So as a result of the Transfer Window we've beaten Barnsley - Luton - Forest... In each of those games we were able to rely on Davis, Smith, McGeady, Green
Easier said than done but would we even have those three wins if we'd still be relying on Morgan, Dempsey, Vennings, Davison?
The answer is in the Swansea and West Brom (FA Cup performances) - Of course it would have been highly unlikely if we'd have had those nine extra points because for all their effort there is a lack of experience from those kids
So in that regard, January has been a good window as where would we be without those points?
No we have picked up points because Taylor and Cullen have returned. Smith and McGeady has added almost nothing. Davis has generally been poor. Only Green has really added something tangible.
If you compare our squad with incomings and outgoings now to that at the start of the season then we are worse IMO. Injuries are not ESI fault but they needed to adequately replace those players, however my view of the squad now compared to the one at the start of the season is:
- Davis is worse than Gallagher - Green is worse than Leko - McGeady is similar to Kayal (a baller that is past it and does not want to tackle). - Smith is worse than Field - Doughty is an undoubted bonus
So as a result of the Transfer Window we've beaten Barnsley - Luton - Forest... In each of those games we were able to rely on Davis, Smith, McGeady, Green
Easier said than done but would we even have those three wins if we'd still be relying on Morgan, Dempsey, Vennings, Davison?
The answer is in the Swansea and West Brom (FA Cup performances) - Of course it would have been highly unlikely if we'd have had those nine extra points because for all their effort there is a lack of experience from those kids
So in that regard, January has been a good window as where would we be without those points?
No we have picked up points because Taylor and Cullen have returned. Smith and McGeady has added almost nothing. Davis has generally been poor. Only Green has really added something tangible.
If you compare our squad with incomings and outgoings now to that at the start of the season then we are worse IMO. Injuries are not ESI fault but they needed to adequately replace those players, however my view of the squad now compared to the one at the start of the season is:
- Davis is worse than Gallagher - Green is worse than Leko - McGeady is similar to Kayal (a baller that is past it and does not want to tackle). - Smith is worse than Field - Doughty is an undoubted bonus
So you think we'd still be picking up points if Cullen had Dempsey | Morgan | Vennings around him in Midfield?
I'm not arguing whether the new signings are better than what we had at the start of the season... I'm arguing that we've now got experienced pros (apart from Smith) over inexperienced kids, who despite their best efforts didn't have the ability to see out games, as we saw against Sheffield Wednesday at the Valley
Cullen's defensive strength is being able to press and force the opposition into making mistakes, once he's won the ball back he'll often dribble forward into the opposition half and play a dangerous pass - All that he can do knowing he's got Davis / Pratley sitting in front of the Defence (a job none of our kids are ready for) so if he loses the ball he's not just exposed the back line.
The problem last night when we play three at the back is that Cullen is effectively a second holding Midfielder so when he gets forward he creates a gap - The alternative in my eyes was to setup how we finished against Luton, that of course depended on how ready Lapslie was to start as past games have proven that Davis needs to be in that Pratley role
I was disappointed in the Jan Transfer window. After all the hype surrounding Steve Gallen and the way he goes about his business you are not telling me he spent the months leading up to the window scouting and assessing the jank we got in.
We were shopping in Aldi's and grabbed a few players off the expired sell by date shelf that nobody else wanted. SG would not have looked twice at some of those we got in, that was driven by ESI
Once ESI have purchased The Valley & Sparrows Lane it will prove to me that at least they have some dosh, either their own or from a bunch of investors, and hopefully this will then lead on to building a proper football team for next season.
However if we get relegated in my mind that will be on ESI.
So as a result of the Transfer Window we've beaten Barnsley - Luton - Forest... In each of those games we were able to rely on Davis, Smith, McGeady, Green
Easier said than done but would we even have those three wins if we'd still be relying on Morgan, Dempsey, Vennings, Davison?
The answer is in the Swansea and West Brom (FA Cup performances) - Of course it would have been highly unlikely if we'd have had those nine extra points because for all their effort there is a lack of experience from those kids
So in that regard, January has been a good window as where would we be without those points?
That is so selective. I would counter that we could have played Gnanduillet, Maddison, Wilkes & Toney if we had signed those 4 instead.
I have no idea what point your trying to prove there?
