1. In most highly paid professional employment sectors, "job-hoppers" are viewed with some suspicion. Is this not the case in football? if it is, did you advise Thierry to consider this before deciding on yet another move at such a young age?
2. You benefitted from several years at the same club in your formative years as a player. Would it not be good for Thierry at such a young age to benefit from the same stability? Why is it better for him to move now to a club with a very similar profile but located in a very different part of the country? Does Thierry have family/friends links to Preston?
3. How do you benefit financially from this transfer compared with Thierry deciding to accept Charlton's offer?
Not sure i'd class him as job-hopping.
His first pro club was Southampton where he was for nearly 3 years where he didn't play and was loaned out to two clubs. He then signed for us in February 2024, which let's not forget was originally only on a contract until the end of the season. He could quite easily have bombed out and then been looking at league two or even non-league if he hadn't done well.
So technically we're the first contracted club he was at where he actually played. He's now got a better offer and moved on, which whilst the money helped, is also allegedly because Preston want to play him in his natural position.
Why is what he's done any different to say Lloyd Jones, who joined us on a free from Cambridge? At the times we were his 4th club in 5 years, i didn't see anyone calling him a job-hopper. Or what Carey has done in leaving Blackpool to sign for us yesterday?
Shame to see a young, developing player leave but I don’t think we will struggle to replace him.
As exciting as he could be the end product wasn’t evident yet, so maybe Preston will get the best out of him
Personally he was one of the players on my list who I think will struggle against Championship defenses so I am not overly concerned
I’m surprised at how many people think he will struggle in the Championship. On this thread https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/97357/8-8-8#latest I didn’t see too many people disagreeing that he was an “Elite” player (or whatever the silly terminology is) but a player moving to another team can have that kind of revisionary effect.
In reality I think the vast majority of Charlton fans would have wanted to keep him, if he had signed a 3 year deal I’m sure he would have been in our starting XI on the first day of the season and I do think it’s concerning what this says about our ability to compete against even the smallest teams in this league.
Nearly a 10/10 day until this news. Definitely would have preferred to have kept him but it has happened before and will happen again. Money talks most of the time and we can’t really blame him.
Just repeating what others have said really but I think it shows where we are in terms of sides next year budget etc and that it’s going to need a good fight to stay up. In reality it’s all about slowly building a competitive championship squad for a few years
I’ll miss him cutting inside and blasting over the bar.
I may be proved wrong but I believe he has the highest ceiling of any of the cafc players and the 20 year old who cut inside and blasted high and wide on many occasions will by 23, be hitting the net and a more disciplined and less erratic player and will leave Preston, to fit into a Premier 20 man squad. He will be used as an attacking wide player mainly on the left but with the option on the right.
Thierry has the rare ability to go past defenders and as he proved against Lincoln even 3 at one time by skill in that 1st half; the paradox he will also run the ball out of play but that will become less as he matures.
The sad truth is Nathan and Thierry had an uneasy relationship which was patently clear to see during matches despite the success and balance with Small in the starting 11. If Charlton only have 35% of possession in the Championship then NJ wants pragmatic workers over the artisan.
A 4 year championship contract estimated to be 500k a year with various bonuses and a signing on fee where Thierry can use as another stepping stone potentially to the big time was just too good to turn down.
Gutted as a Charlton fan but understandable for TS.
I always thought we looked a better team with Small on the pitch. Yes his final pass or whatever could be erratic but he's still only young and will I'm sure improve. I wish him all the best for next season apart from when Preston play us.
Preston….. Hmmm…. Like Living in Sandbanks and choosing to go to Clacton for your Holidays.
Can’t, see him following in the Yann May or Taylor history of leavers we talk about years later.
The southeast is overcrowded & full of ‘me, me, me’ wankers. On £520k a year, I am sure if he wanted to, he could buy a lovely house in a lovely Lancashire village with lots of character and charm.
He could buy up half of Burnley - who cares ?
Or a really nice house in a beautiful Lancashire village, without a Greggs, vape shop, or Nandos in sight… like I said.
You do know nice villages aren’t exclusively a northern thing.
Preston….. Hmmm…. Like Living in Sandbanks and choosing to go to Clacton for your Holidays.
Can’t, see him following in the Yann May or Taylor history of leavers we talk about years later.
