Charlton Athletic 0 Bolton Wanderers 1
An uneasy night’s sleep had the same air of inevitability about it than The Valley last night.
That wasn’t new to us of course, we have seen this far too often, the sad thing was just 8 or so weeks ago the air felt very different whatever your personal views of Nathan Jones.
Jones made yet a load more selection changes, even Mannion returned, but the basis of recruitment by the club has set Jones up to fail, and failing he is and I suspect the feeble management team are turning their backs on him now and secretly flicking through rolodex’s of agent’s names to see what cheap option is available to them.
The merry go round is back, and those that should be blamed will be stood behind Jones as they shuffle him out of the door. The same people that decided to give him a 5-year contract a year ago and in the summer pulled the budget from under him.
The atmosphere was not fetid, and a sparse crowd tried their best to support the team, and the drummer not far behind us could not be blamed for his defeatism.
But there was a tension about the place that only an early goal was going to affect. The one player who seemed to have time and steadfastness on the ball was Chalobah, so it was even more excruciating to see him make a dreadful error for Bolton’s 18th minute goal, hot from his error on Saturday.
That killed any believe that this was to be the night we turned the corner. In fact another corner may now have turned for Jones, who I expect contrary to some people’s belief does not teach that to Chalobah in training.
What followed was a master class of what happens when you sign average and below average players combined with a fragile mentality of a group that are not up for the fight. This is a squad that Jones built to play his football that has given up on him.
As for Chalobah, an innocuous tackle meant he went off at half-time and will have another spell on the sidelines. I don’t think for a quick second that when Jones talked about a midfield evolution in June he was expecting to rely on an injury prone 31-year old trialist.
We huffed and puffed but it was a tortuous and actually quite a sad watch. Bolton were not very good, but played like we did for much of last season and left with their clean sheet and 1-0 victory.
Like others a big group of us sat behind after the game, no booing, no clapping just silence.
🎙️ “We have to stay together and if that’s for one more game, we have to stay together.” – Nathan Jones
⭐️ Danny McNamara
🏟️ 14,885 (1,106 from Bolton)
📸 Chicago Addick
I have no words to say adequately how sad I feel this morning.
The players you had the misfortune to watch last evening, were almost all brought in by NJ.
All the NJ apologists will be saying. Give him the game Saturday to see if he can turn it around. When we’ve lost that, they’ll say give him until Christmas. Then they’ll say, give him the January transfer window to see if he can bring in some more (useless) players.
I say give him is P45.
It’s as clear as the nose on your face. The players have, at best lost confidence in Jones. Quite possibly they actively dislike him. Who can blame them?
Dislike him. I don’t see that. You dislike him, I don’t think or see that at all.
Where have you been these last several months?
Living under the rock and hope your mates enjoyed the true crap on offer once again, John WEST
I don’t think, at this point in the season, that any one game, regardless of result, should be viewed as a tipping point for NJ’s future at CAFC. There are plenty of points still to play for if he can just get a couple of matches without losing to stabilise and begin to build from there. In these situations I do believe that more can be achieved by limited players, which is what he has at his disposal, by adopting a 442. It might not be pretty but the aim is to get points and worry about improving the football as a spectacle for another day.
He might have brought in many of the players but were they his first choice options? And, in fairness to him, some have been good for Charlton in league one and last season in the Championship.
Like or dislike Jones it seems likely, as others have commented, that he hasn’t been backed with the signings that he would have liked. That is likely to be the stark reality that any new manager would have to deal with.
Agree with that Terry.
It is whether the owners/ and fans believe he can turn this around. We are not in the bottom three and there are 32 games left. 7 months!
But the direction of travel is not good.
I think a poll of success rate for clubs that turnover managers after not winning for 11 games over those that are persevered with will not show well.
Pompey are a good example when compared to Oxford last season.
Yes, well he was part of the useless recruitment team and his quotes suggesting he was happy with the signingsm so mor total bullshite then?
