Jul 24
Three in, and three out permanently, with another couple out on loan. Still a bloated squad that has to see further exits.
The budget if not tight has to be managed responsibly with Squad Cost Rules (SCR) coming into effect. Those that bleat about us not spending millions need to remember that our revenues are easily in the lower quartile of the league.
Please click for moreJust a few words on Luke Berry. The club is in a much better place than it was when he joined.
Berry and Nathan Jones were reunited after he was released by Luton in the summer of 2024 following the Hatter’s relegation from the Premier League.
Please click for moreNathan Jones has stated numerous times, and yesterday more forcefully that this summer will see a big turnaround in playing staff following the consolidation of our Championship status, the first time the club have done that since 2013, and the first time ever following promotion through the play-off’s.
Jones said yesterday: “We need an influx of quality, athleticism, better decision-makers and pace. Everything. We need better.”
Please click for moreLloyd Jones’ name will appear on the POTY trophy for the second successive season.
Jones follows such Addick luminaries as Mark Kinsella, John Humphrey, Mark Aizlewood, Nicky Johns, Richard Rufus and Keith Peacock in winning the fan voted for award two year’s running. John Humphrey won it three times in a row between 1988 – 1990.
Please click for moreCharlie Kelman finished his goal yesterday like the striker we had hoped we had signed in the summer.
There were some interesting interviews after the game from both Nathan Jones and Kelman, which basically said the same and I don’t expect they had time to collude beforehand. I think we all want to see Kelman wheel away cupping his ears after scoring more often. Question is, will we.
Please click for moreThe Thursday weekly pre-match Nathan Jones club presser follows a similar format each week. It is obviously heavily managed and at best we get a look back at how well last week’s oppositon were coached, how well this coming week’s team are coached, and injury news consisting of updates that players are a week less injured than they were last Thursday.
However, Rich Cawley asks the questions that we want answers to.
Please click for moreThe 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.
Please click for moreThe Charlton youth team beat Watford tonight to progress to the last 16 of this season’s FA Youth Cup.
If that doesn’t get us warmed up for Saturday’s FA Cup night then not much will. Our academy continues to be a source of pride.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
Where have they been hiding Joe Rankin-Costello?
Nathan Jones’ 6th summer signing, he arrived from Blackburn just in time to join the summer tour to Slovenia, and was signed for a fee said to be £750,000.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
I am sure I am not alone, but I feel low and worried about those Addicks this morning, but I am here to attempt to put a positive spin on proceedings.
The overblown foreboding and anti-Jones sentiments in some of my comments and many hundreds on Charlton Life possibly need to press the brake a little.
Please click for moreA few comments on yesterday before we consign it to room 101.
That wasn’t us yesterday, it hasn’t been us, and now we have to make sure it doesn’t become us.
Please click for moreNathan Jones does like to run with a smaller squad, a unified group where every player feels part of it, and believe they will have their chance. This season he’s running with 25 players.
As of today we have Godden, Burke, Bell and Edwards at various stages of recovery. Ramsey and Lloyd Jones have had an illness, likely the same and had to isolate before playing under the weather on Saturday.
Please click for moreA few words on last night.
I was buzzing today. Absolutely wallowing in it. This Blog has always promoted enjoying the moment and that moment is now.
Please click for moreNathan Jones is a man rarely known to tinker, whether that has been to the detriment or not, but I will stand next to him by his record.
We have another two tough away journey’s this week making it four away games in five. Trips to Suffolk and Humberside await making it hard to spend too much time on the training pitch.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
A bit more on yesterday’s game. I know all too well that when you are an infrequent visitor like I am to live games then you have to lower your expectation level, but yesterday was something else.
Please click for more“What we probably want to do is add, at least one body. We know the position we need it. Maybe to do that, we want to make sure our numbers are good.” – Nathan Jones today.
A right wing back I reckon, possibly waiting to pounce with a low-ball offer for Japanese player Shinnosuke Fukuda, who halfway through their season his club Kyoto are demanding a large fee even though his contract expires in January.
Please click for moreRich Cawley has found out a little more on the summer absence of Matt Godden in an interview with Nathan Jones.
