POST-MATCH THREAD: Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 18th April 2026: KO 15:00
Comments
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Let’s always remember it was Dowie coming, not Curbs leaving that started the decline. It was a poor appointment, an was an ill considered decision.hoof_it_up_to_benty said:
I was just replying to the original poster who seems to think losing Jones warrants a comparison with when Curbishley left. Curbishley obviously knew how to manage whereas many remain unconvinced by the 'anti-football' Jones.oohaahmortimer said:
I’m hoping there’s sarcasm here because comparing Curbishleys record with Jones is an insult on the Charlton god .hoof_it_up_to_benty said:
Jones is on a par with Curbishley? Don't remember anyone wanting Curbs to go....thickandthin63 said:Didnt see the game only Mannions cock up on highlights.Just a thought,some people saying Jones has taken us a s far as he can,and should be replaced.Seem to remember some people said the same about Curbishley when we finished 7th in the premier league.Be careful what you wish for.
Jones had 1.5 seasons against the pub teams in the third tier and the other was mixing with real football teams in the top flight for plenty of seasons
The board should have given Curbs better backing. Our decline started with the appointment of the clown Dowie.11 -
Way back in August I listened to George Elek and Ali Maxwell from the podcast NTT20 about Charlton's chances of staying in the Championship for more than one season.
They thought we could just about stay up but wasn't sure if CAFC fans could accept losing 18 or 19 games this season.
How prescient were they on that !
17 losses with 3 games to go and Ipswich, Hull and Swansea looking to add to our woes.
The answer is not only can't the majority of Charlton fans/critics accept the amount of losses but throw in the lack of improvement in playing style: no problem with emphasis on defensive strength but the counter attacks and hitting the opposition in transition like at Ipswich have disappeared.
Ironically George Elek (Oxford fan) said it was Blackburn who he felt the university city could catch yesterday.
The Joy has gone out of watching Charlton with our turgid style and Nathan does have to own that as his manic demeanor on the touchline just doesn't motivate this group. They have lost their belief as we get outplayed most weeks now.
All Charlton 'fans' will be biting our nails as we limp to the finish line like many runners/walkers will do this Sunday coming up the mall to finish the marathon and not be overtaken by a yellow banana.
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I just feel at this moment in time, the players have been coached out of playing football. I really don't know what has happened on the pitch, but more so what is happening at Sparrows Lane.
I real worry is we do not have a plan B and the players are just not up for it at the moment. NJ is hell bent on other teams doing us favours. I am really not sure if NJ is the right person to take us forward, but that not to say what he did last year was fantastic achievement!
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Between driving around on Saturday and being in places where the signal was crap to non-existent (Costco, Sainsbury’s Savacentre - I guess they don’t like customers comparing prices) it was only when a Sky alert that Sheff Wed had equalised popped up on my phone that I realised that we had been one nil up. I was basically resigned to us not winning TBH so the draw was already what I had expected. It still pissed me off though that one goal is still the most we can expect.1
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I think my post has been misunderstood,I in now way compared Curbishley leaving to the Jones situation,but there was an element of supporters who did feel that Curbishley had reached his limit with the club(Not me I was distraught when he left.)The first thing to consider is who do you want to replace Jones.we have had a real merry go round of managers recently ,same as we did when Curbs left,If we stay up Jones has done his job,not pretty,not attractive a real hard watch at times.But,he was employed to get us up,and to keep us there.He will be able to say to the owners,right I have done my bit,how about some real investment.Back to the what you wish for,we all wanted RD out,but my god,look what we got in his place.hoof_it_up_to_benty said:
I was just replying to the original poster who seems to think losing Jones warrants a comparison with when Curbishley left. Curbishley obviously knew how to manage whereas many remain unconvinced by the 'anti-football' Jones.oohaahmortimer said:
I’m hoping there’s sarcasm here because comparing Curbishleys record with Jones is an insult on the Charlton god .hoof_it_up_to_benty said:
Jones is on a par with Curbishley? Don't remember anyone wanting Curbs to go....thickandthin63 said:Didnt see the game only Mannions cock up on highlights.Just a thought,some people saying Jones has taken us a s far as he can,and should be replaced.Seem to remember some people said the same about Curbishley when we finished 7th in the premier league.Be careful what you wish for.
