What do you mean? Just don't have a window. It is after all, a relatively new idea.
So the championship play off is two days away, you can sign a player who’s way too good for that league and give him 50m win bonus even though he’s not played a single game for you. Hell, you could even sell him back the next day? Cos that’s where no window leads too.
No. It used to be that you couldn't sign new players after about mid-March.
It worked fine before 2002.
That’ll just benefit the big boys even more so surely. Teams will sign players as and when they like and then come March the Rich clubs will load up on short term deals to get trophies and promotions over the line.
Really? Where would they get these great players from? In March every other team still has something to play for.
Besides, it can be argued that the transfer window benefits the bigger clubs. They have squads with no weak links - if they get an injury then they just bring on another of equal quality. The lesser teams have to struggle with what they have rather than waiting to see in what position they get an injury and then sign someone.
Are those who argue in favour of a transfer window too young to have witnessed that things works fine without it?
What do you mean? Just don't have a window. It is after all, a relatively new idea.
So there’s disruption for clubs all year round? Personally I think it’s a terrible idea. Things have changed so much over the years with regards to spending power and amount of substitutions. Just because it worked before doesn’t mean it would again.
Why would there be disruption? Things without a transfer window are far calmer. If you want to buy, you make an offer without having other clubs scrambling around at the same time and agents inflating the price because of the desperation that the window installs.
It worked before and I don't see that you give any real argument as to why it wouldn't work again. Oh, and I'd decrease the number of substitutes too. That also benefits the bigger clubs.
I doubt Airman enjoys any of this. He is a supporter like the rest of us. He just calls things for what they are and that makes him unpopular with some.
I think he would attack any owner regardless to aid his agenda.
I've never spoken to Rick apart from to buy the Voice so I'm not in his group of friends. So could you tell me what his agenda is ?
Yes apparently he doesn’t like anyone who owns Charlton. Unless they have the best interests of the club at heart and know what they’re doing.
What do you mean? Just don't have a window. It is after all, a relatively new idea.
So the championship play off is two days away, you can sign a player who’s way too good for that league and give him 50m win bonus even though he’s not played a single game for you. Hell, you could even sell him back the next day? Cos that’s where no window leads too.
No. It used to be that you couldn't sign new players after about mid-March.
It worked fine before 2002.
That’ll just benefit the big boys even more so surely. Teams will sign players as and when they like and then come March the Rich clubs will load up on short term deals to get trophies and promotions over the line.
Really? Where would they get these great players from? In March every other team still has something to play for.
Besides, it can be argued that the transfer window benefits the bigger clubs. They have squads with no weak links - if they get an injury then they just bring on another of equal quality. The lesser teams have to struggle with what they have rather than waiting to see in what position they get an injury and then sign someone.
Are those who argue in favour of a transfer window too young to have witnessed that things works fine without it?
Or perhaps we just think it wasn’t fine before? It would also be a lot worse now due to the massive gulf in spending power.
I think the biggest problem with our recruitment team is too many people involved. 4 involved , 2 of which have limited football knowledge and spend too much time on CL. It wouldn't surprise me if the club cooled their interest after seeing the reaction on this site. The best recruitment in recent years was when Bowyer and Gallen were given a budget and allowed to get on with it.
What do you mean? Just don't have a window. It is after all, a relatively new idea.
So there’s disruption for clubs all year round? Personally I think it’s a terrible idea. Things have changed so much over the years with regards to spending power and amount of substitutions. Just because it worked before doesn’t mean it would again.
I kinda get Jimmy's point - things worked perfectly well for years before the "transfer window" became a thing - funnily enough I don't remember a big day in mid march where every team desperately ran around til nearly midnight trying to get players - transfer windows were never brought in for fairness it was always about a bit of US sport-style spectacle.
It doesn't benefit the clubs, get an injury crisis in November? Tough shit - where you could have got a 3 or 6 month loan or two, now you just have to play the kids, who may or may not be ready - knock on effect to the fans who pay to see a competitive team each week. We know as much as most do that the January window can disrupt an entire season anyway.
