Alfie May joins Birmingham
The video was unexpected. Alfie does appear genuinely upset. Fair play for the message, but at least we can now move on. The whole affair had taken over the pre-season, and I think in the majority of most fan’s minds set a negative mindset.
May joins Birmingham City for what is said to be £775,000 plus add-ons, and supposedly according the Nathan Jones, the fee will be reinvested in this window, although Cheltenham will get a cut.
I’m never very benevolent when footballers talk about playing away from families, probably because of my own direction in life, but also because I think if you’re a professional athlete then it comes with the territory.
Equally, May is not a young man anymore and football can be a lonely existence, plus if he can get paid more money and live close to his wife and kids, then why wouldn’t you.
I can only assume living in Cheltenham was fine previously, and the extra distance to South Yorkshire from Birmingham is made easier by earning a couple of grand a week more than he’d had made at Huddersfield.
Thanks for the memories Alfie, you do seem a genuine bloke.
The club were quick to tell us that May put in a transfer request after we turned bids down, but there is no hiding from the fact that May and Jones was never going to mesh. We saw big warning signs of that at the end of last season.
Whatever the reasons, Jones has piled the pressure on himself here, and this summer’s window has now taken on even more expectation, and I don’t agree it has been “bold” so far, nor are we in any galaxy “categorically stronger than we were at the start of the window.”
Jones now has to not only put together a squad that is capable of promotion, but also re-build fan confidence in both him and club.
I don’t expect they will sell many more season tickets in the next few weeks, and those Addicks that bought one on the back of Alfie phoning them might want their money back.
This is a terrible decision and one that turns me the wrong way. I agree with you that our signings are ok to good but not bold…you simply don’t get rid of a 20 goal a season man if you want promotion. We now have got rid of our top 3 players in a space of 4 months…indeed I would argue that the reason May was not played at the end of the last season was because his sale was planned all along. A Taylor in reverse…don’t let him get injured..his sale was planned to pay for next season.
i made the decision not to renew my Charlton TV plan that ends in August and will only renew when and if results on the pitch justifies me to do so. After 70 years as a supporter, just gutted once again.
Additionally I worry about Jones, I remember some of his interviews in the past prior to Charlton and he seemed delusional when under pressure. Hoping for not the same this season
if he wanted to go, then keeping him on the books for one more season makes no sense to me. It does seem a genuine interview, I’m glad it was made and published. It was Jimmy Seed’s belief that, if a player is unhappy, move him on.
Whatever the reason for his departure, he has gone. We did wait until a replacement was lined up and now also, hopefully another striker to come aswell.
I do think that we are stronger, in goal in defence, in midfield, not up front at this point, that could very well be resolved.
I also read that Dobson wants to return, you couldn’t make it up.
Well, I do not think the signings are bold but on paper seem to be good and unfortunately football is not played on grass but we shall see and yeswe still need 2 quality GK’S coz the 2 of them last year horrendeous but the whole back line.
Has ones the CH come back from the States and on the personality show oe whatever.
We need another striker and crikey still got Chucks but of course we cn not count on him.
Also forget about Dobson and he ain’t comig back and again we do not know the complete story and yes we have yet again been told a lot of lies which always come from CAFC and the territory.
The jury is well out on Jones and also these Owners and with them in charge and Snidy Scott at the helm what could possibly go wrong????
Jones seems well pleased with himself atthe moment but if it goes pearshaped and it coud well do but we wait and see.
So we have our 5th signing and he wants 9!!!.
We shall see and Alfie so much class and such a nice change and I wish him the very best for the future.
CG yes I know about family and yes moved to Thailand as my wife as missing her family and friends but not got even one pot of gold! But my family or families are here.
All tthis with Alfie, and now Dobson may be on his way home-!!
Only at Charlton, eh?
Also ironic this new signing come down from Coventry and classy Alfie goes up to Brum.Yes and probably got a bumper contract but still a bit of a drive up to Yorkshire.He is a very classy fellow and person and his voice was genuinely croaking a few times on his personal message to us,Good luck, fellow and do not think he will need it.Meanwhile back to CAFC anything could happen but ambition for promotion a big IF!!!
Doubt Dobbo come back and maybe to the Championship and
Let’s just clear a few things up. Jones didn’t like Alfie May. Whether that was for football reasons or personality or both who knows.
