Jun 13
There were some not pleasant stories coming out of SE7 today. Roland Duchatelet has been at the The Valley this week and Rich Cawley has just confirmed that the Belgium is making plans for the new season as if he is still the owner. His first decision was to offload Ezri Konsa to Brentford yesterday with other cost saving plans to come shortly involving player sales and staff cuts.
Well, that was my initial reaction, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me if I was Ezri Konsa. I suspect there was no real Premier League interest, at least those willing to meet an asking price or a timing. So Ezri, unlike many young ambitious footballers, decides that the next step on the ladder is a move up to somewhere he can be a regular, stay in London and be in a more populous shop window.
For the first time in Duchatelet’s reign we didn’t pull our pants down and have a player boot sale in Valley car park on deadline day. Despite the vultures circling, credit where credit’s due, the club resisted offers for Josh Magennis, Tariqe Fosu, and hot interest in Ezri Konsa and go forward for the rest of the season which looks a very competitive squad, depending on injuries of course.
According to sources of respected Belgian journalist John Chapman Roland Duchatelet appeared tired and is looking to concentrate his 71-year old mind on other things. This came after he sold his remaining shares in Belgian side Sint-Truiden (STVV), always considered to be his favourite ‘child.’
Duchatelet and his partner Marieke Höfte have been involved with Sint-Truiden on and off, but mostly on since 2003. He only bought back the club last year after selling up in 2011 but this week he sold STVV to DMM, a diversfied Japanese electronics and online shopping company. I don’t know, but I suspect the amount of the sale was ‘undisclosed.’
Header, left foot, right foot..
I spent most of my day at the swimming pool watching my daughter race and she did herself very proud. Meanwhile 4,000 odd miles away in a town with a little less than half the population of Bermuda, a football team were doing themselves very proud as well.
After a four game hiccup involving two disappointing defeats and two disconcerting draws, the Addicks went to a free-scoring Fleetwood today possibly expecting the worst and with the added handicap of having no Chris Solly, although Ben Reeves and Mark Marshall did take their place on the bench.
So, who is confident that Ricky Holmes will still be at The Valley next season?
The South London Press “has been told that Charlton have received an offer but made it clear they have no intention of parting with the attacker, who won the Player of the Year award.” I think we have seen this movie before..
Losing Holmes would be a hammer blow to Addicks and Karl Robinson. Last summer the club did resist offers for Ademola Lookman, before eventually cashing in on him in January, but any bid for Holmes would likely represent a large premium on the £125,000 we paid Northampton. Charlton have offered Holmes an extension to his contract which expires in 2018 but at this stage in his career, you would hardly blame Holmes for moving up a division to work with a manager he knows well.
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