Tanto Olaofe - 28/01/26 gone on loan to Stockport (p13)

fenaddick

Danny Addick said:

Scoham said:

There’s still a place for signings from L1 or other lower levels, as players like Carey, Ramsay, Edwards and Jones have shown.

Makes sense to sign proven Championship players and look abroad in the summer, but we shouldn’t rule out lower league signings just because some haven’t worked out.

We should be looking everywhere we can for potential signings. I’d add released PL academy players and non-league to that too, even if those are more for the longer term.

Rare that I disagree with you but on this occasion, I’d say Ramsay, Jones and Edwards took time in L1 with us to become championship ready. Carey is possibly the only one that just been ready to make the step up and that’s only because he scores goals - he also goes missing for massive parts of games (but his shooting is so dangerous it makes it worthwhile)

But the equivalent is that we picked Ramsay and Edwards from leagues of a lower level than L1 and that's where they coped. It's highly unlikely you'll pick someone out of L2 who can play Championship football straight away but there will be plenty in L1, it just might not look obvious straight away

Garrymanilow

Tanto and Apter both failed to impact the game outside of goals and assists. Dykes has contributed a lot more in terms of goals than I'd anticipated but he also helps us win the ball up the pitch, presses aggressively and even comes back to do his defensive work. TC's numbers aren't high in terms of goals and assists but he works his arse off for the team. We haven't seen much of Godden this season but last season even when he wasn't scoring he was working, winning more headers than he had any right to and bringing others into play. He barely got a sniff of goal in the Play-Off final but he was also clearing the ball from his own box and winning free kicks as the only player in Orient's half. Tanto and Apter have not figured out a way to consistently offer something when we're not creating chances. Tanto should be using his pace and strength to make defenders' lives miserable but he almost never did. He mostly just floated around miscontrolling passes and not getting up for headers. Apter similarly started bottling out of direct contact more and more and didn't fancy doing his running unless there was a ball at his feet. In a team that relies on a full contribution with and without the ball from every player ultimately it's up to them to put in the work to find a way to impact a game and they haven't shown they can force themselves to do that.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Scoham said:

There’s still a place for signings from L1 or other lower levels, as players like Carey, Ramsay, Edwards and Jones have shown.

Makes sense to sign proven Championship players and look abroad in the summer, but we shouldn’t rule out lower league signings just because some haven’t worked out.

We should be looking everywhere we can for potential signings. I’d add released PL academy players and non-league to that too, even if those are more for the longer term.

Depends if we're talking out of contract players or not, because a club with our budget (assuming it's similar to this year, 11-12m) isn't going to be able to afford to buy many proven championship players.

Not when we're competing with clubs who have PL parachute payments plus the likes of Boro, Birmingham, Wrexham, Norwich etc who can all drop 7-8m on one player.

Scoham

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Scoham said:

There’s still a place for signings from L1 or other lower levels, as players like Carey, Ramsay, Edwards and Jones have shown.

Makes sense to sign proven Championship players and look abroad in the summer, but we shouldn’t rule out lower league signings just because some haven’t worked out.

We should be looking everywhere we can for potential signings. I’d add released PL academy players and non-league to that too, even if those are more for the longer term.

Depends if we're talking out of contract players or not, because a club with our budget (assuming it's similar to this year, 11-12m) isn't going to be able to afford to buy many proven championship players.

Not when we're competing with clubs who have PL parachute payments plus the likes of Boro, Birmingham, Wrexham, Norwich etc who can all drop 7-8m on one player.

Where affordable of course, I thought that goes without saying, e.g. signings like Dykes and loans like Clarke/Bree.

Crispywood

Looking at L1 there’s zero good players out of contract this summer maybe with the exception of Connor Hazard, Archie Collins and Adam Phillips, so only way we’d get L1 players is to spend ridiculous amounts like we did on Apter, Tanto, Kelman and with the exception of Pye, Tolaj, Moylan and Conway no one is really great and fits a NJ team. 

Whereas in the championship you have potential options like Bree, Joe Ward, Zak Swanson, inglesson even a grant etc. 

prefer to look at the championship out of contract and then out of favour players for big championship sides but would do well for a Charlton and then abroad players rather than L1, assuming we also don’t want to go down the loan market this summer 

Scoham

Danny Addick said:

Scoham said:

There’s still a place for signings from L1 or other lower levels, as players like Carey, Ramsay, Edwards and Jones have shown.

Makes sense to sign proven Championship players and look abroad in the summer, but we shouldn’t rule out lower league signings just because some haven’t worked out.

We should be looking everywhere we can for potential signings. I’d add released PL academy players and non-league to that too, even if those are more for the longer term.

Rare that I disagree with you but on this occasion, I’d say Ramsay, Jones and Edwards took time in L1 with us to become championship ready. Carey is possibly the only one that just been ready to make the step up and that’s only because he scores goals - he also goes missing for massive parts of games (but his shooting is so dangerous it makes it worthwhile)

I agree, he timing comes into it, you’re right they developed with us while playing in L1 (and this is Carey’s third Championship season). I just meant I wouldn’t completely rule out L1 or even L2 as as divisions to sign players from. There will be examples where players have made the jump from those leagues into the Championship.

North Lower Neil

thenewbie said:

Crispywood said:

Now gone 8 games without a goal or an assist in both league 1 and pizza trophy. 

Jones has simultaneously had a stinker for spending 1.5M on him as well as a typical I told you so in loaning him out and bringing in Dykes which were both disliked decisions by a lot of people but may have saved our season. 