Jones had 1.5 seasons against the pub teams in the third tier and the other was mixing with real football teams in the top flight for plenty of seasons
The board should have given Curbs better backing. Our decline started with the appointment of the clown Dowie.3 -
StanTheMan said:I just feel at this moment in time, the players have been coached out of playing football. I really don't know what has happened on the pitch, but more so what is happening at Sparrows Lane.
I real worry is we do not have a plan B and the players are just not up for it at the moment. NJ is hell bent on other teams doing us favours. I am really not sure if NJ is the right person to take us forward, but that not to say what he did last year was fantastic achievement!
Good question Stan ?
Is Nathan relaxed on the training ground ?
How much of the coaching does Nathan do ?
At this business end how much training are the players doing as so many of them look knackered, physically and mentally?
Where has the ITK gone who used to inhabit Sparrows lane ?
What are the stats for the sprints and ground covered in matches ?
What is the ambience like at Sparrows lane, why have the passing got worse as the season has gone on ?
The data that Championship clubs have now from the analysts is amazing hence why they have been elevated to some mystical position at professional clubs.
I know what I'm seeing with my eyes and the upbeat mood has disappeared and we look like a boxer that has taken too many punches and is just grabbing and holding on for the bell.
I can normally read a room which helped as a salesman but I just don't have enough knowledge of the players feelings and their relationship with Nathan ?
I won't say the obvious cliche but do they still believe in him as a group ?
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A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.11
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To quote Steve Jobs "The journey is the reward"mendonca said:
Today's culture does see more people that want the destination without the journey!CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.0 -
This is a really good point. As much as I want to arrive in a favourable place, I still want to see something interesting along the way. If all we care about is the final iteration of the league table, we might as well just wait and Google it. Me? I'd like to see some entertaining football along the way.mendonca said:
Today's culture does see more people that want the destination without the journey!CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.8 -
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A random one and apologies if not relevant. After the game a few charlton fans were fighting each other and it was broken up by an undercover fed. Do they always come to charlton away games?0
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Until we are safe, why would anyone be happy.
We are watching the most torrid displays of football currently and are statistically one of the most negative sides in this league.
Of course people will be happy if we stay up, I am going to be absolutely delighted. The issue is, we are 2 potential losses away against two very decent sides from it going to the last day if Oxford can manage to win their 2. It's not improbable, and we aren't as safe as people are making out.
These concerns are for the future when Burnley, Wolves and one of Forest, West Ham or Spurs join the league, (who will no doubt be better than the current top 6) and the hopeless teams like Leicester & Wednesday are replaced by teams who look like they might show a bit more about them in Lincoln City & Cardiff.
You can enjoy the idea of survival but be concerned for the future.
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I fully support Nathan Jones, but I do think his lineups have been more defensive for this latter part of the season, and it's resulting in some stinking performances. The trouble is, I don't think he has the answers in this squad.
Any effective 352 I've ever watched has both wingbacks bombing on, high and wide, effectively wingers in possession. We don't play this way. Chambers is rarely, if ever, high or wide. Clarke has more license to get forwards and often gets in the box, but Chambers is nearly always back. It made sense when we switched to a 4231 in possession, with TC moving from striker to left wing, because then we had natural width on the left and Thierry Small on the right. But where is that width when it's Godden and Dykes up front... Or Dykes and Kelman... Or Leaburn and Dykes... They're not pulling wide and stretching teams.
And that shape leaves us looking stagnant and starved of any attacking ideas or patterns. Essentially our method of getting goals is to go long, turn the other team around, win a throw and hopefully score from there. We get around 22 throws per game which is one of the highest in the league.
I think we line up this way because every time we commit numbers forward, we turn the ball over. We're always one bad pass / mis-control away from ceding possession and the other team breaking. And as we know, our team are technically poor (especially in midfield) and that's always moments away from happening.
Conte's 352 at Juventus relied on Pirlo at DM and Vidal/Marchisio at CM. Obviously we are not getting players of that quality, but we could look for their equivalent. Docherty might have the bite of Vidal, but none of the quality, and any comparison between Pirlo and Conor Coventry would be purely comedic.
