Jan 14
Hardly a surprise. Nicky Ajose left for Mansfield today on loan for the season. The striker signed for the Addicks in the summer of 2016. His contract runs out this summer. He has scored 11 goals in all competitions. A couple of those were big ones, but in all honesty he has failed pretty miserably to make his mark at The Valley. The supposed £800,000 signing has often looked uninterested although Bowyer praised his commitment today.
Ben Purrington has signed on loan until the end of the season. Purrington is a Rotherham player but has played every league game at Wimbledon this season where he has been on loan.
That alone makes a welcome change to bringing in a loan player that is either returning from injury or an inexperienced young player from a big club that is looking to get some games under his belt. As Lee Bowyer said “the big positive is that he’s played every game at Wimbledon and is ready to go.”
We showed once again tonight that this Charlton team has goals in it as we crashed five past Mansfield Town to progress to the next round of the FA Cup where we will travel to Doncaster Rovers.
We began with a strong looking line-up which included Billy Clarke and Patrick Bauer. Both were replaced late in the game, after we were 2-0 ahead. One surprise in the starting line up was the inclusion of Lyle Taylor, who had only just flown back from Montserrat. Sarr partnered Bauer, and Toby Stevenson got a whole game in his preferred wing back role. Phillips was in goal.
Fosu, Lapslie, Pratley and Clarke were the diamond shaped midfield and Ajose, desperate for a goal and possibly in Bowyer’s last chance saloon, played up top with Taylor.
Three on Saturday against Wycombe. Nothing too serious but we are going to be without Darren Pratley for 2-3 weeks, Nicky Ajose probably this weekend and Krystian Bielik for a fortnight.
So where are we..
4 days left before we kick off at Sunderland, and we waved farewell to Josh Magennis today who signed for Bolton Wanderers. The fee is said to be £200,000, a severe haircut on the £500,000 offered to Duchatelet in January. Discounts for cash. The Belgian continues to dismantle our football club in front of our very eyes.
He asset stripped Standard Liege and he is asset stripping Charlton Athletic. Nicky Ajose is also been touted to anyone who has got a penny. Coventry City are interested but the cancerous owner thinks he can get more from overseas. Ajose will be gone by week’s end.
According to Rich Cawley. I would count Josh Magennis as gone by the middle of next week, with the only variable being that Peterborough come back with a matched or better offer. Posh are flush with cash after selling Jack Marriott to Derby. Marriott was the top scorer in League One last season with 27 goals. Magennis got 10.
Not in anybodies imagination is Magennis a goalscorer, but he has lots of attributes and brings others into the game in offensive situations, and is very useful in defence at set-pieces. At 27, you’d have thought the Northern Irish international would want to try his arm at a higher level. Bolton had £500,000 bid rejected by Charlton for Magennis in January.
Lee, what have you done with our Charlton..
I was at Sixfields last season, it was one very depressing afternoon. It was last March, but it isn’t what difference a year makes, it’s what difference one man makes. The Lee Bowyer show blew through Sixfields this afternoon like a tornado. It was a performance of total domination and attacking devastation. Those there and from the radio said that 8-0 wouldn’t have been unrealistic.
We played like a team of Lee Bowyer’s..
Off the pitch we haven’t yet got our Charlton back, but on it yesterday under the management of Lee Bowyer we appeared to move a big step in the right direction.
After the rigidity of Robinson, Bowyer talked afterwards about being flexible in his formations, picking them based on who we are playing. The caretaker went with two up front, Zyro and Ajose. He played a diamond in the middle to nullify a threat from Argyle that he had picked up on after watching them during the week. JFC and Reeves were the north and south points with Aribo and Fosu wide. He relied on additional width from his full backs welcoming back Page and giving Dijksteel a start at right back. Pearce was installed as captain and played alongside Bauer with Amos in goal. Interestingly there was no place on the bench for new assistant manager Jacko.
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.
As expected Ricky Holmes was unveiled as a Sheffield United player today. The fee was undisclosed bu5 reckoned of be no more than £400,000. Richard Murray, remember hump?, said that due to takeover talks the money will not be reinvested in the team, but Holmes wages will, meaning loans and free agents only.
Don’t ask me how during takeover talks players can be sold but not bought. Best to ask Roland how that works. This could get nastier as Duchatelet flogs the family silver one by one.
CARD issued a statement today which states that there will be no in match protests that could detract from a potentially successful promotion campaign, however other plans are being made.
Possibly the other plans could mean further protests in Duchatelet’s home country and town, which I personally feel at this stage make more of an impact.
I think CARD’s approach is sensible and underscores the mantra of supporting the team (and manager) but not the regime. However everything is still not rosy behind the scenes and I think the inability to bring in another striking option other than an untried Rangers’ reserve shows how much Duchatelet is still stifling ambition at the club. Not for the first time we’ve started well, and possibly have the best looking first XI we’ve seen since Powell left, but again we enter the autumn and winter and the long slog of three games a week with a paper thin squad lacking in experience, depth and options.
As some of us anticipated no new players were going to be granted to Karl Robinson until some of the existing squad he inherited was to be shifted. Robinson hinted as much today after the Welling game, and sure enough STVV couldn’t wait to pull the trigger on the news that Jorge Teixeira has signed for them on a 3-year deal for which one would put their mortgage on, an undisclosed fee.
Whether Tex’s 12k a week salary has been completely moved off Charlton’s books or this is a Duchatelet accounting function we will never know, but with the highly paid Nicky Ajose also gone, although one would assume Charlton are still paying part of his wages, it should give Robinson some renewed armoury in the transfer market.
Nicky Ajose’s late penalty hides more cracks than a nudist convention after Charlton salvaged a point at Gillingham today. A pretty appalling 1st half performance at least improved amongst a bizarre refereeing display with the intoduction of Ajose after the break but when Ricky Holmes missed a penalty it looked as if we would slump to an embarrassing defeat. Yet a second opportunity from the spot after another handball decision gave Ajose a second chance to equalize and he did confidently and ran to Slade pointing at his chest.
The couple of thousand of Addicks at Priestfield made their feelings pretty clear towards Russell Slade at the break and two points from six leaves us sandwiched between Millwall and Gillingham in 17th fast approaching a third of the way through the season. That’s one win in twelve.
Today was back in the old days what Addicks’ fans would call a ‘nice little away win.’ A tough place to go is Walsall, and our win today was the first one from a visiting team there since March.
Great to see Nicky Ajose get on the target. Both goals bundled in, the second more than the first, but he was there right place, right time and how well did Magennis do for that second one. The Irishman looks an astute signing.
Slade went unchanged again and once more managed Holmes time on the pitch. Ricky has been the stand out performer so far, but I’m worried we will over rely on him.
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Welcome to Nicky Ajose, who today finally put pen to paper. The fee was obviously undisclosed but it widely thought to be £800,000.
Ajose was expected to sign for a Championship club with Birmingham and Bristol City both interested. The Blues were said to have had a bid of £500,000 turned down as Swindon chairman Lee Power hung on for more.
Ajose had a belter of a season scoring 24 goals in 38 games finishing 2nd top league scorer behind on-fire Will Grigg. Swindon obviously saw something in the 24-year old picking him up from Leeds on a free. He never scored for Leeds but was never given a chance as they churned through managers Charlton style and was farmed out on loan to Crewe where he scored 8.
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Chicago Addick 