I thought we started the match better, and created a big chance for Danny Mac, but yet again that one individual error cost us. I mentioned the other day that every error leads to a goal against us, and so it happened again. Up until near the end of the game, that remained their only shot on target against us.
It knocked the life out of us and we were desperately short of ideas about how to turn it around, which was the sad and frustrating part.
I hate to open the Doc argument again, as I don’t think he was good enough, but we really seemed to lack some big characters on the pitch, who you need when you’re in this kind of run?
Maybe Saturday is last chance saloon for NJ. In a weird way, maybe that means he does something differently and stumbles upon a way to win. I hope so, I really do…
I think for those that suggested L Jones should be captain over Docherty and seeing why he wasn’t.
Spot on C.A everything was 70pc.
The fans were trying their best to create a positive atmosphere(70pc of them), the players had a fragile confidence and lack of belief in the game plan and execution (7/10).
The defence was never the issue, scoring goals is the issue, but too many look at the forward line, they are starved and live off scraps from a below average midfield. If we had our target player, Jack Moylan who is pulling up trees at Cardiff, it could look very different. Two midfielders the quality of Billy and McNamara would have made all the difference.
Our striker have to convert the one or two chances provided, elsewhere, they have four of five per game to make that vital connection.
Bolton did not trouble our keeper bar the goal and that was a gift. Bolton manager “I was pleased to see him finish it, we have had 7 similar one on one chances in prior games and that is the first we have converted.If we didn’t have bad luck we would have no luck at all.
I fear that is the end for Jones , he looked beaten and bereft of ideas. Those calling for change and settlement of a 5 year contract obviously know where the money trees are hidden.
We go again!
£2m to pay him off by all accounts. Another brilliant job by the management team. There goes the January transfer budget.
If the club doesn’t invest sufficient funds in the January ‘window’ then relegation will be a certainty. Life in L1, as we know, will see smaller crowds and less revenue, and the £2m transfer fund will pale into insignificance by comparison.
I too was there at the Valley last night, we could’ve played for a week and still not scored. Sadly we are just waiting for Saturday, not with optimism, not even with hope……this chapter is over now and Saturday is just the final game for NJ and his team!
I blame two key issues, as I’ve said previously on this ‘blog’ our transfer process and decision making has been absolutely dreadful.
The second simply being the quality (or lack of it) of our first team coaching team, all loyal to NJ but none of which seems to have the energy or knowhow to get us playing in a competitive way.
How many time have we heard NJ after the match making this statement “they just didn’t do the basics today, things we coach them every day in training” well if the players continually fail to take on the pitch what they’re coached to do……..then there’s clearly a breakdown in communication, so change something!!
Having supported the club for 60 years now, I’ve seen how consistency in management can deliver success (Curbishley & Lennie Lawrence), but sadly I’ve also seem many more years of constant managerial change that delivers completely the opposite, so I say this with a heavy heart but with genuine belief………it’s time for change now!!
Oh and to all those supporters (and I go to the matches with one and heard this from him last night, several times) who say, ‘We can’t sack NJ because it will cost us £2m and we won’t have any money for the January Transfer window’ I say, Championship clubs receive circa £10.5m from the EFL, League 1 teams receive circa £2.0m.
So our owners have a very big £9m incentive to do something that keeps us in the Championship………saying goodbye to NJ and his team might be painful but nowhere near as painful as relegation!!!!!
Think the costs far outweigh the income but it will need the owners to put their hands into their rather fat savings accounts.
Oh boy oh boy !!!
We just didn’t get the rub of the green and one error cost us a goal.We had some good chances that on another day would have hit the net.
Credit to the covered end who tried their best to whip-up the disappointing crowd.
I expected more Charlton fans last night to get behind the team on this important game….I bet most of the moaners sat at home and watched it on TV.
Let’s hope Saturday will attract more fans and create the atmosphere needed.
