If we go up I think he maybe stays, if we don’t then I think he definitely leaves. I think in either scenario staying would be the right choice for his career but probably not his bank balance so fair enough
Considering his contract is expiring not sure the club would be contacted by interested clubs?
I think that they would if they want to agree on compensation without going to tribunal. Believe we are entitled to some for his development if he leaves?
They can do that after he's said "yes I'll come", they can't legally talk to Thierry yet so would only really be asking for permission which we'll deny
Young lad doesn’t fulfil the promise of his skill or progress with the clubs he’s been with, gets another chance and strikes it lucky that he’s ended up with a manager and some equally skilful and developing lads who between them could be collectively looking at opening doors that individually they wouldn’t otherwise. So why would any of them want to move on just yet for an immediate pay rise but one which could set them back if they don’t very quickly fulfil the expectations of their new manager and teammates who won’t necessarily be setting up to play them as they are enjoying and thriving under now ?
Because the player will a) always back themselves to do well and b) argue it's a short career. If someone offers him 10k a week and we can only offer him 6k, then over a 3 year contract that's a difference of 624k. Very few players are going to turn that down.
It works both ways though. You say that he's struck it lucky with a manager that has backed him, but equally you could also say it's his own hard work and ability. These things generally end up going one of two ways with a player. If he's good then people get annoyed at him leaving for a bigger/better club on more money, but then if he hadn't fulfilled his promise he'd be getting slagged off for being shit and a drain on the wage bill.
He had the ability before he came to Charlton and I very much doubt that he didn’t put the effort in at those clubs. It often comes down to time and place and at Charlton it’s been the right time and place to get him back on track to the extent we’re having this conversation.
If we go up then I suspect the wages for the whole squad will naturally start to rise so the potential missing out on a higher salary over a 3 year contract elsewhere won’t necessarily be as much of an issue.
I rate him and he has a very high ceiling but he is still very raw and gets away with some pretty poor distribution and passing because it's league 1. If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
I rate him and he has a very high ceiling but he is still very raw and gets away with some pretty poor distribution and passing because it's league 1. If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
Good left backs are hard to find - he will play regularly somewhere .
I rate him and he has a very high ceiling but he is still very raw and gets away with some pretty poor distribution and passing because it's league 1. If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
Good left backs are hard to find - he will play regularly somewhere .
I rate him and he has a very high ceiling but he is still very raw and gets away with some pretty poor distribution and passing because it's league 1. If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
Good left backs are hard to find - he will play regularly somewhere .
Wingback not left back. He would not work in a 442 as a left back.
I rate him and he has a very high ceiling but he is still very raw and gets away with some pretty poor distribution and passing because it's league 1. If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
Good left backs are hard to find - he will play regularly somewhere .
He's not even playing Left-Back though, he's been doing better at Right-Back
Could make the argument that Edwards is the better Left-Back.
Edwards is the better left back and arguably a more consistent left wing back. I neither disrespect Smalls’ natural talent, work ethic and most certainly not his contribution but he is far from the finished article.
In 2023/24 he and his natural talents were fully supported by Nathan Jones as a Left Wing Back in a relegation campaign by the use of the twin pivots of Dobson and Coventry. He did well.
In 2024/25 Edwards experience, greater defensive abilities, match awareness and more measured attacking prowess were a tough “gig” to beat out.
In his transformation to a genuine hybrid right wing/ right wing back role he has made a terrific if inconsistent contribution. His physicality, pace and natural ability cannot be ignored. Ramsay has been instrumental in providing the right platform for such growth.
Small would do well to reflect on the support this club, these players and this Manager have given him in helping him to grow to this point. It is a culture, infrastructure and dynamic which has served him well. The grass is not always greener.
If we are to win the play-offs then there are 5 or 6 players who must be fit and playing well - Jones, Coventry, Godden, TC, and Small. He's absolutely key because no one else (possibly in the division let alone our squad) can get up and down the right wing and offer the same levels in both attack and defence like he does. By extension, Edwards probably also needs to be fit so Small doesn't have to deputise at left back. Maybe Ramsay comes under that category too, but Small is right up there with our most key players, imo.
im led to believe he dropped his agent which I think was the right thing. It seems his agent was pulling his strings and moving him around just for money.
