A sense of possibilities

The 2nd legs of the play-off semi-final’s begin tonight and with Sunderland, Luton and Coventry being in the mix for a Premiership place, they each offer a glimmer of hope to us disconsolate Addicks.

Even poor old Millwall…. 🤣🤣 have had an admirable couple of seasons and frankly they are a club ran as we should aspire to. Once, in the distant past, that team was Charlton.

Neither Millwall, Sunderland, Coventry and Luton are blessed with parachute money and all four of the clubs are in the bottom 7 of this season’s Championship wage bills. Blackburn are 8th lowest.

Sunderland, their fans distraught but gracious in defeat at Wembley in 2019, have been magnificent under Tony Mowbray and play a lovely brand of football. We could learn a thing or two about how smart they have been in the transfer window too.

I’d be more than happy for The Black Cats to regain their Premiership status after six years, but Coventry or Luton would be inspiring as well for many clubs currently suffering with bad owners and stadium separation issues.

Peterborough go to Hillsborough on Thursday with ‘the massives’ in meltdown with manager Darren Moore coming under a range of grief, some of which is totally unacceptable. This is a manager who secured 96 points, a tally that would have won automatic promotion in every League One season in history.

I fancied Bolton initially as they looked like the form side, but Barnsley will start as favourites to make Wembley to almost certainly meet with Peterborough.

You have to look at the outcome of the L1 play-off’s selfishly with a Charlton bent, i.e. which competitor would we rather lose. I think Bolton are on a upward trajectory with a really good manager, whereas Wednesday saddled with a large wage bill may have put everything towards getting out of the division this time around. Mind you they will always attract talent and will remain one of L1’s biggest clubs.

Barnsley have a young squad and are not overloaded with loan players and in Michael Duff have a manager who is a club builder and very capable. Peterborough have always been competitive in this division despite not being as storied or supported as many other clubs.

If Bradford City make their way out of League Two we can add them to the ‘big club and fanbase catalogue’ in this division. Salford and Stockport shouldn’t bring with them as much weight of expectation and reverence, but of course it should be for Carlisle that we are championing.

With Carlisle in our division it will always give Addicks a sense of possibility.