It doesn't benefit the players - get left high and dry last minute because the chain collapses and you are stuck in obscurity for months on end, not wanted by your club, and unable to move.
The time pressure only benefits one group - the agents.
Hadn't thought about it but that does make sense re agents. Suppose it may help selling clubs inflate valuations as well?
I doubt Airman enjoys any of this. He is a supporter like the rest of us. He just calls things for what they are and that makes him unpopular with some.
I think he would attack any owner regardless to aid his agenda.
I've never spoken to Rick apart from to buy the Voice so I'm not in his group of friends. So could you tell me what his agenda is ?
overall i think his agenda is the wellbeing of cafc - more specifically i think that would involve re employing him and ideally peter varney to run things with a rich backer funding it and initially spending money to get out of league 1 asap because we lose more money in league 1 than the championship - i think that's about it but i might be wrong???
I think the biggest problem with our recruitment team is too many people involved. 4 involved , 2 of which have limited football knowledge and spend too much time on CL. It wouldn't surprise me if the club cooled their interest after seeing the reaction on this site. The best recruitment in recent years was when Bowyer and Gallen were given a budget and allowed to get on with it.
The setup isn’t that different from 18/19 as Driesen and RD had to sign off any potential signings just as TS does.
Players with the quality of Taylor, Bielik and Cullen aren’t available every window. Without them the other three signings that summer in Pratley, Steer and Ward wouldn’t have appeared to be good enough to take us up.
It is a fact that in the last nine seasons for which we have figures, Charlton's operating losses have consistently been much higher in League One than in the Championship - with the exception of 2015/16. I am not excluding 2020/21 because the announced number is distorted by an £8.1m asset transfer to Roland. Not sure why that is so had Roland/ESI could have spent another £5m on players' wages in 2019/20 and the operating loss would still have been lower than the preceding three seasons in L1 by some margin.
I do appreciate your taking the time to respond on this and I won't push it any more on match day, but I honestly still fail to see your alternative proposal to cutting ones cloth to what one has. Promotion is no solution. Even if your figures are right, you are only saying that, if we spent to get promoted, we would only then be adding to the club's debt massively - rather than very massively - each year. And of course in the past nine years we have done better financially in the Championship because, over that period, we have had squads that were either nearly or actually relegated, or else essentially put together in League One. We have never had to build a competitive squad in the Championship. Then when we got relegated we were paying Championship contracts in League One. That is a very different situation to now, where we do not have the legacy contracts.
God knows what the free agent market holds, but wasn't CBT a free agent. He came on a 3 month trial deal and earned a contract off the back of it. Now his stock value has increased significantly, as probably did his wages. Maybe other players will note that.
He declined a new contract from Tranmere, so not really scrap heaped.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
You could make the argument that our recruitment was really good last year (no laughing at the back). More than half the starting 11 today were, probably, signed last year. That's not including CBT either.
I am not making it, but I could see how someone could.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
You could make the argument that our recruitment was really good last year (no laughing at the back). More than half the starting 11 today were, probably, signed last year. That's not including CBT either.
I am not making it, but I could see how someone could.
Having reflected on that deadline through the day I still can’t quite get my head around the failure to sign anyone. It has to be one of:
Naivety- Martin still being inexperienced and sharing way more than he should’ve at the game, when in reality it was going to be far more difficult to get deals done.
Out priced/competed- if it is indeed true that we were after Scully, it’s hard for anyone to compete with the league above, can scratch that one off. Though several suitable alternatives should have been ready.
Cutting costs- Thomas/Martin/ Raelynn have clearly been cutting costs off the field so perhaps that’s now spread to the playing staff. Whether this is in preparation for a sale or just a lack of funds is just speculation. I personally don’t think this is the case, tempting Garner and getting some good signings over the line earlier in the window doesn’t make sense if this was indeed true.
All in all, regardless of the deadline day failure the real indictment is that through a several month window we didn’t manage to fill the glaring holes in our squad, as soon as Washington was let go we were light up top and especially once Stockley clearly wasn’t suited to Garnerball an addition should have been top priority. Same goes for the extra defender we clearly needed, virtually inexplicable that we didn’t get one, and that there wasn’t a peep about it in the statement. I still think we’re capable of playoffs, possibly more this season. But now we’re relying on injuries etc going our way when that didn’t need to be the case.
