Pleased and surprised we got May, got a message of congrats from my Gillingham contact tonight, he said they were in the lead at the start of the week for him, but Charlton upped their offer.
Discovering that Alfie HAS signed for us, seeing that triumphant photo of him with his new gaffer and the expectation of something very special happening with this guy on board, I believe the time has finally come to shout from the rooftops....
It does not take a lot to get Charlton supporters excited. Have we learnt nothing from the hopeless deadbeats we have signed during the last few years. Let's watch him play a few games and then make a judgement.
Good to have him on board...I just hope he can replicate the form that he had at Cheltenham. In order to make the most of his talent we'll have to set the team up to play to his strengths.
Sh*t Ronnie Schwartz, he’s just a sh*t Ronnie Schwartz, sh*t Ronnie schwaaaartz………
Just warming up for when he becomes the new whipping boy 🤣. Nah, seriously the first signing in a long time that I’m genuinely excited about. Watching his highlights video he is the player that we expected Schwartz to be. Welcome Alfie. Let’s hope there are a few more quality additions in the coming weeks.
We finally have a forward who wants to press, make runs and can finish. We are probably a bit nervous in our confidence due to the Cafc jinx.
I think we need some more height in the midfield and forward positions, especially with Miles and Aneke out (Stockley gone which was needed but you get my drift).
On a train down from Hartlepool to London so with nothing better to do, I've watched all of May's goals for Cheltenham.
First impression: this is a man who has a relentless pursuit of a goal. Poacher, long range, edge of area, cut in and shoot - when he gets the ball he seems to make this INSTANT decision to go for goal. Because he is The Striker (capitalised as I reckon Cheltenham basically built around him as their attacking focal point).
To go for goal that much you need to be confident. To score that many you need to be competent, and ruthless in latching on to mistakes. And he really is ruthless - a lapse from the defence and he goes straight for the jugular. Lovely.
I'd like to see more of his build up play - how he interacts with the team around him. But I know he works incredibly hard, has a good turn of foot (the amount of goals he scores looking like he's offside is testament to that), and doesn't hide.
Scores with both feet in that video, which to me is a hugely positive sign. Not loads of dustbin goals either. But I rate his movement into channels; into the box; creating space outside it; and finding space when within tight marking situations in the area.
I reckon we have made about as good a striker signing as is possible. Welcome Alfie, and here's hoping he can pick up where he left off. I think we may need to model around him to get the best we can out of him, but in any case... can't have any complaints about the signing. If it doesn't pan out then... well, you can't exactly blame the decision to SIGN him based on his record of late.
On a train down from Hartlepool to London so with nothing better to do, I've watched all of May's goals for Cheltenham.
First impression: this is a man who has a relentless pursuit of a goal. Poacher, long range, edge of area, cut in and shoot - when he gets the ball he seems to make this INSTANT decision to go for goal. Because he is The Striker (capitalised as I reckon Cheltenham basically built around him as their attacking focal point).
To go for goal that much you need to be confident. To score that many you need to be competent, and ruthless in latching on to mistakes. And he really is ruthless - a lapse from the defence and he goes straight for the jugular. Lovely.
I'd like to see more of his build up play - how he interacts with the team around him. But I know he works incredibly hard, has a good turn of foot (the amount of goals he scores looking like he's offside is testament to that), and doesn't hide.
Scores with both feet in that video, which to me is a hugely positive sign. Not loads of dustbin goals either. But I rate his movement into channels; into the box; creating space outside it; and finding space when within tight marking situations in the area.
I reckon we have made about as good a striker signing as is possible. Welcome Alfie, and here's hoping he can pick up where he left off. I think we may need to model around him to get the best we can out of him, but in any case... can't have any complaints about the signing. If it doesn't pan out then... well, you can't exactly blame the decision to SIGN him based on his record of late.
His goal against us at the Valley was quick thinking and awareness of where he and the goal were and executed to perfection.
Whether it works out or not remains to be seen but nobody can doubt this is a great signing for us, a couple more decent signings and we could be having a good go for promotion this season
On a train down from Hartlepool to London so with nothing better to do, I've watched all of May's goals for Cheltenham.
First impression: this is a man who has a relentless pursuit of a goal. Poacher, long range, edge of area, cut in and shoot - when he gets the ball he seems to make this INSTANT decision to go for goal. Because he is The Striker (capitalised as I reckon Cheltenham basically built around him as their attacking focal point).
Agree that's a big positive from the video. One of my biggest criticisms of Stockley was his inability to turn, buy half a yard and get a shot away. Surely something any striker should be able to do. May seems to have this in his locker on both feet.
The spread of goals is impressive and what May appears to have cannot be taught. Hopefully he’ll be playing in a better team this season than last and will benefit from that. He still needs a decent partner though. Sadly I think Miles would have been perfect.
In this transfer window we needed to address two things, the lack of a goal scorer and also how we would replace the goals that JRS scored for us last season.
