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Jul 31

League One preview 17/18 – part I

Last season was one to forget for Charlton fans, a dismal and depressing campaign means we are back for a second consecutive season in League One and the names of Fleetwood and Rochdale are becoming more familiar than those of West Ham and Crystal Palace. The 3rd Division looks to have a lot more quality to it this time around strengthening the feeling that last season was such a lost opportunity.

League One this season has a very northern feel to it so I’ll start my look at our rivals by beginning up north and then work my way down. Remember as in other years this is just a few paragraphs of each side, if you want a proper preview then head here.

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Jul 30

Confidence booster

It is pretty much proven that pre-season friendly results have no bearing on what is expected to follow from a long season. Fitness, unity, systems is what it is all about save for the last game or two, when managers tend to put out their proposed starting line up’s. In all honesty those results are also meaningless save for a sound thrashing or a confidence-busting good result, which has to have an affect on players and coaches as they enter the opening league fixture.

Well. And how must Ipswich fans be feeling this morning?

Maybe Ipswich were poor, but no one has ever won a football game 6-1 without making the other side look poor, so beating a team from the league above so convincingly has to have a positive mental effect.

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Jul 29

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Keeps signs

The goalkeeper spot has been a summer priority and it was a surprise that so few names had been mentioned in dispatches. Dillon Phillips has appeared not have grasped the opportunity during pre-season and an experienced ‘keeper became a necessity. Ben Amos was linked with us a few days ago, and signed on a season long loan this morning from Bolton.

I personally would have liked to have seen a permanent signing but there are a whole raft of young or out of favour keepers around and a loan was always more likely. The last negotiations came down to how much we would have to contribute to Amos’ hefty salary that he negotiated for himself when he joined Wanderers from Man U on a free in 2015.

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Jul 28

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Golden oldies

Great to read about a planned Curbs v Gritty match to celebrate 25 years back at The Valley and to importantly raise funds for the Charlton Athletic Community Trust.

The two sides captained by Steve and Alan and managed by Addicks’ legend Keith Peacock and Addicks’ fan Dave Berry will take place at The Valley on Sunday, September 17th, the day after Gills away. (more)

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Jul 25

Anymore for anymore?

Any news of further incomings appears to have slowed, although the ‘we are working hard behind the scenes’ mantra was rolled out again this week by Karl Robinson, who also stated that he expected no one else to leave. This alone may stifle any additions to the squad as no one really expected the likes of Naby Sarr, Tony Watt or perhaps even Karlan Ahearne-Grant to still be here, although it is best to remember that the transfer window has another 5 weeks, so still plenty of time for movement both ways.

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Jul 22

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New shirts very fitting

Well we have a promotion winning kit, now to see if those that wear it are not only fit for it but can make it proud.

Thank you to Hummel for the new kits, of which the home one is not only unique but champions our history and to of course better days. The away one is original and would work very well as a gym shirt or something to wear to the pub. Good contrasts of blue and again a shout to the blue away kit of 25 years ago.

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Jul 19

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STVV take another one

If Cristian Ceballos was always going to depart then it begs the question why Karl Robinson used him extensively in the pre-season games thus far. I don’t suspect the ex-Spurs player was one of the highest earners, and those that saw him in Ireland and at Greenwich said he impressed. He may have done a job, although every time I think of Ceballos I think of that corner.

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Jul 18

Bermuda’s turn to vote

Today it is Bermuda’s turn to vote in a general election. And unlike the USA and UK polls, the ones here think it’s going to be close, which probably means it won’t be. The One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) are the incumbent, who dramatically came to power in 2012 beating the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) by about 5% of the vote and gaining 19 of the 36 available constituencies, which in truth individually are no more than small towns, with around 1,200 or so eligible to vote in each.

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Jul 15

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Ajose and Tex leave

As some of us anticipated no new players were going to be granted to Karl Robinson until some of the existing squad he inherited was to be shifted. Robinson hinted as much today after the Welling game, and sure enough STVV couldn’t wait to pull the trigger on the news that Jorge Teixeira has signed for them on a 3-year deal for which one would put their mortgage on, an undisclosed fee.

Whether Tex’s 12k a week salary has been completely moved off Charlton’s books or this is a Duchatelet accounting function we will never know, but with the highly paid Nicky Ajose also gone, although one would assume Charlton are still paying part of his wages, it should give Robinson some renewed armoury in the transfer market.

