Michail Antonio
Michail Antonio has been training with the Addicks for a few days as Nathan Jones and the medical team cast their eyes over the ex-West Ham striker with a view of putting together a deal for the free-agent.
Antonio has not played a competitive game in England since the highly-documented car crash in December 2024 that left the 35-year-old with multiple leg fractures.
He did play in each of Jamaica’s three CONCACAF Gold Cup games last summer and was in recent World Cup squads. Of course the Addicks’ Jamaica contingent will be a pull, but the question will be if Jones’ feels he can impact the remainder of our season.
Leicester were close to offering him a deal in January but he picked up a muscle injury so that ended negotiations. He trained with Leicester for a month. Brentford was another club said to be talking to him.
Credit to Antonio for wanting to get back playing. He has a gig with TNT Sports and has done various other media work. You’d think after what happened to him, and at 35 years old he’d be ready to hang up his boots.
Jones does like a free agent though, and also likes strong and positive influences around the training ground. I am sure the wages structure will be reflective of Antonio’s situation.
The move was sure to gather some press coverage, and we’ll see if it does amount to anything.
Not sure how I feel about this. When I started watching Charlton they were famous for giving a last lifeline to older players. Harry Cripps, Maurice Setters and Ray Crawford spring to mind.
Our recent experiments with Onel Hernandez and the Frenchman whose name I can’t remember didn’t end well.
Somebody on Charlton Life suggested he would be Chucks 2.0. That might not be a bad thing.
Well NJ might as well make it a hat trick as we paid the wages of the other two for about three months who were over the hill and not up to it, with the Frenchman not even getting on as a sub! Plus if you want to look at certain others who were around their middle 30’s who were an absolute disaster and cost Charlton a fortune, a certain Mr Hasselbank comes immediately to mind!
I think you can add Kerry Dixon and David Speedie to that list as well! Curbs signings.
However to counter that Di Canio was a fantastic signing ✍🏻!
Totally agree Di Canio must be the best signing Charlton ever made of a player in the mid 30’s. He put many of the younger players to shame with his must win attitude and the amount of effort he put in, in every single game, let alone his skill factor!
Weren’t you offering up similarly bleak assessments of Conor Coady only a couple of weeks ago? Yes — that does ring a bell, doesn’t it. Funny how these patterns regularly repeat themselves.
Credit where it’s due, though: the fact that Michail has managed any sort of return after such a genuinely horrific accident is pretty impressive, particularly at 35. The restorative powers of unwavering self-belief are clearly not to be underestimated — one almost envies it, doesn’t one. 😁
Naturally, the minor inconvenience of a £90k-a-week West Ham salary may complicate matters slightly. As such, the prospect of a Wrexham unveiling feels increasingly inevitable — assuming, of course, that the lingering memory of the bent Ferrari and a narrow stretch of country road doesn’t prove to be the more persistent mental barrier.
Yes your right and so far I think I am right and I’m not the only one, others around weren’t that happy with his performances. If you looked at the last two matches and watched his contributions, he mainly waves his arms around being very vocal and telling everyone else who to mark and what to do, but does very little himself as he never really marks anyone. Its very similar to Gilbey who did the same, more arm movements and talking than actually getting involved and putting himself about! That’s why Coady didn’t go down that well at Wrexham and only played about four games, though he had plenty of vocal! Great if he does start performing, but at present I just see Jones and Bell doing all the real hard work at the back and getting stuck in.
As for Antonio, its not just about his injury as I really admire him for trying again, but combined with his age of 35 and a really serious injury, will he be up to it, its a really big ask? As per the two now let go of similar age couldn’t do it and were a complete waste of wages for three months each, which could have been used elsewhere!
Plus why your on the subject of assessments, I believe you were advising Ahadme was a good buy last year and to give him a chance, plus also having a go a TC this season not being good enough etc, but nothing mentioned since, funny that! 🙂 🙂
(Upate) Yes if you were at the QPR and Stoke games you will have noted what a liability TC is after his first contributions from the bench he continually gives the ball away and puts us under pressure and could well have lost us both games – and like i said that’s not good enough at this level.
What has MA’s alleged West Ham salary got to do with how much his next employer might pay him? He’s not a West Ham player. There’s no transfer. MA’s a free agent. TNT don’t pay him £90k a week do they? If Leaburn’s injured (again) or (when) Dykes gets suspended there will be a Michail Antonio sized hole in NJ’s gameplan. Makes a lot of sense to me.
If Antonio is fully recovered from his awful injury he could be a good addition but I’m very worried about the affect the injury will have on his past performance at West Ham.
A good point, KK, but you left out one of my favourites in that category, Cliff Holton. I have never seen any forward hit the ball harder than him.
Mike Kenning for me
Ray Tracey for me !
I agree cliff Ray Tracey or Matt tees for me
Crikey all these names from the past all of whom I saw playing, don’t forget Ron Saunders, but agree with BG Cliff Holton for me. Never saw anybody hit the ball harder.
Makes me think leaburn might be out for a while
Well I remember Ray Crawford nearly did it for us, Cliff Holton and Brian Whitehouse both well into their 30s kept us up in the 60s in the last months, as did Eddie Firmani when he returned for the second time, so there has been some success with this policy, fine lines when it comes to relegation, Barnsley relegated Charlton at Brentford with a 94th minute goal.
Conor coady is a completely different player than Antonio he is just a born leader Antinio won’t be getting anywhere near £90k a week with us he might want it but it ain’t happening. I think NJ just wants someone like Antonio training so he can give our young guns some guidance if he does sign i think he will be just another older footballer sitting on the bench.
It would be an upgrade from Danny Hilton !!!!!!……..Has Michail ever played for Luton ???? LOL.
Anyone is an upgrade from Hilton our so called Striker Coach! LOL