Aug 5
Anfernee Djiksteel will complete his move to Middlesbrough on Tuesday just a few days after Roland Duchatelet said he wasn’t for sale, That wasn’t true of course as Boro just had to meet Roly’s price, which was £2m. Djiksteel is being paid peanuts, Duchatelet offers a few more peanuts, but would rather liquidize the asset, and Boro offer the 22-year old £10k a week. As Lee Bowyer knew last week, that is the end of that.
As we wait on more bodies being brought in by magicians Lee Bowyer and Steve Gallen there’s still no news on the agreement to contract extensions from Lyle Taylor and Anfernee Djiksteel.
Taylor, one has to pray is a formality, what with his influence in the acquisition of his mate Deji O, and the deal is just being negotiated with his much trusted agent. As for Djiksteel that negotiating is becoming tougher as Middlesbrough hover in the background. The club has apparently already resisted a derisory offer, but we all know as sure as eggs are eggs that the yellow toothed twunt will cash his own mother in for a few euros.
The Addicks eased to victory today without ever really needing top gear.
Scunthorpe looked a team struggling, it wasn’t a walkover but they lacked the desperation of a fighter on the ropes. The Iron had their chances but couldn’t make any count whilst Charlton played with a real freedom and in patches played some good attacking stuff to record their best win of the season to date.
Purrington, Sarr and Vetokele were back and Albie Morgan got a chance as Bielik again missed out to injury. Jake Forster-Caskey made a very welcome return on the bench.
I thought before the game with our injuries that I’d take a draw. I was even more certain after half hour as we were hanging on and behind to a 2nd minute goal. Sunderland had chances to bury us in that first 30 minutes, but by the half-time whistle the worm had started to turn and we finally started to get our act together.
2nd half was a diffent game. We were excellent and it was the Black Cats that were hanging on and riding their luck. Taylor deserved the rub of the green that saw his cross turned in for an own-goal equalizer. He was excellent again.
Sep 17
I’d imagine this was a surprising blow to all of us this morning. With the latest round of injuries to Bielik, Pratley and Ajose said to be just a couple of weeks of inability, after an MRI this morning Patrick Bauer tweeted that he has ruptured his fibular collateral ligament, which is located on the outer side of the knee, and will be out “for a couple of months.”
Sunderland v Charlton 12.30pm (live on Sky Sports). Two weeks time.
Today, we are at Crawley in the latest pre-season friendly. They have a manager called Harry Kewell, who if rumours were correct could have been Charlton’s manager for the past 6 months!
Expect a team and bench this afternoon with a good sprinkling of academy players. Whilst Elliot Ward has moved on, Simon Dawkins and Rohan Ince will probably feature. Ince is a rather limited defensive midfielder, and was released by Brighton at the end of last season. Ince has been relegated from League One in each of the last two seasons whilst on loan. First of all with Swindon, then with Bury.
90+4 mins..
A storming comeback should not be sniffed at and can often be a catalyst for a good run, but it should not hide the fact that this was a poor performance from Charlton last night. Defensively it sounded as if we were all over the place, with Bauer particularly poor, and we should have already been behind before Posh scored their opener.
Chicago Addick 