Quite apart from the general lunacy presided over by Katastrophe Night-Miere and her litany of idiotic recruitment decisions, the centre-back policy beggars belief.
Even if you are picking a pub team, you start with your back two and work from there but we ejected our proven performers (Morrison and Dervite), our one real talent (Gomez) and even our half-decent temporary cover (Johnson).
We replaced those with Bauer from Madeira (unproven but turned out OK), Diarra (top class but not actually a CB and at the end of his career) and Sarr (mmm) and that's it. These three to keep clean sheets in the English Championship for an entire season. I don't believe Lennon was ever part of the original plan but was drafted in when it was obvious Sarr was another recruitment disaster. I saw Lennon's home debut and thought he was terrific but God knows what is happening to his confidence and professional development being part of this circus.
Even my dog could tell you that if you replace four proven performers, with high-risk gambles from remote overseas leagues, at least have the common sense to buy more than three.
A week to recover, regroup and for Riga to try to get some cohesion, real fighting spirit and tactical nous into the squad. The number of injuries to recent signings is very worrying. Bauer, Kashi, Ceballos, Diarra etc. etc. .. IF IF we get any new blood in over the next 13 days, the management and medical staff need to be certain that the player concerned is not gonna break down within the first ten minutes of his CAFC debut and can make a real contribution.
We can still get out of the mire we are in, points from the Derby, Forest and Bristol games and the Brum victory show that on our day we can have a real go. We need every game day to be a 'full on' day from now until the end of the season
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
The season can't end too soon - really becoming embarrassing watching us. At present it looks like our team would struggle in the Conference - Riga needs to work miracles.
All I'm hoping for until we change ownership is that we are at least vaguely competitive in games. However poor our squad is they have to be capable of better than this.
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
From what I've seen, which is very little, Ceballos is a long way off ready for this league. He's exactly the sort of player that looks great in his YouTube video but he was never going to fit in straight away and every time I see him (fleetingly) he looks less and less ready.
not relegated yet but i firmly believe lose to blackburn and rotherham and its curtains, unless there is a marked improvement on the pitch from certain players then bollocks to there feelings they deserve it, jacko solly henderson, cousins know abuse isnt aimed at them, but a certain few are letting there teammates down, i think some of our players are capable of playing better but purely cannot be bothered, that sort of shit we as fans cant tolerate and they need to fuck off admitedly some of them are being paid to play for us so its a waste of cash but id rather an academy player got a chance then some excuse of a player that is simply picking up a pay cheque every week for wasting everyones time.
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
From what I've seen, which is very little, Ceballos is a long way off ready for this league. He's exactly the sort of player that looks great in his YouTube video but he was never going to fit in straight away and every time I see him (fleetingly) he looks less and less ready.
Well he played neither of the games against Huddersfield and Hull, and it has to be said that the team didn't exactly improve in his absence...
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
From what I've seen, which is very little, Ceballos is a long way off ready for this league. He's exactly the sort of player that looks great in his YouTube video but he was never going to fit in straight away and every time I see him (fleetingly) he looks less and less ready.
Well he played neither of the games against Huddersfield and Hull, and it has to be said that the team didn't exactly improve in his absence...
I actually think the Hull performance was about the same as Colchester (can't comment on Huddersfield as wasn't there) and Ceballos was anonymous in that whilst on the pitch.
Every time I think of Calamity Williams I can't help but think this is the same owner that GAVE AWAY Michael Morrison and sold Dervite on the cheap and Gomez for next to nothing.
That's the entire Duchatelet scheme summed up right there. Employ cheap 'value' players (Williams), stay in budget regardless of performance (Morrison), sell players for profit (Gomez).
This whole 'moneyball' approach only works if you are smarter than everybody else, spotting value in players that nobody else has. It has become quite clear that the Charlton recruitment staff are considerably dumber than everybody else and undiscovered value is much harder to find as most players are well scouted by many teams anyway.
