective. The players really aren’t that good, we’ve got a few good players but most of them aren’t up to scratch. These aren’t the players Bowyer and Gallen would have wanted in an ideal world, it was the best of a bad bunch. We’re about where we should be and any promotion should be classed as a miracle considering what the business has had to withstand.
If we get to the end of the season and we’re outside the top 6, I’d have no issue with Bowyer being let go. But for the time being, we’re at the start of January with the prospect of our injured players returning next month, new exciting players coming through the door and still only of 6 points off the automatic spots. Cheer up and have a beer
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Why did Bowyer chase Maddison then?
This is my only issue with Lee's comments. He hunted Maddison so knew what to expect, now he's surprised by what he was probably aware of. I can only guess he has usually had players improve under him and listen, Taylor's work rates, Aribos increase in work rates, Cullen naturally being an engine and so on and he doesn't know how to handle a player not listening without having a pop
It's the players responsibility though as well, if you have a boss who has told you clearly what he expects and you don't do it then you're taking the mick a bit
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Why did Bowyer chase Maddison then?
This is my only issue with Lee's comments. He hunted Maddison so knew what to expect, now he's surprised by what he was probably aware of. I can only guess he has usually had players improve under him and listen, Taylor's work rates, Aribos increase in work rates, Cullen naturally being an engine and so on and he doesn't know how to handle a player not listening without having a pop
It's the players responsibility though as well, if you have a boss who has told you clearly what he expects and you don't do it then you're taking the mick a bit
I'm surprised LB signed Maddison after last season's experience with McGeady. Both are talented players but don't do the hard graft which LB insists on , and they won't change. It was a sign of a LB team until McGeady turned up that the players would ' leave everything on the pitch ', that seems to have gone.
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Why did Bowyer chase Maddison then?
This is my only issue with Lee's comments. He hunted Maddison so knew what to expect, now he's surprised by what he was probably aware of. I can only guess he has usually had players improve under him and listen, Taylor's work rates, Aribos increase in work rates, Cullen naturally being an engine and so on and he doesn't know how to handle a player not listening without having a pop
It's the players responsibility though as well, if you have a boss who has told you clearly what he expects and you don't do it then you're taking the mick a bit
I'm surprised LB signed Maddison after last season's experience with McGeady. Both are talented players but don't do the hard graft which LB insists on , and they won't change. It was a sign of a LB team until McGeady turned up that the players would ' leave everything on the pitch ', that seems to have gone.
People keep saying this but it's untrue. LB has criticised Maddison for jumping out of a tackle. He's not criticised him for not doing the running, he's done the opposite, he's praised him for his tracking back on several occasions.
Totally agree with grapevine. We usually select players with the character to be part of the team, which has given us that team togetherness and determination to win. This season we recruited what was available, which to an extent was what others did not want. Maddison being a prime example. Sooner or later, having to change 90% of our squad each season was going to bite us in the bum.
Why did Bowyer chase Maddison then?
This is my only issue with Lee's comments. He hunted Maddison so knew what to expect, now he's surprised by what he was probably aware of. I can only guess he has usually had players improve under him and listen, Taylor's work rates, Aribos increase in work rates, Cullen naturally being an engine and so on and he doesn't know how to handle a player not listening without having a pop
It's the players responsibility though as well, if you have a boss who has told you clearly what he expects and you don't do it then you're taking the mick a bit
I'm surprised LB signed Maddison after last season's experience with McGeady. Both are talented players but don't do the hard graft which LB insists on , and they won't change. It was a sign of a LB team until McGeady turned up that the players would ' leave everything on the pitch ', that seems to have gone.
McGeady was completely unwanted by Parkinson
Parky gets sacked, and Lee Johnson brings him straight back. Indeed he scored yesterday
Comments
You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.
What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.
While I do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.
- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.
- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.
Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril.
In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.
- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.
- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.
- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences
- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.
- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.
63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.
If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.
In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.
Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.
If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation.
Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year
I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress
You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.
If we are able to add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.
We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.
I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.
We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.
The extension of the;
a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines
b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards
c) Overall cap limit by £500k
d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties
and e) the addition of an injured reserve
As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.
It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.
Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right. Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.
In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.
Doesnt matter your age... If you've come from that clubs Academy then you're exempt from the Cap regardless of age - Whether they add a rule stating that player had to play U18 minimum to stop clubs from taking the piss slightly then so be it
But its farking ridiculous we're losing Doughty because we have to be concsious of what we offer the lad
We've bloody well produced him, he's our player effectively, as shown by the stats that endlessly get produced, we're one of the biggest producers of Academy to First Team in the whole of the 92
Yet still at the end of the day, we cant keep our kid because he's got to a stage in his progression where his wage demands alone have grown beyond the club... Am sorry thats crazy, especially when you consider Dillon Phillips who has admitted he may well have stayed this season himself had it not been for the Salary Cap!! - If a Academy player feels their progression has out grown the level of the club in question and want to play at a higher level then fair enough, but we're at another stage where being in League One is forcing us to lose a player for peanuts when we dont even want to
They're either filled with clubs who stockpile them (Yeah fair enough we've seem from some loans how the best kids playing together work what with Conor Gallagher) but combined with this Salary Cap what is the genuine point of having them
Might as well go down the US route and have kids in education teams which get picked up in a draft style system when they get to a certain age
Of course I'm being sarcastic here as the two school systems are very different (let alone the who infrastructure of the Sport itself) and it would be difficult to do
But might as well find a different way to how the Academies are done at the moment!!
CL - we want your head
A football club is a business ( I know we all see it differently) and like any other business it needs leadership, goals, strategy and a culture. None of this can be achieved overnight and often takes much, much longer than a year.
When I read the posts on here and Twitter I'm stunned that fans thought we'd walk this league with so many rushed signings and no pre-season just because we had TS. Utter madness or arrogance.
As for Bows - what you'll find is he talks like most fans and to me that's a breath of fresh air. I don't want to same old clichés trotted out I want his actual thoughts. Has Bow's said anything different to what we as fans say? No! so why chastise him for it. Bow's gave Maddison & Bogle a chance when nobody else did and how has they re-paid him?
We're competing against teams, many with budgets a fraction of what we have, and facilities far worse than ours, teams really struggling financially having not played between March and September. With bugger all off field employees and executives.
Having to throw together a side quickly is a massive challenge, but it's concerning that we've gone backwards from where we were when the team first played together 3 months ago AND many players who were already at the club have gone backwards. You'd expect a team thrown together to improve as they got used to playing with other, but instead we've gone backwards. I see a rudderless team which doesn't know how to play, whereas the Accrington players know exactly what their roles are. We've only been playing 1 game a week due to postponements, so there's been plenty of time to coach the players.
It was Bowyer's choice to move on Lapslie and Oztumer, and to marginalise the likes of Williams and Maddison instead of making them key members of the side. Or indeed the likes of Purrington and Oshilaja, who've been behind players who don't play in their positions. And where are the academy players in the side, the likes of Barker, Wiredu, Mingi etc
Stop it !!!!
It's the players responsibility though as well, if you have a boss who has told you clearly what he expects and you don't do it then you're taking the mick a bit
Edit: Yeah I still am - Was worried I'd have to try and get blocked a second time
Parky gets sacked, and Lee Johnson brings him straight back. Indeed he scored yesterday