Mar 2
I am on a self imposed social media ban. The negativity is caustic. Anyways it was bought to my attention that Albie Morgan has come under criticism for his ‘liking’ Karlan Grant’s post gloriously celebrating Huddersfield’s 4-0 win on Saturday.
I always thought of Morgan older than his years, but publicly approving to Grant’s finger to lips action was rather stupid. He has since unliked what he liked, so guess that’s okay.
Roland Duchatelet has made some shameful decisions in his time as Charlton owner, but selling our top scorer, and pocketing the £2m, then offloading high wage earners Nicky Ajose and Billy Clarke and allowing just a short term signing of a 28-year old journeyman from Gillingham in the last 72 hours of the transfer window might top the lot.
As our promotion rivals all around us invested heavily we slunked into the background like someone uninvited to the party. If Bowyer and Jackson keep us in contention, Lennie Lawrence’s crown of adversity will have been well and truly topped.
For an undisclosed fee. Roundly expected to have been £2m.
It was Bob Peeters who gave Karlan Grant, or Karlan Ahearne Grant as he was known then, his league debut at just 17-years old. He was nowhere near ready. The following season Guy Luzon and the infamous Karel Fraeye also threw him into the fold as the club staggered from one debacle to the next, eventually we were relegated as all matter of soft toys would rain down onto The Valley on a regular basis.
Grant was played in wrong positions, was horribly mismanaged, was sent out on loan, and bounced between youth football and the bench as other young strikers were loaned in ahead of him and all the while every time he looked up he had a new manager to talk to. Yes, Grant has been at Charlton since he was 12, but does he owe us anything?
Seems as Karlan Grant wasn’t the only person on his way out at the ABAX today as Posh’s Steve Evans also got his marching orders after the game. Posh have won just 3 games since October.
On paper a draw away at fellow promotion rivals is a good point but we dominated proceedings in the 2nd half and Grant’s poor penalty ultimately cost us 3 crucial points.
According to the South London Press. Karlan Grant will sign for Huddersfield this week. Selling your top scorer just before the transfer window with the club in it’s best promotion position since we were relegated. What a surprise!
Grant played today, which on the basis of he not training yesterday, was a surprise. And of course he signs off by missing a penalty at Peterborough and prevented us picking up 3 massive points.
Don’t you love the transfer window? Addicks everywhere pace around the room crossing each day of January off as the month passes slower and slower, whilst the crackpot owner sits in his bunker stroking his cat like a yellow-toothed Blofeld.
Lee Bowyer, as honest as ever today, said the threat that Karlan Grant leaves this month is very real. Huddersfield Town, 10 points adrift of safety in the Premier League, are willing to spend big on signing Grant. West Brom, Middlesbrough, Brentford and Rangers are all keeping tabs on the 21-year old as well, who a year ago was pushed out on loan to Crawley Town.
That game had it all. Well only after the 82nd minute.
We didn’t play well, and were unable to get any luck from Stanley’s big back four. The game descended into a niggle contest in the last half hour and with 10 minutes to go a mass brawl followed an Addicks corner. No one seemed to know who the guilty and innocent parties were, but one of the lino’s called it and the referee sent off Stanley keeper Maxted and Lyle Taylor, who from what I have seen and heard, spent the whole incident face down on the floor.
Allez, allez, allez.
A consummate performance yesterday in Salop, the scene of not so fond memories at the end of last season. Since then for Shrewsbury’s part they’ve had their squad and management team ripped apart and have had two managers since. Meanwhile we look much better prepared for promotion 7 months on, and the shoe was on the other foot yesterday as we controlled the game, as they did then.
In May Karlan Grant was at Crawley and Lyle Taylor was a figment of Lee Bowyer’s imagination, but yesterday up front together they caused havoc amongst Shrewsbury’s back line, which was one of the Shrews’ assets last season. Grant could have scored four, but his pace was a constant menace. And it was a sign of his confidence that he stepped up for the penalty and struck it with such aplomb.
A very nice win today against one of the most consistent performers in this division. Charlton attacked with real pace and purpose and two goals from Karlan Grant gave us our first win in four and inflicted defeat on Barnsley for only the second time this season.
I was following along from Florida, and the result never seemed in doubt with the returning Bielik strengthening our back four and our midfield excelling doing both the pretty and ugly stuff with Josh Cullen at the centre of it all.
