POST-MATCH THREAD: Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 18th April 2026: KO 15:00
Comments
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They will be in the 25/26 accounts but because they are listed here as post-balance sheet events they will need to have shown the entire liability.fenaddick said:
They won't because the fees will 1) not be lump sums spent and 2) be amortised over the length of the contract. In terms of transfer fee transparency, the only useful thing in the accounts is the incoming number as we'll book everything we can immediatelyAirman Brown said:
I agree with that, although the accounts don’t suggest we spent £10m on fees last summer. They were signed off at the end of 2025 so set out the spending until then but not the January window.NabySarr said:
You can’t just go from a top 6 league 1 budget to a mid table championship budget overnight, would cause all sorts of issues and be very risky if it didn’t work and we did go downCAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
The club are absolutely doing this in the right way, building things up slowly with the aim of having a mid-table budget in a few years time. It’s not like we didn’t invest either, we spent it badly but we chucked £10m+ on transfer fees. I think any talk about our owners lacking ambition is wide of the mark. Carter has laid out the plan to get us to a mid-table budget over the next few years, that’s ambition we should be very happy with and is far from treading waterThe net expenditure was £8m but this included player contracts not just fees. The spending is probably aligned to the extra central income. Of course this still leaves the shareholders to cover the operating loss.2 -
I don’t personally think expectations were inflated at all - we were riding the crest of a wave from Wembley, our biggest summer spend in a hell of a long time and started brilliantly. I think any experienced and wise fan knew that the dip would come, and when it did that it would probably be a bad one and a long one. That is almost exactly what played out (Millwall being an incredibly low point after the Nov and Dec struggles). Since the Jan window we’ve operated in a weird world of having had enough all season but never truly shaking off the threat of danger which, coupled with some complacency, our overall lack of quality and general fatigue from the big effort put in so far, means we are currently sleepwalking back into greater trouble than we have been in at any point this season.If Oxford win tomorrow night, I have massive doubts about the whole club’s ability to properly re-engage with the backs to the wall, blood and thunder we will need on Wednesday having adopted the ‘it will be fine’ mentality on and off the pitch for so long.6
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As it turns out could you imagine our midfield if Doc did go out on loan, at least he has shown some fight, even if he isn’t really good enough on the ball, turns out I think that would have been a massive clanger.Braziliance said:
Which to me was glaringly obvious and I can't believe we did two transfer windows without addressing it. We might still stay up, but it was incompetent to go into a championship season with the likes of Greg Docherty, Luke Berry and the untested Sonny Carey & Conor Coventry. Knibbs I'll make an exception for with the injury before signing and getting injured here.The heart of our struggles is a midfield that can only scrap and battle when we're under the cosh, but goes missing when we actually need to take control of a game. And that is also the source of the width problem. We can't afford to push both our wingbacks forward because we have no control in the middle, and we're always moments away from losing the ball.
Big work to do in the summer. Fix the midfield, find a Pirlo-lite who can actually move the ball, and a CM who can do more than scrap, and maybe we'll be able to play with more width. Until then, it's going to be a painful watch.
These players were never up to it. Docherty nearly went on loan to league one ffs if it wasn't for an injury.
Player for player the worst midfield in the league and it isn't even close. I'd take every teams midfield around us and based on what I just saw at Hillsborough, I'd take theirs as well.
We can probably get away with minimal spend at the back in the summer, but it's open chest surgery everywhere else.6 -
An undercover fed? Jeez.CAFCFW05 said:A random one and apologies if not relevant. After the game a few charlton fans were fighting each other and it was broken up by an undercover fed. Do they always come to charlton away games?1 -
Can't remember if it was JR or Carter but they did an interview recently and they basically said what the position is. They think you can perform four or five places above budget, hence they thought they should put in 22nd place budget and aim for a finish of 18th/19th. As it stands, they are basically right, although we clearly might end up a couple of places lower.Airman Brown said:
What were they being told by Rodwell and others?CAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
They've also said they want to build sustainably and build year on year. Maybe I've misread it, but to me they are being pretty open about it and I would expect we will see around an 18th place budget next season targeting solid midtable ie 14th or 13th.