I agree with your concluding paragraph. I know a lot of deals get done on the final day before the window and sometimes you might be able to negotiate a lower price from a club desperate to sell. Although of course the opposite may happen if the selling club play hardball and you will have to pay more if you are either desperate enough, or simply have deep enough pockets. Of course, other clubs often won't make a decision on releasing players for loan outs until they are comfortable their squad is adequate.
However, once you end up in that position of having vacant key gaps in your squad on the very last day of the window you have less element of control over the situation, compared to doing your business earlier in the window. Time is simply not on your side. There is a fair chance that any one of the selling club/player/player's agent will raise an issue that you cannot resolve in the time available. Or any deal for your target may be dependent upon a chain of other moves all occurring on that day and an issue with any one of which could scupper the whole chain.
Charlton went in to the last day knowing full well of the potential risks and in the end they paid the price (or I guess didn't seeing no one came in)! The question is do they learn from it.
It is a fact that in the last nine seasons for which we have figures, Charlton's operating losses have consistently been much higher in League One than in the Championship - with the exception of 2015/16. I am not excluding 2020/21 because the announced number is distorted by an £8.1m asset transfer to Roland. Not sure why that is so had Roland/ESI could have spent another £5m on players' wages in 2019/20 and the operating loss would still have been lower than the preceding three seasons in L1 by some margin.
I do appreciate your taking the time to respond on this and I won't push it any more on match day, but I honestly still fail to see your alternative proposal to cutting ones cloth to what one has. Promotion is no solution. Even if your figures are right, you are only saying that, if we spent to get promoted, we would only then be adding to the club's debt massively - rather than very massively - each year. And of course in the past nine years we have done better financially in the Championship because, over that period, we have had squads that were either nearly or actually relegated, or else essentially put together in League One. We have never had to build a competitive squad in the Championship. Then when we got relegated we were paying Championship contracts in League One. That is a very different situation to now, where we do not have the legacy contracts.
If you read Thomas’s interview with me in December 2020 he argued that he could put together a promotion team in the Championship without spending big because players are overpaid and he wouldn’t meet the wages. More magical thinking - it can happen because he says so, regardless of everyone else’s view.
This is all delusional - as is the latest idea that he is going to break even in L1. It’s his claim that the gap in 21/22 was £8m. The only way you make a significant dent is by reducing football wages but inevitably if you do that it will have consequences. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get better value but you will never get to break even because you are losing an amount as big as the whole football budget.
Staff cutbacks are trivial in this picture. The club is also inept at handling them which is resulting in unexpectedly large payouts. This is not the hallmark of an organisation behaving professionally or being managed competently.
The commercial revenue is poor - and will remain so, which is why he can’t retain senior appointees around it - and ticket revenue is going backwards because of his own pricing policy.
It isn’t the principle of sustainability which is wrong, it’s that he cannot get there but pretends he can, taking a section of fans with him because they want to believe it. As with much else he has said, it doesn’t make it true.
You will only close the gap substantially by 1) selling your best players every year at a higher rate than ever before and/or 2) getting promoted, which gives you the higher central income and a product people are more willing to buy.
Any other way forward than promotion needs to come from the restructuring of the game - which TS cannot deliver.
Having reflected on that deadline through the day I still can’t quite get my head around the failure to sign anyone. It has to be one of:
Naivety- Martin still being inexperienced and sharing way more than he should’ve at the game, when in reality it was going to be far more difficult to get deals done.
Out priced/competed- if it is indeed true that we were after Scully, it’s hard for anyone to compete with the league above, can scratch that one off. Though several suitable alternatives should have been ready.
Cutting costs- Thomas/Martin/ Raelynn have clearly been cutting costs off the field so perhaps that’s now spread to the playing staff. Whether this is in preparation for a sale or just a lack of funds is just speculation. I personally don’t think this is the case, tempting Garner and getting some good signings over the line earlier in the window doesn’t make sense if this was indeed true.