I was told he’s either going to be represented by Brian Small the former player - who may be his uncle but I also heard he was in Jon Fortune’s stable now which, you would hope, is a positive for us. hes been a revelation as a flying winger and I’d love to get him signed up for a couple of years just to get a fee if he does then move in s year
im led to believe he dropped his agent which I think was the right thing. It seems his agent was pulling his strings and moving him around just for money.
I was told he’s either going to be represented by Brian Small the former player - who may be his uncle but I also heard he was in Jon Fortune’s stable now which, you would hope, is a positive for us. hes been a revelation as a flying winger and I’d love to get him signed up for a couple of years just to get a fee if he does then move in s year
Edwards is the better left back and arguably a more consistent left wing back. I neither disrespect Smalls’ natural talent, work ethic and most certainly not his contribution but he is far from the finished article.
In 2023/24 he and his natural talents were fully supported by Nathan Jones as a Left Wing Back in a relegation campaign by the use of the twin pivots of Dobson and Coventry. He did well.
In 2024/25 Edwards experience, greater defensive abilities, match awareness and more measured attacking prowess were a tough “gig” to beat out.
In his transformation to a genuine hybrid right wing/ right wing back role he has made a terrific if inconsistent contribution. His physicality, pace and natural ability cannot be ignored. Ramsay has been instrumental in providing the right platform for such growth.
Small would do well to reflect on the support this club, these players and this Manager have given him in helping him to grow to this point. It is a culture, infrastructure and dynamic which has served him well. The grass is not always greener.
I get the feeling he will go for the money regardless of whether the grass is greener or not.
Edwards is the better left back and arguably a more consistent left wing back. I neither disrespect Smalls’ natural talent, work ethic and most certainly not his contribution but he is far from the finished article.
In 2023/24 he and his natural talents were fully supported by Nathan Jones as a Left Wing Back in a relegation campaign by the use of the twin pivots of Dobson and Coventry. He did well.
In 2024/25 Edwards experience, greater defensive abilities, match awareness and more measured attacking prowess were a tough “gig” to beat out.
In his transformation to a genuine hybrid right wing/ right wing back role he has made a terrific if inconsistent contribution. His physicality, pace and natural ability cannot be ignored. Ramsay has been instrumental in providing the right platform for such growth.
Small would do well to reflect on the support this club, these players and this Manager have given him in helping him to grow to this point. It is a culture, infrastructure and dynamic which has served him well. The grass is not always greener.
I get the feeling he will go for the money regardless of whether the grass is greener or not.
Well if he is aiming for the largest $$ possible he's going to have to get in the game more than against Cambridge where he was 'not at his best' and truly deserved his early bath
If we don't go up I think we'll lose Small, Ramsay and TC. Leaburn's injury the only thing that will hold off more interest in him.
I like Small a lot but the fact he hasn't signed anything yet screams of a player waiting to see what division we're in before committing. I agree with others that if a top champ club came in for him he'd leave even if we did go up. I don't think he's ready for that level yet, but that wouldn't stop him.
I'm not sure he will go and like probably all of us I'd I want him to re-sign with us. His strategy of waiting until the end of the season has, I think, given him a couple of things. The first being he'll know whether he'd be re-signing with a Championship or L1 club......... although I'd imagine a contract signed today would more than adequately cover both eventualities. And he may be fed up with moving around and want to stay with us if we were promoted......... here's hoping. Grapevine's point about 'the grass not always being greener' is a good one and I think with everything being equal, i.e. us in the Championship, he'd have to have really good reasons to go somewhere else.
The second thing, you'd imagine, is that attracting a lot of interest from clubs higher in the pyramid would provide good leverage for negotiating with Charlton.
Will he stay with us in L1...... maybe? If he thought we'd challenging at the top of L1 again next year he might be tempted to stay for one more year........ you could argue his development would be better by staying........ great coaching, more game time than he'd maybe get with a Championship team. Put that (arguably) better development against one year's worth of better money elsewhere and you could perhaps persuade him that the better development will also pay off better monetarily over the course of his next contract? Anyway, I'm sure people at the club will have put their arm around his shoulder and had the 'grass isn't greener' conversation with him over the last little while. I hope he's still with us next year, he's exciting to watch.
If we go up I can see an Adam Matthews style scenario where he signs quite late in the summer, although NJ might not sanction that as he likes buy in. If we stay in L1 I don’t think he stays, someone in the Championship will take a punt on him
It also depends where on the field he wants to play. If he sees himself as an attacking LB/LWB, then playing on the right in a hybrid right wing/right wingback role might not be where he wants to be on the field next season.