23 shots on goal and 16 corners as the Addicks’ perseverance eventually paid dividends yesterday as we stretched our impressive run. I was following the match at Miami airport and from what I could make out, our midfielders were excellent 2nd half led by Reeves and Aribo as we pushed and pushed for a winner and didn’t take the option of just lumping it.
Lovely result today. Bradford’s league place belies them, they are loudly backed at Valley Parade and it is always a tough place to win.
But win we did. It was a gritty display, perhaps with an added nasty streak. Yet we showed some good skill, were determined, focused and scored with a couple of superb finishes. My, we could be talking about Bowyer the player.
I am more than happy Bow has introduced a tough streak. For too long we have been easy pushovers. We are going to pick up bookings though, that’ll we need to deal with.
After what has seen like a length of a James Cook expedition the Aussies are apparently finally coming. We have seen plenty of false dawns but word is that next week we may eventually get rid of the Belgian poison and have new owners.
According to the sage Richard Murray there were two bids accepted. One was obviously the Aussies, and the other may have been an Arab consortium, or was it English or was it the Scots, and someone said today there was some American interest. Who the hell knows, except that we finally rid ourselves of Roland Duchatelet.
Probably to help balance the wage bill a little 20-year old Karlan-Ahearne Grant went on loan to Crawley today for the rest of the season.
With Mavididi, Kaikai and Zyro, KAG was expendable and a run in a lower division will hopefully see him find his feet, and possibly his level. Harry Kewell’s Crawley are on a good run and have moved to 7 points off the play-off’s and play at lowly Chesterfield tomorrow.
Unified..
A strong and unified performance tonight at the league leaders. In the wider context of our previous form, it was an excellent and well deserved point on the road which can provide a platform that takes us deep into the new year. Robinson and the players have to remain focused, particularly the manager, whilst all around them takeover fever has set in.
The manager has been rightly criticized recently due to his coaching, but he too should take plenty of credit tonight along with the back four. Konsa shined in a couple of positions and Jacko led, of course, by example.
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.
Hard fought..
And a stuttering and often ugly performance tonight but 3 very valuable points against what I was thought was a very decent Rochdale team, playing with a style far better than their league position indicates.
I watched for the first time on EFL’s iFollow service, which allows overseas fans to watch live games. Charlton remember don’t subscribe to iFollow but almost all of our League One opponents do and for a fiver for a match pass I thought it was good. No commentary just live pictures and atmosphere, although there was a delay in the sound, but I’d recommend it, if you are able to take advantage. By the way I would encourage you take this CAFC media team’s survey on their Valley Pass service.
Who needs strikers..
Will be the text from Roland to Katrien this afternoon after the owner would have doubtless watched on his iPad from his Flanders’ pied a terre Charlton’s demolition of Northampton. In fact Karl Robinson may have wished for own goals to help his cause in attempting to bring in another striker before the window shuts.
With Lee Novak looking as if he’d like an August move away from SE7, the need for a striker, or two, is paramount but let’s not take away from today’s four goal haul as the Addicks turned over an always dangerous Northampton side, who have now lost all three of their league games.
If Cristian Ceballos was always going to depart then it begs the question why Karl Robinson used him extensively in the pre-season games thus far. I don’t suspect the ex-Spurs player was one of the highest earners, and those that saw him in Ireland and at Greenwich said he impressed. He may have done a job, although every time I think of Ceballos I think of that corner.
I had never heard of Fredrik Ulvestad until his name came up yesterday alongside many others in Russell Slade’s efforts to bring in another much needed central midfielder. Slade added: “He’ll add a different dimension to us. He’s different to what we have got,” which hopefully means he is mobile, can pass the ball forward and can take a player on.
With free agent Chicksen added the day before but only replacing Tareiq Holmes-Dennis, just Ulvestad was added to Slade’s squad when he had been saying he needed three or four more since the beginning of August. And with Alou Diarra going today, it is another man down, and in my mind when suspensions and injuries come a knocking, I worry that we have a squad that can be in contention at the top half of the table.
The fact is that once again Meire and Duchatelet have left it too late. They had the pick of Ajose, Novak and Holmes early in the summer, which was good work, but once again we are left fishing in murky shallow waters on the afternoon of deadline day after more players had left. Who knows how far Ulvestad was down Slade’s list. Yet the Norwegian will be expected to carry a lot of our creative play along with Holmes.