I really don't understand the comments about the owners ambitions. They don't want to overspend and pump insane amounts that leave them propping up an unstable club, which could then run into PSR issues and be unattractive as a prospect if they want to sell because they are sick of their losses. They want to build a club that improves year on year, increases its revenue alongside its league position and grows the off the pitch business too.
In three years they've done that every year, arguably over achieving, and continued upping their spend each year to continue to drive that growth. Particularly after some of the horror owners and approaches of the last couple of decades, honestly what do people want?12 -
Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;
https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE 1 -
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE2 -
I'm not going to accuse and indeed it may be down to knocks and fatigue but we seem to half press now when we properly pressed at the start of the season. Half pressing is useless and can actually be worse than not pressing at all.11
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Sheffield Wednesday supporter!!!!Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE3 -
Mannion - cost us at least a point v Bristol City, saved a point at Watford, cost us two at Sheffield Utd. Time for Kaminski.2
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Excellent blog Charlie, lets hope we do better against Ipswich and Hull but difficult to see it at the moment. Anyway thanks for all the blogs you've done this season, if your anywhere near Bartrams before the KO will try to thank you personally. Always better if I see the game after a drink!2
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Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE1 -
Cheers mate, was a bit scrappy as it was the first one in a while and didn't feel much need to speak to Wednesday fans, felt I'd be rubbing it in a bit, also got chatting so much that I lost track of time.Silverdreammachine said:Excellent blog Charlie, lets hope we do better against Ipswich and Hull but difficult to see it at the moment. Anyway thanks for all the blogs you've done this season, if your anywhere near Bartrams before the KO will try to thank you personally. Always better if I see the game after a drink!
Was good to catch up with people though, really missed away days. Missed Boro, Oxford and Watford unfortunately. Still gutted about Boro.0 -
Be honest you’re travelling back from Leicester!Braziliance said:
Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE2 -
At least that’s one more ticket available tomorrow for an actual Charlton fan.Braziliance said:
Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE11 -
The Red Robin said:
At least that’s one more ticket available tomorrow for an actual Charlton fan.Braziliance said:
Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE
Ouch!!1 -
This is basically exactly my thought, but there was an interesting stat (I think on RC's substack) about xGOT. Think Mannion had conceded one less than the xGOT (maybe 10 from 11 xGOT) ie had 'saved' us a goal, while Kam has conceded a couple more (maybe 41 from 39 xGOT) ie had cost us two goals. Then you also have to factor in Mannion being more active in coming for crosses.AddicksAddict said:Mannion - cost us at least a point v Bristol City, saved a point at Watford, cost us two at Sheffield Utd. Time for Kaminski.
Counters to that are:
- the BC fluff will show up in the. xGOT stat but I'm not sure the SW one will - presumably the actual shot, into an open net, had a high xGOT but the chance over all should never have come up if not for Mannion's error
- while he comes for crosses well, he seems much worse at communicating with the defense - you see mix ups with them and them annoyed at him a lot more than with Kam.
On balance think I would bring Kam back in, particularly as shot stopping likely to be more important than claims against Ipswich who mainly play on the deck, but neither keeper is filling me with confidence1 -
The sadistic part is there isnt. I've even bought a season ticket so when I can't go no one else can.The Red Robin said:
At least that’s one more ticket available tomorrow for an actual Charlton fan.Braziliance said:
Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE
All part of the master plan.
Rumbled.AberystwythAddick said:
Be honest you’re travelling back from Leicester!Braziliance said:
Cheers mate, can't do tomorrow cause of work, but it's looking like I'll be at Hull and Swansea so I'll make a real effort. 👍🏻charlton_hero said:
Missed these. Lovely stuff.Braziliance said:Quite late uploading this but for anyone interested;https://youtu.be/VZcBFPRao24?si=1ahZMvLJ8UOWwVtE0
