Jun 17
A surprise signing today down in SE7. Macauley Bonne, Leyton Orient’s top scorer from the last two seasons, 49 goals in all. Even more surprising was there was a fee. Lee Bowyer indicated that RD maybe prepared to offer small fees on players, where there is future value.
Bonne signed an extension to his O’s contract last summer and it is thought that there was a break fee of £200,000.
I’ve hardly removed my Charlton pants for washing and already Twitter is alive with rumours of who’s joining and leaving. As Bow said success breeds teams trying to steal your players and manager. I’m paraphrasing of course, but if the Belgium twit doesn’t get his finger out then I going to go over there and daub his building with my sharpie myself.
The internet is suggesting all sorts of clubs that want to talk to Bowyer, but according to the Rat and the more reliable source of Rich Cawley, Bow will continue his discussions with the owner over a new contract next week.
So what were you doing this time last week?
Tremendous wasn’t it. My screen time has been off the charts this week. I have watched every video, zoomed in on every photo and read every article. As the song goes…. I just can’t get enough.
I took today of work mostly to look after my daughter who wasn’t well enough to go to school, but it also did me a proper favour as my voice was shot and I am absolutely knackered. That was quite the weekend.
Today the club made a decision to split the Jimmy Seed Stand for the 2nd leg and make available 1,000 tickets to Addicks. These went on sale at 5pm. By midnight 850 of those had been sold. The rest will surely go first thing and over 24,000 Addicks will back Bowyer’s men on Friday night.
After being ambushed by puppet and puppeteer last week, the fans forum had another crack at getting together last night (Monday). This time Steve Gallen joined to answer questions on transfer strategy and contract renewals. Things close to Addicks hearts after a tough end of January when Karlan Grant was sold and Lee Bowyer wasn’t allowed to replace him.
The meeting notes are here.
I woke up uneasy. Feeling a sense of dread and deja vu, or whatever the Flemish equivalent is.
Yesterday was disappointing, very. Blackpool are decent but it was another missed opportunity. No win in four, and a creeping impression that we are suddenly easier to play against and we haven’t any solutions. Or goals.
Three points behind 2nd and four behind 1st as we approached the end of the January transfer window. Since then we have fallen away badly thanks to one man. The richest, most obtuse and neglectful owner in our history.
24 hours until the transfer deadline passes, and not a rumour in sight, wild, concrete or otherwise. I don’t know what the Flemish is for deja vu, but this is stonewall Duchatelet. How many times has he left us in this situation..
At the turn of the year our squad was down to the bare bones with not ready kids sat on the bench. Since the new year Jonny Williams, Chris Maxwell and Ben Purrington have come in. Jed Steer, Jamie Ward, Nicky Ajose and Karlan Grant have left, so we are one down on numbers. Billy Clarke potentially also leaves tomorrow.
Roland Duchatelet did the right thing today and made Lee Bowyer permanent first-team manager. Well deserved Lee.
The statement says a few things, possibly. There is a chance that the EFL told RD the club needs some stability and a permanent manager would be a start, but on recent history I’d be surprised that the EFL would be that demanding. It may tell us that the Aussie bid is dead, or not. It is only a 9 month contract after all, and I don’t think the two things are related. Finally it appears Richard Murray still has a tongue.
Jamie Ward snuck under the door at The Valley on Friday after Sky Sports and the BBC had wrapped up their final transfer window coverage and gone home for the weekend.
There was mad panic loaning today around the EFL, and it looked as if the Addicks were not going to get the one more player Lee Bowyer had hoped for. A striker, a good player who can play anywhere up top Bowyer described him as yesterday, but no whispers to who that could be until around 4.30pm, when this player turned out to be Jamie Ward.
Charlton added to it’s skeleton squad today with the season’s acquisition of Krystian Bielik from Arsenal. The 20-year old can play at centre-half and in midfield shielding the back four. The Pole should also be quite adept at playing in an oft-preferred Bowyer back three as well.
Chicago Addick 