All in all, regardless of the deadline day failure the real indictment is that through a several month window we didn’t manage to fill the glaring holes in our squad, as soon as Washington was let go we were light up top and especially once Stockley clearly wasn’t suited to Garnerball an addition should have been top priority. Same goes for the extra defender we clearly needed, virtually inexplicable that we didn’t get one, and that there wasn’t a peep about it in the statement. I still think we’re capable of playoffs, possibly more this season. But now we’re relying on injuries etc going our way when that didn’t need to be the case.
I agree with your concluding paragraph. I know a lot of deals get done on the final day before the window and sometimes you might be able to negotiate a lower price from a club desperate to sell. Although of course the opposite may happen if the selling club play hardball and you will have to pay more if you are either desperate enough, or simply have deep enough pockets. Of course, other clubs often won't make a decision on releasing players for loan outs until they are comfortable their squad is adequate.
However, once you end up in that position of having vacant key gaps in your squad on the very last day of the window you have less element of control over the situation, compared to doing your business earlier in the window. Time is simply not on your side. There is a fair chance that any one of the selling club/player/player's agent will raise an issue that you cannot resolve in the time available. Or any deal for your target may be dependent upon a chain of other moves all occurring on that day and an issue with any one of which could scupper the whole chain.
Charlton went in to the last day knowing full well of the potential risks and in the end they paid the price (or I guess didn't seeing no one came in)! The question is do they learn from it.
An agent will tell his player not to sign anything until they know what is the best terms available. Why sign for Charlton in July when a Championship club may come in?
If you want the best your money can buy you have to play the game or settle for mediocrity. In this league where every penny counts there is everything wrong in spending money to bring in a squad player. If we spend money it has to be to get better than we have.
It is a fact that in the last nine seasons for which we have figures, Charlton's operating losses have consistently been much higher in League One than in the Championship - with the exception of 2015/16. I am not excluding 2020/21 because the announced number is distorted by an £8.1m asset transfer to Roland. Not sure why that is so had Roland/ESI could have spent another £5m on players' wages in 2019/20 and the operating loss would still have been lower than the preceding three seasons in L1 by some margin.
I do appreciate your taking the time to respond on this and I won't push it any more on match day, but I honestly still fail to see your alternative proposal to cutting ones cloth to what one has. Promotion is no solution. Even if your figures are right, you are only saying that, if we spent to get promoted, we would only then be adding to the club's debt massively - rather than very massively - each year. And of course in the past nine years we have done better financially in the Championship because, over that period, we have had squads that were either nearly or actually relegated, or else essentially put together in League One. We have never had to build a competitive squad in the Championship. Then when we got relegated we were paying Championship contracts in League One. That is a very different situation to now, where we do not have the legacy contracts.
agreed - we were taking the championship money but not spending it to stay there - case closed
It is a fact that in the last nine seasons for which we have figures, Charlton's operating losses have consistently been much higher in League One than in the Championship - with the exception of 2015/16. I am not excluding 2020/21 because the announced number is distorted by an £8.1m asset transfer to Roland. Not sure why that is so had Roland/ESI could have spent another £5m on players' wages in 2019/20 and the operating loss would still have been lower than the preceding three seasons in L1 by some margin.
I do appreciate your taking the time to respond on this and I won't push it any more on match day, but I honestly still fail to see your alternative proposal to cutting ones cloth to what one has. Promotion is no solution. Even if your figures are right, you are only saying that, if we spent to get promoted, we would only then be adding to the club's debt massively - rather than very massively - each year. And of course in the past nine years we have done better financially in the Championship because, over that period, we have had squads that were either nearly or actually relegated, or else essentially put together in League One. We have never had to build a competitive squad in the Championship. Then when we got relegated we were paying Championship contracts in League One. That is a very different situation to now, where we do not have the legacy contracts.
agreed - we were taking the championship money but not spending it to stay there - case closed
That really isn't true of the four seasons 2012-16 and despite that the operating loss for the first three remained well below our subsequent losses in League One. In 2015/16 Duchatelet overspent trying to stay up, but spent the money so badly he failed. We were not relegated in 2016 because we didn't spend enough to stay up - far from it.
