The eye of the Tigers
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I think Iād rather forego next seasonās 6 points than have Millwall join Palace in the Premier League.
Please click for moreMay 12
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Patrick Casey
Interested to see Patrick Casey being offered a new pro deal.
The club released their academy squad update today with Toby Bower, Ollie Hobden, Paris Lock, Lennon MacLorg and Tommy Reid being the most high profile leavers.
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Review of the season
I enjoyed having the stress levels reduced over the weekend with no Charlton game. Less so if you are a West Ham fan. Looks like weāve come to the point where VAR will decide the Premier League title and relegation.
Play-off semiās conclude this week, the Championships ones were tight. Bolton, with no Rob Apter in their squad, and Stockport (Tanto came on as a sub) have the advantages.
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Luke Berry appreciation
Just a few words on Luke Berry. The club is in a much better place than it was when he joined.
Berry and Nathan Jones were reunited after he was released by Luton in the summer of 2024 following the Hatterās relegation from the Premier League.
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Squad update thoughts
Itās hard to take the scalpel to the squad when there isnāt much lying on the operating table.
The only long-term contracted players that expired this summer are Luke Berry and Terry Taylor, both will be released. As expected TC will have his additonal year triggered. The club also have an option on Godden, but with him and Lyndon Dykes the club āremains in discussion.ā
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Ft. Lauderdale Swimming Hall of Fame
Last weekend we were at the Ft. Lauderdale International Swimming Hall of Fame, and their impressive aquatic complex, which is midpoint of a $220 million redevelopment that is planned to be finished in 2028.
We saw it before but I had to look up why this impressive competitive arena was chosen over anywhere else in the country. According to ChatGPT in the early 1960s, Fort Lauderdale had already established itself as a premier training destination, notably hosting the College Swim Forum and international teams, making it a natural fit for the Hall of Fame.
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Coventry called up
Good to see Addicksā Conor Coventry be selected for the upcoming Republic of Ireland friendly.
Heimir Hallgrimsson added seven players included for the first time for this monthās friendly against Grenada.
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Ruthless decisions
Nathan Jones has stated numerous times, and yesterday more forcefully that this summer will see a big turnaround in playing staff following the consolidation of our Championship status, the first time the club have done that since 2013, and the first time ever following promotion through the play-offās.
Jones said yesterday: āWe need an influx of quality, athleticism, better decision-makers and pace. Everything. We need better.ā
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Swansea City 3 Charlton Athletic 1
And relax. Thatās it then, all over.
Defeat on the final day of the season losing to Swansea 3-1 in South Wales.
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Game 46
So here we are then. We made it, game 46. Swansea City away.
You couldāve had a baby in the time since the opening day against Watford, which is actually still quite fresh in my memory. Not having a baby, Iāve never actually had a baby, but the Watford game. What a great day that was even though I spent 14 hours of it on an airplane.
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Lloyd Jones
Lloyd Jonesā name will appear on the POTY trophy for the second successive season.
Jones follows such Addick luminaries as Mark Kinsella, John Humphrey, Mark Aizlewood, Nicky Johns, Richard Rufus and Keith Peacock in winning the fan voted for award two yearās running. John Humphrey won it three times in a row between 1988 – 1990.
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The Big Easy
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Zurich Classic this past week(end). This is the only PGA Tourās regular-season team event, when 80 pairs of pro golfers compete at the TPC of Louisiana.
TPC Louisiana is a stunningly beautiful golf course in Avondale, 15 miles from New Orleans, built over wetlands, still home to hundreds of alligators, and carved from a forest of cypress and oak trees.
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Lennie Lawrence dinner
I had this photo sent to me of Lennie Lawrenceās dinner at The Valley on Sunday. Had me feeling all sentimental.
Lennie is an Addicks legend, a miracle worker who bought, and coached some of my favourite ever (and best) Charlton players of the last half a century. And at 78 years old is still working in the game.
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The journey continues
How nice was it to follow yesterdayās results after the conclusion of our game. Stress levels: zero.
Oxford shoved Wednesday aside and Derby, Hull and Wrexham will contest the final place-off place next week. Meanwhile it does look like Millwall will need to beat Oxford, whatever happens in the Southampton v Ipswich game on Tuesday.
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Charlton Athletic 2 Hull City 1
Iāll say it again. Phew.
Fantastic to win today to secure our Championship status after our first year up. Two wonderful goals allowed us all to let out massive sense of relief.