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Jul 14

Booming Brickell

My daughter broke up from school a couple of weeks back and as both the other half and I are working we have to do a lot of juggling and role her around camps for the 10 weeks holiday she gets. Already bored of that, us not her, we’ve decided to take her to Miami for the weekend and then possibly up to the coast to Palm Beach early next week where I am at a conference, or work vacation as my 7-year old calls it!

Taking our 7-year old to Miami of course is a little bit of a ruse and we will eat, shop and people watch well whilst there. But mostly the family all appear knackered, so there will be lots of pool down time.

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Jul 12

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Only friendlies….

They are only friendlies. As the old optimistic football saying goes. Also odd to play 3 games in as many days, the middle one a 6-hour round trip away, and the players all forced to go home for the weekend in between a week of intensive training in Ireland and 3 pre-season games in, er, Ireland. Katrien involved in that planning by chance?

We beat the amateur team, lost after being 2-0 up against the Premier League side and were thrashed by the University students that play in Irish 2nd tier. It is worth noting that the Irish teams are all mid-season and goes without saying, far more match fit than our lot.

Three games in three days, with the U23’s also in action on the mainland, meant that the squad was horribly stretched, although Robinson tried to play two different XI’s in all three games.

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Jul 10

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Crumlin Valley Pass

The much lauded arrival of Valley Pass collapsed under the interest of Addicks wanted to see live action from Ireland this evening of the first pre-season friendly against Crumlin United. The official site crashed and despite eventual You Tube coverage, for me at least, Valley Pass failed to get off the ground. Unlike Charlton who won 5-0. 

Fortunately the club hadn’t been banging on about the new premium service much (!), but this little roll-out exercise wasn’t a great way of getting fans to part with £60 as it struggled with both bandwidth and traffic. 

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Jul 10

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A team of Ricky Holmes’

Well just the 10 more to find. 

Great news from the club today ending the ‘will he, won’t he’ saga of the Charlton summer thus far. After Ricky Holmes signed a new three year contract he said “I want to play for this football club and there seems to be a better vibe around the whole place. Hopefully, we can all get together and get promoted this season.” (More)

Good vibes indeed and a good statement of further intent. Hopefully. Holmes was the subject of much interest from Sheffield United, who apparently bid at least twice for the 30-year wide man. Blades’ neighbours Wednesday and Cardiff City were also said to have been watching his contract situation closely. 

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Jul 4

Surrogate homes

A week back in a combination of East Sussex, Chislehurst and London Town, all now surrogate homes to me, and now I’m back to reality, if Bermuda is actually reality, with an imminent general election which the media is full off. It’s the week after next and if I can bring myself to, I’ll put a few words together on it soon.

I do a lot of travelling but generally as a rule I don’t like being away for as long as a week on my own, and I was ready to get out of dodge yesterday. As is usual I did a lot of running around, and caught up with a lot of people including old mates on Friday for 50th birthday celebrations. That was a long but funny day. 

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Jul 3

Pre-season in Ireland 

It’s looking like fun and a lot of hard work out in Ireland for the first week of Addicks’ pre-season training as Karl Robinson gets a chance to build up his squad’s fitness, all important team spirit and resolve. 

Robinson’s much parroted style of play demands high tempo and pressing and possibly the players weren’t nearly as fit enough when he took the reigns from Russell Slade. Remember last summer under the auspices of Katrien Meire there was no pre-season planned, or friendlies organized. Robinson gets the opportunity with Lee Bowyer, Johnnie Jackson and the fitness staff to build his own pre-season plan which hopefully will see us get off to a flyer. 

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Jul 1

New CAFC official website

Began life today. Click here to see it if you haven’t already.

It’s early days of course, and news is limited in July, although late this evening the club posted confirmation that Lee Bowyer will be Assistant Manager and as expected Johnnie Jackson will take up the role as First Team Player/Coach. (more)

On first view the OS is an improvement, cleaner and efficient, no more, no less. It is simple and not snazzy, but moreover I’m pleased for the Comms team who now have the ability to control content, design and reliability and hopefully make it more fan friendly. Certainly the Twitter page run by the Comms team is excellent. Hopefully the old generic, ad-ridden site has been buried forever.

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