Bit underwhelmed but no point in moaning - it is what it is...but assume we can still sign an out-of-contract player and/or a loan as we have 1 loan space. Not sure on the EFL loan rules - can we still loan a player??
Bit underwhelmed but no point in moaning - it is what it is...but assume we can still sign an out-of-contract player and/or a loan as we have 1 loan space. Not sure on the EFL loan rules - can we still loan a player??
No, goalkeepers only in extenuating circumsatances.
Think we have to switch to a new formation now. 4-3-3 possibly. Fosu, Taylor, Reeves and then Bielik, Williams and cullen in midfield. Aribo can then slot in and push williams further forward when he is fit.
Bit underwhelmed but no point in moaning - it is what it is...but assume we can still sign an out-of-contract player and/or a loan as we have 1 loan space. Not sure on the EFL loan rules - can we still loan a player??
We brought in Williams , Purrington, Maxwell and Parker, Three of which we know strengthened the squad.
Do we know? Williams maybe, but have any of the other 3 have strengthened? I think Steer, Grant and Page were all stronger in their respective positions. Unlikely that any of them will be here beyond June so its a bit like putting sellotape on your broken glasses and saying they've been strengthened
Purrington has massively strengthened because our defence needed balancing now. Page is always injured, sometimes I forget we have him.
We are a striker short. If Roland was going to sanction a loan striker surely there’s a freebie out there to give us a glimmer of hope.
Think we have to switch to a new formation now. 4-3-3 possibly. Fosu, Taylor, Reeves and then Bielik, Williams and cullen in midfield. Aribo can then slot in and push williams further forward when he is fit.
Losing Grant and the partnership with Taylor could be detrimental to our season. There's only one person to blame for this.
However, as Bowyer has said, our strength now is our togetherness. The togetherness in the squad and the togetherness between fans and players - not the togetherness between the fans and board. They'll be aware that we're weaker as a team now, as are we. Now we need to demonstrate this togetherness more than ever (and hope for dear life that Taylor doesn't get injured/suspended again).
Let's TRY to be optimistic, here. Taylor is arguably the best striker in the league. Also, in his brief cameo against Peterborough, RHF offered more than Ajose offered this season when I've seen him play.
Parker is an extra body in, and we're yet to see him play in Charlton colours so let's not judge too quickly. He's not Grant and wasn't Bowyer's first choice, but he's a striker who has scored some goals at this level in a poor Gillingham team and may thrive in a partnership with Taylor - who knows? Igor is also back soon, too (granted he may well be crocked within 2/3 games).
Defensively we're sound now and Phillips has stepped up recently. Aribo, who is our closest to being a 'goal-scoring midfielder', is nearing return so soon we'll be spoilt for choice in midfield once everyone is fit.
This is no way defending Roland. The sooner he is out, the better.
Let's just get behind the boys now. There's been a positive atmosphere around the place recently which has translated into good performances and results on the pitch. Even though he's doing his best to ruin this season and our club, let's not let that Belgian tw*at ruin what Bowyer has miraculously managed to build so far.
I fear the final part of the season may be a struggle now, and momentum has been lost. All of our rivals have 'increased' their squads, look at Luton for arguments sake, and if they haven't increased numbers they have strengthened in the right areas. We let Ajose go out on loan, sell Grant, Igor is made of glass, RH-F is still learning his trade, Taylor out for 2 more games, Ward goes back to Forest is replaced by Williams, Purrington was needed as Page is still out and Maxwell replaced Steer. What did we do to strengthen up-front? We got Josh Parker from the Gills, who has hardly been tearing up trees. I hope he does well, because he will need to hit the ground running tomorrow, with Taylor still out for 2 more games. To me RD has now shown his hand yet again, best thing he SHOULD do now is sell and go, not keep saying he is going to and nothing happens. Also gotta say if we had put all our hopes in getting Mo Eisa, we should have had a Plan B and a Plan C, it seems we skipped both of those completely. Very disappointed in the outcome, but then why am I surprised after all its RD. I hope to be proved so wrong, but I fear we may struggle to keep up now, especially if Taylor gets two more yellows, he will be suspended again!! What a joke of an owner.
What Luton have done is raise a red flag. They’ve been firing on all cylinders so it doesn’t make sense to bring that many players in at the last minute. They must have a problem that’s about to break.
And let’s be honest, Ajose isn’t the answer, if Grant wanted to go then he was going to go whatever was in his contract and after last week’s penalty I wasn’t that bothered to see him go. We’ve got a solid squad with strength in all positions and this season we only bring in players that add something extra. I can’t see what all the fuss is about.