There are calls to play with wingers and move to a 4231/442, but we only have two wingers in the squad. Any disruption to that, and we're changing formation again. There are also calls for us to bring in wingers next season and switch formation. But good wingers are usually either expensive or very high risk. For a club with our resources, it probably makes sense that we build a team without them. Gamble on a rebuild with risky/expensive wingers that don't work out, and we're likely in big trouble. Surely that money is better spent on midfielders.
The heart of our struggles is a midfield that can only scrap and battle when we're under the cosh, but goes missing when we actually need to take control of a game. And that is also the source of the width problem. We can't afford to push both our wingbacks forward because we have no control in the middle, and we're always moments away from losing the ball.
Big work to do in the summer. Fix the midfield, find a Pirlo-lite who can actually move the ball, and a CM who can do more than scrap, and maybe we'll be able to play with more width. Until then, it's going to be a painful watch.5 -
Can't help wondering whether when we appeared to be all but safe - some players perhaps became aware that they were not going to be in NJ's plans going forward and have taken their eyes off the ball quite a bit? The lack of effort and pressing by most if the team is self evident. Just a thought.......soapboxsam said:StanTheMan said:I just feel at this moment in time, the players have been coached out of playing football. I really don't know what has happened on the pitch, but more so what is happening at Sparrows Lane.
I real worry is we do not have a plan B and the players are just not up for it at the moment. NJ is hell bent on other teams doing us favours. I am really not sure if NJ is the right person to take us forward, but that not to say what he did last year was fantastic achievement!
Good question Stan ?
Is Nathan relaxed on the training ground ?
How much of the coaching does Nathan do ?
At this business end how much training are the players doing as so many of them look knackered, physically and mentally?
Where has the ITK gone who used to inhabit Sparrows lane ?
What are the stats for the sprints and ground covered in matches ?
What is the ambience like at Sparrows lane, why have the passing got worse as the season has gone on ?
The data that Championship clubs have now from the analysts is amazing hence why they have been elevated to some mystical position at professional clubs.
I know what I'm seeing with my eyes and the upbeat mood has disappeared and we look like a boxer that has taken too many punches and is just grabbing and holding on for the bell.
I can normally read a room which helped as a salesman but I just don't have enough knowledge of the players feelings and their relationship with Nathan ?
I won't say the obvious cliche but do they still believe in him as a group ?0 -
There will always be new hopeless teams. You can't really judge the promoted teams until you see their spend in the Summer.Braziliance said:Until we are safe, why would anyone be happy.
We are watching the most torrid displays of football currently and are statistically one of the most negative sides in this league.
Of course people will be happy if we stay up, I am going to be absolutely delighted. The issue is, we are 2 potential losses away against two very decent sides from it going to the last day if Oxford can manage to win their 2. It's not improbable, and we aren't as safe as people are making out.
These concerns are for the future when Burnley, Wolves and one of Forest, West Ham or Spurs join the league, (who will no doubt be better than the current top 6) and the hopeless teams like Leicester & Wednesday are replaced by teams who look like they might show a bit more about them in Lincoln City & Cardiff.
You can enjoy the idea of survival but be concerned for the future.
If we're quoting League positions by budget, as the charming Carter has done, you can't really judge the strength of the league just yet.1 -
On this point specifically, isn't it more likely they're just knackered? Carey for example has had to play a huge amount of minutes, as have Ramsay and Jones. Clarke and Chambers have gone from a huge amount of minutes to none in a short period of time. Despite his injury issues Bell has (just about) played more games than in the last 2 seasons and has periodically flown to Jamaica/Mexico and then played a couple of days later.CharltonManor1966 said:
Can't help wondering whether when we appeared to be all but safe - some players perhaps became aware that they were not going to be in NJ's plans going forward and have taken their eyes off the ball quite a bit? The lack of effort and pressing by most if the team is self evident. Just a thought.......soapboxsam said:StanTheMan said:I just feel at this moment in time, the players have been coached out of playing football. I really don't know what has happened on the pitch, but more so what is happening at Sparrows Lane.
I real worry is we do not have a plan B and the players are just not up for it at the moment. NJ is hell bent on other teams doing us favours. I am really not sure if NJ is the right person to take us forward, but that not to say what he did last year was fantastic achievement!
Good question Stan ?
Is Nathan relaxed on the training ground ?
How much of the coaching does Nathan do ?
At this business end how much training are the players doing as so many of them look knackered, physically and mentally?