When Huddersfield enquired, Jones made it clear Alfie could go. Birmingham came in with a better offer both for the player and his wages.
So then Alfie knows he’s not wanted at Charlton and to protect his options, he puts in a transfer request (probably at Birmingham’s behest) which absolves Charlton from paying up any part of his contract. Resulting in the move and a far higher wage.
It’s all a smokescreen, Alfie was driven out by Jones. A decision that is going to seriously impact on next season. Will alienate supporters and could well cost NJ his job if we have another dud season. If it does NJ has no one to blame bar himself.
Never mind, cheer up, we’ve replaced Alfie with Matt Godden. 33 years old this year. Last season, 6 goals in 35 starts or 9 in 41 including the cups. Albeit that was in the Championship, but it’s hardly May like, hardly prolific.
Messiah, my arse.
Not a fan of NJ are we Daggs 😀
I was never as enthusiastic as many. He got the job because he had been at Charlton previously.
Last season he did enough (with Alfie may’s considerable help) to keep us up. But his record is not great, we survived on draws.
Now having driven Alfie out, he’s lost any credibility with me and I suspect many more. I think it’s a monumental blunder.
Many of us feel the same and Jones looks and sounds very happy with himself and the Board are all together on moving this club forward.
We await but do not hold your breath for too long eh!!
Totally agree with you CA. Its a sham!
Did May really right a letter that he wanted a move? According to other previous reports he was more than happy to stay and was looking forward to next season, plus if he did, the way May is, which appears a very decent honest person, why would he have phoned, along with other players, to get supporters to renew their season tickets, it just doesn’t add up! Plus if the real reason was he really wanted that much to move near his wifes family etc he would have joined Huddersfield as I don’t believe a few extra bob would have concerned him.
It’s much more likely he has let the Board put that bit of false news out, being the type of person he is, so it won’t be blamed &/or backfire on Charlton and Jones, who several reporters have previously implied Jones wanted to move May on ASAP, which he was aware of, to bring in his own forwards, as he didn’t fit into Jones ongoing plans! Plus probably to also try and calm the backlash of current supporters not renewing &/or also non season ticket supporters also not intending to buy one!
No disrepect to May’s replacement Godden, but in no way is he going to fill May’s shoes as a Top Goal Scorer, it’s a complete farce.
In all the years of supporting Charlton I can’t recall any manager, wanting to sell their best asset, especially a proven top goal scorer, unless forced to by the Board &/or the player himself demanding a transfer, which in this case, I don’t believe one instance!
Ironically one of the reasons why we signed him last year was because he wanted to return to south east London – he/his wife had a child on the way and he wanted to be close to family. However is wife didn’t settle and wanted to return to Yorkshire. As you say CA plenty of people work away from family, but that wasn’t something he wanted to do, we have to respect that.
The wages he’s on at Birmingham are an important factor, he’s 31 now (or will be tomorrow) and he needs to be aware that he’s not going to be a pro for that much longer. He would have been on relatively poor wages at Doncaster and then Cheltenham. You are a long time retired in this game so he needs to make some bank while he can.
But we have Matt Godden arriving, the defence has been bolstered and the take away from last week was that we are going to sign nine players in this window, with Godden that means four incoming players over the next month with one being a keeper. I’m happy with the players we’ve signed so far but I’ll judge the transfer window after it closes.
I think 9 should be 10 to replace May.
May can’t have made any real ‘footballer’ money in his career, so I don’t begrudge him going for the coin. It’s important to remember he only had a year left with us, but has signed a 3 year deal with Brum.
I suspect we will never know the real truth. Didn’t he want to come back to London to be nearer his family a year ago ? I seem to remember something about his parents still living in Kent. All in all it’s just another act in the circus that is Charlton Athletic. Now we have the Dobbo act to follow !!!!! You couldn’t write it.
I believe he bought a house near Eynsford to be close to his family. But Mrs May missed South Yorkshire even though she lived in Cheltenham previously. I guess Birmingham is between Kent, Cheltenham and Doncaster.
Precisely mate and 7 decades of it
I’d appreciate someone telling where all these, “Jones doesn’t rate Alfie” “Jones and Alfie don’t get on?”
