Only thing I’d say to people who wish Inniss had gone as well is that he would definitely have needed replacing with a major physical presence first. In an ideal world a Santos. But seemingly players like that are out of our league, sadly.
Deadline day is always interesting as it really doesn't take much to go from optimism and surprise to devastation. I'd say yesterday we had one outgoing that was uncomfortable and missed out on one incoming that we should have completed. Other than that, objectives pretty much met for the window, definitely in terms of positions, remains to be seen in terms of the players themselves.
We needed a full back on each side to cover for injury and a gap and we got both, though Kane's injury complicates things. We needed quality above Morgan in the middle and hopefully Kilkenny is that. We needed a first team striker to compete with Leaburn, Bonne came in. We also clearly needed to have better options at CB and we brought in Hector. We should have brought in another winger after letting two go and should have had back up options to Edwards
In terms of outgoings, we had three first team keepers and one wasn't very good; we resolved that. We had a highly paid striker who didn't score or contribute; he's gone. We had a winger who has made 7 L1 appearances this season, dropped to 5th choice and has mostly been injured; gone. We had a centre back who was truly the most lost player we've had in years; Burtoned. Two central midfielders with two league starts between them, an under-delivering winger the manager clearly didn't rate, all gone. These were all moves that needed to happen. The curve ball was O'Connell. There was a point yesterday where we had 6 first team centre halves and we got that back down to 4 by the end. It's clear that it would have been Thomas and Lavelle if not for EOC going, but it's uncomfortable that the player we just signed who would have been worth keeping in the squad is the one who went. He wasn't playing under Holden but there's something off about it for sure, and I wonder if it says a lot that Wrexham knew they could come calling at the 11th hour and get what they wanted off Charlton. Beyond that though, Wrexham are weird, they'll get the players they go for.
Bottom line is now everything depends on a takeover. If we get bought by an ownership that can spend some money then the deck clearing is good. We can see if Hector and Bonne are worthy of longer contracts, we've put the players we don't want in the shop window for the summer, we can rebuild. If there's no takeover or it's a penniless farce then we're screwed, but we're screwed anyway right now, so no massive change there.
The outs were good, the ins were in the right places so hopefully they're also the right players. It's not that good, it's not all bad. The real time breakdowns some posters had on here in the hours following the deadline though? A+, thank you for your service. A genuine delight to read through
Nothing as fans we can do about the fact that we are in a prolonged and uncomfortable ownership situation. Therefore no point in expending anymore angst about it, depressing and worrying though it is in equal measure. Looking purely on the playing side, I’m glad to see the back of every single departure. They were all chuff. EOC was a surprise but I’m not overly bothered. What I am bothered about is the quality of the replacements/temporary additions that are supposed to see us through till the end of the season. Kane looked ok but has been Charltonized already, Hector is a story all to himself, Penney looks dreadful (see what I did there) and just don’t start me on Bonne about whom I have vented enough already. Dunno much about Kilkenny so can’t really comment other than to say if he’s not an upgrade on Albie then there’s something wrong. We have settled for mid table mediocrity and cost savings with half a season to go. We’ve just kicked the can down the road to be dealt with in the summer. We won’t be relegated. We probably have enough points already as there is some real chuff in this league and Burton have just secured one of the four places. Really hard to maintain much enthusiasm till there’s a change at the top. Ho hum.
I can’t believe people are trying to put a positive spin on this. It’s a disaster, TS has been a disaster, he’s been on par with Roland when it comes to recruitment. Wasting millions on bang average players and not even giving them a chance because of disastrous management appointments. Some are saying at least the dead wood are off the books but most are only loans, so most likely we’re still paying a good percentage of their wages. Paying their wages to play for other teams while when the inevitable injury crisis happens we’ll be playing the kids. However bad those players were they were better than our first choice players are when they’re sat on a treatment table. He’s stripping the club of the few assets that are left. There is no buyer close, you wouldn’t panic offload half of your squad to slash costs when new owners are just around the corner. The club is in a dangerous limbo, how do you think this will affect the moral of the first team? Most will be onto their agents this morning sounding the alarm bells and that will translate into each players form.
Sadly, I am old and ugly enough to remember a season back in the late 70s when we were in a similar position in the league to our current one - bottom half but nowhere near going down.