Where has the ITK gone who used to inhabit Sparrows lane ?
What are the stats for the sprints and ground covered in matches ?
What is the ambience like at Sparrows lane, why have the passing got worse as the season has gone on ?
The data that Championship clubs have now from the analysts is amazing hence why they have been elevated to some mystical position at professional clubs.
I know what I'm seeing with my eyes and the upbeat mood has disappeared and we look like a boxer that has taken too many punches and is just grabbing and holding on for the bell.
I can normally read a room which helped as a salesman but I just don't have enough knowledge of the players feelings and their relationship with Nathan ?
I won't say the obvious cliche but do they still believe in him as a group ?1 -
Which to me was glaringly obvious and I can't believe we did two transfer windows without addressing it. We might still stay up, but it was incompetent to go into a championship season with the likes of Greg Docherty, Luke Berry and the untested Sonny Carey & Conor Coventry. Knibbs I'll make an exception for with the injury before signing and getting injured here.The heart of our struggles is a midfield that can only scrap and battle when we're under the cosh, but goes missing when we actually need to take control of a game. And that is also the source of the width problem. We can't afford to push both our wingbacks forward because we have no control in the middle, and we're always moments away from losing the ball.
Big work to do in the summer. Fix the midfield, find a Pirlo-lite who can actually move the ball, and a CM who can do more than scrap, and maybe we'll be able to play with more width. Until then, it's going to be a painful watch.
These players were never up to it. Docherty nearly went on loan to league one ffs if it wasn't for an injury.
Player for player the worst midfield in the league and it isn't even close. I'd take every teams midfield around us and based on what I just saw at Hillsborough, I'd take theirs as well.
We can probably get away with minimal spend at the back in the summer, but it's open chest surgery everywhere else.3 -
Fair play to the men and women of law enforcement for travelling from the USA for the match.CAFCFW05 said:A random one and apologies if not relevant. After the game a few charlton fans were fighting each other and it was broken up by an undercover fed. Do they always come to charlton away games?
bad boys bad boys, what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do when they come for you..6 -
OK, another poor performance in a season full of more bad/poor/mediocre performances than good, and guess what ? .. we are so far 'safe' from relegation in a season when LEICESTER, recent FA Cup winners and bit further back PREMIER LEAGUE winners are likely to be relegated (OK after a points deduction)
Did anyone REALLY believe that we would be fighting for promotion against clubs awash with parachute payments or billionaire investors' cash ? .. I have said umpteen times on here and elsewhere that I'd be content just to avoid relegation even if only by one point or just goal difference. It looks like that will be the outcome
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That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.4 -
No one is saying we should be fighting for promotion though.Lincsaddick said:OK, another poor performance in a season full of more bad/poor/mediocre performances than good, and guess what ? .. we are so far 'safe' from relegation in a season when LEICESTER, recent FA Cup winners and bit further back PREMIER LEAGUE winners are likely to be relegated (OK after a points deduction)
Did anyone REALLY believe that we would be fighting for promotion against clubs awash with parachute payments or billionaire investors' cash ? .. I have said umpteen times on here and elsewhere that I'd be content just to avoid relegation even if only by one point or just goal difference. It looks like that will be the outcomePeople are concerned about the recent performances and rightly so. We’ve had plenty of games recently which should’ve been us done and clear of bother, but we have not put in performances that achieved that.5 -
LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
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What were they being told by Rodwell and others?CAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
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Presumably something along the lines of "we won't need to spend much, just minor additions to what we already have and NJ will be able to get them to overpeform".Airman Brown said:
What were they being told by Rodwell and others?CAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
How do you see it?0 -
CAFCFW05 said:A random one and apologies if not relevant. After the game a few charlton fans were fighting each other and it was broken up by an undercover fed. Do they always come to charlton away games?
