The lack of transfer activity is frustrating but what planet are people on? Transfer embargo talk, relegation, etc.
Let’s look at the squad gaps. We really need 2 wingers, a striker, a left back and an attacking mid. That’s 5 new signings. If the Kirk rumours are true then we need 4. Gilbey and purrington will be back in the squad soon, although I don’t think Schwartz can be counted as he seems to be persona non grata currently. We could also do with another keeper and maybe another centre back, although personally I would love to see deji blooded this season so don’t see that as essential. Over and above that I don’t think it’s unreasonable to utilise Henry, Vennings, Ghandour etc as long as it’s only as subs/occasional games.
Most importantly TS and Adkins both know this. So does Gallen and so does Roddy. All these conspiracy theories and criticism of Gallen for being at QPR is ridiculous. There is a difference between being frugal and sensible. I don’t think TS is tight and I admire the fact he won’t pay over the odds to agents. There are masses of decent players still looking for clubs and it’s a waiting game, as frustrating as that is for all of us. As many have said, let’s judge properly at the close of the transfer window. I might be wrong but I’m very positive we will have a strong team and squad.
Sandgaard has now flown home, find it even stranger that he’s been here about 3 weeks and we haven’t signed anyone as we know he loves the limelight and being involved, really hoping we can get one or two over the line before Saturday because the atmosphere could turn a bit if it’s a bad performance.
Other business interests to attend to perhaps. Whilst Sandgaard is not exempt from criticism I find it staggering that so early into his reign he is copping flak. The years of neglect and mess created are not going to be cleaned up in five minutes.
Although he didn’t do himself any favours with his early comments.
Anyone who doesn’t see that he saved us is clearly moronic but that doesn’t mean we should be content with the squad we have either.
"We shouldn't be content with the squad we have either"
What do we have the right to expect? You (and the majority here) seem to think we have the right to expect better than a top 6 worthy squad, because we are Charlton. Why does Charlton have that right?
As a club we lose 10m per year or something. So surely the only right we have to is to expect bankruptcy? Why do we have the right to expect Thomas or any other non-Charlton fan to fund our expectations? As a club our rights extend only as far a self sustainable operation would allow us, which is far below this point.
Its unpalatable, but its the truth.
Didn’t someone say Roland put £71m of his own money in to keep the club running?
Sandgaard has now flown home, find it even stranger that he’s been here about 3 weeks and we haven’t signed anyone as we know he loves the limelight and being involved, really hoping we can get one or two over the line before Saturday because the atmosphere could turn a bit if it’s a bad performance.
Other business interests to attend to perhaps. Whilst Sandgaard is not exempt from criticism I find it staggering that so early into his reign he is copping flak. The years of neglect and mess created are not going to be cleaned up in five minutes.
Although he didn’t do himself any favours with his early comments.
Anyone who doesn’t see that he saved us is clearly moronic but that doesn’t mean we should be content with the squad we have either.
"We shouldn't be content with the squad we have either"
What do we have the right to expect? You (and the majority here) seem to think we have the right to expect better than a top 6 worthy squad, because we are Charlton. Why does Charlton have that right?
As a club we lose 10m per year or something. So surely the only right we have to is to expect bankruptcy? Why do we have the right to expect Thomas or any other non-Charlton fan to fund our expectations? As a club our rights extend only as far a self sustainable operation would allow us, which is far below this point.
Its unpalatable, but its the truth.
Didn’t someone say Roland put £71m of his own money in to keep the club running?
Questions should be asked as to why we are again going to be relying heavily on loans vs buying players, if/when this inevitably happens.
No it shouldn't, if you don't use your 5 loans well, you won't go up. It's a gift horse. Get it right and you will go up. Don't and you either need to be incredibly lucky or spend a fucking fortune. Even the mighty Ipswich, and Sir Chris used loans.
Of course it should. We’ve been told, having a new squad every year isn’t sustainable and we are going to rely heavily on Loan players being in our first team. Why are we continuing with the same strategy we’ve have for the past few years.