“It was a minor procedure on the knee, just a clean-up type of thing” that has kept last season’s top scorer out of pre-season. (more)
Please click for moreTwo more sleeps, and how are you feeling? Optimistic? Nervous? Restless?
We have to be excited don’t we. After some desperate years we all deserve that feeling. The club has laid a terrific foundation for all Addicks to have something to believe in, and that for me has always been the core principle of being a Charlton fan, and that hasn’t always been easy.
Please click for moreThis week was always going to be quiet on the transfer front. Jim Rodwell needs to refill his biro and give his phone a rest and Nathan Jones will be hard at it on the training field.
9 signings by the start of August has been phenomenal work, and whilst it is right to reason that not all 9 will be terrific, the ideology of strengthening key positions with a cross of experience and potential is to be applauded.
Please click for moreGassan Ahadme scored twice and could’ve had a third in the final run out of the season today, but he did do it against his favourite opposition.
Still it was a nice surprise and will do him no harm. Sonny Carey was the other scorer in the 3-0 win at Southend.
Please click for moreWas the name of the young man labelled ‘Trialist’ in tonight’s team sheet at Wealdstone, a game the Addicks won 3-0.
Lembikisa came on at the 60 minute mark as Nathan Jones shuffled his pack and fitted in at right centre back, even though he’s meant to be a right-wing-back.
Please click for moreSeven players signed. The club has been quick, strategic and quite stealth like in the summer window.
I always want to see what these guys will be like in a red shirt, but on paper the squad looks much stronger and deeper than it was the day after the play-off final.
Please click for moreIt’s exciting, right?
Six years ago in the exact same position we had just convinced Jason Pearce and Jonny Williams to sign new contracts, this only after Roland Duchatelet did a u-turn over Lee Bowyer’s contract. Joe Aribo had just left and Duchatelet was behind our backs negotiating to cash in on Anfernee Djiksteel.
Please click for moreNathan Jones and his squad will return to Slovenia this summer as I opined yesterday.
Nathan Jones has been taking his teams to Slovenia since 2017 and the squad will stay at the same training camp in Kranjska Gora, which is in the northwestern part of the country nestled between mountains and glacial lakes.
Please click for moreOne can find transfer rumours all over the internet. It only takes a keyboard, a social media account and an empty life but I don’t expect many Charlton transfer rumours to make it out in the open this summer.
Even known sleuth Rich Cawley might find it hard to prise information out of the club, and Nathan Jones is notoriously guarded.
Please click for moreWell that puts Cardiff City back in their box.
“Charlton Athletic are delighted to announce that men’s first-team Manager Nathan Jones has signed a new five-year contract with the club, committing his future to the Addicks until the summer of 2030.” (more)
Please click for moreRich Cawley has poured water over the Nathan Jones to Cardiff City yarn. The comments on the X post tell you the depth of feeling towards the most in-the-know Charlton reporter. Hoping Rich gets back to work soon.
Whilst The Bluebirds will need to look elsewhere we can continue to look forward to what will be a busy summer.
Please click for moreA tweet from a Welsh journalist has turned a lot of Charlton fan’s heads this weekend. He is speculating that Nathan Jones is a long and expensive shot to be Cardiff City’s next manager.
The Welsh club who we bypassed on the way to The Championship are looking for their 10th manager in 4 years.
Please click for moreI’m at Gatwick waiting for my flight, which I might actually miss unless I can stop myself scrolling through videos and photos of yesterday.
A momentous day, a momentous season that due to the contrasting segments of it seemed to last forever.
Please click for moreMy psychic powers have worked once again.
Amongst the play-off fever, and for a lot of Addicks the anxiety of getting a Wembley ticket, the club announced today that Phil Chapple joins the Addicks as Head of Recruitment.
Please click for moreEarly last summer I match-made Luke Berry and Dan Potts together with Nathan Jones, and this year I’m going to plump for a future commingling of Nathan Jones and Phil Chapple.
Chapple has a very good reputation in the game as a scout and from his previous jobs in player recruitment, and he has just left Luton Town following their relegation.