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Together
Nathan Jones has recorded a message to supporters on the official channels. Weāve had a few of these over the years, but this one seems as significant as the many others that have come before them.
There are so many thoughts swirling around my head that Iād like to get down in writing, but I donāt feel this is the time for that. That needs a clear head and it is nothing but that at present.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Ipswich Town 2
I felt I needed to sleep on last nightās game.
That wasnāt particuarly successful as I couldnāt get our situation out of my head, plus my alarm went off at 4.30am as I had an early flight to catch. The anxiety is real.
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MoD magazine to close
Sad news reaches me that the Addicksā fan magazine My Only Desire are calling it a day after five years.
Itās bloody tough, time consuming and expensive to produce a regular fanzine but the guys at MOD have done an excellent job of keeping it relevant and engaging.
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Sheffield Wednesday 1 Charlton Athletic 1
We are such a hard watch. There was absolutely nothing praiseworthy about that, and we were second best all over the pitch.
It is like every game is on a loop and weāve been playing the same match for weeks. We are simply incapable of taking care of ourselves.
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No faint hearts
How we all feeling?
Iām making my way home after being away for 15 of the last 17 days and in that time saw the Addicks in the flesh twice, watched the Watford game on the box, and will be back in front of the small screen on Saturday.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Preston North End 2
Apologies for another delay on my post match thoughts. I was at The Valley again yesterday and again had to drown my sorrows afterwards.
This morning I woke with my stomach churning and that was not due to the late night Brick Lane curry.
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Conor Coady discharged from hospital
On his 500th appearance Conor Coady was entrusted back into the defensive midfield role today, and I was pleased to see it.
He had a strong game, but just after the officials put up 6 minutes of added time, Conor took a shot from Tom Ince straight in the face and lay prone unconscious for 9 minutes.
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Watford 1 Charlton Athletic 1
Another very good away performance. Itās been a nice run since the Millwall debacle.
Today we held a better structure, defended smarter, characteristically battled for everything, and wasnāt it great to see Matty Godden score.
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The Let Down Effect
I had been in the UK since last Monday. This week begins a crazy period of work travel. If anyone has a potion for preventing illness after extended trips, then please share.
I beleive they call it the āLet Down Effect,ā which after extended periods of stress or travel or both, elevated hormone levels drop quickly, resulting in a ācrashā of the immune system.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Bristol City 2
Iām heading home to Florida today and was at the game yesterday. We really are crawling to the finish line, well not even crawling more frozen to the spot.
It was another frustrating display as we lost at home for the third time in four matches.
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Charltonās women
I know a fair few of you pay close attention and watch Charlton Womenās team.
I follow their results enough to know that under Karen Hills theyāve hardly been showing scintillating form despite being sitting on top of the WSL 2 table, and despite going over a calendar year without defeat and being top of the table this entire season the Addicks have been wobbly for a while.
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The final straight
So here we are then, the final block of matches. 7 left, 4 at home, 3 away. The finish line in sight.
Hopeful too, that we see the return of Matty Godden and Harvey Knibbs, although the official channels are being usually schtum about the injury situation.
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Reggae Boyz need to turn the music up
I am one of those rare Englishmen that likes to see other āhome nationsā qualify for big tournaments, so that went well this past week.
You just know that Lloyd Jones would have won that header against Edin Džeko at that late corner!
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Silly season
The silly season is back.
Bristol City today sacked Gerhard Struber and replaced him with 78-year old Roy Hodgson. The ex-England manager has been retired since leaving Crystal Palace over two years ago, and will take charge of City for the remaining seven games of the season starting with us on Good Friday.
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Charlton Athletic 0 Norwich City 1
The Addicks fell to their 7th home defeat of the season today losing 1-0 to in-form Norwich City.
For 45 minutes we were second best by a stretch, but we had a good go in the second period and although the best team won, on another day we couldāve snatched a point with more luck, and a better referee.
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Addicks and World Cup play-offās
It wasnāt a surprise that Lyndon Dykes was called up this week for the Scotland squad, who play friendlies against Japan at Hampden Park on Saturday and then take on fellow World Cup qualifiers Ivory Coast at Evertonās Hill Dickinson Stadium next Tuesday.
What wasnāt a surprise was the lack of a call up for Conor Coventry from Ireland and Lloyd Jones from Craig Bellamy of Wales as those two nations enter a huge week in the World Cup play-offs.
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Tyreece Campbell
There hasnāt been an Addicks player that splits opinion for a number of years like Tyreece Campbell does.