It is fair to say that Duchatelet lost more money in L1 than was necessary, in part off the back of the bad decisions he'd made earlier.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
You could make the argument that our recruitment was really good last year (no laughing at the back). More than half the starting 11 today were, probably, signed last year. That's not including CBT either.
I am not making it, but I could see how someone could.
There were good aspects but it wasn't good as a whole. We're feeling some benefits now, though it's taken time for things to come through and some of that has been a bit of luck. Dobson was always a good signing. Adkins didn't want to use him properly and he did start shakily but he always had the feel of a player who needed a fresh start and he's been great. Clare was a player doing well at RB who didn't want to play there anymore. It's taken him a while but he's been forced to accept (I hope) that he's a good right back and not a brilliant midfielder. Mac was a sensible signing that didn't work at as well as hoped but he definitely wasn't a disaster. Stockley is a good player and Kirk is too, but both were the wrong players for what Adkins put out at the start of the season. Stockley is the wrong player again now but Kirk has found a place. Akin was a good signing who hid that fact very, very well, Lavelle was a decent squad signing and Arter was a panic disaster. Lee was a good signing for Adkins but then Adkins got sacked and there was no place for Lee in Jackson's silly line-up.
Everything was backwards really. If we'd signed Lee early and made him the 10 instead of bringing in Clare and relying on Morgan there, then signed CBT to play wide left instead of Kirk we would have put together an 11 more in line with what Adkins was trying to achieve. CBT the quick inverted winger to replace Millar, a proper 10 for Adkins' style. You even wonder if Arter with a full pe-season and Leko in early to go on the opposite wing might have got a lot more out of the pair of them. The midfield still wouldn't have been quite right but it would have set Adkins up with more of what he wanted. It's helpful that the players we've been left with can almost all comfortably adapt to what Garner wants to do, and that makes them look a lot better as a result.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
I would say we don’t know if it’s been good. At first glance, Wollacott, O’Connell have settled in well. JRS looks handy. Sessegnon, Payne, McGrandles and Egbo we haven’t seen enough of yet.
I’m sure Sessegnon will deliver, and I’m positive about the others as well, but I was positive about Lee, Leko, Kirk and even Arter last year.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
I would say we don’t know if it’s been good. At first glance, Wollacott, O’Connell have settled in well. JRS looks handy. Sessegnon, Payne, McGrandles and Egbo we haven’t seen enough of yet.
I’m sure Sessegnon will deliver, and I’m positive about the others as well, but I was positive about Lee, Leko, Kirk and even Arter last year.
Fingers crossed, but we can’t make a call now
I mentioned in the Bolton preview that I believe Garner really rates McGrandles, he said as much in his pre match press conference, and I always found it strange he started him against Derby when he probably needed to gain more match fitness after a disrupted pre season - but shows a confidence in him.
Having reflected on that deadline through the day I still can’t quite get my head around the failure to sign anyone. It has to be one of:
Naivety- Martin still being inexperienced and sharing way more than he should’ve at the game, when in reality it was going to be far more difficult to get deals done.
Out priced/competed- if it is indeed true that we were after Scully, it’s hard for anyone to compete with the league above, can scratch that one off. Though several suitable alternatives should have been ready.
Cutting costs- Thomas/Martin/ Raelynn have clearly been cutting costs off the field so perhaps that’s now spread to the playing staff. Whether this is in preparation for a sale or just a lack of funds is just speculation. I personally don’t think this is the case, tempting Garner and getting some good signings over the line earlier in the window doesn’t make sense if this was indeed true.
All in all, regardless of the deadline day failure the real indictment is that through a several month window we didn’t manage to fill the glaring holes in our squad, as soon as Washington was let go we were light up top and especially once Stockley clearly wasn’t suited to Garnerball an addition should have been top priority. Same goes for the extra defender we clearly needed, virtually inexplicable that we didn’t get one, and that there wasn’t a peep about it in the statement. I still think we’re capable of playoffs, possibly more this season. But now we’re relying on injuries etc going our way when that didn’t need to be the case.