Please click for moreIt wasn’t a surprise was it that Chuks’ ban was not overturned. It rarely happens that a referee admits to a mistake, and it never happens to us.
This despite obvious video evidence that the coming together between him and the Wycombe player was neither violent conduct nor an elbow in the face.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
Only those that had partaken in a few too many shandies after the Crawley Town home game in early December would’ve predicted a play-off place being achieved in the middle of April with three games still to play.
It is an incredulous turnaround and massive credit to Nathan Jones and the players for giving us a feeling that I think most of us had thought was gone, and that is something to believe in.
Please click for more“We’re going into eight weeks of your life now where you sacrifice everything – you’re not shopping tomorrow, you’re not bowling, your diet’s good … if your wife or girlfriend wants to go shopping, wants to do that, they have to make the sacrifices, it’s a massive sacrifice for us to achieve something because you can’t now go to Bluewater tomorrow walking around high-fiving and going Costa Coffee when you should be resting and all those things, we have to be at it, the professional has to be paramount, everyone’s sacrificing, everyone’s family is sacrificing for the greater good if you like”
Nathan Jones has always been good for a quote – whether unhinged, philosophical or funny.
Please click for moreI am sure at the wish of Nathan Jones the club has re-directed part of Andy Scott’s salary to extend Danny Hylton’s player coach contract.
35-year old Hylton has rarely featured for the first team, but has been playing a role on the training ground working with the team’s strikers and in particular the youngsters of which there are many.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
What happened and what did they do with our drab-season’s already over Charlton Athletic?
Please click for moreWhen Andy Scott joined the club in July 2023 he was pretty much given the keys to the castle, and as his decisions became more and more costly it only appeared as if he was given more keys.
That was until Nathan Jones came in.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
It is hard to be surprised by the club’s transfer policy, they did tell us. Players to leave because the training pitches weren’t long enough as well as to trim the budget, plus a couple in to help where we were short.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
We know Nathan Jones is prone to hyperbole but the “I think we’ve got a Championship-level squad, I really do” comment looked spectacularly out of place in the cold of South Yorkshire on Saturday evening after a team below us in League One took us to the cleaners.
Please click for moreThe ghost of Christmas past.
Charlton CEO Charlie Methven has been on the sherry after a 5-0 win and has broken his silence.
Rich Cawley has all the soundbites.
Please click for moreI wonder if I am the only person still watching Nathan Jones’ press conferences. Don’t worry you aren’t missing much, they are still very much sound bite rinse and repeat’s.
Front footed, aggressive, best pressers in the league, injured players are less injured than they were last week and my favourite, we need to be the best version of ourselves.
Please click for moreTaking point 🗣️
Luke Berry got his 3rd and 4th goal of the season last night. There’s only been six starts, criticized in some quarters for not influencing games enough, he does have a habit of appearing from nowhere to score.
The question on everyone’s lips after Alfie May was cut loose was where will the goals come from.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
It seems like a lifetime ago that we played Birmingham, but still the afterglow remains. Now the trick is to take that forward.
We saw a very different style of play from Nathan Jones, possibly forced by the absence of Ahadme, but clearly architected by him as well to press City into submission and completely throw them out of their patterns.
Please click for moreTalking Point 🗣️
I would take anyway to get out of this league, even aimless hoofs upfield, if that somehow resulted in goals.
No Charlton fan should have been under any illusion of what Nathan Jones brought. His personality and style of play has had plenty of airtime.
Please click for moreSorry, it’s been a long week.
A no brainer this one and long in the pipeline, Dan Potts(y) signed a short term contract today until January. The 30-year old is a left sided centre-half.
Please click for moreAt Saturday’s final whistle I think most Addicks were disappointed but probably none “raging off their nut” like the team manager.
Nathan Jones’ interview with Terry Smith post game was very much the talking point amongst my mates last night as his anger seemed a little misplaced.
Please click for moreA few of those eagle-eyed had noticed Paul Hart’s absence from the dugout thus far this season, and yesterday the club announced that he has left the club.
We know the demands of working for Nathan Jones, Paul Hart knows that better than anyone so good luck to the 71-year old in I presume retirement or at least being home much more with the family.