The southeast is overcrowded & full of ‘me, me, me’ wankers. On £520k a year, I am sure if he wanted to, he could buy a lovely house in a lovely Lancashire village with lots of character and charm.
He could buy up half of Burnley - who cares ?
Or a really nice house in a beautiful Lancashire village, without a Greggs, vape shop, or Nandos in sight… like I said.
You do know nice villages aren’t exclusively a northern thing.
Not so many in Lancashire, better off next move to Yorkshire, should be end of the season presumably at his current rate.
Preston….. Hmmm…. Like Living in Sandbanks and choosing to go to Clacton for your Holidays.
Can’t, see him following in the Yann May or Taylor history of leavers we talk about years later.
The southeast is overcrowded & full of ‘me, me, me’ wankers. On £520k a year, I am sure if he wanted to, he could buy a lovely house in a lovely Lancashire village with lots of character and charm.
He could buy up half of Burnley - who cares ?
Or a really nice house in a beautiful Lancashire village, without a Greggs, vape shop, or Nandos in sight… like I said.
You do know nice villages aren’t exclusively a northern thing.
True. But the tired old trope of “the north is a shithole” is lazy and boring. I’m not sure how Small will cope with living inbetween the Dales and the Lakes. Sounds horrible.
Shame to see a young, developing player leave but I don’t think we will struggle to replace him.
As exciting as he could be the end product wasn’t evident yet, so maybe Preston will get the best out of him
Personally he was one of the players on my list who I think will struggle against Championship defenses so I am not overly concerned
This sounds negative but I think TC will struggle unlike Thierry who will flourish against Championship defenders. Really hope I'm wrong about Tyreece Campbell but he was in Grimmer pocket in the semi finals despite TC giving 100% and ever since Nathan's hyperbole about him being as good as the Southampton premier players he worked with his game dipped a tad over the business end of the season. He won the free kick in the final for Macca's Magic moment so TC is in credit and did make progress over the league 1 season.
Preston….. Hmmm…. Like Living in Sandbanks and choosing to go to Clacton for your Holidays.
Can’t, see him following in the Yann May or Taylor history of leavers we talk about years later.
The southeast is overcrowded & full of ‘me, me, me’ wankers. On £520k a year, I am sure if he wanted to, he could buy a lovely house in a lovely Lancashire village with lots of character and charm.
He could buy up half of Burnley - who cares ?
Or a really nice house in a beautiful Lancashire village, without a Greggs, vape shop, or Nandos in sight… like I said.
You do know nice villages aren’t exclusively a northern thing.
True. But the tired old trope of “the north is a shithole” is lazy and boring. I’m not sure how Small will cope with living inbetween the Dales and the Lakes. Sounds horrible.
To be be fair, I think that would sound horrible to most 20 year olds!
As I was at the Preston game, it did seem a bit shop window - Nob enders were still going on about how they should have lost weeks later. Got to say that I'm struggling to remember many away performances after that from the lad that matched the energy, pace and effort.
Interesting comment by Curbs on end of season review on Charlton TV, there was a picture of him and NJ, Minto asked him do you remember what you were saying to him ? Curbs response was yes, I told him not to be too loyal, I was too loyal when we went up first time to the premiership. I think we will see a high amount of new players coming in and do expect a lot of these to start at the expense of the promotion winning team. If this is NJ’s philosophy then did we really push the boat out to keep Small. The promotion team can see the incoming’s as a positive challenge or sulk and go within themselves, one player I 100% believe he would see it as a positive challenge and back themselves is Matty Godden, TC on the other hand may find it hard to deal with.
His name's Thierry Small He fecking hates Millwall Blackpool.
Good luck to the lad, and he is just a lad.
Would have preferred to have kept him as he has huge potential.
If Preston play him on the left they might have got themselves a right bargain.
I can believe that PNE offered him 4 times what he WAS on. Eg £10k pw v £2.5k pw
I don't believe there was anything like that much difference between what they offered and what we did once we were promoted but by then his mind was made up IMHO.
He’ll soon be forgotten when we bring back Jes on loan.
I think someone’s already said that Nathan’s gone on record with Cawley that Jes is not coming back, as we can’t afford to pay his wages / afford the asking price Palace are after, got to trust Nathan and our recruitment team to get this one right, will be Intereting to see how early / late this one happens in the transfer window.