As we lost CA you don’t have to fly back for Saturday and I’m going to ignore my seaweed!!!!
Nathan has a chance to show us what we are capable of doing.
COYRs
Yep. Saves me a change fee on changing my Friday flight home 😀
Supporters have real reason for being disgruntled!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
The wrong starting 11 and the wrong tactics again.
Bolton a poor team at home and our best hope of creating or scoring a goal, Campbell playing wing back.
It’s not a team anymore it looks like a bunch of players put together for the first pre season friendly.
I do not blame the players, Coventry running around making mistake after mistake but not giving up knibbs covering every blade of grass , Lloyd Jones giving his usual 100% but they are being held back by the wrong tactics and no confidence.
Jones has dragged this club into the Championship but he will now drag us back down again.
There were 10 of us family and friends sitting together last night and instead of the usual clapping, shouting etc etc it was quiet , we’d given up.
Did find it interesting that the new CEO mentioned both Rodwell & Jones when discussing the football side of things during the recent PC. Curious if it’s a clean sweep of both if/when a change is made. Would be warranted imo.
Well I m glad I didn’t go last night so watched it on the box instead absolute rubbish from start to finish. There is no passion from the players NJ knows its gonna us £2m plus to get rid of him, I’ve lost all patience with his style of play I don’t know what happened to the 4 4 2 formation instead of the likes 3 3 2 1 1or whatever he formation he bloody well likes it’s always wrong. Mcnamara and Campbell the only two worth talking about. I still feel tge problem is midfield they are not getting enough balls in. On a plus it was great to see Godden back why not try Godden and Kelman up front like Mendonca and Hunt boy fo we need those sort of players back here. On to saturdays game CANT WAIT…COYR
Style???
Boy oh boy, was that a hard watch. Up until now I haven’t been on the ‘Jones out’ bandwagon, but I’m now looking for a space on the cart. I think the heirarchy will give him the Sheffield game as make or break. Unfortunately for NJ, Sheffield have found some decent form recently and it will be hard to get any sort of result. So, maybe a mountain to climb, and the question then to be asked is, who would be in line for the hot seat. Answers on a postcard.
We will go down with him ,we may go down with someone else so nothing to lose.
I’ll book the Taxi for hom
Sorry a final point on this, at the end of last year our owners made it clear they are looking for further investment to take the club forward. This maybe ‘smoke and mirrors’ to say we are looking to sell the club, or it may simply be true and they are looking for investors to join the ownership team and see the club progress. Either way, they will know full well that a team in League 1 will be alot more difficult (if not impossible) to find those investors for, than a team in the Championship……..I can’t help but feel this too is a huge incentive to make the right decision now!!!
Maybe give ellis mcmillan a go he scored 5 for the under 21s
Very depressing there were countless times when a simple ball over the top to Kelman or Godden to run onto were there but no one had the vision or confidence to play it instead playing back or across midfield losing possession time and time again Leaburn made a difference when he came on along with Costello but all to late.
P.S very bad move letting Docherty go we miss his tiger/terrier game !
I think the rot started last year when a majority of the money was spent on L1 players and whilst carey was on s free and impressed last year esp early on he has now gone backwards like s lot of the squad and some are not even at the club and on loan somewhere olafe ? Poor recruiting last year and poor investment this year ! Only leads to one thing back to league 1 and probably a search for new owners !
Very difficult watch last night, style of football is awful chopping and changing the side doesnt help some players not getting enough game time. Cholabah there’s a reason he’s a free agent not good enough skipp not good enough, the thing is has Jones took us as far has he can? Coyr
If you give him a chance he will take us back to league 1 .
How many chances and at any other club he would be gone, Gutless this so-called professional football club, my backside!!
Literally no point sacking him, NJ isn’t the problem it’s the pathetic bunch of forwards our budget allowed us were the problem lies…as was laid sadly bare last night.
As you say CA it’ll be the Jan budget gone as well.