Sorry @letthegoodtimesroll I cant agree with your synopsis. We have no idea about Luton or what is/isn't going on in the background that comment is pure speculation. I was talking about strengthening their squad, which they seem to have down, and they have done that, my guess would be, to give them a better chance of automatic promotion, Sunderland the same, and to some extent Portsmouth as well. I don't see us as having improved our squad in fact we are 2 players worse off - Ajose, Clark, Grant out, Parker in. We had the opportunity to strengthen the squad and in my opinion we haven't, Parker may prove me wrong, and I hope he does, BUT if we struggle over the next few games, while our rivals push-on then 6th place maybe a step too far now. The others have strength in depth, we don't. We are not going to agree on this, but that's my opinion and one that maybe wrong, the next few games without Grant and Taylor will tell us I guess. I still think this is an opportunity missed, but as I said I shouldn't be surprised its par for the course with RD in charge of the purse strings.
Probably get flagged but I’m gonna say that promotion is still well within our reach with this squad.
Via the play offs maybe which in themselves are a lottery but autos are much less likely given the signings made by our rivals and the end of the G&T partnership .
Bowyers took a gamble in that he had his sights set on the mystery loan player and it was all or nothing on getting him.
Gallen said it would run late so they must have had an element of doubt as the quotes earlier in the day said we was in a good position left a nagging doubt we was 100% certain.
unfortunately Bow and Gals gamble this time didn't pay off as it has previously with the likes of Cullen.
Leaving the loan signing so late gave us no option to look elsewhere but I do believe there was a budget there to use should we have been able to secure
Bowyers took a gamble in that he had his sights set on the mystery loan player and it was all or nothing on getting him.
Gallen said it would run late so they must have had an element of doubt as the quotes earlier in the day said we was in a good position left a nagging doubt we was 100% certain.
unfortunately Bow and Gals gamble this time didn't pay off as it has previously with the likes of Cullen.
Leaving the loan signing so late gave us no option to look elsewhere but I do believe there was a budget there to use should we have been able to secure
Don't blame Bowyer and Gallen- they were put in an unworkable situation by the.owner.
They won't come out and slag him off publically......yet!
The goalkeeper replaced Steer The left back replaced our injured left back Williams replaces Clarke and Ward Parker replaces Ajose We've sold Grant
How the fuck are we better off?
The owner loses 4m in the next 4 months and there is no way we win the play offs.
Our players will be knackered
Bowyer and Gallen leave in the Summer as do half the playing squad.
No way is a buyer lined up. They'd not have let this situation happen.
We're well and truly fucked.
Purrington is a massive step up from nobody (which is what we had with Page consistently injured) Williams is a significant step up from Clarke and Ward Indeed we are massively strong in midfield now Up front we are weaker
I would say when comparing 31 Jan to 31 Dec, we are slightly weaker but not massively so. We have plenty of depth now in all positions now except up front, a massive shame that we ended up with a spare loan slot.
Does anyone actually think that any thing RD does or doesn't do, is to piss us off?
Yes. He hates us and doesn't want us promoted. It wouldn't have taken too much more investment to push for the top two. If he wanted to he could, if he wanted to sell us he could.
But like everything about him it's strange. For a man with such an ego, surely getting us back to the level we were at when he purchased us would be damage limitation to his reputation?
Unlikely but are there any out of contract players out there who could work?
The only ones I could see that I knew are likely too old and having been out for a while would take too much fitness work to get back up to speed even if they could...
Darren Bent Gabby Agbonlahor Giles Barnes Lloyd Sam Leon best Jay Simpson
Having read most of the comments on here, I'm astounded that so many of you are surprised that Roland has stuck to his MO, its what he does, he's not selling the club until he gets the money back that he's chucked away because he doesn't know how to run a football club, but as with many narcissistic rich men, he is led by his ego, so he's gonna sell players and pocket the cash, and tell the people who work for him to muddle through. He doesn't care if we get promoted or relegated, that much is obvious. So stop going to games, stop giving him money (that is all he cares about).......alternatively go to games but dont moan about the owner, they really are your choices. If you dance with the devil then you dance to his tune. Wake up.
Eaves was a pipe dream, because Scully was only going to let him go for 1.5 to 2 million because he didn't want to loose a player under contract on the cheap and had proved his worth at Gillingham over the last 12 months.
I didn't think it would take too much to get O'Shea or Norwood from Bury and Tranmere but maybe they weren't on our radar ?