Campbell has been at the club since he was 9 and made his debut just over 4 years ago. He tops the appearance list comfortably within the current squad and as we know is favoured by manager Nathan Jones and has featured in every league game this season thus far.
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Second team
Iāve never had a second team, never really understood the concept. One team gives me enough headaches.
When I lived back at home (sic) I used to watch a whole range of local sides – Welling, Bromley, Tonbridge, Hornchurch, Eastbourne Borough. It was a nice little outlet if the Addicks werenāt playing or were away.
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Oxford United 1 Charlton Athletic 1
Iāll take that. 7 massive points this week, and from three such different games.
We were excellent last Saturday at home to Birmingham and thoroughly deserved the 3 points. The long Wednesday trip up north to Middlesbrough saw a masterclass defensive performance and we snuffled all 3 points to take home. Today we were poor, and we contributed to a poor match, but still managed to come away with an important point.
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Mbick out for the season
For those that follow our loan players they wouldāve seen Micah Mbick take a really bad tackle during his first full game back for Colchester from his recent hip injury on Saturday.
I say tackle as it wasnāt even given as a foul as the ref played on following a high challenge from Newport Countyās Cameron Evansās
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Middlesbrough 0 Charlton Athletic 1
Wow.
A breathtaking result and 3 points being brought 300 miles home tonight. Heroes on the pitch, and heroes in the stand.
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Can Kelman kick on
Charlie Kelman finished his goal yesterday like the striker we had hoped we had signed in the summer.
There were some interesting interviews after the game from both Nathan Jones and Kelman, which basically said the same and I donāt expect they had time to collude beforehand. I think we all want to see Kelman wheel away cupping his ears after scoring more often. Question is, will we.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Birmingham City 0
1-0 to the Charlton boys.
Huge win at home today that was peppered with some really strong individual performances and a real desire from the team to get the win.
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Play-off places extended to 8th
The attempted Americanization of the planet sport continues. In Americaās MLS 18 teams qualify for the play-offās and they have a best of three āknockoutā in the first round, so we can only look forward to that.
It was annonced today that EFL Championship clubs voted in favour of expanding the play-offs from four to six teams effective next season. I mean of course they did, it was owners casting the vote. The day before Turkeyās voted to abolish Christmas.
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Charlton Athletic 0 Wrexham 1
We did not deserve to lose that. At all.
Our best attacking display for many weeks, but it resulted in defeat and a blank in front of goal telling the serial story of us not being clinical enough. Seminally we were just unable to create enough clear cut chances from our midfield and wide players.
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Jonesā presser
The Thursday weekly pre-match Nathan Jones club presser follows a similar format each week. It is obviously heavily managed and at best we get a look back at how well last weekās oppositon were coached, how well this coming weekās team are coached, and injury news consisting of updates that players are a week less injured than they were last Thursday.
However, Rich Cawley asks the questions that we want answers to.
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West Bromwich Albion 1 Charlton Athletic 1
There I was thinking wouldnāt it be great if we really took the game to them tonight and show that we are better spirited, better organized and a better team. Then the game kicked offā¦.
We were bad, very bad, but one piece of quality grabbed us a valuable point. Losing really wasnāt an option tonight.
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Ciao bella
Well, sadly that is it for four more years. Thatās my armchair coaching and commnentating on sports I know little or anything about over until next time. Iām sure I wasnāt the only person shouting at the teleā for Bruce Mouat to takeout or Charlotte Bankes to straightline!
I was lucky to see a lot of this yearās Winter Olympics and I enjoyed BBC, TNT and NBCās coverage. The closing ceremony this afternoon was also stunning. The Italians are cool bastards, arenāt they. I do need to get myself to that Roman amphitheater in Verona that was built in 30 AD. Breathtaking.
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Southampton 1 Charlton Athletic 1
That was a terrific and hard-fought point today.
Tuesday was so disappointing, but the players showed real character today to bounce back and take a point from a very good Southampton side, who have individuals a cut above this level.
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Michail Antonio update
Qatar side AlāSailiya have joined the race, not sure if that is the right word, to sign free agent Michail Antonio.
The BBC suggested yesterday that Antonio has options but continues to train with Charlton.
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Andrea Bocelli
Me and the songstress-other-half knocked off a long time bucket list item last night. We went to see Andrea Bocelli live in Tampa.