We’re done really this season, can’t spend 2 million quid in this league and expect anything else.
If i was on the board I’d be looking at this as a 2 year project, who’s the best candidate to bring us straight back versus languishing for another 5 years. I know who my money would be on.
We’re still MASSIVELY better off than where we were 3 years ago and a lack of patience and foresight will send us spiralling back there very soon I fear.
We’ll look back on these past 3 years and wish we all hadn’t of been a bunch of recency biased DH’a hey ho
Team selection wrong
Tactics wrong
= Manager wrong
This is my opinion and last night starting with 5 at the back and our best chance of creating or scoring a goal starting at wing back Campbell was the last straw for me .
I believe sick note cholabah is injured again what a waste of a squad number there as to be better somewhere coyr
Nathan saved us from going to league 2 , he then won the play offs,
We stayed up last year and now he has 1 arm or maybe 2 held behind his back
With billionaire owners that for some inexplicable reason have decided not to
Back him. Clearly he can only buy and play average players if given no funds.
The players are with him and this nonsense about them not liking him is
Rubbish. Mouriniho or any other former Prem manager would not do any better
With what he has at his disposal thanks to the board
I agree with all the above until the Mouriniho part .
In my opinion we are not playing all of our better players at the start and his tactics are baffling me.
Last night against a poor team starting Campbell at wingback when he is our best chance of a goal, allowing Bolton onto the front foot.
Thank you Nathan but you need to go.
You seem to have forgotten last year the SMT gave NJ in excess of £10M (some say as much as £14M) which he wasted on hopeless players. Is it any wonder that in the close season just gone, they weren’t keen to replicate that.
See. That is the counter argument. Thanks Daggs.
Did the SMT just say you blew last years so r so year is 10%?
There’s a chance they did, right?
I suppose we’ll find out if the new manager gets 12m in January.
What “counter argument” He was given a large budget which he wasted. They didn’t want a repeat of that. Would you?
I’m not privvy to the conversations in the boardroom, butI’d guess they said ‘they’re the players YOU wanted. Make them a team’ He failed.
I posted this stat before; When we played at Watford recently, of 17 players he signed last season. Not one started that game.
A new manager will face an uphill challenge. He would be able to (try) and sell some deadwood. He would be able to use the loan market (In and out) The SMT MAY trust him with a budget. He MAY keep us in the Championship.
I can’t think of a time when a manager anywhere, let alone at Charlton has been given so much time, such a long period of grace, despite clearly failing.
And I can’t believe some supporters are still backing him
Sorry totally disagree
We should have tried to retain Docherty and Coady despite their age. So much experience wasted.
I find i’m missing Doc & Karoy Anderson who would help steady the midfield ship/t.
If we lose this Saturday then maybe it’s time for jones to go but I don’t know who can replace him and would we get that new manager bounce I don’t like jones because of his big ego and the crap that comes out of his mouth sometimes I can’t work out what has gone wrong after the first 3 results of the season we was a team on a roll and looked like we could at least finish in the top 10
Are the players he brought in originally back up players for what he hoped was to help better signings but then the board pulled the funding if that is the case it’s the boards fault
If NJ and his back room staff asked for these players that are not really championship players then NJ and his scouts should take the responsibility for signing players not good enough for this division
The clubs owners really don’t connect with the fans enough when it comes to si
gnings of new players or player injuries or just what is going on with investment
Is the main man Josh fed up and what do the 20 + shareholders invest or receive from cafc
Make a decision back the manager in January with new players or get rid of him or just please let us know what the hell is going on
Is money there to spend do you trust NJ to bring the players in we need or are you going to make a change
My problem is we don’t need another mr Appleton in to drag us down
Again who can take over who would we like to see in the dugout and please don’t mention bowyer he lost the dressing room once and we don’t need that again
Bows was not backed and was that the reason he walked or had better prospects elseshere?
And Jones has not lost the dressing room????