I agree with your concluding paragraph. I know a lot of deals get done on the final day before the window and sometimes you might be able to negotiate a lower price from a club desperate to sell. Although of course the opposite may happen if the selling club play hardball and you will have to pay more if you are either desperate enough, or simply have deep enough pockets. Of course, other clubs often won't make a decision on releasing players for loan outs until they are comfortable their squad is adequate.
However, once you end up in that position of having vacant key gaps in your squad on the very last day of the window you have less element of control over the situation, compared to doing your business earlier in the window. Time is simply not on your side. There is a fair chance that any one of the selling club/player/player's agent will raise an issue that you cannot resolve in the time available. Or any deal for your target may be dependent upon a chain of other moves all occurring on that day and an issue with any one of which could scupper the whole chain.
Charlton went in to the last day knowing full well of the potential risks and in the end they paid the price (or I guess didn't seeing no one came in)! The question is do they learn from it.
An agent will tell his player not to sign anything until they know what is the best terms available. Why sign for Charlton in July when a Championship club may come in?
If you want the best your money can buy you have to play the game or settle for mediocrity. In this league where every penny counts there is everything wrong in spending money to bring in a squad player. If we spend money it has to be to get better than we have.
No lesson to learn for me.
I have no idea what proportion of the summer deals are concluded on the final day of the window but would assume it is maybe less than say 20-30%? Someone will know. Every player has different circumstances, some still in contract, some out of contract but, whatever, you can get reasonable players to sign that are better than what you already have without leaving it so late, e.g Wollacott, O'Connell.
If TS isn't willing or able to pay either high fees or wages, I am not sure it makes sense to wait until the very last day in the hope that he is going to be able to offer the highest wages, or even the highest price if he is able to pay a fee. In my view it is more of a lottery over which he has little control.
My understanding is that Bonne was agreed days in advance with Gallen despite TS then trying to renegotiate it himself, but was always a back up. Thing is, QPR knew that Charlton’s other options were unrealistic so they always expected the deal to come forward. Their end say it was over hours before Charlton confirmed it, although that doesn’t tally with Jaiyesimi being pulled back from Mansfield very late.
Our recruitment this summer has been really good? Maybe not quite enough of it, but I don't see many flaws otherwise
Our aim this season is promotion. Not just me saying this but Sandgaard also. So I will judge our recruitment this summer by where we finish in the league. At things stand my guess would be about 10th. Hopefully I am wrong.
I don't really care what some might think. I buy the streams and watch the club but going to matches when I have a long journey home totally disapointed is not what I want to do aged 58 years. I have done all that and bought the T-shirt. I am fed up with us being owned by crooks and fools and with every opportunity that supports itself, that opportunity is missed.
My point about the importance of different types of fans I know is not a popular one, but telling people to attend isn't going to make it happen. It is a reality which any business owner has to understand and address. If I did force myself to go, it would make absolutely no diference and the dog would be more likely to get kicked!(not really I am an animal lover). But I am going to do things I get some pleasure from at this stage of my life.
I go because I love the club, not because I'm forced to go. You please yourself, but don't have the audacity to say you are more important to the club because you won't go. Sickening.
Firstly I do contribute to the club and do go to games, just I pick and choose. Secondly, you completely missed my point and I know it is not a point people like to read, but the most important fans are the harder fans to get coming to games. That doesn't mean they are the most deserving or warrant any praise, but those are completely different things from being the most important.
And in terms of fans of around my age, did you go to every Selhurst game like I did? Not that many did. I didn't then but realise now that those that didn't go were more important than me, especially those that didn't go and fought for a return to he Valley. I went to Belgium to protest and I notice not that many others made the effort.
Another thing I have realised in my old age is that I am a bad loser, and watching shitty little teams come to the Valley and take a point or three from us gives me no pleasure whatsoever. In fact it puts me in a foul mood which I don't want to impose on my family. I don't live round the corner and I absolutely hate the drive home after such a result.