People are saying that ESI's business wasnt good enough and have been others question whether the was any point in getting the takeover done for the transfer window
Yet we've picked up three wins with the players we've signed, had we brought in no one then Id question if we could have got three wins from those three games because for all the effort from the kids (shown the last few months), they didnt quite have enough to get us the wins in that period
The perfect example of that is Doughty, being raved about by everyone yet after one bad game last night suddenly isnt good enough or ready for the first team
Ergo... ESI have done a good job so far!!
As for the players you mention
Gnaduillet: Blackpool wanted stupid money Maddison: Is a prick and a flop at Hull Wilkes: Okay now your naming players we werent linked with Toney: Yeah okay, stay in dreamland!!
ESI have done a good job, are you posting that with a smile on your face?
I have strong doubts that they eventually complete the purchase of The Valley.
So as a result of the Transfer Window we've beaten Barnsley - Luton - Forest... In each of those games we were able to rely on Davis, Smith, McGeady, Green
Easier said than done but would we even have those three wins if we'd still be relying on Morgan, Dempsey, Vennings, Davison?
The answer is in the Swansea and West Brom (FA Cup performances) - Of course it would have been highly unlikely if we'd have had those nine extra points because for all their effort there is a lack of experience from those kids
So in that regard, January has been a good window as where would we be without those points?
What about the win against Bristol City, yes we lost to a good Swansea and a good West Brom side, but we beat Bristol City.
We will never know if we would have beat Barnsley, Luton and Forest without the signing but do you really think each of those wins were down
Smith-18 minutes in the 3 games McGeady-32 minutes in the 3 games
So neither of those get any credit
Davies played 90 minutes twice but honestly could easily be replaced by Morgan
So other than Green, I dont think you can class January as a good window at all, because we would likely have picked up those points anyway IMO and money should have been spent to ensure survival not just hope a couple of loan players who are not playing were going to be enough
So as a result of the Transfer Window we've beaten Barnsley - Luton - Forest... In each of those games we were able to rely on Davis, Smith, McGeady, Green
Easier said than done but would we even have those three wins if we'd still be relying on Morgan, Dempsey, Vennings, Davison?
The answer is in the Swansea and West Brom (FA Cup performances) - Of course it would have been highly unlikely if we'd have had those nine extra points because for all their effort there is a lack of experience from those kids
So in that regard, January has been a good window as where would we be without those points?
No we have picked up points because Taylor and Cullen have returned. Smith and McGeady has added almost nothing. Davis has generally been poor. Only Green has really added something tangible.
If you compare our squad with incomings and outgoings now to that at the start of the season then we are worse IMO. Injuries are not ESI fault but they needed to adequately replace those players, however my view of the squad now compared to the one at the start of the season is:
- Davis is worse than Gallagher - Green is worse than Leko - McGeady is similar to Kayal (a baller that is past it and does not want to tackle). - Smith is worse than Field - Doughty is an undoubted bonus
Yes, January's incomings were more the type of players I'd have expected us to bring in under Roland, no permanent signings and a few last minute loanees
Remember the slight farce about whether Bowyer's contract should be signed during or after the window? It was eventually decided to do it in the window, as not having Bowyer under long term contract was hampering him when trying to sign players.
Not only did we then sign no permanent players, nobody has signed a contract extension either.
Remember the slight farce about whether Bowyer's contract should be signed during or after the window? It was eventually decided to do it in the window, as not having Bowyer under long term contract was hampering him when trying to sign players.
Not only did we then sign no permanent players, nobody has signed a contract extension either.
With that in mind, it would be good to know what the players think of the regime. Does anyone get any feedback of that sort? Even just a general sense of how they feel would be interesting to hear as I understand we wouldnt want to name names etc
The Jamuzry window was a let down, only Green has made a difference. The others have done next to nothing to strengthen the squad. If it because they our not match fit then a wasted opportunity to bring players in who could contribute from the offl
The Jamuzry window was a let down, only Green has made a difference. The others have done next to nothing to strengthen the squad. If it because they our not match fit then a wasted opportunity to bring players in who could contribute from the offl
I honestly think we were just naive in January. The big event, which will have a huge impact on our season, was Gallagher leaving. We assumed that Chelsea wouldn’t recall him despite them having the contractual right to do so because they said some nice things. When they did we had no plan b and now it’s cost us, and will cost us, a significant number of points over the remainder of the season.