don't get paranoid, but they are on here too. 🥵2 -
You can’t just go from a top 6 league 1 budget to a mid table championship budget overnight, would cause all sorts of issues and be very risky if it didn’t work and we did go downCAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
The club are absolutely doing this in the right way, building things up slowly with the aim of having a mid-table budget in a few years time. It’s not like we didn’t invest either, we spent it badly but we chucked £10m+ on transfer fees. I think any talk about our owners lacking ambition is wide of the mark. Carter has laid out the plan to get us to a mid-table budget over the next few years, that’s ambition we should be very happy with and is far from treading water4 -
I agree with that, although the accounts don’t suggest we spent £10m on fees last summer. They were signed off at the end of 2025 so set out the spending until then but not the January window.NabySarr said:
You can’t just go from a top 6 league 1 budget to a mid table championship budget overnight, would cause all sorts of issues and be very risky if it didn’t work and we did go downCAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
The club are absolutely doing this in the right way, building things up slowly with the aim of having a mid-table budget in a few years time. It’s not like we didn’t invest either, we spent it badly but we chucked £10m+ on transfer fees. I think any talk about our owners lacking ambition is wide of the mark. Carter has laid out the plan to get us to a mid-table budget over the next few years, that’s ambition we should be very happy with and is far from treading waterThe net expenditure was £8m but this included player contracts not just fees. The spending is probably aligned to the extra central income. Of course this still leaves the shareholders to cover the operating loss.0 -
They won't because the fees will 1) not be lump sums spent and 2) be amortised over the length of the contract. In terms of transfer fee transparency, the only useful thing in the accounts is the incoming number as we'll book everything we can immediatelyAirman Brown said:
I agree with that, although the accounts don’t suggest we spent £10m on fees last summer. They were signed off at the end of 2025 so set out the spending until then but not the January window.NabySarr said:
You can’t just go from a top 6 league 1 budget to a mid table championship budget overnight, would cause all sorts of issues and be very risky if it didn’t work and we did go downCAFCTrev said:LargeAddick said:
That is true but from where we were after the Boro win to where we are now we have relapsed and missed an opportunity to push on a bit and finish strongly. Now it looks like we are going to limp over the line, maybe even at the last game of the season, and to boot could be relying on other teams slipping up. We shouldn’t be in this position. That is the frustrating thing.CAFCTrev said:A lot of us were saying we would be happy with finishing fourth from bottom at the start of the season, and it looks like that's likely to happen. So, we should be happy.Is this actually the best we could have got out of this squad? Realistically, was there ever much scope for this group to finish any higher?
Not having a go, but it’s hard to square the “I’d take 4th from bottom” comments at the start of the season from many on here (myself included) with the idea now that we should be comfortably mid-table and are somehow underachieving. Any team finishing 4th from bottom would probably spend most of a season playing badly, and lose a lot of games.
As far as I understand it, our budget is bottom three in the league (happy to be corrected), so in that context NJ may well have delivered slightly above expectations. On paper at least, that points to a successful season. It hasn’t been pretty—far from it—but the outcome is broadly what most of us would have taken back in August.
The real question is whether people would still have accepted 4th from bottom if they’d known the football would be this hard to watch.
I’m with you, by the way—I’ve found it tough going at times. Just struggling to balance the need for survival with the desire to actually enjoy what we’re watching.
I do find it a bit odd that the ownership were only prepared to put forward such a limited budget this season—presumably on the basis that we’d just about keep our heads above water.
But if that’s the case, what does it actually say about their ambitions for the club? Are they planning to invest more next season so we can properly push on, or is the aim simply to tread water in the Championship forever?
And if the worst does happen and we go down, where does the responsibility sit? Do they point to circumstances, or do they have to look at the budget they set in the first place?
The club are absolutely doing this in the right way, building things up slowly with the aim of having a mid-table budget in a few years time. It’s not like we didn’t invest either, we spent it badly but we chucked £10m+ on transfer fees. I think any talk about our owners lacking ambition is wide of the mark. Carter has laid out the plan to get us to a mid-table budget over the next few years, that’s ambition we should be very happy with and is far from treading waterThe net expenditure was £8m but this included player contracts not just fees. The spending is probably aligned to the extra central income. Of course this still leaves the shareholders to cover the operating loss.0 -
I think our 25 points from first 15 games, including late result changing goals, increased expectations unduly. Since then the football has been (very) hard to watch. SW was bottom end of that watch, but the harsh reality. We knew what we were going to get on Saturday - so boos were unjustified. As has been said, how do we expect Lloyd to feel about the Charlton shirt on Wednesday etc, beyond it's his job etc? People are entitled to views on this thread. I guess we all have a different view of what we get out of watching Charlton3
