Do the owners twist?
The owner group known as Global Football Partners (GFP) and made up of a handful of individual investors, mostly stateside, have been widely liked by the Addicks fan base since they collectively bought the club in July 2023.
I mean it is though a very low bar, even Thomas Sandgaard has been proven to be a complete wrong-un. I mean those sparkly white teeth, fake tan, guitar, and sparkly jackets were always going to hide a lot of sins. At least I sold my Zynex shares at break even.
Let us not forget that GFP signed off on Dean Holden and Michael Appleton before they hired Nathan Jones. Food for thought for those fans screaming for a change.
GFP backed Jones last year, and were genuinely excited with the team’s progression. Joshua Friedman and Gabriel Brener were both at games earlier in the season and joined in the premature jamboree. They have been less visible recently.
In the summer working to a budget, GFP sanctioned 10 new signings, 9 of whom were permanent. There was a very healthy outlay but generally we were shopping in League One (current or relegated) or squad players from Championship sides. It is also worth remembering that GFP signed off on many new contracts for existing players, not forgetting Nathan Jones himself.
Still, it was a healthy sum of money spent as Jones, Chapple and Rodwell set about building a squad for Championship survival. Other clubs spent many millions more, but also recouped fees whereas we did not. Also, as I said at the time, if the holistic cost of deals are taken into account then we were absolutely bottom three in the division.
Like everyone else I was excited about Knibbs and Kelman and Apter and others but I have never judged a new Charlton player until I have seen him play a few games. Unfortunately a lot of my fellow Addicks were proclaiming that we had that best summer transfer window ever, and wow are we seeing a lot of revisionism.
The debate about who has been good, bad or indifferent should wait until May but we are being forced into those conversations now. Some of those signings have had injury struggles, some have not been given a chance. Rich Cawley, who has his finger on the pulse, has said that Apter and Oloafe are the most likely to leave on loan this week. Personally I think releasing Apter is a huge mistake.
A week tomorrow at 7pm the winter transfer window shuts, and then there will 17 games to gather enough points to stay up. Talk of what happens in the summer window can stay on the white board. This is an absolutely huge week for our football club
So, do our owners, GFP, twist?
The January transfer window since it was introduced in 2003, has always been about refining your squad, adding that one player that you need or the loan market, which is riddled with players out of form or that have missed big chunks of the season with injuries. That hasn’t really changed unless you are Man City or a club willing to meet break clauses or overpay for a player out of contract in the summer. Charlton have never been in that position.
I really haven’t got a dickie bird about which players – left sided defender, wing backs, a playmaker midfielder – are out there within the sphere of practicality.
I am bloody hoping that Jones, Chapple and Rodwell do, and more importantly this collection of owners, all independently wealthy, realize that they have to twist and do everything in their power to help this, their, football club stay in The Championship.
Surely, they’ve learnt enough about our history that we truly can’t afford to go back down.
C/A,
A very accurate assessment of where we are !
From the very first game of the season it was abundantly clear we lacked a creative midfield general ..something most of the sides in the division have .
An excellent addition as an example , which, if the club were serious about bringing in REAL quality , rather than the endless stream of injured crocks etc ..would be Barry Bannan .
However , i gather he is likely to be joining the side who comprehensively outplayed us on Saturday ?!
A solid left full back would also be a very useful addition .
Think its also time to offload some of our fringe players .
Sadly my gut tells me ..more average players, similar to Dykes , who add , as far as i can see nothing in incremental talent to our squad , will appear .
Cheers …keep up the good posts ..always objective rather than some of the less constructive posts i read .
Mike, many of the posts are all very balanced, and yes, credit when it is due and very valid criticism when due is perfectly understandable and quite frankly the truth, and many old school supporters have followed the club for 7 and 8 decades, and have nearly seen it all.
That was absolutely cowardly and could use much more industrial language on Saturday, and I have seen some horrible performances, but that one is right up there, and everyone is included.
Sorry, those gutless so-called players and won not one 50-50 ball all match, no sense of purpose or tactics, and even worse not one ounce of effort is disgusting indeed, and as for the so-called professional footballers clapping the few hundred who stayed until the end was an insult, and they made sure they got it in the neck.
3 wins in 16 games says it all, and many have been stating for weeks if not months Jones has completely lost the dressing room and the lack of any effort is despicable and insulting to us all.
So not yet heard if he has been sacked today, but we know the ex- Leicester Manager and always puzzled the first team coach has not, and also wondering Jones & is it Flemming are in total disagreement, but we know with Jones he has a history of walking away, and like Apter and May before him, and others Mitchell a huge falling out with him and wow betide.
Jones does not like any sort of criticism, and at every opportunity to have a pop at the supporters.
So, what to do, if they cannot make a quick decision to try and
save our season, it will be too late.
I think that what we are experiencing is a reality check. If you start with the idea that we were probably promoted one season too early, then we were always going struggle.
I still think that some of our business in the summer transfer window will come good, but again, what seemed like a healthy outlay on nine players, is also the kind of sums other clubs are capable of laying out on one player.
I do think that Kaminski has been the biggest disappointment, and is not the keeper that we all thought we would be getting. I honestly believe that he is not inspiring confidence in the team, and that NJ needs to address this. Can we afford a decent GK on loan, especially if it means your biggest wage earner being sat on the bench?
A conversation that I keep coming back to, is one that I had with a colleague, who happens to be a Luton fan, regarding the three players we picked up from them, which went as follows- ‘Bell, a solid 7-8 every game and won’t let you down. Kaminski, good shot-stopper, but doesn’t command his box and is too quiet. And Burke, good defender, but you will only get half a season out of him because of injuries.’ All of which has been pretty much spot-on. So, if your average fan on the street can tell you these things, the people who signed off the transfers would have also known?