The powers that be then decided it would be a good idea to loan out to an American team 3 of our best forwards - Flanagan, Powell & Abrahams. Surprise, surprise the team went into freefall and we ended up staying up only by winning our last game.
Fast forward 40 odd years and looking at all the players we have lent out again and I can only wonder whether history will repeat itself.
I guess we can all agree this is all consistent with the only two public pronouncements from the club - TS's strategy to work towards breakeven and Holden's comment about trimming and re-balancing the squad. Whilst we may have trimmed in terms of numbers, I'm not convinced we have enough quality in the centre of defence, midfield or up front but hey-ho.
Assuming we steer clear of relegation, what next? What is the strategy to move this club forward on the football pitch? If there is no new investment in the club and say Holden leaves at the end of the season etc what changes? Do we end up not appointing a new manager until late June or July, leave the summer recruitment too late, bring in poor quality recruits etc etc etc? Absence anything changing, we are on target to simply rinse and repeat.
O'Connell makes no sense. Would have kept DJ who I seem unusual around here in quite liking.
JFC, McG, Kirk, Lavelle going have zero impact, all dreadful players or knackered. Stockley and McGrandles will have minor impacts.
Incoming
Bonne is shit
Penny looks poor but only one game so far
Kane is out for most of the season
Kilkenny I have no clue. Hector is not fit
Scott clearly came to massively reduce our budget and lied to our faces when he first arrived.
Holden has lost a lot of credibility today.
Hope TS Leaves in the summer not 80% but 100% and that PV can come riding to our rescue.
We have 8-9 really decent players that a new owner could build a very strong team around but it looks bleak right now.
Out of interest who are the “8-9 strong players “ who a “really strong team” could be built around
AMB, Wollacott, Ness, Egbo, Dobson, Fraser and Leaburn are 7. All contracted for next season and none would look out of place in a top 6 team IMO.
Sess would be available if we had the right owner and likewise would be good enough.
Add to that Campbell, Mitchell and Kanu who all look like cracking prospects to me and will be of an age that they would expect to start getting more minutes.
Then we have Anderson, Adigun (plus if they sign up Kone and Casey) from the youth who will be a year older and also all look like excellent prospects who I would fancy to contribute next season.
We have the basis of a talented, if young, squad.
We get the chance to look at Kane, Penny, Hector and Kilkenny - you would like to think that 1/2 of those may be good enough and I haven't totally written off McGrandles and DJ personally.
Sure, you still need a major rebuild and a motivated and wealthy owner and sure Leaburn will almost certainly be sold (but a new owner would hopefully reinvest that money).
It's all down to the ownership now, an unmotivated TS or a "flip" disaster attempt by a poorly funded Methven and we are well and truly screwed. Someone prepared to invest like TS was when he joined, but with more common sense and ability to recruit the right non playing staff to make those transfer decisions and we could have a good season.
I don't understand people's expectations from this window maybe 50 years of supporting Charlton means I'm a sceptic at best but usually a cynic but I had zero expectations going into this window whilst TS remained in charge.
Its been over a decade since we last had a decent window when SCP overhauled the squad and got us out of this awful league and we haven't had a decent window since - yes we have brought in some decent players over the years but also some complete dross and we've had an unbalanced squad coming out of each successive window.
Until there's a sale and a complete overhaul of the running of the club I'm not expecting much and certainly not the sort of window that will make us promotion contenders.
I'm not as doom and gloom as some of you. We've trimmed and the squad is perhaps less flexible, but honestly, we've shipped out a whole bunch of inadequates and signed what could, even should be some quality that's too good for this league (conditionally speaking), and that's on the final day alone. Our first choice starting XI is arguably stronger now than it was at any other point of the season - yes, it'd be nice to get Kane or Egbo back, and for Chuks to finally get a run of games in - but while EOC is a loss, a fit Hector would be a serious upgrade. The centre-back situation does look a bit perilous but Inniss/Ness have been doing pretty well under Holden and Thomas is...well, a L1 player in the room. And Elewere is still out there somewhere. I don't see why there's such need for gnashing of teeth, but then again this is Charlton Life and we are a much-abused fanbase so it's natural to automatically assume everything is being done badly and for the wrong reasons.