Is it all based on Jones subbing Alfie a few times towards the end of the season or is it the usual conspiracy theorists giving it large?
I’m not saying it isn’t true but I don’t recall seeing anything that might suggest it’s true, other than other peoples assumptions?
Conspiracy theorists and people putting two and two together, but there were plenty of red flags during the Jones’ reign.
Jones is still here, it’s Alfie whose left but I’m honestly ignorant of all these “red flags” what were they?
Being substituted early, once at HT and being dropped were the only visible ones. As you are instigating no fans will know what goes on behind the scenes.
It was pretty clear to me that NJ just didn’t fancy him. Yes he was subbed several times or dropped to the bench. But it was also obvious there were some tensions between the two during games. NJ would seem to react with more frustration towards Alfie than other players. I also recall how compared to others (Kanu, Anderson, even Terrell Thomas) whom NJ singled out for praise in post match interviews, it was very rare for him to do the same with Alfie. For those that went to the POTY dinner they might remember some strange ‘banter’ from NJ regarding differences of opinion with Alfie as well as some strange comments about his dress sense. It just felt like there was bad feeling there.
Thanks Alex. I had heard similar, plus I just think May is too much of a maverick for Jones. He runs a pretty tight ship.
I don’t like the idea of losing a twenty goal a season player(especially to a rival in our division), but if we see some real reinvestment from the sale of May, then we might well come out of this stronger.
I think we have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks, and if it was for tactical reasons, then I’d like to think that Nathan Jones has reinforcements/replacements lined up and ready to go.
It’s a shame, as this has been a generally positive pre-season thus far, but we do still have plenty of time left before the season begins…
By the way check out Alfie’s first interview on the Birmingham City site. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a player less enthusiastic at joining a new club.
Well nor would you be if you lived in Bawtry, the Cotswolds and the garden of England then move to Birmingham 😀
Losing Alfie is a catastrophe !
We look like good relegation material now.
Some interesting comments above.
60 years of supporting Charlton and I’ve just had enough…. I have lived through losing Mike Bailey, Len Glover, Billy Bonds, and dozens more, most of them way below their market value and too often the “wise men” in charge of the club didn’t add a “sell-on” clause to any future transfers so we lost even more money.
A football club is about the club itself and relations with the supporters. Far too many times we’ve been taken for mugs, and I suppose that we are because we still come through the turnstiles. Well, no more for this mug I’m afraid.
The present brainless regime in charge of the club know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We had a gem in Alfie, who still had a year left on his contract. To get out of this damned division we needed to build a squad around him – there ain’t many 20+ a season goal scorers out there – but no, at the first sniff of money the owners sell him. I don’t know about any rift between Alfie and NJ, but Alfie was an asset that Jones needed to use and build a team around. He should have been told to honour his contract, if his missus was the genuine problem then she could have gone back oop north and Alfie get on with his day job to see out his contract. That is now not going to happen and we get an inferior journeyman goal-scorer in to replace a star striker, along with “sick-note” and Miles ( the next one out of the door in the January window no doubt if he starts scoring a few goals).
The other problem in football is finance – there’s far too much money and far too little loyalty floating around in the game with everybody wanting their cut of the dosh, and if it’s there, who can blame them? Alfie arrived last year saying he’s where he always wanted to be, back home, blah blah blah. Now, a year later he gets the whiff of fifty pound notes and he’s off – not to the north, but to the midlands! If his missus didn’t like London and the south east what’s she going to make of Brum??
This whole issue stinks and having to put up with the bull**** coming from the owners and Jones about re-building the squad – well, you don’t do that by flogging your only real striker for a pittance. I’ve had enough bull listening to politicians for the last 6 weeks – I’m buggered if I’m taking it from my football club!
Bye bye Charlton, it’s been a mostly frustrating journey with mere flashes of good times. It’s now time for a divorce. My money is on the club being nowhere near the top two next May with Alfie rubbing it in by scoring at least 6 goals in the 3 matches Charlton will be facing him in the season ahead.
Before I go, thanks CA for a great blog – honest and to the point. Good luck to you in the future.
Well, I live in hope that something good happens between now and at the end of next season, god do we need something to cheer. I hope for you that happens too, Mark and thanks for the comments on the Blog.