Because we have to do a total rebuild thanks to the mismanagement of the club over the past few years. Under Roland it was all loans and short-term deals and sales of useful players. So far this season we've renewed a number of contracts and signed some permanent players on 2 and 3 year deals. In the short term we'll need to bring in loans, but next season we'll have a better spine in place and can add to ti with new permanent players and bring in fewer loans. If Roland and ESI hadn't left us in such a state then this wouldn't be necessary, but they did, so it is.
We have to do a total rebuild and we’ve bought in 3 new first team players this summer thus far, I’d say that’s worth questioning.
Remember, this is the second transfer window under TS now.
Have we? We've signed Dobson, Clare, MacGillivray and Stockley this summer, so that's four, and we've got a possible deal in place to buy Akin all being well. We also renewed Matthews, JFC, Pearce and Watson, who were all on their way out. We also signed DJ last January who is a key part of our rebuild, and to a lesser extent Schwartz who so far isn't working out but we'll see. Add to that the deal that's apparently in place to sign Kirk if we can get it over the line, that's actually a large number of players we've tied down to the club since Sandgaard was able to. It might not be all exciting big transfers but it's a lot of expenditure on getting in enough players to be able to function as a football side. That's what we'll need to build on over time. On top of that the window isn't closed yet and we could see more permanents coming in. We've heard that teams want silly money for their players so getting some quality loans in is a no-brainer to flesh out the squad, and then hopefully fill those spots the next window/season with a new budget
Yes three, stockley isn’t new, he was here last season.
Yeah, and now he's permanent. A 3 year deal as part of a rebuild, meaning that long term we can sign fewer loans, which is what we're talking about. Is your problem that some of our signings aren't new enough? I think you've really lost the thread of what you're complaining about. You're upset though, duly noted
My problem is that at the end of last season we needed a rebuild. We have brought in 3 NEW players, not sure what’s hard to grasp about it.
But the newness doesn't matter. At the end of the season Stockley went back to Preston. Akin went back to Norwich and JFC, Pearce, Watson and Matthews were about to leave the club. We then took action and renewed, purchased or re-loaned all of those players. Their 'newness' is completely irrelevant. The whole point of your original gripe was that we don't want to just be signing loans; with Stockley we turned a successful loan into a permanent who will wear the captain's armband on the pitch this season. If you think that signing Stockley on a 3 year deal after his loan ended isn't part of the rebuild then no-one can do anything for you.
To you it doesn’t. To me, I look at the squad that finished end of last season and the one we have now. Stockley’s a fantastic signing but if he’s part of the team that wasn’t good enough to get playoffs last season, I’m going to look at who else is added to that team in order to better this year. 3 players.
But we are talking about why we are still relying on loans. The reason for that is because we've put a large amount of expenditure into signing up new players. Stockley is a new player, whether you want to accept that or not, and he came with a fee. The four out of contract players also had to be signed up, along with Famewo, Dobson, Mac and Clare. The point of what we're discussing is why we still need to get the loans, and all of these fees and new salaries are part of the budget for the year. That means that we can make some progress towards rebuilding but we will likely be unable to get an entirely new squad on permanents. That takes time and a lot of money and so we'll likely need to settle for some short term fills, and then we'll plug those gaps with permanents the next season. Rebuilds take time. If we hadn't had the squad left in such a state by previous owners then we wouldn't have to do this, but the reality is we do
Going round in circles now.
No one realistically expected a whole new team of perms. But no one thought we’d have 3 players added to the team that finished outside of the playoffs last season at this point of the window.
We can disagree until we’re blue in the face on it, but this is the reality and no amount of sugar coating will make it look better.
That's exactly what you want in normal conditions. We finished outside the play-offs on goal difference, a normal team (like Peterborough last season selling one and adding two) can just top up on a good base each year with a few players and push on. We can't because half the team was out of contract and there were 5 loans to go back due to previous mismanagement. You can't seriously sit there and point at Stockley and Famewo and see them as the reason we didn't get into the play-offs, they were a big part of the reason we were near it at all. We fell apart when Inniss and Famewo were out, and we only lost 5 games in the 22 that Stockley played in. You can't just say 'we didn't make the play-offs last year, bin them all and start over, no-one who was here before counts'. I agree we'll go around in circles because you're refusing to accept the basic point, which is that we will still need loans for a while as we get that base in place. Stockley and hopefully Famewo will be a big part of that. I also didn't think we'd have signed so few players by now in June, but that's not and has never been what we're talking about. We're talking about still relying on loans to fill out the squad. It will be interesting to see how many loans we actually bring in before the deadline, we have space for four more but if we can get a couple more permanents in I could see us not using them all.