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Another defeat, and Guy Luzon’s very questionable approach to resting our best players for Wednesday’s game against Crystal Palace producing an embarrassing response. Lacking commitment, concentration and attitude, and that was just the head coaches view of things.
The bench had more teenagers on it than an after school park bench underscoring again the owner’s inability or lack of desire to allow Luzon to prepare better for a cut and thrust season in this division.
From what I understand, and my sympathy and admiration goes to those Addicks who made it to South Wales today, the performance lacked any of the competences that we have got to know Luzon for. The first 15 and last 15 minutes had no redeeming features whatsoever and the bit in the middle wasn’t much better.
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A comfortable win tonight on a night full of shocks and the Addicks reached the League Cup 2nd Round for the 3rd successive season. Seven Championship sides meanwhile went out.
Luzon managed to put out a strong line-up despite sprinkling it with a 17 and an 18-year old, as well as giving full debuts to Naby Sarr, Cristian Ceballos and Zakarya Bergdich. We started positively, which is always important in these games, and Tony Watt continued where he left off on Saturday when the Scotsman latched on Jackson’s pass and fired home in the 26th minute.
Watt also set up 17-year old Karlan Ahearne-Grant’s first ever senior goal just before the break, a tap in it may well have been but it would have tasted very sweet.
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Very quiet on the Addicks front at the moment, with I would assume players and coaching staff on their holidays recharging the batteries. Pre-season training begins at the end of June, with only one friendly currently confirmed, and that will be the traditional curtain opener at Welling on Saturday 11th, July. In a change to the norm, there is set to be two home friendlies this summer.
Karlan Ahearne-Grant has been called up to the England U18 squad for their upcoming tour of Russia. Karlan dropped out of the first team scene under Luzon after being thrown into the deep end by his predecessor, however the 17-year old continued to prosper in the U21 development team and scored in every round of the Kent Senior Cup including the trophy winner.
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Not really Men of Kent of Kentish Men but Charlton proved they were the Kentish Champions tonight beating on their own manor a very experienced Gillingham team, which is not really in line with the spirit of the competition. Penfold look-a-like Paul Scally will not like that one little bit.
Charlton retained the Kent Senior Cup they won last season and have now won it three times in the five years since we returned to the competition.
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With Rhoys Wiggins being out for a minimum of 6 weeks with a fractured foot, Big Bob was a little coy on who would takeover at left back in the coming games. Morgan Fox has patiently waited in the wings appearing only at Fulham in the League and in the two League Cup games.
The Welshman may not have impressed as much as he did at the tail end of last season under Jose Riga, but the 21-year old needs and deserves a run of games. Coquelin, Gomez, Solly and Wiggins, even Cousins could probably all fill in there, but I would prefer to see Fox.
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At half-time yesterday I started to believe that the players were on the same page as Roland Duchâtelet, i.e. they were content with 22 points.
However the 2nd half from the commentary anyway sounded much improved and we played some more incisive football and once Igor was introduced packed a much bigger punch up top.
If Bob can keep Igor and JBG 100% fit then I think we can compete in the top half of the table, and within reach of the play-off’s, without them and until Bob is able to sign some additional recruits we will continue to resemble a patchwork quilt.
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I left Bermuda on Thursday night due to there being a hurricane blowing a little too powerful for comfort, but even if I was avoiding a hurricane I was still hoping for a little more than a puff of air from my Addicks in Dorset yesterday.
There should be no sugarcoating this performance – it was poor, rubbish in fact.
The Addicks were obviously going to lose their unbeaten record at some time, but to lose it without so much of a whimper was very disappointing. From the off to the last minute our ball retention was poor, we lacked invention, never looked like scoring and were bereft of any pace, sinew or coherence.
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Scenes!
A monster result tonight against the league leaders’ expensively assembled squad and the division’s top scorers.
It may have been a smash and grab victory, but they don’t come without defensive mettle, strength of character, organisation and a game plan. Oh, and winner, and Johnnie Jackson is a born winner. Those less appreciative of what Jacko gives to the fabric of our club can go back into their cubby-holes for a little bit longer.
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Sarasota, Florida
