Play up
It’s a shame that Portsmouth got promoted, we are going to miss those six points this season.
It sounded like a far more promising exhibition today at The Valley, leaving Addicks in a far happier state of mind. Friendlies can bring a lot of misleading expectations, good and bad, but the final one has a lot more forward-looking importance attached to it.
I haven’t watched a lick of the games, nor been at any training sessions obviously but I was a little surprised not to see Berry, Small or Godden start but the performance and result gave us promise, a clean sheet and strikers scoring.
And the real stuff starts in a week.
After, Nathan Jones confirmed my suspicions that players have to be moved on before anyone else can come through the door. Dan Potts and Danny Hylton continue to train with the club and possibly Begovic waits in the wings.
There is still a month of the window left, and Jones did get his wish of a good number of acquisitions in by the pre-season tour but key positions remain unfilled, no more so than a ‘keeper, a role you’d think would need time to be bedded in on the training ground.
Whether it is PSR (profit and sustainability rules) or the ownership not wanting to spend any more money I don’t know, although they have covered a fair bit of their outgoings from the sale of Alfie May.
Jones has said all along he wants a thinned down squad, but I still have it pinned at 26-first teamer’s, so if Jones wants that number to be 24, then we should still expect to see a lot of movement over the next few weeks.
CA
Agree 200% but tried to share to the Overseas International Branch on Facebook and stated a good opinion but stating spam and took it off.
FACEBOOK THE POLICEMAN AT IT AGAIN and a lot of the media the pure filth.
COYR
I was at the game yesterday sitting directly behind the bench. The positive chemistry from NJ and CF was evident, those guys want to win every decision, tackle and more importantly the game. We witnessed a technically and physically much improved performance. I believe that Godden, Berry and Small were suffering knocks. Bring on Wigan, this could be a bright season for us. COYR.
There were 24 involved yesterday, of which 21 got onto the pitch. Every position, other than goalkeeper, was, fairly seamlessly, doubled up. The 24 did not include Fraser, Godden, Leaburn or Ness, thus making a total of 28. Given that neither Maynard-Brewer nor Asiimwe made it onto the pitch would suggest to me that they are surplus to requirements. Both are young, with potential, so maybe they will go out on loan. Hylton was not used either, but Jones may try to sign him, in some other capacity, to help with the youngsters. Fraser is surely going to depart for Scotland and is probably busy negotiating terms somewhere. Godden has concussion, so will be back soon. Now that Campbell is being played as a striker, Godden would make it 5 for 2 places, so maybe Aneke or Kanu will go out. Then there is Leaburn to come back. After a long injury, he may struggle to make a 24. A fit, on-form Leaburn, though, may be preferred to Ahadme. Time will tell. Ness is injured, but I have a feeling that Zak Mitchell will be preferred, even when Ness is fit. Mitchell seems more self-assured and looks to have benefitted from the positive loan out last season. When fit, I guess that Ness will be sold, to help him further his career elsewhere, probably in League 2. I think that Jones would like to sign Potts, as the sixth centre-back, but needs to move out other players first. Begovic maybe waiting in the wings to become our second goalkeeper. So: Begovic?/Mannion, Ramsay/Watson, Mitchell A/Edmonds-Green, Jones/Mitchell Z, Gillesphey/Potts?, Edwards/Small, Coventry/Berry, Docherty/Taylor, Anderson/Edun, Ahadme/Aneke, Godden/Campbell. Kanu? Leaburn?
Hi, really enjoy your posts about our fantastic club and your travels! Question! If we were in for the keeper that eventually went to Celtic valued at 1 million would that suggest there is still money in the kitty?
Really enjoy your posts about our club & your travels! Question! If we were close to signing that keeper who went for a million to Celtic would that suggest we still have money in the kitty?
Thanks Graham. Fair point, and I don’t know the answer to that. It could be a FFP/PSR issue, but sounds as if they have to get rid first.
I’ve no qualms as to how the new owners have invested. I think The Valley is as spruced up as it’s been for a very long time.
