LuaLua and repeat
Nathan Joines confirmed yesterday that once Kazenga LuaLua resolves his contract issues with Greek club Levadiakos then he will sign with the Addicks until the end of the season.
Fitness doesn’t sound a problem: “He’s one of those physical phenomenons that you could chuck him on the moon for a year and he’d come back and be able to be potent for a certain amount of minutes,” Jones said yesterday.
There has to be a song there somewhere.
After offloading all but one of our wide players, and I do think Tyreece Campbell will move on in the summer, LuaLua gives Jones some options wide.
He’s 33 now but has had an interesting and fulfilling career and I only remember him ripping holes into us when he played against us. His brother-in-law is also Yann Kermorgant, and anyone related to Yann is alright with me.
It’s interesting that Jones has said a number of times that the squad needs trimming, yet is actively adding players to it. The squad is so unbalanced, but this large pot of players does allow him to look at differing formations and attributes from those players available to him.
He has kept the same team, somewhat surprisingly the last couple of games, but I expect to see him tinkering more in the last couple of months as he plans for a summer of I suspect a lot of change.
UPDATE: Signed until the end of April 2024.
Could be a good deal but I do worry about his age, but as long as he still has the pace as well as the skill. Wingers tend to finish playing younger and examples we have add in the past tend to prove that point notably John Barnes and John Salako. Also when I followed both CAFC and Millwall in the late 50s they signed Wally Hinselwood from Arsenal and he was very poor.
The squad is unbalanced, we recruited in the January window to play to a 3-5-2 formation, our left-wing option, CBT, wasn’t replaced when he was traded on and we’ve had to rely on wing-backs to give us width with some but limited success.
We need a Plan B or maybe even a Plan C so we can play 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 or variations of those formations next season. Looking at 2024/25 we need to have a few options up our sleeves if only to keep opponents guessing. Currently we only have Tyreece Campbell who is a specialist winger and while he keeps making the bench he isn’t getting much if any gametime. Is LuaLua a better option than TC?
This is a trust NJ situation, based on LuaLua’s form of a few years ago it would be a no-brainer, but at 33 it has to be the sort of signing that pays off immediately, if NJ can get a tune out of him then it’s worth it.
Jones has said he only wants 22 outfield players in the squad, yet he has 5 strikers including Leaburn. Aneke has a long contract and will be difficult to unload, while Leaburn and Kanu could go for top dollar. It will be interesting to see who we get to keep
G’day CA. Just read Charlie Methven rant about funding. Interesting stuff. It was ever thus wasn’t it? I remember Richard Murray and Peter varney getting enough premiership sides on side to get a better media deal for the lower leagues and guess who let them down when it came to the vote? Yup. West ham was one and Bolton the other. At least the latter got their just reward!
G’day LP. Is this a clue to where you are?
Nothing gets past you does it? New Zealand next.
Nope! Wonderful. Enjoy.
Sorry, this is about lualua isn’t it. Couldn’t care less how old he is – as long as he gets us out of this division.
Hurrah hurrah….we got LuaLua !!!