Just a guess .. in the interview he stresses the importance of his family to him. Possibly a nice signing on fee could have been a big inducement to sign for PNE, perhaps to help his family ? Also, he has Everton connections, possible link ? .. whatever
His name's Thierry Small He fecking hates Millwall Blackpool.
Good luck to the lad, and he is just a lad.
Would have preferred to have kept him as he has huge potential.
If Preston play him on the left they might have got themselves a right bargain.
I can believe that PNE offered him 4 times what he WAS on. Eg £10k pw v £2.5k pw
I don't believe there was anything like that much difference between what they offered and what we did once we were promoted but by then his mind was made up IMHO.
I think that’s Very harsh on Blackpool 72 who in an earlier post had wished TS well for the future😀
Having slept on it and watched that, I’m strongly of the opinion that if Jones had really wanted Thierry, this move wouldn’t happen. Confidence player, I suspect Thierry likes to play in an expressive way and I don’t think that’s Jones priority way.
I’ll hold judgement on whether it was the right decision to not fight harder for Small once we replace and how we line up. I don’t think it will be a like for like player in terms of style though. As someone else rightly pointed out, Small wasn’t in Jones’ starting plans until injuries dictated.
He turned out though to be one of our main attacking threats from wide and we effectively changed our style of play as a result. It also helped TC massively as when Small played on the right, defensively opposing teams had to shape more to the right to potentially double up on Small.
It will be interesting to see how Preston do this season. Immediately after our promotion I targeted them as a club for us to try to finish above. That however is based only on last season which was an exception, because they had become a steady top ten team over the last 5 years. Will they get back to their normal play off hunting ways, or was last season the start of a decline? Is Small good enough to be part of a mid table / play off push team, or just good enough to be scrapping with us for safety?
Having slept on it and watched that, I’m strongly of the opinion that if Jones had really wanted Thierry, this move wouldn’t happen. Confidence player, I suspect Thierry likes to play in an expressive way and I don’t think that’s Jones priority way.
I’ll hold judgement on whether it was the right decision to not fight harder for Small once we replace and how we line up. I don’t think it will be a like for like player in terms of style though. As someone else rightly pointed out, Small wasn’t in Jones’ starting plans until injuries dictated.
He turned out though to be one of our main attacking threats from wide and we effectively changed our style of play as a result. It also helped TC massively as when Small played on the right, defensively opposing teams had to shape more to the right to potentially double up on Small.
Exactly. We are going to bring in two right-sided players (to replace Small and Watson), so that's fairly exciting.
We haven't lost Small due to us being near the L1 relegation zone, with shady ESI-type ownership. It's his decision and you can (softly) conclude that both parties benefitted from the short term contract in the end.
I reckon this deal was done a while back, even though it’s just been announced.
Thierry could talk to other clubs from January 1st, can’t blame him going if he wanted security over his future, with a massive increase in salary.
We didn’t know back then which division we were in, and I know we don’t think Preston are great, and might get relegated, but maybe it was sold to him, that they were an established championship side, who had just had a poor season / injuries / run of form, but they would be back this season fighting for the playoffs blah de blah.
We don’t know how much hassle he gave Nathan, ie turning up late, not taking on advice and learning from it etc, at the end of the day it’s the managers call, and if his wages are 10 grand a week, then all the other players will want that (or more).
Would be interesting to know how much our wage bill has shot up, now our players all think they should be getting the going championship rate.
I reckon this deal was done a while back, even though it’s just been announced.
Thierry could talk to other clubs from January 1st, can’t blame him going if he wanted security over his future, with a massive increase in salary.
We didn’t know back then which division we were in, and I know we don’t think Preston are great, and might get relegated, but maybe it was sold to him, that they were an established championship side, who had just had a poor season / injuries / run of form, but they would be back this season fighting for the playoffs blah de blah.
We don’t know how much hassle he gave Nathan, ie turning up late, not taking on advice and learning from it etc, at the end of the day it’s the managers call, and if his wages are 10 grand a week, then all the other players will want that (or more).
Would be interesting to know how much our wage bill has shot up, now our players all think they should be getting the going championship rate.
Not in England, that can only happen within the last month of your contract. Clearly that isn’t enforced all across football but that’s the rule
Comments
His first pro club was Southampton where he was for nearly 3 years where he didn't play and was loaned out to two clubs. He then signed for us in February 2024, which let's not forget was originally only on a contract until the end of the season. He could quite easily have bombed out and then been looking at league two or even non-league if he hadn't done well.
