Expect this to be a mega unpopular opinion but I don’t want to be spending £3m on one player in L1 and especially not in January. It isn’t sustainable and what happens if they only make playoffs and then don’t go up? Do they spend another £3m in the next window? It just makes me think of Will Grigg
Can’t see Charlton spending 3 million pound on a player in this window or in closed season. It won’t happen.
We want 1 or 2 signings and they aren’t reliant on outgoings happening first.
How does this tally with the discussion from the last couple of days? I hear we are rejecting bids for our players too… doesn’t seem like the owners are checked out to me.
“We’re not going to do massive business in this window. What we want is in the final third. That is what we need.
“We are going to try and streamline the squad because there are a few here now that aren’t playing and aren’t getting the minutes."
Rejecting bids for your best players is what ambitious clubs are supposed to do. Fair enough they didn't cash in, but could they really afford to? They'd have been given pelters. They rejected Dobsons bid, and we still haven't replaced Dobson. We accepted a bid for CBT, didn't replace his qualities, sold May, didn't replace his goals and general attacking influence.
So far, this is playing exactly how every Charlton transfer window does. Admittedly we are only a third the way through almost, and most of the business is done late, but I'll be shocked if we show the same level of ambition other clubs look to be doing.
I will be surprised if we spend a decent fee on a player this window, it would be a very welcome surprise though.
Docherty is Dobsons replacement. He’s not an upgrade but he has been replaced
We changed from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 when CBT was sold. So you were never going to get a direct replacement. We did also sign Small who had similar qualities in getting us up the pitch with pace
May was replaced by Godden. Again not an upgrade but we have still replaced all 3 players.
The argument will be that the 1.2m or whatever it is we raised from May and CBT has been reinvested and leaves us with a better team/squad. If we finish in the top 10 then it’s hard to argue that we haven’t improved despite the sales
If we can shift a couple of players we don’t want and add a couple of good attacking players then that is a good window for me
So being blunt mate, and not being rude, we haven't replaced them then in terms of quality?
Docherty so far has definitely been a downgrade on what Dobson offered, we have really missed a player with that engine and passing range.
Agreed there was a formation switch, but CBT scored 9 goals and got 6 assists for us last season and he left in January! I can't see anyone getting those numbers for the rest of the season even, except maybe Miles? Who is on 4 goals 2 assists. So another player not really replaced in terms of impact. Closest match is Tyreece who is still learning.
I can't even talk about May and Godden anymore, Godden seems a good bloke and I don't want to slander him but it's chalk and cheese.
It's sad that that's what it's come to. Top10 is seen as decent. Even myself the other day was thinking a narrow play off miss with an improved squad would be ok, but when you break it all down, it's woeful.
We haven’t replaced them individually with better players no, but are we a better team this season than last season? Definitely
We finished 16th last season, obviously the main fault lies with Mr Scott for that (and he shouldn’t still be here), but improving from 16th to top 6 is a huge jump. I obviously hoped we could get top 6 and was quite confident, but if we make progress this season and miss out, for me that’s still a positive that we can build on next season to be challenging
We just need to be patient, unless you’ve got shitloads of money, jumping from 16th to top 6 is not easy. We’ve had years of not making progress and going backwards, we are now finally turning the ship around and look like having a season where we actually make some progress
This is where I will have to agree to disagree with anyone on this subject.
I don't expect anyone to finish above Birmingham. But no other team had a real advantage over us. I do believe going from lower mid-table to top6 is possible with the right people in charge. Oxford from 19th to 5th, Wycombe 10th to currently 2nd.
3 newly promoted sides and Leyton Orient currently sit above us. The only side of those 4 who finished higher than us last season was The O's. Would any of us been happy with Orient being above us half way through the season or expected it? I think they were in the running for relegation at the start of the season. Barnsley went 5 games without winning and still firmly sit in the top6. We won 2 in 10 and are now a few wins strung together away from top6 ourselves. Readings owner despises them and they sit 6th.
This league is a fkn joke. 16th, 7th, 20th, all land you in the same place, a league1 team the next season. They said top6, they said we had the 4th highest budget, show it. Sign some quality. We do have shit loads of money, allegedly.
Anyway I'm clogging the thread with 0 rumours so apologies. But these lot need to pull a finger out and get lively. We know we have been weak from week 3. There should have been plans in place the second this window opened. Let's hope they show some ambition.
Did you just suggest that 10th is "lower mid table"? Orient form is possibly unsustainable but if you're using it as justification they had a rubbish start and are now on a brilliant run which is exactly what we need to make playoffs anyway. Wycombe and Stockport will be interesting to watch with players they lose and new ones settling in.
The thing that gives me hope is (in part due to NJ's defensive set up) that no team we've played has looked incredible and unbeatable.
Classic nitpicking, I meant Oxford, that's why I said them first and then said Wycombe, probably could have worded it differently, either way, who gives a fuck. You probably know what I meant, It's all the same shit. It isn't promotion and that's that, it's all the same for me other than than the 3 sides who go up.
