They sum up the state of this football club perfectly if you ask me.
Just two weeks ago Murray released a statement acknowledging blame for the board on what he called a number of issues, but really his boiled down to one, which was the massive failures in player recruitment. He cited foreign players had no adjusted well or not at all, and attributed a lot of our failings to this and glossed over everything else wrong at the football club in a throwaway manner. Those 'foreign players' he refers too didn't struggle because they were foreign, that's ridiculous to suggest in modern football, they struggled because they were from our owners out-of-depth networking system. Today we have once again plowed into that with the signing of Jorge Texiera. A centre back from Standard Liege, a former networking club of our owner's, who was brought in under his control and by a networked manager.
The other players we have brought in are an arriving-at-past-it journeyman in Roger Johnson, a dead fish in Rhys Williams who's career sunk so low Boro stripped him of the captaincy and a former youth player of ours on loan. All the NE chairman and both managers of the month have talked about is how crucial this transfer window is to any chance of us staying up (this is of course after ignoring/dismissing it), have used injuries as excuses only when it suits and this, THIS, is what they've brought us as we perish on three weeks in.
No one here knows how good, if any, Texiera is. You can cry to give him a chance and stop being so negative, however we do that the majority of networked signings have struggled, some have failed. It also shows our owner will only spend any real money on players brought to him through networking channels. This is no change whatsoever. I just watched Texiera's interview and on a sentimental note, it made me want to vomit. Full of loaded questions where this poor lad has to pretend he knows about Charlton when in reality he probably knows very little. He knows the gaffer (who everyone thinks is the second coming because he won six f***ing games two years ago!) and a soon-to-be former player and he has to stand there and pretend to know our 'history', which let's be honest, wouldn't fill a small A5 notepad. This is a heck of a risk to take given the situation we are in, that we think this is the type of player we should spend money on. Of course, it's not really a risk in the owner and CEO and manager's eyes, they buy into this system and think it will work. Because it's been doing a bang-up job so far....
There's also the other issue that we are not attractive enough, even to mid-range players. The likes of Johnson and Williams will happily cash cheques here until their soon-to-be-over professional careers are done. I'm not suggesting they're dishonest but they are not going to turn down a playing gig at this level at this stage of their careers when the other option is League One or Two on a far-less friendly pitch where injuries are increased even more and you only have one to two years left in you anyway. Poyet knows the team well and is hoping that can help him kick the door back open at West Ham, sure he'll play hard but reality is he won't be here at the end of May. Experienced championship players, not necessarily top-end, probably don't want to come here. The team's position, state of club and ongoing disconnect, for lack of a politer word, with the fans is hardly welcoming. Also, the manager doesn't help, his CV sticks in the lower end of Europe and he isn't going to convince many with experience here to come and play for us. If he was managing a Swiss second division club coming from Belgian top tier I'd imagine he'd be laughing.
Different day, same old Charlton (or rather, new).
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RJ....older player. Wasn't wanted by the club at the end of last season. Shipped more goals than I care to remember since he joined. Bad?
DP....was a good young player. Talented. Happy to leave us despite everyone and their mum knowing he wouldn't get a look in at West Ham. Shipped out on loan. Didn't do well at MK Dons, we sign him. Yet to make a real impact. Jury's out.
RW....is on such a short loan was never going to make an impact. However, I was wrong, he has made an impact. Just the wrong one. Bad
JT....obviously jury's out but another old boy from an old network club signed by a network manager.
So he's a commitment player with a good defensive record and minimal to date injury record. Scores the odd goal from a decent free kick (JBG better practice the whipped in ball as well as the (currently missing) direct free kicks.
JBG not enough though so need another creative wide player who can cross. Fox, not looking at you.
Johnson failed to impress me last time round and an 18 month contract looks poor business.
Interested to hear Teixara in his interview say he spoke to Tony Watt who he played with at Liege before he joined.
I understand that in order to sign RoJo we probably needed to give him 18 months. Hopefully there's a way to break that contract in the summer. I figured he would come in and fill a void, did not anticipate him being so far off the pace. I like to think Fraeye had a look at him in training before they signed him but...yeah.
Texeira is still to be determined. He should walk into the first team, and he makes us less reliant on Johnson and Williams.
As for Poyet, the test will be in the next couple weeks. From what I've seen the game has passed him by the last couple weeks, but it has passed our entire team by. If Riga bring in rigidity and the ability to spring a counter attack, he could be incredibly useful...assuming he fancies it.
Teixeira will have to be judged on performances as we have no idea if he is good enough for this division. Riga seems to think he is so we'll find out soon enough.
For Saturday, we could potentially have a team of
Hendo
Solly Teixeira ????? Fox
JBG Cousins Poyet Harriot
Watt Mak/Lookie
It's not bad that, with the exception of which of our four fit center halves pairs Texeira. Personally, I think it will be Sarr, as he can (sometimes) pass the ball out of defense, and I think he will be most improved under a proper manager. But I know I'm alone in this.
Why the f#ck didn't we just hang on a little? Johnson for 18months ffs!!!