I posted this in another forum as a view on how I think we will do this season, do you guys think it is fair appraisal?
After one the maddest season's in the clubs history I think most true Charlton fans will be happy for a season of consolidation. However most bookies have us down as favourites?
Granted when we first went down I would have agreed saying that we were told we would lose only 4 or 5 players however that wasn’t the case. Bent, Young and Rohmmers were always going to go but after that I thought we would keep the spine of team intact.
There is an argument that Pards is clearing out all the dead wood and replacing it with fresh new exciting talent which may be the case but in my mind not a guaranteed route straight back up.
In addition to the 3 already mentioned we also lost Lisbie,Heirididsson,Kishishev,Fortune,Hughes and Walton all to Rival clubs in our division and El Karkouri has gone back home. Diawarra is on the brink of a move to borduax. Hasslebiank left on a free and Song,Carson and Zheng's loan spells all ended with none of them wanting to stay. If Diawarra does go it will mean all but 2 of Ian Dowies 9 signings have left the Valley.
So, how about pardew’s signings? It seems Pardew has gone for the stark opposite to Dowie. Bringing players in from lower divisions with a hunger and a point to prove(Mixed with a few old pro's to lend experience). Players who will be proud to pull on the red and white shirt.
Well I was pleased by the capture of Luke Varney although a bit sceptical over the 2 million price tag. Iwwelumo looked a good bit of business on a free transfer from Colchester but can only really see him being a bit part player in truth.
The patrick Mcarthy signing from Leicester puzzled me slightly to be honest as most of their fans think he is a massive donkey. French and Portuguese under 21 international defenders Moutakoukil and Semendo Joined from thier respective countries. Both have looked rare talents in pre season. Young Dean Sinclair was picked up on a free transfer from Barnet.
Todorov, Nicky weaver and Chris Powell made up the summer signings so far, all experienced players joining form Premier league clubs.
Of the current crop still with us U.S.A international Cory Gibbs should be a good player at this level having joined a year ago but not playing at all last season through injury. Andy Reid has looked really fit pre-season and if he stays fit could light this division up. Ambrose, Thomas, Christenson and Majhid Bougharra could also be good at this level.
Marcus Bent,Ben Thatcher and Matt holland will add to the exprience in the squad.
So far in pre season we played well and failed to concede a goal which looks good. However Diawarra has played in all of those games and will be gone the next 24 hours so we will need to re-place him.
All in all I think our starting 11 will be good enough to win this league but the squad is not big enough. We have team full of injury prone players and players with a poor disciplinary record so ultimately we will suffer I feel.
Most promsing Signing: Yassin Moutaouakil
Player saddest to see leave: Darren Bent
Prediction: 7th
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But based on what?
We need to see how the team perform in the first dozen matches against CCC clubs before anyone, anywhere can make a reasonable guess at where we will finish.
Other than that, we might just as well predict tonight's lottery numbers or whether it will snow on Christmas Day. ;-)
Predict 9th Sadly
As for the ins and outs so far.........driving back from Liverpool in May my mate and I passed the 4 hour journey summising who would stay and who would go, and I must say at that time I thought we might have lost a few more than we have (Thomas being the main one). We all knew Benty, Romms and a few of the foriengers would go and that a few would be released (JFH etc) and I think we were looking at at around 12-14 going ! Main surprise was HH, but at that time wern't aware of his contract (barsteward) and very happy Hughes, Kish, Lisbie have all left.
Very pleased so far with moo2, Semedo and a couple of the freebies and hoping that a fit Varney can score 12-15 goals this season - but still think we need a TOP striker to get the 20-odd you need to get promoted, although back in 97/98 who would have thought a player from Grimsby
would have done it ?? That and a midfield play-maker to replace Reidy when injured (c'mon, we all know he aint going to play 46 games this season) and I think that we have a chance.
Finally - m Bent and Sinclair look like passengers to me - hope I am proved wrong but just can't see it........A Cole isn't the answer. but then again I don't know who is????
We still need a centre mid (although Samedo looked good there and suspect that if he is given time to settle in he will be a superb player for us) because ol' fat-arse Reid isn't going to last forty odd games in the chumpionship and Faye is just... well... shite really. We also need at least one more centre half if Diawara sods off - I think Bougherra and McCarthy could be reasonably good together, but McCarthy is sl-o-o-o-w and I worry about Magic being as much of a liability as El Kak was at times. I tend to agree with pardew though - top of the list is a 20 goal a season man. I know they're not exactly easy to come by, but someone like Ellington would be ideal. Bent ain't going to give a toss in this division and it looks like Pardew wants to send Dickson out on loan - so he must have his eye on someone else. Realistically I think that will be Cole or McLeod. Unfortunately, neither of them are going to be as good as what we need, so I can't see us finishing higher than about eighth.
Our representative was someone from netaddicks, predicting we'll go up as champions - and I think 17 or so of the other 23 supporters also suggested we'll be promoted.
One of the exceptions was the Palace fan, who put us down as one of the three teams to be relegated...
Personally, I'm expecting a good season, because on our day we should have enough quality to beat any other side in the division - and hopefully a bit of cash in the bank to spend later in the year if we need to.
Like Oggy says, give it 10 games or so and we should have a fair idea of what sort of position we'll be capable of, both in terms of our own abilities and those of our likely promotion rivals.
I just feel that there has been too much upheaval this season and cant help but think that this is a 2 year plan.
Major changearound in players this summer, if they bed in and do well then great, if it takes a bit of time and we see the benefits next season with a bit more parachute money, then so be it.
Still think missing out on Eastwood to one of our promootion rivals will haunt us.
That said, there is a lot of mediocrity in this division so I still think we'll be in the play offs.
Top Four
1 Watford
2 Wolves
3 Sheff Utd
4 Charlton
If Varney fires, and we get 2 more in, we'll be more then fine
chickens coming home to roost me thinks.
No reidy - no chance.
Im looking at next season now..... and the release of all the pressure... just Charlton trying to do what they can to get us up...