1.5million on Olaofe with his 1 goal and 2 assists in 23 games (albeit not all starting) vs Dykes on a free with 2 goals and 3 assists in 10 games. The wage difference will probably go a long way in addressing the financial difference but I have to say it shows why sometimes going for an actual experienced Championship proven player (even a relatively run of the mill one) is a safer bet than gambling on "potential" or "stepping up".

I don't blame Jones or the owners for their strategy as it did make sense in many ways but hopefully we pivot away from League One prospects to actual proven quality next transfer window.

We'll hopefully have more of a chance to if we stay up given we're then more of an established side not essentially 24th choice of 24 given we'd just come up via the playoffs.

Several of the L1 signings didn't work out but the logic of trying to get those we thought might be able to step up last season made sense.

Addick Addict

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

Crispywood

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

PragueAddick

Crispywood said:

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

You appear to have forgotten a player called Tyreece Campbell, who played for us in L1.

Garrymanilow

Crispywood said:

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

Morgan Fox always got far more grief off fans than he deserved for apparently being nowhere near good enough to play for us and he went on to make over 200 more Championship appearances elsewhere while we mostly languished in L1

thenewbie

PragueAddick said:

Crispywood said:

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

You appear to have forgotten a player called Tyreece Campbell, who played for us in L1.

I don't think "the majority" of the fan base wrote him off through. A very vocal minority maybe did, and there's a lot of people who don't think he makes a particularly effective WB but that's not the same thing.

golfaddick

SteveACS said:

golfaddick said:

So we swapped the pace of Tanto for the lumbering of Dykes. Goal scoring record fairly similar (crap). 

Come on then, Golfie. Is Dykes lumbering? Still think it was a bad decision to replace Tanto with someone who's probably 2nd name on the team sheet behind Jones?

Sorry, you caught me eating a large slice of humble pie 🥧

SouthLincsAddick

Crispywood said:

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

You seem to forget that Lloyd Jones had a very rocky start to his Charlton career. I remember being at a Stevenage away game and the fans were giving him pelters for not picking up their forward who crossed for their first goal. You could see Jones mouthing F**k off back to the fans. The point is there are certain circumstances why players don’t perform to their ability, not always because they lack talent. NJ may not always get the recruitment right, just look at Ahadme, I think he knows that and that’s why he bought someone in like Chapple. He only started the job at the start of the summer window, so not a great deal of time to be effective, that’s why there was so much ex Luton recruited in the summer, they knew what they were getting. The January window seems a bit more focused where players bought in have started well.

Addick Addict

Crispywood said:

Addick Addict said:

When Simon Francis came to us on a free as a 25 year-old, we were in League 1. He was written off by most of our fans, went on loan the following season to Bournemouth, again in League 1 and they signed him permanently. He then went on to play three seasons in the Championship and another five years in the Premier League.

Sometimes fans write off the career of a player and tag them as "only being good enough for....." a bit too soon. The point is Francis wasn't an 18 year-old when he came to us but, for whatever reason, be it his own self-doubts, the crowd getting on his back, the manager not using him the right way, not being quite ready for that level or any combination of those, he had the capability to be a top defender. We just didn't see that at the time we had him.

I'm not talking specifically about Olaofe here but that doesn't necessarily mean that all the ones we think aren't good enough for the Championship right now might not, ultimately, prove themselves to be so.      

When was the last time the majority of fans looked at a player and said he’s never going to make it and proved us wrong Paul Smyth? There was a stat from 2019-2024 only 11 players had gone on to play at a higher level than L1 after leaving us and majority of those were loan players. Think it’s very rare the majority of the fanbase get it so wrong with a player 

The majority of the fans only has to be more than half. It doesn't even have to be that if it's the vociferous few. That will, undoubtedly, affect young loanees but our own can be a victim of that. One that springs to mind is this one - we were in League 1 at the time he broke into the team and the number that wrote him off for being good enough at that level is for all to see:

https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/74707/karlan-ahearne-grant-new-contract/p3

Exiled_Addick

Scoham said:

Danny Addick said:

Scoham said:

There’s still a place for signings from L1 or other lower levels, as players like Carey, Ramsay, Edwards and Jones have shown.

Makes sense to sign proven Championship players and look abroad in the summer, but we shouldn’t rule out lower league signings just because some haven’t worked out.

We should be looking everywhere we can for potential signings. I’d add released PL academy players and non-league to that too, even if those are more for the longer term.

Rare that I disagree with you but on this occasion, I’d say Ramsay, Jones and Edwards took time in L1 with us to become championship ready. Carey is possibly the only one that just been ready to make the step up and that’s only because he scores goals - he also goes missing for massive parts of games (but his shooting is so dangerous it makes it worthwhile)

I agree, he timing comes into it, you’re right they developed with us while playing in L1 (and this is Carey’s third Championship season). I just meant I wouldn’t completely rule out L1 or even L2 as as divisions to sign players from. There will be examples where players have made the jump from those leagues into the Championship.

The transfer policy is pretty simple, or at least it should be. Sign players who are good (and better than what we have or who they are replacing), aren't going to fall out with everyone at the club, fit the system/style we will want to play, can stay mostly first, and can be signed for an affordable fee on affordable wages.

Although it is simple enough finding players that tick all those boxes is easier said than done. Sensible then, to cast your net as wide as possible and don't rule anyone out simply because of the league they currently play in.