In the space of two years, Charlton's recruitment policies have turned a squad that finished a creditable 9th into one unable to survive, never mind compete, in this division.
It has been said a few times (Peeters and KM), that every time a player was recommended RD said no, so I think it is wrong to blame the scouting section, which is probably why Chapell left
Every time I think of Calamity Williams I can't help but think this is the same owner that GAVE AWAY Michael Morrison and sold Dervite on the cheap and Gomez for next to nothing.
That's the entire Duchatelet scheme summed up right there. Employ cheap 'value' players (Williams), stay in budget regardless of performance (Morrison), sell players for profit (Gomez).
This whole 'moneyball' approach only works if you are smarter than everybody else, spotting value in players that nobody else has. It has become quite clear that the Charlton recruitment staff are considerably dumber than everybody else and undiscovered value is much harder to find as most players are well scouted by many teams anyway.
In the space of two years, Charlton's recruitment policies have turned a squad that finished a creditable 9th into one unable to survive, never mind compete, in this division.
It has been said a few times (Peeters and KM), that every time a player was recommended RD said no, so I think it is wrong to blame the scouting section, which is probably why Chapell left
It's a fair point but the stupidity input in the recruitment process is undeniable.
It's small increments. Small, rubbish increments and we're hoping that eventually we'll get there.
First up, we sold our best players (Yann, Stephens) and brought in players totally unsuited to the division (Pete, Koc, Nego, Thuram) and let key contracts dwindle down to nothing (Hamer, Morrison, Dervite, Poyet)
After that we brought in decent long term deals (Johann, Igor, Henderson) and some decent short term deals (Bulot, Buyens, Ben Haim, Bikey). We also signed some total tat (Tucudean, Onyewu). The main problem there was we released so many players but didn't bring in enough to bolster a squad that was small in the first place.
That didn't work so in the January we brought in some players with English football experience and a desire to prove people wrong and show what they can do (Johnson, Eagles, Diarra) and a minor messiah (Watt). But it's us so we still brought in some shit (Etheridge, Lepoint) It's worth making honourable mention of our total failure to bring anything approaching a suitable keeper to replace Henderson in during much of that season. We survived though. Bulot showed up, Watt did his thing and Johnson and Diarra gave us some nous and stability.
Then came this summer, with lessons learned and taken on board, and the logical thing to do would have been to look at what worked and what didn't last season. A core of experienced players with British experience, augmented with some creative players dragged us to mid-table. Players with a lack of English experience but talent like Bulot and Vetokele can be allowed a little time to settle and build confidence as long as there's some strong experience in the side. Obviously we ignored all that and introduced our new signing policy which can be summarised as: has he looked good before? Is he cheap? Is he young enough to sell on when he's brilliant? The questions they didn't ask are important ones like why is he cheap? What's his injury record like? What's his experience. We brought in cheap, foreign imports based on Football Manager rules. The numbers looked good, both on the player stats and the balance sheet so we handed long term contracts to some ostensibly decent players (Bauer, Kashi, Ceballos) all of whom have had long term injuries this season, and some total donkeys (Bergdich, Sarr, Ba). If anyone had asked the question 'why are they cheap?' the answers would have been, 'they've barely played last season' and 'they're crap' in varying combinations. The most frustrating thing is it's the group who showed promise who have got injured and the group of wasters who seem unkillable. Special mention to Makienok who manages to fall into his own Duchatelet Venn diagram of short term signing, barely played and not very good.