On the basis that we needed players to come in and ideally be better than most of what we already have and go straight into the team then it has to be viewed as a crap transfer window so far - hopefully smith and mageady cone into things more but players to sit on the bench is not what we needed - green blows hot and cold and Davis is a very limited player - all in all a bit of a crap window
Think the only area we actually lost quality was Gallagher leaving- having said that, Gallagher is not an easy replacement, he’s a special player and players like him don’t come round often
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Think the only area we actually lost quality was Gallagher leaving- having said that, Gallagher is not an easy replacement, he’s a special player and players like him don’t come round often
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Its also the point of having those options from the bench
Our bench hasnt looked weak once since everyone has returned from injury, thats not just because the injuries are back but because we've more depth again
Think the only area we actually lost quality was Gallagher leaving- having said that, Gallagher is not an easy replacement, he’s a special player and players like him don’t come round often
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Its also the point of having those options from the bench
Our bench hasnt looked weak once since everyone has returned from injury, thats not just because the injuries are back but because we've more depth again
No point having them on the bench if you dont then play them. Wed night we took off Oztumer & replaced him with Lapslie, when the proper call would have been McGeady.
Think the only area we actually lost quality was Gallagher leaving- having said that, Gallagher is not an easy replacement, he’s a special player and players like him don’t come round often
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Its also the point of having those options from the bench
Our bench hasnt looked weak once since everyone has returned from injury, thats not just because the injuries are back but because we've more depth again
No point having them on the bench if you dont then play them. Wed night we took off Oztumer & replaced him with Lapslie, when the proper call would have been McGeady.
Why? - Lapslie played in Oztumer's role, was everywhere on the pitch and knows how to pass it as we saw a couple of times and when he passed to Bonne ahead of his goal against Luton
Really is an insult to him that people think that his own quality is to run about and break up play!!
Think the only area we actually lost quality was Gallagher leaving- having said that, Gallagher is not an easy replacement, he’s a special player and players like him don’t come round often
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Its also the point of having those options from the bench
Our bench hasnt looked weak once since everyone has returned from injury, thats not just because the injuries are back but because we've more depth again
Weak is relative..
Bench v Sheff Weds:
Purrington
Smith
McGeady
Green
Amos
Hemed
Lapslie
Not weak compared to our injury crisis but I don't think many Championship clubs would be eyeing it enviously and I suspect on Jan 2nd when the takeover was announced most people thought it may look better than that.
It's weaker than our bench of 31/08 after the summer window closed which was:
If we go down this season it’s because of the January transfer window.
It was obvious to everyone we needed reinforcements and some quality and we arguably ended up worse off at the end of the window than we did at the start of it. That’s no disrespect to the players brought in but none of them look any better than we what we already have.
I get ESL wanting to be prudent, and to cut them some slack it was their first window so they were bound to be learning on the job, but I think it could well end up costing us big time at the end of the season.
Talk of toney etc was ludicrous but surely some more quality was available. To put it in to perspective Birmingham shipped out David Davis and brought in Scott Hogan who can’t stop scoring at the moment and there only a few league places above us. Could say the same with QPR getting rid of Smith and yet we somehow think he’s going to be able to come in and do a job for us when we were in desperate need of some quality.
Feel for LB as I think he’s doing the best he’s got with the tools at his disposal.
I said it at the time, bit we have no options at the back. So if they have a shocker the likelihood is they'll be back in the following week. That is the sign of a pencil thin squad. ESI certainly didn't address that.
Good PR does not translate into Championship points or quality in the squad. The Jan transfer window was a very big gamble, particular with the lack of depth in the squad. Losing Connor Gallager, Leko and Field were blows. There was time to add some quality in the window. The loans brought in are looking very mediocre business. It is still unclear whether ESI have any funds to push the club forward.
'Getting bodies in' is a phrase I disliked at the time and dislike even more now.
It correctly (as it turns out) suggested we were only ever making up numbers. No expectation, no ambition and no improvement to a team desperately seeking an extra dimension.
Comments
If you compare our squad with incomings and outgoings now to that at the start of the season then we are worse IMO. Injuries are not ESI fault but they needed to adequately replace those players, however my view of the squad now compared to the one at the start of the season is:
- Davis is worse than Gallagher
- Green is worse than Leko
- McGeady is similar to Kayal (a baller that is past it and does not want to tackle).
