Mandela Egbo - gone to Colchester (p17)

ShootersHillGuru said:

So will Egbo be fit to start preseason do we think ? 

Should be, we’re just not sure what year though.

Croydon said:

Never been injured before, joins and gets two serious injuries in his first season. Mental

Only averages 20 odd games a season throughout his career though.

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/summer-signing-still-a-long-way-away-from-being-back-available-for-charlton-athletic/

ForeverAddickted said:

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/summer-signing-still-a-long-way-away-from-being-back-available-for-charlton-athletic/

That's a shame, he looked quite good, and his ability to push forward and overlap or overload the right side really helped JRS, as it meant teams couldn't double and triple up on him. Clare has been better getting forward the last couple of games but it's not necessarily his forte. 

mendonca said:

O'Connell is likely an ACL year out. But surely our Journo's should be asking?

Typical that both long term injuries occured in the same game I think.

O'Connell was expected back before Christmas!

Egbo was in our top three performers until his injury, I reckon. I think our performances have tailed off since he’s been out. 

I reckon our physios are Millwall fans and are destroying us from the inside

I think our Club was spinning a few truths about the O'Connell's return. It knows we are quite a laughing stock with injuries. Maybe the injuries mounted because they didn't use MS's Tens machine that morning. 

Sometimes our luck is just out who has 2 fingers breaks in a season putting players out.

cabbles said:

Cafc43v3r said:

Croydon said:

Never been injured before, joins and gets two serious injuries in his first season. Mental

Only averages 20 odd games a season throughout his career though.

This is a good point and I think really representative of what happens/happened as a result of TS cutting back in the summer.  Egbo looks decent, but at an average of 20 games a season, that’s probably why we got him and Swindon was his route back into English football last season.  

If he was managing more than 20 games a season, he probably wouldn’t have been in our budget this summer. 

Payne is a similar example.  I think he tries hard, but he’s 27 and has been mooching around the lower leagues.  It’s not going to get us out the division.

personally, given how poor our recruitment has been in the last 2 years and the length of contracts given out, I hope the Jan window is more a number of short term reinforcements to make sure we stay up (I think we will, but let’s not leave anything to chance), and then we reassess in the summer (properly).  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve said it, but we need a mass clear out in the summer, and I fear if we bring in 3 or 4 on 2+ year deals now, they could be equally as poor as Aneke, Stockley, Mansfield etc and we’re back here again this time next year.  

Keep this window very short term in our thinking and use March onwards to think about what the future looks like 

When Ali Maxwell was on CharltonTV a while back, he talked about how Jack Payne was too good for League Two and that he only dropped down there because he was a fan of Garner's. The big issue with him has always been his size and what position he plays best. He's been played wide and as a box-to-box midfielder for us, and I don't know that either are his best position. I think he's better when he has a free role/as a 10, but we have Fraser there, and so Payne has been asked to graft more than he might otherwise have done. 

We have a lot of midfielders, and some decent quality in midfield, but we don't haven't really had a natural box-to-box player this year. I think that was supposed to be McGrandles, but he signed injured, missed most of pre-season, got hurt, and then got hurt again. A fit JFC would be another option there, although given the two knee injuries I don't know if that's as realistic as it might have been 2-3 years ago. Gilbey did it last year, and...yeah. He works hard, but there's a question about lack of technical ability with him.

As such, we've played Payne and Albie there in a three. Both can play there, but it's not really either ones' strongest position (full disclosure, I'm not entirely sure what Albie's best role is). And then we played Fraser there in a two, and while he worked hard, he influence in the final third was drastically limited.

I feel similarly with Egbo as to Payne in that there is enough quality there to take a shot with him...if you have four senior fullbacks. We don't, we have three. As such, he missed a lot of pre season due to a contact injury, got thrown back into the fold almost straight away, looked knackered after a bit, had to keep playing, and got hurt. 