So now January and there's still time for the club to bring in the players that could keep us up. The signs aren't good so far though. Trying to copy their own blueprint from last January they've managed to get it completely ass-backwards this year, mostly because they haven't understood the desire aspect in some of these signings. Last year Johnson wanted to show he's not Roger the Relegator and save his career, Eagles wanted to show he was still worth that Preimer League money, Watt wanted to show he wasn't a waster and Diarra is just a consummate professional. This year they've brought in Roger Johnson a year older having not been training with a Championship team all season and knowing he's got his contract all sorted now thank you, Williams who seems equal parts unfit and terrified on the ball, Poyet who seems to have lost that elegant unflappability that made him such a useful weapon before, and Vaz Te, who seems to think actually running merits additional pay before he'll even consider it. Although I can't, in theory, fault the signing of Poyet none of these signings are what we need. We need to go out and chuck some money about to pick up a name player. Why don't we go after Kemar Roofe or Tom Bradshaw? Why don't we see if we can prise a decent centre half from a Championship team. Bringing in cast-offs on free transfers and players who haven't kicked a ball in years isn't what's going to save us.
That's a summary of two years of transfer windows under Roland. How depressing is that? No-one seems to be able to learn anything and through it all we never have enough players, which means the Academy boys are being fast-tracked too soon. Let's just pray Riga gets a chance to go after the players that he wants (and is good at it) or we're sunk.
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
From what I've seen, which is very little, Ceballos is a long way off ready for this league. He's exactly the sort of player that looks great in his YouTube video but he was never going to fit in straight away and every time I see him (fleetingly) he looks less and less ready.
Well he played neither of the games against Huddersfield and Hull, and it has to be said that the team didn't exactly improve in his absence...
I actually think the Hull performance was about the same as Colchester (can't comment on Huddersfield as wasn't there) and Ceballos was anonymous in that whilst on the pitch.
I think Ceballos hit the post. But then a light weight Spanish attacking midfielder is the sort of player you'd expect to slightly struggle against lower league opponents, games which tend to suit more physical players
This is the reminder of how RD is destroying our Club that those still with their cumulative heads in the sand should be forced to read.
Surely no-one could argue with the facts in black & white !
It's soul destroying. One of the most bizarre things is that if you really look at it our transfer policy seems to have got worse over time. The first window under Peeters wasn't actually that terrible, we just didn't sign anywhere near enough players and we lacked experience. We seemed to have acknowledged that last January so quite how we've gone so far backwards this season I have no idea.
It's small increments. Small, rubbish increments and we're hoping that eventually we'll get there.
First up, we sold our best players (Yann, Stephens) and brought in players totally unsuited to the division (Pete, Koc, Nego, Thuram) and let key contracts dwindle down to nothing (Hamer, Morrison, Dervite, Poyet)
After that we brought in decent long term deals (Johann, Igor, Henderson) and some decent short term deals (Bulot, Buyens, Ben Haim, Bikey). We also signed some total tat (Tucudean, Onyewu). The main problem there was we released so many players but didn't bring in enough to bolster a squad that was small in the first place.
That didn't work so in the January we brought in some players with English football experience and a desire to prove people wrong and show what they can do (Johnson, Eagles, Diarra) and a minor messiah (Watt). But it's us so we still brought in some shit (Etheridge, Lepoint) It's worth making honourable mention of our total failure to bring anything approaching a suitable keeper to replace Henderson in during much of that season. We survived though. Bulot showed up, Watt did his thing and Johnson and Diarra gave us some nous and stability.
Then came this summer, with lessons learned and taken on board, and the logical thing to do would have been to look at what worked and what didn't last season. A core of experienced players with British experience, augmented with some creative players dragged us to mid-table. Players with a lack of English experience but talent like Bulot and Vetokele can be allowed a little time to settle and build confidence as long as there's some strong experience in the side. Obviously we ignored all that and introduced our new signing policy which can be summarised as: has he looked good before? Is he cheap? Is he young enough to sell on when he's brilliant? The questions they didn't ask are important ones like why is he cheap? What's his injury record like? What's his experience. We brought in cheap, foreign imports based on Football Manager rules. The numbers looked good, both on the player stats and the balance sheet so we handed long term contracts to some ostensibly decent players (Bauer, Kashi, Ceballos) all of whom have had long term injuries this season, and some total donkeys (Bergdich, Sarr, Ba). If anyone had asked the question 'why are they cheap?' the answers would have been, 'they've barely played last season' and 'they're crap' in varying combinations. The most frustrating thing is it's the group who showed promise who have got injured and the group of wasters who seem unkillable. Special mention to Makienok who manages to fall into his own Duchatelet Venn diagram of short term signing, barely played and not very good.