Because we have been owned by fools and crooks we are in League One. We have been here too long and I expect us to get out of it and I see that as the club's side of the bargain from my perspective.
Comments
Besides, it can be argued that the transfer window benefits the bigger clubs. They have squads with no weak links - if they get an injury then they just bring on another of equal quality. The lesser teams have to struggle with what they have rather than waiting to see in what position they get an injury and then sign someone.
Are those who argue in favour of a transfer window too young to have witnessed that things works fine without it?
Players with the quality of Taylor, Bielik and Cullen aren’t available every window. Without them the other three signings that summer in Pratley, Steer and Ward wouldn’t have appeared to be good enough to take us up.
Even if your figures are right, you are only saying that, if we spent to get promoted, we would only then be adding to the club's debt massively - rather than very massively - each year.
And of course in the past nine years we have done better financially in the Championship because, over that period, we have had squads that were either nearly or actually relegated, or else essentially put together in League One. We have never had to build a competitive squad in the Championship.
Then when we got relegated we were paying Championship contracts in League One. That is a very different situation to now, where we do not have the legacy contracts.
I am not making it, but I could see how someone could.
However, once you end up in that position of having vacant key gaps in your squad on the very last day of the window you have less element of control over the situation, compared to doing your business earlier in the window. Time is simply not on your side. There is a fair chance that any one of the selling club/player/player's agent will raise an issue that you cannot resolve in the time available. Or any deal for your target may be dependent upon a chain of other moves all occurring on that day and an issue with any one of which could scupper the whole chain.
Charlton went in to the last day knowing full well of the potential risks and in the end they paid the price (or I guess didn't seeing no one came in)! The question is do they learn from it.
This is all delusional - as is the latest idea that he is going to break even in L1. It’s his claim that the gap in 21/22 was £8m. The only way you make a significant dent is by reducing football wages but inevitably if you do that it will have consequences. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get better value but you will never get to break even because you are losing an amount as big as the whole football budget.
Staff cutbacks are trivial in this picture. The club is also inept at handling them which is resulting in unexpectedly large payouts. This is not the hallmark of an organisation behaving professionally or being managed competently.
It isn’t the principle of sustainability which is wrong, it’s that he cannot get there but pretends he can, taking a section of fans with him because they want to believe it. As with much else he has said, it doesn’t make it true.
You will only close the gap substantially by 1) selling your best players every year at a higher rate than ever before and/or 2) getting promoted, which gives you the higher central income and a product people are more willing to buy.
Any other way forward than promotion needs to come from the restructuring of the game - which TS cannot deliver.
In this league where every penny counts there is everything wrong in spending money to bring in a squad player. If we spend money it has to be to get better than we have.
No lesson to learn for me.
It is fair to say that Duchatelet lost more money in L1 than was necessary, in part off the back of the bad decisions he'd made earlier.
I’m sure Sessegnon will deliver, and I’m positive about the others as well, but I was positive about Lee, Leko, Kirk and even Arter last year.
Hopefully we get to see some of that this season.
If TS isn't willing or able to pay either high fees or wages, I am not sure it makes sense to wait until the very last day in the hope that he is going to be able to offer the highest wages, or even the highest price if he is able to pay a fee. In my view it is more of a lottery over which he has little control.
Not just me saying this but Sandgaard also.
So I will judge our recruitment this summer by where we finish in the league.
At things stand my guess would be about 10th.
Hopefully I am wrong.
And in terms of fans of around my age, did you go to every Selhurst game like I did? Not that many did. I didn't then but realise now that those that didn't go were more important than me, especially those that didn't go and fought for a return to he Valley. I went to Belgium to protest and I notice not that many others made the effort.
Another thing I have realised in my old age is that I am a bad loser, and watching shitty little teams come to the Valley and take a point or three from us gives me no pleasure whatsoever. In fact it puts me in a foul mood which I don't want to impose on my family. I don't live round the corner and I absolutely hate the drive home after such a result.
Because we have been owned by fools and crooks we are in League One. We have been here too long and I expect us to get out of it and I see that as the club's side of the bargain from my perspective.