Back at The Valley
Good morning Addicks. How are we doing?
What a great feeling it is for Addicks’ fans to be back at The Valley, which other than for the odd Covid trial event, has sat ghost like for the past 17 months. It is been a weird time for everyone but routines will return this afternoon as friends and family gather to wake up this historic football stadium.
I will have to wait a while for my Valley return, but have signed up again for the excellent Charlton TV service. Bermuda is even in what the EFL call the ‘dark market’ so I will get to see today’s Sky Sports televised game, although I do have the challenge of a flight to catch just after.
August is full of anticipation, excitement, hopes and dreams, but it looks as if it will be anything other than a fine summer’s day in SE7. Plenty of singing in the rain ☔️ I hope.
I can’t sugarcoat it, but I have been exceptionally disappointed with what was touted quite loudly as a summer rebuild. Get deals done early, show real intent and crack on to take this league by the horns under Nigel Adkins and Thomas Sandgaard’s stewardship.
That has not happened, and I don’t think I have ever known a fortnight before the opening game so deathly quiet. I find it strange, and despite the PR fluff, I would have liked to have heard a bit more honest communication with fans about the club’s plans and goals.
The transfer window does have time to run, but in the meantime it is the start of a new day (at least it is here), and a new season with expectations, hopes and dreams waiting to be celebrated.
Forever hopeful.
Enjoy your journey back to The Valley later Addicks, and make some noise. COYR.
Chicago Addick 
Spot on again CA, very disappointed with the total lack of new players as promised, on paper we look a much weaker team than last season with heavily relying on the youngsters.
Also it appears Pearce is still team Captain, which seems to mean he will be playing reguarly rather than just being a back up player, which he stated himself would be his role, after his chat with Adkins before he resigned for another year!
I will be back at the Valley today with my friends cheering the addicks on, but all of us hate these late kick of times on Saturdays to accomodate Sky!
Let’s hope the team play better than Sangaards new Charlton song, which is pretty dire to say the least as a Football type song, it sounds like a really poor effort of an AC/DC type tune. I even prefer the Red Red Robin, which is saying something! 🙂
Very unhappy with our activity in the transfer market and NA’s continual mentioning of Watson and Gunter in positive terms. I hope that Inniss does not start as he looked well short of match sharpness in his preseason appearances. I hope we get a good result but I am not confident.
Totally agree CA. Lots of huff and puff, commitment and organisation today but a distinct lack of quality and balance in so many areas of the pitch in difficult conditions. A lack of variation in the attacking style with the constant route one approach didn’t help either. The encouraging wing play used so much in pre-season was non evident today. The positive from this game, other than fans returning to The Valley, is at least Charlton didn’t lose. That conclusion hardly gets the pulse racing. It does make me wonder though if all the big claims made at the end of last season about smashing L1 was no more than PR, designed to sell season tickets. Now it all seems to be about building foundations with no quick fix. A few more quality signings a few weeks back would have certainly sold more season tickets imo. Hopefully a gap hasn’t opened up by the time the promised additions arrive sometime this month. Fingers crossed the Charlie Kirk signing on Monday is true!