So at least on paper a tick in the box on both counts. Teams rarely get promoted unless they have a goal scorer in their team.
He's been remarkably injury free over his career, he can score from the left, the right, through the centre and moreover has the confidence to shoot. He's scored goals with both feet although he looks to be more comfortable with his right boot.
At Cheltenham the team was built up around him. To get the best out of him we need to do the same and that's not always possible in settled teams. Fortunately we have few other forward options - Miles Leaburn is young and a different sort of striker and then there's Chuks Aneke who if we see anything of him will be a bench player and after Albie Morgan's departure there's a hole in both the squad and starting XI for an attacking no 8/10 player.
My eldest was with him earlier, he’s failed the height test my boy is 13
wiki has him as 5' 9" .. doesn't say if that is in heels or flats
If he is 5'9 then that makes me 6'4
aint the size of dog in the fight .. it's the size of the .. etc etc
All joking aside, his previous history reminds me of a certain geezer scoring a hat-trick at Wembley.
well, Mendonca was a consistent scorer over a few seasons for Grimsby before joining us 60 goals in 166 games over four/five seasons, that's why Lord Llewellyn paid a LOT for him .. but I know what you mean .. let's all hope that he's somewhere near as successful for us as was Super Clive.
Like Super Clive he had a spell at Doncaster.
total flop at Donny lol .. 2 games on loan, zero goals
I first became conscious of May when the brilliantly managed Cheltenham under Michael Duff won at the Valley on the 11th September 2021. Leko scored for us, but Blair and Perry had scored earlier for Cheltenham. May didn’t score. Alfie May assisted the Blair goal after six minutes. On paper we were far the better team, but once in front Cheltenham packed the last third leaving May up top on his own with more or less half the Valley pitch to cover. Cheltenham consistently played balls out wide to virtually the very touch line, and 95% of the time it would be to a very willing Alfie May. This was in seeing out the game built on the lead they established. May was waspish, gave everything, and wanted his team to get those points more than he wanted personal glory. Since then I have followed his football with admiration, and am delighted we’ve signed him.
Comments
.....THE TINGLE IS BACK !!!!!
Let's watch him play a few games and then make a judgement.
Just warming up for when he becomes the new whipping boy 🤣. Nah, seriously the first signing in a long time that I’m genuinely excited about. Watching his highlights video he is the player that we expected Schwartz to be. Welcome Alfie. Let’s hope there are a few more quality additions in the coming weeks.
I think we need some more height in the midfield and forward positions, especially with Miles and Aneke out (Stockley gone which was needed but you get my drift).
First impression: this is a man who has a relentless pursuit of a goal. Poacher, long range, edge of area, cut in and shoot - when he gets the ball he seems to make this INSTANT decision to go for goal. Because he is The Striker (capitalised as I reckon Cheltenham basically built around him as their attacking focal point).
To go for goal that much you need to be confident. To score that many you need to be competent, and ruthless in latching on to mistakes. And he really is ruthless - a lapse from the defence and he goes straight for the jugular. Lovely.
I'd like to see more of his build up play - how he interacts with the team around him. But I know he works incredibly hard, has a good turn of foot (the amount of goals he scores looking like he's offside is testament to that), and doesn't hide.
Scores with both feet in that video, which to me is a hugely positive sign. Not loads of dustbin goals either. But I rate his movement into channels; into the box; creating space outside it; and finding space when within tight marking situations in the area.
I reckon we have made about as good a striker signing as is possible. Welcome Alfie, and here's hoping he can pick up where he left off. I think we may need to model around him to get the best we can out of him, but in any case... can't have any complaints about the signing. If it doesn't pan out then... well, you can't exactly blame the decision to SIGN him based on his record of late.
In this transfer window we needed to address two things, the lack of a goal scorer and also how we would replace the goals that JRS scored for us last season.
So at least on paper a tick in the box on both counts. Teams rarely get promoted unless they have a goal scorer in their team.
He's been remarkably injury free over his career, he can score from the left, the right, through the centre and moreover has the confidence to shoot. He's scored goals with both feet although he looks to be more comfortable with his right boot.
At Cheltenham the team was built up around him. To get the best out of him we need to do the same and that's not always possible in settled teams. Fortunately we have few other forward options - Miles Leaburn is young and a different sort of striker and then there's Chuks Aneke who if we see anything of him will be a bench player and after Albie Morgan's departure there's a hole in both the squad and starting XI for an attacking no 8/10 player.
On paper we were far the better team, but once in front Cheltenham packed the last third leaving May up top on his own with more or less half the Valley pitch to cover.
Cheltenham consistently played balls out wide to virtually the very touch line, and 95% of the time it would be to a very willing Alfie May. This was in seeing out the game built on the lead they established.
May was waspish, gave everything, and wanted his team to get those points more than he wanted personal glory.
Since then I have followed his football with admiration, and am delighted we’ve signed him.