So technically we're the first contracted club he was at where he actually played. He's now got a better offer and moved on, which whilst the money helped, is also allegedly because Preston want to play him in his natural position.
Why is what he's done any different to say Lloyd Jones, who joined us on a free from Cambridge? At the times we were his 4th club in 5 years, i didn't see anyone calling him a job-hopper. Or what Carey has done in leaving Blackpool to sign for us yesterday?
As exciting as he could be the end product wasn’t evident yet, so maybe Preston will get the best out of him
Personally he was one of the players on my list who I think will struggle against Championship defenses so I am not overly concerned
I’m surprised at how many people think he will struggle in the Championship. On this thread https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/97357/8-8-8#latest I didn’t see too many people disagreeing that he was an “Elite” player (or whatever the silly terminology is) but a player moving to another team can have that kind of revisionary effect.
In reality I think the vast majority of Charlton fans would have wanted to keep him, if he had signed a 3 year deal I’m sure he would have been in our starting XI on the first day of the season and I do think it’s concerning what this says about our ability to compete against even the smallest teams in this league.
Just repeating what others have said really but I think it shows where we are in terms of sides next year budget etc and that it’s going to need a good fight to stay up. In reality it’s all about slowly building a competitive championship squad for a few years
I may be proved wrong but I believe he has the highest ceiling of any of the cafc players and the 20 year old who cut inside and blasted high and wide on many occasions will by 23, be hitting the net and a more disciplined and less erratic player and will leave Preston, to fit into a Premier 20 man squad. He will be used as an attacking wide player mainly on the left but with the option on the right.
Thierry has the rare ability to go past defenders and as he proved against Lincoln even 3 at one time by skill in that 1st half; the paradox he will also run the ball out of play but that will become less as he matures.
The sad truth is Nathan and Thierry had an uneasy relationship which was patently clear to see during matches despite the success and balance with Small in the starting 11.
If Charlton only have 35% of possession in the Championship then NJ wants pragmatic workers over the artisan.
A 4 year championship contract estimated to be 500k a year with various bonuses and a signing on fee where Thierry can use as another stepping stone potentially to the big time was just too good to turn down.
Gutted as a Charlton fan but understandable for TS.
Yes his final pass or whatever could be erratic but he's still only young and will I'm sure improve.
I wish him all the best for next season apart from when Preston play us.
This sounds negative but I think TC will struggle unlike Thierry who will flourish against Championship defenders.
Really hope I'm wrong about Tyreece Campbell but he was in Grimmer pocket in the semi finals despite TC giving 100% and ever since Nathan's hyperbole about him being as good as the Southampton premier players he worked with his game dipped a tad over the business end of the season.
He won the free kick in the final for Macca's Magic moment so TC is in credit and did make progress over the league 1 season.
He fecking hates Millwall Blackpool.
Good luck to the lad, and he is just a lad.
Would have preferred to have kept him as he has huge potential.
If Preston play him on the left they might have got themselves a right bargain.
I can believe that PNE offered him 4 times what he WAS on. Eg £10k pw v £2.5k pw
I don't believe there was anything like that much difference between what they offered and what we did once we were promoted but by then his mind was made up IMHO.
Also, he has Everton connections, possible link ? .. whatever
FFS, so that's why he went, he just really loves castore kits.
#reebokout
Will they get back to their normal play off hunting ways, or was last season the start of a decline? Is Small good enough to be part of a mid table / play off push team, or just good enough to be scrapping with us for safety?
Thierry could talk to other clubs from January 1st, can’t blame him going if he wanted security over his future, with a massive increase in salary.
We didn’t know back then which division we were in, and I know we don’t think Preston are great, and might get relegated, but maybe it was sold to him, that they were an established championship side, who had just had a poor season / injuries / run of form, but they would be back this season fighting for the playoffs blah de blah.
We don’t know how much hassle he gave Nathan, ie turning up late, not taking on advice and learning from it etc, at the end of the day it’s the managers call, and if his wages are 10 grand a week, then all the other players will want that (or more).
Would be interesting to know how much our wage bill has shot up, now our players all think they should be getting the going championship rate.