Anyway, LET'S SEE. As I say, with Kilkenny in there especially I reckon our midfield could be up there with more or less anything in the league. Three eminently winnable games coming up to test the hypothesis.
So it looks like we seemingly sold EOC for £350,000 and Stockley for £250,000. That's £600,000 that should be re-invested in the squad but won't be in the current set-up. Quite frustrating knowing it's not going anywhere.
With so much shit in the squad it's hardly impossible to let anyone half decent go but we managed that in EOC but held on to our decent ones Dobson, Leaburn, Ness & Fraser , not even sure how decent they are cos in a crock of shit anything looks good . We'll have some of the dross we've unloaded returning and some of the new ones disappearing at the end of the season then we can say how important it is to get players in early and the next two weeks/months are crucial we'll sign another load of hit and miss , people will wank off before we see them play and the worlds shittiest merry go round circus of a football club will continue on it's fucktard route in to obliviion . Stay positive
I'm not overly disappointed by any of the departures. With the exception of Dobson & leaburn, i don't mind any of this current squad leaving. People losing their minds over the likes of Lavelle & kirk leaving is laughable IMO. I think we've done well to offload some absolute dross!!
I don't think we need another striker as we pnly play 1 up front, but I do agree we're probably a centre back & a winger light though
Deadline day is always interesting as it really doesn't take much to go from optimism and surprise to devastation. I'd say yesterday we had one outgoing that was uncomfortable and missed out on one incoming that we should have completed. Other than that, objectives pretty much met for the window, definitely in terms of positions, remains to be seen in terms of the players themselves.
We needed a full back on each side to cover for injury and a gap and we got both, though Kane's injury complicates things. We needed quality above Morgan in the middle and hopefully Kilkenny is that. We needed a first team striker to compete with Leaburn, Bonne came in. We also clearly needed to have better options at CB and we brought in Hector. We should have brought in another winger after letting two go and should have had back up options to Edwards
In terms of outgoings, we had three first team keepers and one wasn't very good; we resolved that. We had a highly paid striker who didn't score or contribute; he's gone. We had a winger who has made 7 L1 appearances this season, dropped to 5th choice and has mostly been injured; gone. We had a centre back who was truly the most lost player we've had in years; Burtoned. Two central midfielders with two league starts between them, an under-delivering winger the manager clearly didn't rate, all gone. These were all moves that needed to happen. The curve ball was O'Connell. There was a point yesterday where we had 6 first team centre halves and we got that back down to 4 by the end. It's clear that it would have been Thomas and Lavelle if not for EOC going, but it's uncomfortable that the player we just signed who would have been worth keeping in the squad is the one who went. He wasn't playing under Holden but there's something off about it for sure, and I wonder if it says a lot that Wrexham knew they could come calling at the 11th hour and get what they wanted off Charlton. Beyond that though, Wrexham are weird, they'll get the players they go for.
Bottom line is now everything depends on a takeover. If we get bought by an ownership that can spend some money then the deck clearing is good. We can see if Hector and Bonne are worthy of longer contracts, we've put the players we don't want in the shop window for the summer, we can rebuild. If there's no takeover or it's a penniless farce then we're screwed, but we're screwed anyway right now, so no massive change there.
The outs were good, the ins were in the right places so hopefully they're also the right players. It's not that good, it's not all bad. The real time breakdowns some posters had on here in the hours following the deadline though? A+, thank you for your service. A genuine delight to read through
What a weird deadline day. Didn't expect Terrell Thomas staying to be a positive at the end, not that he's much good but bare bones if he'd gone as well. Surprised we let DJ go, it's now just Campbell as wide back up isn't it?
Departures expected for the most part, overdue in one or two cases and down to absolutely sh*t recruitment decisions in the first place for one or two others.
The incomings bring more balance, we have a left back, at last… That said, it is a gambler’s paradise. If Hector can get and stay fit quickly, could be a gem at this level, Kilkenny should show up as our new Cullen, Penney should prove fine against anybody outside the top 6, Bonne will run a lot and will have a purple patch at some point, just a question when and for how long and Kane is versatile and of good pedigree, just a shame he is out for a few more weeks, but this is Charlton, after all.