So now January and there's still time for the club to bring in the players that could keep us up. The signs aren't good so far though. Trying to copy their own blueprint from last January they've managed to get it completely ass-backwards this year, mostly because they haven't understood the desire aspect in some of these signings. Last year Johnson wanted to show he's not Roger the Relegator and save his career, Eagles wanted to show he was still worth that Preimer League money, Watt wanted to show he wasn't a waster and Diarra is just a consummate professional. This year they've brought in Roger Johnson a year older having not been training with a Championship team all season and knowing he's got his contract all sorted now thank you, Williams who seems equal parts unfit and terrified on the ball, Poyet who seems to have lost that elegant unflappability that made him such a useful weapon before, and Vaz Te, who seems to think actually running merits additional pay before he'll even consider it. Although I can't, in theory, fault the signing of Poyet none of these signings are what we need. We need to go out and chuck some money about to pick up a name player. Why don't we go after Kemar Roofe or Tom Bradshaw? Why don't we see if we can prise a decent centre half from a Championship team. Bringing in cast-offs on free transfers and players who haven't kicked a ball in years isn't what's going to save us.
That's a summary of two years of transfer windows under Roland. How depressing is that? No-one seems to be able to learn anything and through it all we never have enough players, which means the Academy boys are being fast-tracked too soon. Let's just pray Riga gets a chance to go after the players that he wants (and is good at it) or we're sunk.
It would sort of take the gloss of this whole shambles if we made a fist of it!
We should continue to go down the blazing Zeppelin route i reckon, lots of protests and give these Belgian feckers not a single hint of credit. Painful I know, but we are down anyway.
It would sort of take the gloss of this whole shambles if we made a fist of it!
We should continue to go down the blazing Zeppelin route i reckon, lots of protests and give these Belgian feckers not a single hint of credit. Painful I know, but we are down anyway.
Don't disagree with this but I'd be concerned with a carry over to next season.
Comments
Quite apart from the general lunacy presided over by Katastrophe Night-Miere and her litany of idiotic recruitment decisions, the centre-back policy beggars belief.
Even if you are picking a pub team, you start with your back two and work from there but we ejected our proven performers (Morrison and Dervite), our one real talent (Gomez) and even our half-decent temporary cover (Johnson).
We replaced those with Bauer from Madeira (unproven but turned out OK), Diarra (top class but not actually a CB and at the end of his career) and Sarr (mmm) and that's it. These three to keep clean sheets in the English Championship for an entire season. I don't believe Lennon was ever part of the original plan but was drafted in when it was obvious Sarr was another recruitment disaster. I saw Lennon's home debut and thought he was terrific but God knows what is happening to his confidence and professional development being part of this circus.
Even my dog could tell you that if you replace four proven performers, with high-risk gambles from remote overseas leagues, at least have the common sense to buy more than three.
The number of injuries to recent signings is very worrying. Bauer, Kashi, Ceballos, Diarra etc. etc. ..
IF IF we get any new blood in over the next 13 days, the management and medical staff need to be certain that the player concerned is not gonna break down within the first ten minutes of his CAFC debut and can make a real contribution.
We can still get out of the mire we are in, points from the Derby, Forest and Bristol games and the Brum victory show that on our day we can have a real go. We need every game day to be a 'full on' day from now until the end of the season
He played (briefly) against Nottingham Forest, he played a good portion of the match against Colchester yet hasn't even made the bench since, I know he's lightweight but he's a different type of Midfielder than what we've got at the moment
At present it looks like our team would struggle in the Conference - Riga needs to work miracles.
All I'm hoping for until we change ownership is that we are at least vaguely competitive in games. However poor our squad is they have to be capable of better than this.