We brought in Williams , Purrington, Maxwell and Parker, Three of which we know strengthened the squad. . Losing Grant was shit. But we have strong defence, a strong attacking midfield and a striker who will score more then 20 goals this season, midfield needs to step up.. Cullens set pieces will get us more goals as he finds form . Charlton supporters seem to revel in a disaster this is not one. Get behind Lee Bowyers team , il be shouting my head off at Fleetwood as usual. We are in a strong position and need to keep up the momentum COYR.,
The problem is that how much will Bowyer and Gallen take? He’s already worked wonders with just loans, he’s now had his top scorer flogged and replaced with a winger that not even Gillingham fans rate. No it’s not a ‘disaster’ but if we lose the best thing that’s happened to this club in ages, along with a mass exodus of players in the summer, then it’ll be a lot more than that.
That’s the bigger issue
The money for grant being used to fund a % of the loss although not how anyone would want the club to be run is understandable when you have a c@@t of an owner who is punishing the fan base for embarrassment caused , because he is rich enough for this to have little to no finiancial impact on him , if you think that this has nothing to do with vindictive spite then you’d be wrong
However the gamble by bowyer etc is lose grant Ajose and Clarke
One on fire
One not playing or looking like playing
One injured
Get in Williams Get in the goalie Get in the full back Then just for back up get in the Parker
Keeping
Taylor Bauer Pearce Cullen Solly Aribo
Was far more important and if the sacrifice was grant and Clarke then so be it
Bowyer also knows the realism of being a third division club with a tight fisted c u next tues of an owner
This doesn't quite work though, because if Parker's in for back up then who the hell is our first choice striker next to Taylor? Popular cripple Igor Vetokele? Career goal-less child Reeco? Possibly fictional (because no-one can be called that) Wilberforce Ocran? We've sold our top scorer and replaced him with someone we got in 'just for back up'. It's not like we just shifted things around and replaced Ajose with Parker, that I could stomach. It's that we've ripped a key part of our team out, the part that wins you matches, and replaced him with a back up winger we think we could use as a striker. We honestly would have been better off losing Bauer or Solly, because as much as I like them we have decent enough cover for them and they tend not to decide games that way your top scorer does. It's a bad hand.
I am astounded that some are blaming Bowyer and Gallen for this mess, they may have had other targets whose clubs may have wanted a higher loan fee (or in our case an actual loan fee) that Roly wouldn't have sanctioned. They had to find a target that was good enough for our first eleven and was a fit financially, that would significantly evaporate the pool of potential recruits.
We brought in Williams , Purrington, Maxwell and Parker, Three of which we know strengthened the squad. . Losing Grant was shit. But we have strong defence, a strong attacking midfield and a striker who will score more then 20 goals this season, midfield needs to step up.. Cullens set pieces will get us more goals as he finds form . Charlton supporters seem to revel in a disaster this is not one. Get behind Lee Bowyers team , il be shouting my head off at Fleetwood as usual. We are in a strong position and need to keep up the momentum COYR.,
The problem is that how much will Bowyer and Gallen take? He’s already worked wonders with just loans, he’s now had his top scorer flogged and replaced with a winger that not even Gillingham fans rate. No it’s not a ‘disaster’ but if we lose the best thing that’s happened to this club in ages, along with a mass exodus of players in the summer, then it’ll be a lot more than that.
That’s the bigger issue
The money for grant being used to fund a % of the loss although not how anyone would want the club to be run is understandable when you have a c@@t of an owner who is punishing the fan base for embarrassment caused , because he is rich enough for this to have little to no finiancial impact on him , if you think that this has nothing to do with vindictive spite then you’d be wrong
However the gamble by bowyer etc is lose grant Ajose and Clarke
One on fire
One not playing or looking like playing
One injured
Get in Williams Get in the goalie Get in the full back Then just for back up get in the Parker
Keeping
Taylor Bauer Pearce Cullen Solly Aribo
Was far more important and if the sacrifice was grant and Clarke then so be it
Bowyer also knows the realism of being a third division club with a tight fisted c u next tues of an owner
Then why not go with a team that will barely be competive? He could save money and really punish the fan base.
He wouldn't invest that bit more in August or January 14/15 when a few good signings could have built a squad to challenge for the Championship play-offs.
Unlikely but are there any out of contract players out there who could work?
The only ones I could see that I knew are likely too old and having been out for a while would take too much fitness work to get back up to speed even if they could...
Darren Bent Gabby Agbonlahor Giles Barnes Lloyd Sam Leon best Jay Simpson
lee erwin can ve added to those. formally of leeds
Comments
The left back replaced our injured left back
Williams replaces Clarke and Ward
Parker replaces Ajose
We've sold Grant
How the fuck are we better off?