We can do better he has not provided many assists, flashy and fun to watch but unless he puts in more crosses and positions himself better to shoot, he will be of limited use
We can do better he has not provided many assists, flashy and fun to watch but unless he puts in more crosses and positions himself better to shoot, he will be of limited use
We very unlikely to get a replacement who offers the same pace, power and skill but also has a great end product.
He’s still only 20, it’s easy to forget how young he is. He has time on his side to improve his end product.
We can do better he has not provided many assists, flashy and fun to watch but unless he puts in more crosses and positions himself better to shoot, he will be of limited use
We very unlikely to get a replacement who offers the same pace, power and skill but also has a great end product.
He’s still only 20, it’s easy to forget how young he is. He has time on his side to improve his end product.
As has been said many times, if he had consistent end product he’d be playing a lot higher than L1. What he and his agent need to decide is whether NJ is the right coach to help him with the end product and if he is happy in the environment
im led to believe he dropped his agent which I think was the right thing. It seems his agent was pulling his strings and moving him around just for money.
I was told he’s either going to be represented by Brian Small the former player - who may be his uncle but I also heard he was in Jon Fortune’s stable now which, you would hope, is a positive for us. hes been a revelation as a flying winger and I’d love to get him signed up for a couple of years just to get a fee if he does then move in s year
Just bumped into Thiery at the Shell and he said the following - If we go up he's staying, but if we go up and Jonesy gets poached he'll go, but if we stay down and Jonesy gets pinched he's definitely going, but if we stay down and Jonesy don't he nobbled he might stay, although if we go up and Jonesy stays, he'll definitely stay.
Just bumped into Thiery at the Shell and he said the following - If we go up he's staying, but if we go up and Jonesy gets poached he'll go, but if we stay down and Jonesy gets pinched he's definitely going, but if we stay down and Jonesy don't he nobbled he might stay, although if we go up and Jonesy stays, he'll definitely stay.
Comments
If he goes elsewhere to a Championship team it will either rgo excellently or he will be bombed out within a few games I suspect
Should stay a couple of years and work on his foot all where he is first choice.
Good left backs are hard to find - he will play regularly somewhere .
Could make the argument that Edwards is the better Left-Back.
In 2023/24 he and his natural talents were fully supported by Nathan Jones as a Left Wing Back in a relegation campaign by the use of the twin pivots of Dobson and Coventry. He did well.
Small would do well to reflect on the support this club, these players and this Manager have given him in helping him to grow to this point. It is a culture, infrastructure and dynamic which has served him well. The grass is not always greener.
hes been a revelation as a flying winger and I’d love to get him signed up for a couple of years just to get a fee if he does then move in s year
I like Small a lot but the fact he hasn't signed anything yet screams of a player waiting to see what division we're in before committing. I agree with others that if a top champ club came in for him he'd leave even if we did go up. I don't think he's ready for that level yet, but that wouldn't stop him.
His strategy of waiting until the end of the season has, I think, given him a couple of things. The first being he'll know whether he'd be re-signing with a Championship or L1 club......... although I'd imagine a contract signed today would more than adequately cover both eventualities. And he may be fed up with moving around and want to stay with us if we were promoted......... here's hoping.
Grapevine's point about 'the grass not always being greener' is a good one and I think with everything being equal, i.e. us in the Championship, he'd have to have really good reasons to go somewhere else.
The second thing, you'd imagine, is that attracting a lot of interest from clubs higher in the pyramid would provide good leverage for negotiating with Charlton.
Will he stay with us in L1...... maybe? If he thought we'd challenging at the top of L1 again next year he might be tempted to stay for one more year........ you could argue his development would be better by staying........ great coaching, more game time than he'd maybe get with a Championship team. Put that (arguably) better development against one year's worth of better money elsewhere and you could perhaps persuade him that the better development will also pay off better monetarily over the course of his next contract?
Anyway, I'm sure people at the club will have put their arm around his shoulder and had the 'grass isn't greener' conversation with him over the last little while. I hope he's still with us next year, he's exciting to watch.
If he leaves he is an ungrateful, greedy, over rated snake who will crash and burn.
There is no middle ground
: -)
He’s still only 20, it’s easy to forget how young he is. He has time on his side to improve his end product.
If TC goes, he ain't too sure what to do......