May 31
Last week Charlton players returned to group training for the first time for 11 weeks. Week one of a planned four-week mini pre-season was non-contact with the players in small groups of five working on three different pitches. Lee Bowyer had 25 players back, everyone was tested and all results came back negative.
The three players who didn’t return were loanees Matt Smith and David Davis, and Tomer Hemed, who by all accounts will return from his home in Israel.
One of the long list of items to be resolved before Huw Jenkins, or any other potential buyer for that matter, wants before buying the club, also includes a £1.5m ‘bonus’ ESI promised to pay Roland Duchatelet if we stay up.
Journalist Alan Nixon, who broke the Jenkins story, had been hinted at other unknown liabilities the last couple of days and today dropped the story. You can read it here.
As Charlton Athletic get tossed about like a rag doll between a couple of rabid dogs desperate to wring out some unjust dirty money, today will forever be remembered as, well, that day.
My brother and I got a cab from his house in Stoke Newington to Paddington early on that Sunday morning. We were both jet-lagged and a little quiet as the driver attempted to make conversation.
Please click for moreThankfully Laurence Bassini’s fat face is getting pushed into the background, and The Sun are claiming that it is ex-Swansea owner Huw Jenkins that has a deal waiting to be approved by those super chaps at the EFL.
Jenkins was owner and chairman of the Swans for 17 mostly very successful years. The 57-year old sold the club to an American consortium in 2016. He remained chairman until he left in February of last year.
Tomorrow morning Lee Bowyer welcomes his players back to Sparrows Lane to start ‘small group training.’
Bowyer sounded delighted to be able to mix with his staff and players again but there are strict protocols that have to be adhered to.
It looks as if without putting in one penny of his own money Tahnoon Nimer is close to selling Charlton. Low life Matt Southall, who to be fair, did part with a pound, will also walk away with a bundle of cash.
Rumours that Laurence Bassini is the buyer appear to have been squashed. Thank god. Bassini is Southall’s preferred buyer, the deadbeat attempted to get Bassini to buy Nimer’s ESI shareholding so keeping Southall involved. Thick as thieves is quite an apt idiom.
For all the chaos and deceit and uncertainties, no one can ever take away from us the three play-off games from last season. A year ago tonight was that game at The Valley. We actually lost on the night, but we won memories and photos and videos and soulmates that will stay with us a lifetime.
It was a truly incredible night. Very Charlton of course, but unbelievable all the same.
Lyle Taylor has never been one to hide his true feelings. Rightly he stepped away from social media after taking himself a little too seriously, although he couldn’t resist the odd barb, which has kept us amused during lockdown like the photo above of his namesake’s Range Rover dealership just after Matt Southall and his partner had their cars impounded.
Taylor is extremely likeable, articulate, grounded and an all round good bloke. Matt Southall is neither of those things.
You’d think Matt Southall might have learnt something if he was watching and listening during his brief unscrupulous period as, what was it now, right, Executive Chairman. He would have seen the power of Addicks’ fans together, committed, empowered and more resilient than any one single individual. Especially him.
And now he wants to sue the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) for, well, I’m not entirely sure, but you can read it all here. What a sad and sorry man he really is.
With no football, and this time of year signaling the closing of season’s past I’ve enjoyed isolating over old Charlton memories – games at Stamford Bridge, Twerton Park, Portman Road and Brunton Park of course, but it was a year ago today that gave me one of my favourite away day memories.
The 1st leg play-off tie will always be overlooked because of the remarkable (there will never be a word that will describe the night properly) 2nd leg game, but that Sunday was a corker of a day out.
I’ve always been pretty indifferent to pets, not overly worried either way. As a kid we had a cat, a dog (for a while), goldfish, budgerigars, probably a school gerbil, I can’t remember, but I never felt the need of fluffy company in adult life.
Yet, ever since my daughter learnt to speak a dog was always on the radar, with strong backing from the dog-loving-other-half I was always under pressure, and have done bloody well to hold out for, well about 9 years 😆🐶.
Albury Addick summed it up quite nicely yesterday. Stop making excuses Tahnoon Nimer, sh!t or get off the potty. What a nonentity you really are.
A little more social media sparring between Southall (still driving his Range Rover) and Nimer, and all the while young lawyer Marian Mihail attempts to explain it, whilst chucking onto the fire that Southall put in another £2m of invoices…. I refer back to Albury’s post.
So many chancers knocking around Charlton at the present time attempting to rip our famous club apart.
So, watching the Yann Kermorgant Valley Stories was a welcome reprieve and reminded us of what a wonderful player Yann was. A giant of a man on and off the pitch, genuine and honourable. Oh for a boardroom of Yann Kermorgant’s let alone team, as the old song used to go.
Another week. Another week of isolation, and another week of Tahnoon Nimer keeping his hands firmly in his pocket.
Staff got paid at Charlton this week, thankfully, but that money again came out of the current account leftover from the days of Duchatelet and whatever funds have been given to the club by the EFL.
The players have deferred their salaries by 25% to help the continual financing of the club, and non-playing staff were furloughed. Although those operating the website and social media platforms carry on working in earnest. That your Excellency, an oxymoron if ever I saw one, is what you call commitment and responsibility.
Although it’s not is it, although whether it’s the start or the middle, no one knows.
It would have been the final game of the season today. Elland Road hosting noisy and anxious hopes, dreams and tears. The final of nine games now suspended.
Miami, Florida