The owner loses 4m in the next 4 months and there is no way we win the play offs.
Our players will be knackered
Bowyer and Gallen leave in the Summer as do half the playing squad.
No way is a buyer lined up. They'd not have let this situation happen.
We're well and truly fucked.
We are a striker short. If Roland was going to sanction a loan striker surely there’s a freebie out there to give us a glimmer of hope.
However, as Bowyer has said, our strength now is our togetherness. The togetherness in the squad and the togetherness between fans and players - not the togetherness between the fans and board. They'll be aware that we're weaker as a team now, as are we. Now we need to demonstrate this togetherness more than ever (and hope for dear life that Taylor doesn't get injured/suspended again).
Let's TRY to be optimistic, here. Taylor is arguably the best striker in the league. Also, in his brief cameo against Peterborough, RHF offered more than Ajose offered this season when I've seen him play.
Parker is an extra body in, and we're yet to see him play in Charlton colours so let's not judge too quickly. He's not Grant and wasn't Bowyer's first choice, but he's a striker who has scored some goals at this level in a poor Gillingham team and may thrive in a partnership with Taylor - who knows? Igor is also back soon, too (granted he may well be crocked within 2/3 games).
Defensively we're sound now and Phillips has stepped up recently. Aribo, who is our closest to being a 'goal-scoring midfielder', is nearing return so soon we'll be spoilt for choice in midfield once everyone is fit.
This is no way defending Roland. The sooner he is out, the better.
Let's just get behind the boys now. There's been a positive atmosphere around the place recently which has translated into good performances and results on the pitch. Even though he's doing his best to ruin this season and our club, let's not let that Belgian tw*at ruin what Bowyer has miraculously managed to build so far.
We are not going to agree on this, but that's my opinion and one that maybe wrong, the next few games without Grant and Taylor will tell us I guess. I still think this is an opportunity missed, but as I said I shouldn't be surprised its par for the course with RD in charge of the purse strings.
Under one definition it is something that is useful and gives great pleasure ...
Gallen said it would run late so they must have had an element of doubt as the quotes earlier in the day said we was in a good position left a nagging doubt we was 100% certain.
unfortunately Bow and Gals gamble this time didn't pay off as it has previously with the likes of Cullen.
Leaving the loan signing so late gave us no option to look elsewhere but I do believe there was a budget there to use should we have been able to secure
They won't come out and slag him off publically......yet!
Williams is a significant step up from Clarke and Ward
Indeed we are massively strong in midfield now
Up front we are weaker
I would say when comparing 31 Jan to 31 Dec, we are slightly weaker but not massively so. We have plenty of depth now in all positions now except up front, a massive shame that we ended up with a spare loan slot.
But like everything about him it's strange. For a man with such an ego, surely getting us back to the level we were at when he purchased us would be damage limitation to his reputation?
The only ones I could see that I knew are likely too old and having been out for a while would take too much fitness work to get back up to speed even if they could...
Darren Bent
Gabby Agbonlahor
Giles Barnes
Lloyd Sam
Leon best
Jay Simpson
Back 5 picks itself
Fosu LM
Bielek CM
Cullen CM
Aribo RM (just so he plays)
Williams ACM
Taylor
Vetokele on the bench to switch to a 4-4-2.
Hate the January window and hate Roland
So stop going to games, stop giving him money (that is all he cares about).......alternatively go to games but dont moan about the owner, they really are your choices.
If you dance with the devil then you dance to his tune.
Wake up.
Mo Eisa was Plan A.
Eaves was a pipe dream, because Scully was only going to let him go for 1.5 to 2 million because he didn't want to loose a player under contract on the cheap and had proved his worth at Gillingham over the last 12 months.
I didn't think it would take too much to get O'Shea or Norwood from Bury and Tranmere but maybe they weren't on our radar ?
Williams, Reeves/Fosu
Taylor
Looks tasty to me, and we’ve got;
Lapslie, Pratley, Morgan
Parker, Reeves/Fosu
Vetokele
As back up, I think we’ve seen a lot weaker times under Roland.
He wouldn't invest that bit more in August or January 14/15 when a few good signings could have built a squad to challenge for the Championship play-offs.
Monthly losses are now down to half that and the sale of Grant, offloading of Clarke and Ajose effectively covers the spend till the summer.
With Konsa and Lookman, he hasn’t actually lost money on Charlton for years.
He’s just giving Bowyer the absolute minimum now to work with.