All the rest is regression for this club.
So if we finished 5th and didn’t go up that’s regression? We finished 16th last season! Sometimes it takes longer than 1 season to build something, especially when we aren’t a team throwing millions about.
Wycombe and Oxford are poor examples, bar one season for Oxford, they have both been consistently in the top 10/play offs for years. Both are well run clubs and have been for a while. Making the jump from there to promotion contention is completely different to our situation. You can’t compare that to a team that has been a declining disaster on and off the field for years, it’s just silly
Why is the modern football fan so demanding and impatient? Lose a few games let’s sack the manager, why aren’t the owners spending millions, why haven’t we gone from 16th to top of the league in 1 window etc. Need to have some patience and realism
Wigan 20-21 finished 20th. The next season they won the league. Plymouth 20-21 finishes 18th. Next season they narrowly missed play offs finishing 7th after jumping 11 places. Oxford 22-23 finished 19th. Next season they were promoted. Reading last season finished 17th. They are currently in a playoff spot despite being under an embargo. In L2 last season Grimsby were 21th, Salford 20th, Notts County 14. They are currently 9, 3, 6 respectively In L2 in 22-23, Crawley were 22nd, next season promoted. Donny were 18th, next season 5th.
There are tonnes of examples of clubs jumping 10+ places in a season in the lower leagues. It needs good recruitment, usually some money and a decent manager.
Having patience whilst the club loses £9.5M pa is a nice position for a fan to be in. I wonder if our owners share that.
Anyway, sorry for further detailing the "rumour!" Thread!
Wigan were taken over and chucked silly money at it so not really comparable. Ended up causing them long term financial issues and they are back where they started
Plymouth were a club on the up with momentum, had just come up from L2 and continued that progression year on year. Again not really comparable to our situation
Oxford I’ve already mentioned, but they were a consistent play off/top 10 team for years and had 1 poor season. A lot easier to jump like that if you were there for years before
Reading is tbf a unique example, they are doing brilliantly with their academy. But I still don’t think they will finish in the top 6 and I think we will finish above them
League 2 there is often only a handful of points between the playoffs and the bottom half so those comparisons are again not really relevant at all.
We have been in decline on and off the pitch for years and finished 16th last season. Find me a team that turned that around in 1 season without throwing silly money at it (and even teams that do that often fail at first, see Ipswich). Demanding that we turn it around straight away is silly, of course we can aim for it but throwing our toys out the pram when we aren’t in the top 6 just looks a bit entitled
Righto!
All of those teams jumped 10 places+. From last season we kept the same manager and had momentum from moving away from relegation in January.
We then spent in the summer and have the 4th biggest wage budget in the division. So, yes I think my examples are relevant and yes if I was an owner I would have expected promotion (or Top 6 absolute minimum) this season when first buying the club. It's not silly or throwing your toys out of a pram.
Saying Wigan chucked silly money at it so it is not comparable when they spent £730K (so probably similar/less than what we spent this summer) on transfer fees seems a bit daft to me.
As for L2, the gap between playoffs and bottom half is very similar to L1 with the exception of last season only so you have really just made that bit up.
Fucking hell 4 seasons in 74 years in the third tier of wankness Currently in our 11th season of the last 16 in this division we’ve been relegated in to third tier 6 times the longest being 3 seasons to get out until now and we’re in season 5 of this current shameful run be patient, fcuk off it’s always the next window and a load of shit arrives and we tug away about how great we’ll be and it’s another year of failure all at the same time as the two local rivals are having their best ever footballing periods of longevity promotion is what’s needed anything else is failure and finishing 3rd and not going up would be a step forward but will count for nothing the season after when we all start again on 0 points
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attacking midfielder and Welsh youth international
sadly it appears he’s heading to Exeter…shame. Good player
Righto!
All of those teams jumped 10 places+. From last season we kept the same manager and had momentum from moving away from relegation in January.
We then spent in the summer and have the 4th biggest wage budget in the division. So, yes I think my examples are relevant and yes if I was an owner I would have expected promotion (or Top 6 absolute minimum) this season when first buying the club. It's not silly or throwing your toys out of a pram.
Saying Wigan chucked silly money at it so it is not comparable when they spent £730K (so probably similar/less than what we spent this summer) on transfer fees seems a bit daft to me.
As for L2, the gap between playoffs and bottom half is very similar to L1 with the exception of last season only so you have really just made that bit up.
4 seasons in 74 years in the third tier of wankness
Currently in our 11th season of the last 16 in this division
we’ve been relegated in to third tier 6 times the longest being 3 seasons to get out until now and we’re in season 5 of this current shameful run
be patient, fcuk off
it’s always the next window and a load of shit arrives and we tug away about how great we’ll be and it’s another year of failure all at the same time as the two local rivals are having their best ever footballing periods of longevity
promotion is what’s needed anything else is failure and finishing 3rd and not going up would be a step forward but will count for nothing the season after when we all start again on 0 points