Both Egbo and Payne for me show that the problem was not necessarily the players we signed in the summer, it was the lack of a complete squad that we put together. Going to the lower leagues for talent is what you have to do when you're in League One and have no international scouting base or ability to sign players from abroad. It's a small pool, lots of teams are competing for the same players, and as such, you have to look for players you believe can grow and flourish. I think Egbo, Payne, O'Connell, and Wollacott are all decent additions. It's more an issue of not having the players to cover for them (with the exception of JoJo) when they're not fully fit, or that allow them to play in their best position. 

Cafc43v3r said:

SDAddick said:

cabbles said:

Cafc43v3r said:

Croydon said:

Never been injured before, joins and gets two serious injuries in his first season. Mental

Only averages 20 odd games a season throughout his career though.

This is a good point and I think really representative of what happens/happened as a result of TS cutting back in the summer.  Egbo looks decent, but at an average of 20 games a season, that’s probably why we got him and Swindon was his route back into English football last season.  

If he was managing more than 20 games a season, he probably wouldn’t have been in our budget this summer. 

Payne is a similar example.  I think he tries hard, but he’s 27 and has been mooching around the lower leagues.  It’s not going to get us out the division.

personally, given how poor our recruitment has been in the last 2 years and the length of contracts given out, I hope the Jan window is more a number of short term reinforcements to make sure we stay up (I think we will, but let’s not leave anything to chance), and then we reassess in the summer (properly).  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve said it, but we need a mass clear out in the summer, and I fear if we bring in 3 or 4 on 2+ year deals now, they could be equally as poor as Aneke, Stockley, Mansfield etc and we’re back here again this time next year.  

Keep this window very short term in our thinking and use March onwards to think about what the future looks like 

When Ali Maxwell was on CharltonTV a while back, he talked about how Jack Payne was too good for League Two and that he only dropped down there because he was a fan of Garner's. The big issue with him has always been his size and what position he plays best. He's been played wide and as a box-to-box midfielder for us, and I don't know that either are his best position. I think he's better when he has a free role/as a 10, but we have Fraser there, and so Payne has been asked to graft more than he might otherwise have done. 

We have a lot of midfielders, and some decent quality in midfield, but we don't haven't really had a natural box-to-box player this year. I think that was supposed to be McGrandles, but he signed injured, missed most of pre-season, got hurt, and then got hurt again. A fit JFC would be another option there, although given the two knee injuries I don't know if that's as realistic as it might have been 2-3 years ago. Gilbey did it last year, and...yeah. He works hard, but there's a question about lack of technical ability with him.

As such, we've played Payne and Albie there in a three. Both can play there, but it's not really either ones' strongest position (full disclosure, I'm not entirely sure what Albie's best role is). And then we played Fraser there in a two, and while he worked hard, he influence in the final third was drastically limited.

I feel similarly with Egbo as to Payne in that there is enough quality there to take a shot with him...if you have four senior fullbacks. We don't, we have three. As such, he missed a lot of pre season due to a contact injury, got thrown back into the fold almost straight away, looked knackered after a bit, had to keep playing, and got hurt. 

Both Egbo and Payne for me show that the problem was not necessarily the players we signed in the summer, it was the lack of a complete squad that we put together. Going to the lower leagues for talent is what you have to do when you're in League One and have no international scouting base or ability to sign players from abroad. It's a small pool, lots of teams are competing for the same players, and as such, you have to look for players you believe can grow and flourish. I think Egbo, Payne, O'Connell, and Wollacott are all decent additions. It's more an issue of not having the players to cover for them (with the exception of JoJo) when they're not fully fit, or that allow them to play in their best position. 

I still don't think Fraser is a 10, he needs the game more in front of him IMO.  He didn't play as a 10 for MK Dons.

Fraser himself said in an interview some while ago that he's not a 10, but more of an 8.

Callumcafc said:

Enjoyed him on CharltonTV today.

Discussing the Man U game now, and why it hasn’t been picked for TV.

”I am surprised they didn’t pick our game because WHEN there’s an upset…”

he's very good

Comes over as really nice guy.