Injury prone
McGrandles, Jaiyesimi, Egbo, Blackett-Taylor, Sessegnon, Aneke. All injured.
You have to feel sorry for Chuks. It wasn’t his fault that Thomas waggled a large contract under his nose in January. I would have grabbed the pen and scribbled my name down very quickly as well.
I pleased that Ben Garner offered the physiological support to Aneke today, showed a bit of class through his obvious chagrin. Garner also expressed today that he would like three additional players – a left back, centre-half and a striker, but simply under the budget given to him Charlton do not have the bandwidth to add anyone already under contract.
Alex Gilbey is talking to Lincoln, and it sounds as if others may have to be moved on to release funds for Garner to add to his squad.
It is not my money, but naive previous recruiting and funds counted towards over items, such as the academy, has appeared to restrict Garner’s ability to build a squad that is able to mount a sustained challenge for promotion. Those six injuries already in the first month rung all the bells fans were worried about.
So square pegs, and young players and overplaying of individuals is what we can expect to see. Despite the promising start and Garner instilling thoughtful and radical changes to the way we play, I expect that there will be at least six sides stronger and better financed than the Addicks.
Disheartening.
Chicago Addick 
Just wait, Inniss and Stockley will be on that list soon, and then we will be heading down the table faster than a sinking stone.
On the plus side, Miles might get the top scorer this season…
Re Miles… that’s only unless TS doesn’t flog him first….
Bloody hell CA that’s a bit doom and gloom for August mate.
Managers complaining about budgets par for the course but you’ve got to say, £2M in for Pope would make sense to splash a bit on a goal scorer. Don’t want to see Kirk go but a few midfielders off the payroll might be enough to persuade our Eddie Van Halen to see the light. Either that or dilute his holding to someone with bigger pockets.
Oh no here we go again. New owner, new players, new coach but the same old story year in year out.
It’s beginning to feel like the 50s-70s when we were stuck in the 2nd division with no investment and mediocrity was our goal. It’s the hope that kills you.
Yes, I think that just about sums it up. We will finish a bit higher this year, but not in the top six. We cannot expect Thomas to keep throwing his money at this, so we have to be patient.
So, Aneke out for another Month or so……never mind, apparently we’ve got enough striker options according to our heirarchy……Yeah, course we have !!!!!
We need to recognise that spending on the academy is not counted towards the percentage of turnover allowed to be used to fund the squad. As I read it, it is this constraint that is preventing further spending. I could be totally wrong however 😁
Christopher – one of the constraints. Would capital improvements to the training ground be included in academy funding?
Cheer up everyone ….it could be worse it could be raining 🌧
Take some happy pills and reflect on a promising start to our season.
We know that supporting our team is a roller coaster….so strap yourself in and enjoy the ride this season.
Haha. You are right mate. I’m off to get some 🌞
There’s a reason the top premiership teams do not shop in the Championship for their summer transfers, the reason being that they want to compete at the highest level, hence why they buy the top European, South American and African talent.
So if you procure your manager from League 2, your coaching staff from League 2 and 3 of your 6 summer signings from League 2 it’s not rocket science where we are heading and it’s not the Chapionship!
Ben Garner and Thomas have made themselves clear, we need to halve the annual costs of running the club, so we now fish in the pond that is League 2.
Sadly, I can’t see a way out of this, however talented BG is as a manager, he can only work with the tools he has and if those tools are blunt, inappropriate for the job or continually broken, then yes we might reduce our running costs by 50%, but we also might be playing in League 2.
Sorry chaps but I’ve probably only said what you’reprivately thinking anyway!
Cheers T
Ah CA do I sense a bit of realism at last………..
But Aneke, how can you feel sorry for a guy trousering £30k a month for 3 years for absolutely Jack s**t in return.
Careful getting off the sofa and mind that hammy.
Jealous more like it.
Oh and there will be at least 10 teams above us come May.
As I said – season over before my summer holiday
I’m in the wrong job….a bad career choice and should have performed better in my Sunday League team….could have been spotted by a Charlton Scout…invited to train at Sparrows Lane….into the Academy….and then 1st team….accept a 5 year contract on 30k a month…get injured and enjoy watching daytime TV eating burger King meals 😀 👍
Trevor, excellent post.
Sad, but true.
Who remembers our new owner turning up in a blaze of light with a wailing guitar? Telling us we’ll “blow the league away” ” Premiership in five years”
And look at us now! A team clearly short of sufficient decent players required to challenge for promotion. Heading nowhere.
That’s what sticks in the craw. The false expectation, the let-down.
TS tries gimmick after gimmick to fill the Valley. When all that is needed is a good team, playing entertaining football.
Someone needs to convince him. Spend some money now or see us remain in League 1 for yet another season. If he can’t or won’t spend, he needs to seek additional investment from others (easier said than done I accept)
In the face of some heavy and often crude attacks on TS, I have supported him. Grateful to him for saving the club from Spivs and conmen. My patience is wearing thin.
Daggs
Well said. Let’s hope
It’s too early in the season for negativity – it’s been two weeks since we knocked Championship side QPR out of the Carabao Cup and one week since the demolition of Plymouth and it seems one slightly adverse result since then has encouraged the glass half-empty brigade.
On the whole I’m happy with the business that we’ve done so far – if we paid transfer fees for Joe Wollacott, Conor McGrandles and Jack Payne then no one would be complaining and most people would be happy. We got them on free transfers which has to say something about the club. Steve Sessegnon and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi were both loaned from premiership clubs and the latter having been given the freedom of who to go on loan to chose us over teams like MK Dons, in the nicest possible way he doesn’t care whether we get promoted or not but he will care about what team he trusts to improve his career. Mandela Egbo is close to returning and while he, like the others might have been recruited from a League One/Two team but has experience of playing higher up the league system albeit in Germany and the USA in his case. Jack Payne played quite a few games in the Huddersfield team that got promoted to the premiership.
Compared to last year the squad looks better and an identifiable style of play is being coached.
Our squad is a little top heavy with midfielders and we need to shift on one or two like Alex Gilbey and JFC who couldn’t make the bench on Saturday against Cambridge which should be an indication of where they fit into Garner’s plans.
True we still need some defensive depth and a striker – but these aren’t cheap, or at least not the 20+ goals a season type of striker that we want. But I won’t be making my mind up about Ben Garner and how our season will go until October at least.