Thoughts on Friday and looking to the summer

“We can’t be letting five/ten players go, we need consistency and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the ins and outs over the summer, that’s for sure.”

I have been impressed with what I have seen and heard from Stephen Henderson since he arrived in SE7 last summer. He has been very impressive in goal and speaks well, and clearly is enjoying his time at the club, despite his absence through injury.

If it wasn’t for the shoulder injury the Irishman would have by now played for the Addicks more than any other club in his career, which has spanned 8 years and 10 different teams, 11 if you include Aston Villa where he started in their youth team.

So it is no surprise that Henderson is so bullish, finally finding a club that has immersed him and where he has found some affinity. Interesting then that he was quoted as saying the above at the top of this post.

“I think it is a big summer for the people upstairs. We need to tie a few of our players down and we need to sign one or two more in the summer,” he added. I couldn’t agree more.

Also word has it that Johann Berg Gudmundsson has said to the club that he will only sign an extension to his contract after he finds out how ambitious the club are in the summer. Both Henderson and JBG signed from outside of the network of course.

With one eye on Friday JBG played the whole of Iceland’s game in Kazakhstan on Saturday, which they won 3-0 to further improve his homeland’s chances of qualifying for its first major tournament. He started from the bench today in a friendly in Estonia. Simon Church was an unused substitute in Wales fine wine in Israel in which, from the large parts I watched, Tal Ben Haim played well for 90 minutes.

Meanwhile I wonder if Raheem Sterling has noticed that Joe Gomez will play his 3rd game since the Reading match 10 days ago for England U19’s today against France in the UEFA U19 Championship. I wonder what Guy Luzon thinks of that?

The club tweeted today that they will reveal next season’s kit this week. All set for an all blue April Fool then, although the ever reliable Doctor Kish thinks that it will resemble this China number, home and away, the home with red shorts. Call me old fashioned but what in the world is wrong with red shirts and white shorts?

Onto to Good Friday then. Current circumstances dictate that the result of the game undeniably means more to Millwall than to us, even though the Lions always remain rather nonchalant towards the fixture, but then so would I, if we always won.

Neil Harris I am sure would be wishing to not have had a fortnight to dwell on Brentford’s two late goals, but he has clearly got them playing for the shirt after Ian Holloway was finally cut loose.

Guy Luzon is starting to look more relaxed in front of the media, after a very cold welcome. He still doesn’t actually give much away, and although he has admitted to not knowing much about The Championship or those players and managers within it, he has been a quick learner and to me is more tactically astute than Bob Peeters ever was.

The Millwall game at The Valley meant an awful lot to Bob Peeters, and plainly put together a plan not to lose it, resulting in a frustrating powder puff performance. Luzon’s ignorance towards Millwall, and I mean that in the right way, may be an asset for us, and as I always I just implore us to go out there and give it a bloody good go. COYR.