It's a fair point but the stupidity input in the recruitment process is undeniable.
First up, we sold our best players (Yann, Stephens) and brought in players totally unsuited to the division (Pete, Koc, Nego, Thuram) and let key contracts dwindle down to nothing (Hamer, Morrison, Dervite, Poyet)
After that we brought in decent long term deals (Johann, Igor, Henderson) and some decent short term deals (Bulot, Buyens, Ben Haim, Bikey). We also signed some total tat (Tucudean, Onyewu). The main problem there was we released so many players but didn't bring in enough to bolster a squad that was small in the first place.
That didn't work so in the January we brought in some players with English football experience and a desire to prove people wrong and show what they can do (Johnson, Eagles, Diarra) and a minor messiah (Watt). But it's us so we still brought in some shit (Etheridge, Lepoint) It's worth making honourable mention of our total failure to bring anything approaching a suitable keeper to replace Henderson in during much of that season. We survived though. Bulot showed up, Watt did his thing and Johnson and Diarra gave us some nous and stability.
Then came this summer, with lessons learned and taken on board, and the logical thing to do would have been to look at what worked and what didn't last season. A core of experienced players with British experience, augmented with some creative players dragged us to mid-table. Players with a lack of English experience but talent like Bulot and Vetokele can be allowed a little time to settle and build confidence as long as there's some strong experience in the side. Obviously we ignored all that and introduced our new signing policy which can be summarised as: has he looked good before? Is he cheap? Is he young enough to sell on when he's brilliant? The questions they didn't ask are important ones like why is he cheap? What's his injury record like? What's his experience. We brought in cheap, foreign imports based on Football Manager rules. The numbers looked good, both on the player stats and the balance sheet so we handed long term contracts to some ostensibly decent players (Bauer, Kashi, Ceballos) all of whom have had long term injuries this season, and some total donkeys (Bergdich, Sarr, Ba). If anyone had asked the question 'why are they cheap?' the answers would have been, 'they've barely played last season' and 'they're crap' in varying combinations. The most frustrating thing is it's the group who showed promise who have got injured and the group of wasters who seem unkillable. Special mention to Makienok who manages to fall into his own Duchatelet Venn diagram of short term signing, barely played and not very good.
So now January and there's still time for the club to bring in the players that could keep us up. The signs aren't good so far though. Trying to copy their own blueprint from last January they've managed to get it completely ass-backwards this year, mostly because they haven't understood the desire aspect in some of these signings. Last year Johnson wanted to show he's not Roger the Relegator and save his career, Eagles wanted to show he was still worth that Preimer League money, Watt wanted to show he wasn't a waster and Diarra is just a consummate professional. This year they've brought in Roger Johnson a year older having not been training with a Championship team all season and knowing he's got his contract all sorted now thank you, Williams who seems equal parts unfit and terrified on the ball, Poyet who seems to have lost that elegant unflappability that made him such a useful weapon before, and Vaz Te, who seems to think actually running merits additional pay before he'll even consider it. Although I can't, in theory, fault the signing of Poyet none of these signings are what we need. We need to go out and chuck some money about to pick up a name player. Why don't we go after Kemar Roofe or Tom Bradshaw? Why don't we see if we can prise a decent centre half from a Championship team. Bringing in cast-offs on free transfers and players who haven't kicked a ball in years isn't what's going to save us.
That's a summary of two years of transfer windows under Roland. How depressing is that? No-one seems to be able to learn anything and through it all we never have enough players, which means the Academy boys are being fast-tracked too soon. Let's just pray Riga gets a chance to go after the players that he wants (and is good at it) or we're sunk.
This is the reminder of how RD is destroying our Club that those still with their cumulative heads in the sand should be forced to read.
Surely no-one could argue with the facts in black & white !
It's probably Karel's fault. It's always Karel's fault.
We should continue to go down the blazing Zeppelin route i reckon, lots of protests and give these Belgian feckers not a single hint of credit. Painful I know, but we are down anyway.