The biggest surprise and bonus is that we get to see Leaburn, Dobbo, Ness, JRS and AMB for another half season. TS could have cashed in on one or two of those if this was a wholesale fire sale. Overall B, but the business smacks of consolidation in mid table, no promotion push, nor relegation battle unless we lose 2 or 3 key players to injury, in which case squeaky bum time.
Comments
Look forward to summer rebuild version whatever we are on.
DJ and Lavelle have another year with us.
Kirk is contracted until 2025.
The powers that be then decided it would be a good idea to loan out to an American team 3 of our best forwards - Flanagan, Powell & Abrahams. Surprise, surprise the team went into freefall and we ended up staying up only by winning our last game.
Fast forward 40 odd years and looking at all the players we have lent out again and I can only wonder whether history will repeat itself.
Assuming we steer clear of relegation, what next? What is the strategy to move this club forward on the football pitch? If there is no new investment in the club and say Holden leaves at the end of the season etc what changes? Do we end up not appointing a new manager until late June or July, leave the summer recruitment too late, bring in poor quality recruits etc etc etc? Absence anything changing, we are on target to simply rinse and repeat.
AMB, Wollacott, Ness, Egbo, Dobson, Fraser and Leaburn are 7. All contracted for next season and none would look out of place in a top 6 team IMO.
Sess would be available if we had the right owner and likewise would be good enough.
Add to that Campbell, Mitchell and Kanu who all look like cracking prospects to me and will be of an age that they would expect to start getting more minutes.
Then we have Anderson, Adigun (plus if they sign up Kone and Casey) from the youth who will be a year older and also all look like excellent prospects who I would fancy to contribute next season.
We have the basis of a talented, if young, squad.
We get the chance to look at Kane, Penny, Hector and Kilkenny - you would like to think that 1/2 of those may be good enough and I haven't totally written off McGrandles and DJ personally.
Sure, you still need a major rebuild and a motivated and wealthy owner and sure Leaburn will almost certainly be sold (but a new owner would hopefully reinvest that money).
It's all down to the ownership now, an unmotivated TS or a "flip" disaster attempt by a poorly funded Methven and we are well and truly screwed. Someone prepared to invest like TS was when he joined, but with more common sense and ability to recruit the right non playing staff to make those transfer decisions and we could have a good season.
Its been over a decade since we last had a decent window when SCP overhauled the squad and got us out of this awful league and we haven't had a decent window since - yes we have brought in some decent players over the years but also some complete dross and we've had an unbalanced squad coming out of each successive window.
Until there's a sale and a complete overhaul of the running of the club I'm not expecting much and certainly not the sort of window that will make us promotion contenders.
Anyway, LET'S SEE. As I say, with Kilkenny in there especially I reckon our midfield could be up there with more or less anything in the league. Three eminently winnable games coming up to test the hypothesis.
We'll have some of the dross we've unloaded returning and some of the new ones disappearing at the end of the season
then we can say how important it is to get players in early and the next two weeks/months are crucial
we'll sign another load of hit and miss , people will wank off before we see them play and the worlds shittiest merry go round circus of a football club will continue on it's fucktard route in to obliviion .
Stay positive
I don't think we need another striker as we pnly play 1 up front, but I do agree we're probably a centre back & a winger light though
Surprised we let DJ go, it's now just Campbell as wide back up isn't it?
The incomings bring more balance, we have a left back, at last… That said, it is a gambler’s paradise. If Hector can get and stay fit quickly, could be a gem at this level, Kilkenny should show up as our new Cullen, Penney should prove fine against anybody outside the top 6, Bonne will run a lot and will have a purple patch at some point, just a question when and for how long and Kane is versatile and of good pedigree, just a shame he is out for a few more weeks, but this is Charlton, after all.
The biggest surprise and bonus is that we get to see Leaburn, Dobbo, Ness, JRS and AMB for another half season. TS could have cashed in on one or two of those if this was a wholesale fire sale. Overall B, but the business smacks of consolidation in mid table, no promotion push, nor relegation battle unless we lose 2 or 3 key players to injury, in which case squeaky bum time.
Ness
Egbo
Morgan
CBT
Leaburn
Fraser
Dobbo
Kanu
Good enough to try to compete with Bolton
But we'd still lose... probably
We need 10 players as good, but probably better than the above to get promoted next year.