Was great to see TS rock up. My family bought 8 season tickets in the AC stand introducing new grandkids to the valley this season. At this moment in time we are concerned but not yet suicidal.
Sandgaard has now flown home, find it even stranger that he’s been here about 3 weeks and we haven’t signed anyone as we know he loves the limelight and being involved, really hoping we can get one or two over the line before Saturday because the atmosphere could turn a bit if it’s a bad performance.
Other business interests to attend to perhaps. Whilst Sandgaard is not exempt from criticism I find it staggering that so early into his reign he is copping flak. The years of neglect and mess created are not going to be cleaned up in five minutes.
Although he didn’t do himself any favours with his early comments.
Anyone who doesn’t see that he saved us is clearly moronic but that doesn’t mean we should be content with the squad we have either.
"We shouldn't be content with the squad we have either"
What do we have the right to expect? You (and the majority here) seem to think we have the right to expect better than a top 6 worthy squad, because we are Charlton. Why does Charlton have that right?
As a club we lose 10m per year or something. So surely the only right we have to is to expect bankruptcy? Why do we have the right to expect Thomas or any other non-Charlton fan to fund our expectations? As a club our rights extend only as far a self sustainable operation would allow us, which is far below this point.
Its unpalatable, but its the truth.
To be fair Roland was slaughtered when he gave us squads without enough depth, or sold players to cover some of the ongoing losses
It's inconsistent to slaughter Roland for trying to manage the club's finances, but then praise Thomas for doing the same thing
(And no I'm not supporting Roland or ignoring the masses of self inflicted wounds he caused)
I have an Ipswich season ticket holder pal at work who’s been going for years, just had a long chat after a meeting, he said us being branded as “cheque book FC” is nonsense as they’ve received more from outgoings than they’ve spent.
And said despite what everyone thinks they badly need some defenders because they look awful at the back.
What's surprised me is that our only senior left back was injured TWO weeks before the start of the season, yet nobody has come in nearly 3 weeks later, forcing us to play a right back against Wednesday (solid but not attacking threat) and a rookie against Wimbledon.
Yes the club might have had priorities in terms of the timing of its transfers, but surely the Purrington injury should have made getting in a LB a top priority?
I have an Ipswich season ticket holder pal at work who’s been going for years, just had a long chat after a meeting, he said us being branded as “cheque book FC” is nonsense as they’ve received more from outgoings than they’ve spent.
And said despite what everyone thinks they badly need some defenders because they look awful at the back.
Not all is as rosy as we all think!
I wonder if that's true in terms of wages. They've probably got the odd Championship wage hanging about but I doubt they were able to attract Piggot who was Championship-bound, pay Bonne's Championship salary and entice Kyle Edwards, Conor Chaplin, George Edmundson, Rekeem Harper and Sone Aluko to step down from higher divisions without some pretty decent pay offers.
I have an Ipswich season ticket holder pal at work who’s been going for years, just had a long chat after a meeting, he said us being branded as “cheque book FC” is nonsense as they’ve received more from outgoings than they’ve spent.
And said despite what everyone thinks they badly need some defenders because they look awful at the back.
Lots of rumours about Baah going to Donny on loan. Given the amount of chat on here he wouldn't be coming to league 1, I expect to see some serious shitfits later!
Lots of rumours about Baah going to Donny on loan. Given the amount of chat on here he wouldn't be coming to league 1, I expect to see some serious shitfits later!
Ipswich have probably covered their transfer fees in selling Dozzell and Downes but their wage bill must be the biggest in the league. Wasn't there rumours clubs were offering £10k PW?
Comments
It's inconsistent to slaughter Roland for trying to manage the club's finances, but then praise Thomas for doing the same thing
(And no I'm not supporting Roland or ignoring the masses of self inflicted wounds he caused)
At least Rochelle is nice to look at!
Not all is as rosy as we all think!
Yes the club might have had priorities in terms of the timing of its transfers, but surely the Purrington injury should have made getting in a LB a top priority?