The board have backed NJ so far, I’m assuming that the reason why we haven’t signed any players recently is because we need to first make sure some (Edun, Fraser etc) are shifted on and we have those imposed financial constraints to operate under.
Fraser is or was the highest earner at the club and I presume that no other club is coming close to being able to match his wages, so he’s staying put. Others like Edun also know they’ll be taking a wage cut if they transfer out. Football at this level can be brutal financially for players, they are decently paid but careers can be short and they need to make some bank while they can.
As for the match, we played well, the team seemed to have taken on-board NJ’s comments after the Dons game that we needed to be more aggressive and we won a fair amount of first and second ball, you’d never have thought that Pompey were a division ahead of us or that they walked L1 last season. I liked how NJ has remodelled TC’s game, both goals came from passes for him to run onto in that area just in front of the defence and his pace did the rest. He is stronger than he looks, he barely took any backlift for the goal. Otherwise I liked the fitness and energy levels – we even kept it together after the mass subbing on/off of players in the second half.
Who knows what our starting XI for Wigan will look like but the pieces are coming together, there’s competition across the squad we just need to finish the rebuilding and get a few games and points under our belts.
Strong foundations are being laid and I was att the game and very impressed with the determination and style of play.
I know it was a friendly but there was a clear change in approach to the game….far more pressing and movement forward.
The new pitch looked good and at the end it showed little evidence of a game being played on it.
I hope we can get both Potts and Hylton on board.
Watched the game on TV yesterday and what a change they looked like a different team. Ramsey and Edwards were really excellent and can’t recall any player going past them and getting a cross in! Campbell looks a different player in his current new role and never seen him put in a real shift like that before and Coventry probably had his best game since arriving here, he was everywhere, breaking up their play, making good tackles and distributing the ball forwards. Overall a very good performance in the first half.
Second half was quite surprised that we managed much of the same albeit with most players being changed soon after!
The only couple of downsides were, we still have no idea actually how good Mannion is in goal as he had absoutely nothing to do and we still managed to have our normal cockup when Reg had all the time in the world to clear the ball up the other end but then hit it straight at a Portsmouth player, who ran through onto goal, but was tackled from behind giving away a freekick just outside the box with just 2 mins to go! Fortunately it was totally wasted and flew way over the bar, so for once we kept a clean sheet, but it shows certain players still have that in them!
The last thing is, as totally disagree with cliffb50, why on earth does he want to sign Potts & Hilton, both over 35 with Potts having hardly played last season due to injuries, which he has had almost every season and Hilton who also hardly played a game last season and was released by a club in a lower division!Surely if we are looking to try and get in the top six, we can get in two better and fitter players than this, as probably our final two signings, apart from a goalie?
That’s fine Mike to disagree with me but Potts is a class player with an enormous wealth of experience.I appreciate he’s getting on but I know that you never lose skills and judgement needed in a game.
Cliff in all honesty he is nothing special and just an average player. I don’t really know where you have got that he is a class player with an enormous wealth of experience from? He only ever played 5 games for West ham in several seasons, was loaned to Portsmouth/Colchester and only played 5 games for each. He then went to Luton and played 195 games in 9 seasons 18 of those games as a sub. So in those seasons he has averaged around 21 games a season his best being 45 and second most 33 and did not play one game for Luton last season in the Premiership!
He has been out of first team football for over a year as he was injured, so apart from in his very early days has with West Ham where he has only ever played three games in the Premiership. As shown by his record he has been out quite a few times with injuries over his carrear, so Luton have finally released him.
Apart from his injury record he can’t really be anywhere near fully fit as he has only been training with Charlton for several weeks since and has not played any games last season. Plus why would we want to take on yet another player prone to injuries when we have had so many over the last seasons and can then never offload them, which includes Chucks, who is a class player, but will probably as normal, only get about five games out of him for a max 20minutes each time, before he’s out injured yet again!
Very encouraging yesterday. I thought the back 3 and wingbacks were particularly impressive. Although Coventry played well I think we need a another defensive midfielder as cover. Maybe Watson or Z. Mitchell could do the job. I think that Ramsey would be ideal but he is first choice for right wingback so unlikely to be considered.