Please click for moreLots of conversation amongst Addicks in terms of the style of play we’ve seen thus far under Nathan Jones.
I don’t think we can mine too much into how we played last season under Jones. It was all about steadying a sinking ship and putting fingers in dykes all the while for him to study what he has inherited and what was needed on a go forward basis.
Please click for moreA mate messaged our chat after 15 minutes. He couldn’t follow the game and asked how we were looking. I told him I’d report back after a further 45 and 3/4 games.
It’s impossible to judge based on one game, but still first impressions count, and it’s hard not to draw some early reflections and assumptions.
Please click for moreFootball hardly went away this summer what with the Euro’s and then the Olympics. I think there’s even already been European qualifying games going on the last week or so, but here we are again on the eve of the new EFL season.
League One for the Addicks for the fifth consecutive season on the back of our worst league finish for 98 years.
Please click for moreIt’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.
Please click for moreBy this time in 2011 Chris Powell had signed 12 new players. As a reminder they were John Sullivan, Bradley Pritchard, Cedric Evina, Paul Hayes, Dale Stephens, Danny Green, Nick Pope, Ruben Bover Izquierdo, Rhoys Wiggins, Danny Hollands, Michael Morrison and Matt Taylor.
There were 19 in total by the time Powell signed free agent Yann Kemorgant in September after the window shut. The rest as they say is history
Please click for moreLooks nice does Slovenia. I need to add that to my list. A blend of the Alpine mountains and the Med.
Nathan Jones has been taking his teams to Slovenia since 2017 and the squad are staying at a training camp in Kranjska Gora, which Jones is very familiar with.
Please click for moreThe 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.
Please click for moreI think the writing is on the wall with regard to Alfie. There’s rarely any smoke without fire and between Huddersfield having money to spend and Nathan Jones’ word gymnastics I am pretty convinced last season’s L1 top scorer has played his last game in a Charlton shirt.
Please click for moreI put Luke Berry and Charlton together after Luton announced their end of season release list and today that became a reality when the midfielder signed on a two-year contract (with a year’s option).
Berry is a signing to raise the eyebrows, and I would have expected him to have had plenty of offers from higher placed teams, particulary in the south-east, but has chosen the Addicks purely down to his relationship with Nathan Jones.
Please click for moreThere’s been lots of chatter about Alfie May since the season ended. One half of the camp are ‘he is definitely going,’ the other half ‘of course he’s not.’
No one really knows of course, probably not even Alfie, who on the back of a golden-boot winning season must have expected to just rest-up and get all fired up to start a new season.
Please click for moreWe have been told the length of Tyreece Campbell’s new contract.
“The 20-year-old winger, who joined the Addicks at U9 level, has signed a two-year deal, with a club option of an additional year.” (more)
Please click for moreMay 8
I’m not normally one to dwell on season’s past, especially crap ones, but I had ten minutes and was toying with some thoughts around if there was actually anything positive to say at all about the last nine months.
We began the season being fed the tag line of ‘new team, new era’ which coupled with Andy Scott pushing the mantra of ‘action not words’ told us in hindsight all we needed to know of what a cycle of incompetence we were to expect.
Please click for moreCharlton have issued the names of players that will leave and stay for next season.
The only player offered a new deal was Tyreece Campbell, who has signed a new unknown length contract.
Please click for moreCongratulations to Alfie May on his League One Golden Boot win. He truly is a very nice bloke. Lovely interview with him here.
May’s 23 goals are the most by an Addick in a league season since Andy Hunt who scored one more 24 season’s ago.
Only Bradley Wright-Phillips and Lyle Taylor have scored 20 or more goals for us in those intervening years.
Please click for moreThe conversation on whether George Dobson will stay or leave in the summer has got louder and louder these past few weeks. There are over 3,300 comments on the Charlton Life Forum, and Nathan Jones spent the bulk of his post game chat throwing the club’s decision makers under the bus whilst singing George’s praises.
The people that matter – those that were witness to the deal in the first place including Fehérvár, George’s agent, Andy Scott and George himself have been pretty silent on the matter.
Please click for more
Sarasota, Florida