Still a week to go, so there is still time for a few twists and turns!
The focus on the owners is right. The left side of our defence collapsed two months ago and we are now nearly 4 weeks into the window and we have only brought in a half fit, inexperienced kid as back up . We were forced into 4 at the back on Saturday because of lack of left sided defenders on the bench. Had our defence stayed solid over the past three months we would have had more points on the board.
I wonder how committed the owners are to the club? Maybe like Sandgaard they thought it was a punt and now they know how expensive it is they are backing off. If we get to the end of the window still with a broken defence, I think we can assume they are not that bothered.
Rob. Precisely 100% agree with you.
Folk all coming up with their theories as to what’s gone wrong and what can we do to put it right damn quick.
It’s all smokescreens. The problem is obvious…..
Daggs and we are not stupid are we? But we a “treated” like so!!
Part of the problem here is Nathan Jones – he likes working with a small squad (this keeps everyone in contention for a match day squad place) but last season it left us stretched in the New Year and we were one or two injuries from the season being derailed. Matty Godden and Lloyd Jones were playing while injured in the run-in for example. We’ve seen recently again that we just need more players in reserve and these need to be ready to go players.
Secondly the model has been to go for L1 players who with a bit of training and time can step up a level along with players who are Championship standard but come with question marks over their ability to play week in/week out, so they were a bit cheap. Their teams were happy to trade them on.
I was happy with the recruitment in the summer because I could see a bigger picture, the players we signed plus those already in our squad could prosper after a season that was always going to be a learning curve and maybe the good start gave us a false impression of what this division is like.
As Jim Rodwell said last week the goal this year is survival and a points target of ca 50/52. That’s not so far away given that we’re on 32 now. Realistically Sheffield Wednesday are relegated, I think Oxford will also go down, that leaves one team from around five to join them. The question is, where do we get those 18-20 points to make sure we aren’t that third team?
We need goals and to stop conceding them…
Precisely, and all the other teams improving and picking up wins and draws and even Blackburn got a point and we wonder where the next point is coming from, ket alone a win and think the points needed might be more and I know the stats say 50 to 52, but let’s hope we need 55 points not forgetting the Posh went down on 54 points.
Yes, a few teams are in the mix and you cannot discount Oxford, and another team who know how to survive, like Pompey!!
Wow that’s a very hard decision for the owners to consider regarding Jones…IMHO I feel sacking Jones will be a step backwards and would lead to even more trouble.
Look everyone is concerned about our league position and the threat of relegation into the underworld of league 1
So much investment has been made to date into the infrastructure of Charlton and there is no immediate way to improve things.If we can sort out the playing issues,and teams around us drop.points…we should be fine.
Keep the faith as I know we will avoid the dreaded drop and continue to get behind the team as fans are the 12 man.
Let Charlton women play against Stoke Friday week 😃
I think letting Apter go out on loan will be a huge mistake when ever he has played he gets forward and fires in crosses its what we need!
AbsolutelyDavid….he’s got the ability to make things happen. He’s an old fashioned winger, can take on full backs and cross a ball properly’ Unfortunately he has probably upset NJ in some way and doesn’t get any game time. Much to the detriment of the team in my opinion.
CA, as it appears another Mike has now joined the site, I believe he is in Uganda from his last post, can you change his sign in to say Mike U, or something, as otherwise it is confusing which of us is actually posting, especailly if we have different opinions on certain things! 🙂 Thanks
I have finally come to the conclusion we have to twist now and replace NJ ASAP, as there are so many things currently wrong! A lot of poor signings have been made, which incl injury prone players &/or players carrying an injury when signed so nowhere near match fit, playing the same formation every game, poor substitions, no alternative game plan when its going badly, continually playing his favourite players and playing players out of their natural position, plus also not playing certian players who could make a difference, as they had the audacity to question him. At present there is still time to turn things around, but currently with NJ still at the helm, who it also appears has lost some of the dressing room, I can’t see much changing and we will continue to slide into the bottom three and stay there!
You also have to look at further investors, as the current owners have instructed a firm to seek out such, for a 20% share, but what decent companies/wealthy individuals would want to invest in Charlton at this current time? It would only be the ones who, have no real interest in Charlton itself, but believe they could financially gain out of it themselves, similar to which most of the previous owners have done or tried to do!
I still think we have exactly the same problem we had all last season, despite getting promoted, it’s the lack of creativity in midfield our strikers feed off crumbs, we have tried to get round this problem by using attacking midfielders or defenders at set pieces, if the club just doesn’t have the money we’ll there is little we can do about it but we are sorely missing a midfield general someone who can control a game,
So very true. We haven’t had that type of player for a long time. Maybe since Aribo.
The owners for me are fine, invested in the club player wise and the facilities etc. In regard to some of the comments on here it’s embarrassing, suggesting that Warnock, Curbishley, Brown are the answers is laughable. NJ is marmite, I get that. I’m as frustrated as anyone with him but changing now is not the answer. He needs to go to 4 4 2, Clarke, Ramsey, Jones, Bell
Apter, Carey, Coventry, Campbell, Dyke, Godden. Goalkeeper is questionable. It’s just my opinion, others on here comment and say it’s the truth, it’s not, it’s their opinion. Having said that we lack and have done for a long time, a Kinsella, a Holland, a Jensen in midfield. One other point is that NJ is a defence first and attack second, which is fine if it works. We will never see expansive football but possibly success.