He never ceases to tour but for a host of different reasons we have never been able to see, or get tickets to watch him. As it was he chose a night in Tampa as part of his Romanza 30th Anniversary tour, and we long ago snapped up tickets.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Portsmouth 3
I couldnāt watch yesterdayās game as we were on our way to watch Andrea Bocelli in Tampa. Me and the operatic-other half drew straws to see if we listened to the game in the car or Bocelliās greatest hits.
Fortunately she won.
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Travelogue – Lucerne & Mt. Pilatus, Switzerland
On a work trip last year to Zurich, we took the train to Lucerne in central Switzerland for a day trip. It took less than an hour and the train dissects through the Swiss mountainside with lakes for company all the way.
The train station is impressive but we exited to a murky Lucerne shrouded in a low-lying fog.
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Michail Antonio
Michail Antonio has been training with the Addicks for a few days as Nathan Jones and the medical team cast their eyes over the ex-West Ham striker with a view of putting together a deal for the free-agent.
Antonio has not played a competitive game in England since the highly-documented car crash in December 2024 that left the 35-year-old with multiple leg fractures.
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Charlton Athletic 1 Stoke City 0
A big, big win.
It was an enjoyable watch, the odd bit of anxiety aside, but better still was the huge 3 points that gives us some breathing space. The clean sheet was fully earned and we wanted it more all over the pitch. We are so better structured, Clarke and Chambers give us balance and poise, Coady is the linchpin, and Dykes an old school number 9, who leaves it all out on the pitch.
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Charlton Athletic 0 Queens Park Rangers 0
As the clocked ticked around to 90 minutes I was bemoaning that it was two points dropped. We had done more than enough to win the game.
Then during the 8 minutes of injury time, QPR had 5 chances and we were clinging onto the point
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Leicester docked 6 points
Leicester City have been docked six points by the EFL for breaching financial rules after they were charged by the Premier League in May for a profit and sustainability (PSR) breach in the three years leading up to 2023-24.
The deduction is applied immediately meaning they fall from 17th to 20th in the table and put another body between us and the bottom three.
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One in, one out, one back.
A little disappointed tonight. It is the early hours in Orlando where I have had back to back meetings all day and evening trying to grab quick searches to see how the transfer deadline was going for us.
In hindsight I was happy I kept busy and didnāt sit in front of the computer / social media / Sky Sports.
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Leicester City 0 Charlton Athletic 2
It feels good doesnāt it.
An absolutely vital win on the road at Leicester today, and brilliant for those 2,500 Addicks that went up there. They deserved that and it was great to see the scenes at the end.
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Collins Sichenje
Hereās one for those Addicks looking for the club to widen their transfer net.
Kenyan and Serbian media (as well as Rich Cawley to add a little bit more source to it) are reporting that Charlton are set to sign Kenyan centre-back Collins Sichenje from Serbian top flight club Vojvodina.
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Conor Coady joins on loan
As anticipated this morning Conor Coady signed on loan until the end of the season. The experienced ex-England international leaves Wrexham six months after his Ā£2million arrival.
The charismatic 32-year old will bring experience and leadership to a defence that is in desperate need of it.
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Tiernan Brooks signs as 3rd choice ākeeper
Rob Elliot was probably influential in Charltonās signing of Gateshead ākeeper Tiernan Brooks today.
The 23-year-old has put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half year deal, with a club option of a further year.
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Jayden Fevrier signs on loan
It was a strange evening down at Sparrows Lane. Clearly the club have never heard of the theory of priming emotion protection.
Researchers use this term to describe the, usually subconscious, desire to “ease into” bad news by starting with something positive. The old good news first approach.
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AMB signs for Dundee United
Itās hard to imagine that Ashley Maynard-Brewer has been at Charlton for 10 years after moving from Perth in Australia.
Ashley has signed only an initial 6-month deal for Dundee United, who are 8th in the Scottish Premiership. Any fee was described as undisclosed.
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Tanto Olaofe leaves on loan
Back to Stockport County for striker Tanto Olaofe for the rest of the season.
Last season Olaofe played 51 times for County and scored 12 goals. For Charlton he has started just 6 games and the winner at Sheffield United was his only goal.
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Rob Apter leaves on loan
Thereās been a lot going on this evening at Sparrows Lane.
To much melting down by Addicks fans, Rob Apter has gone on loan to Bolton Wanderers for the rest of the season. Apter is a Lancashire boy of course, and itās been obvious that Nathan Jones, and possibly Jones alone, doesnāt feel he is ready for The Championship
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