- Smith is worse than Field
- Doughty is an undoubted bonus
I'm not arguing whether the new signings are better than what we had at the start of the season... I'm arguing that we've now got experienced pros (apart from Smith) over inexperienced kids, who despite their best efforts didn't have the ability to see out games, as we saw against Sheffield Wednesday at the Valley
Cullen's defensive strength is being able to press and force the opposition into making mistakes, once he's won the ball back he'll often dribble forward into the opposition half and play a dangerous pass - All that he can do knowing he's got Davis / Pratley sitting in front of the Defence (a job none of our kids are ready for) so if he loses the ball he's not just exposed the back line.
The problem last night when we play three at the back is that Cullen is effectively a second holding Midfielder so when he gets forward he creates a gap - The alternative in my eyes was to setup how we finished against Luton, that of course depended on how ready Lapslie was to start as past games have proven that Davis needs to be in that Pratley role
We were shopping in Aldi's and grabbed a few players off the expired sell by date shelf that nobody else wanted. SG would not have looked twice at some of those we got in, that was driven by ESI
Once ESI have purchased The Valley & Sparrows Lane it will prove to me that at least they have some dosh, either their own or from a bunch of investors, and hopefully this will then lead on to building a proper football team for next season.
However if we get relegated in my mind that will be on ESI.
I have strong doubts that they eventually complete the purchase of The Valley.
We will never know if we would have beat Barnsley, Luton and Forest without the signing but do you really think each of those wins were down
Smith-18 minutes in the 3 games
McGeady-32 minutes in the 3 games
So neither of those get any credit
Davies played 90 minutes twice but honestly could easily be replaced by Morgan
So other than Green, I dont think you can class January as a good window at all, because we would likely have picked up those points anyway IMO and money should have been spent to ensure survival not just hope a couple of loan players who are not playing were going to be enough
Not only did we then sign no permanent players, nobody has signed a contract extension either.
With that in mind, it would be good to know what the players think of the regime. Does anyone get any feedback of that sort?
Even just a general sense of how they feel would be interesting to hear as I understand we wouldnt want to name names etc
Leko was frustrating and lazy, never chased balls down and never looked bothered, Green is an improvement IMO
You can’t compare the others that left, Kayal was poor and hardly played anyway and Sam field hasn’t racked up many minutes either. All I do know is, Davis, Smith and Mcgeady have a lot more experience than Vennings, Dempsey and Davison, without them that’s who would be in the squad now with Williams, Prately and JFC out - how many games did we win with those playing?
Our bench hasnt looked weak once since everyone has returned from injury, thats not just because the injuries are back but because we've more depth again
Really is an insult to him that people think that his own quality is to run about and break up play!!
Bench v Sheff Weds:
- Purrington
- Smith
- McGeady
- Green
- Amos
- Hemed
- Lapslie
Not weak compared to our injury crisis but I don't think many Championship clubs would be eyeing it enviously and I suspect on Jan 2nd when the takeover was announced most people thought it may look better than that.It's weaker than our bench of 31/08 after the summer window closed which was:
Midfielders signed not good enough to play in this division.
Green a poor-mans Leko.
Worse transfer window than any of Roland's.
Its more a sign that in true Charlton fashion we get the crappiest takeover ever - somehow finding the only broke Abu Dhabi consortium in history.
Roland will be pissing himself which makes it even worse
It was obvious to everyone we needed reinforcements and some quality and we arguably ended up worse off at the end of the window than we did at the start of it. That’s no disrespect to the players brought in but none of them look any better than we what we already have.
I get ESL wanting to be prudent, and to cut them some slack it was their first window so they were bound to be learning on the job, but I think it could well end up costing us big time at the end of the season.
Talk of toney etc was ludicrous but surely some more quality was available. To put it in to perspective Birmingham shipped out David Davis and brought in Scott Hogan who can’t stop scoring at the moment and there only a few league places above us. Could say the same with QPR getting rid of Smith and yet we somehow think he’s going to be able to come in and do a job for us when we were in desperate need of some quality.
Feel for LB as I think he’s doing the best he’s got with the tools at his disposal.
That is the sign of a pencil thin squad. ESI certainly didn't address that.
It correctly (as it turns out) suggested we were only ever making up numbers. No expectation, no ambition and no improvement to a team desperately seeking an extra dimension.
Methinks people got caught up in takeover hype and forgot the real world doesn’t work like Football Manager.
Who around us spend a fair amount and is turning their season around? Did we lose out on any of our rivals signings? Serious question.
Bad results are on Bowyer and the players. I just don’t understand how they can’t get up for games like this.
That concerns me far more that Matt Southall’s social media activity.
Our squad was woefully thin. And we literally did f**k all about it.
You reap what you sow.