2025/26 END-OF-SEASON SQUAD UPDATE

Oggy Red said:

clive said:

https://www.charltonafc.com/news/202526-academy-retained-list

As is often the case, a big wedge of U21 team players released, as they are seemingly not progressing sufficiently towards the 1st team squad - or blocking the pathway of younger promising players.

I feel for them.
It must be gutting to be told at that age that there's no future for them at the club.

For some though, they still may elsewhere make a decent career in the game - if they have the drive and determination to overcome a major setback like this.

And a bit of good fortune.

Pretty sure they probably know they won’t make it at some stage…but not the end of the world….look at players like Vardy etc….for those of us who mostly played Sunday morning football it would have been a dream to have played at U21 at a pro club…I do have a lot of empathy for them though 

Crispywood said:

MartinCAFC said:

Crispywood said:

wolfgang said:

Posters always say what a great job NJ did in keeping us up, but ignore the fact that he has handicapped us, possibly even endangered us, for the coming season, with all the overpriced or overpaid crap he has signed which will limit our ability to strengthen the team. 

 no guarantee if another manager came in and spent that 11-12M (8.6M paid this season)  that they would have kept us up. Yes Knibbs Tanto Apter have been a complete waste so far but not every signing is going to work out, there definitely wasn’t many of us screaming for the likes of Carey Bell Coady this season 

Knibbs a complete waste really? Completely disagree there I would say we've not seen enough of him yet given he didn't get a proper pre-season, often started on the bench due to the form of Carey and then had a bad injury. 

Not saying he hasn’t been unfortunate and I’m not saying he won’t come good but the matter of the fact is we spent 1.8M to play 656 mins of championship football 

He had an impact injury caused by a bad tackle and got back quicker than most predicted. Incredibly harsh to say that's a waste

When making judgements of these players and what we should do, you do have to remember a couple of three things -

1) What can we do with some if they have 1 or 2 years left on contract they arent leaving unless the deal is better for them. Thats easier for the 1 year contracts than 2 years.

2) For alot of less desired players who is actually paying money for them (Ahadme, Tanto, Z Mitchell etc)

3) Who can we reasonably replace them with?

As it goes heres what I would do -


 Gassan Ahadme, Karoy Anderson, Rob Apter, Nathan Asiimwe, Amari’i Bell, Tiernan Brooks, Reece Burke, Sonny Carey, Conor Coventry, Kaheim Dixon, Greg Docherty, Josh Edwards, Ibrahim Fullah, Macaulay Gillesphey, Keenan Gough, Lloyd Jones, Thomas Kaminski, Daniel Kanu, Charlie Kelman, Harvey Knibbs, Miles Leaburn, Will Mannion, Micah Mbick, Alex Mitchell, Zach Mitchell, Tanto Olaofe, Kayne Ramsay, Joe Rankin-Costello, Collins Sichenje.

All those in bold id be looking at loaning out, purely because I dont see many clubs paying fees for them and it reduces (hopefully) our wage bill for the final (or 2) years of their contracts, IF we were able to get permanents oor clubs wantd them on frees I would snap their hands off to accept (Bar Anderson)

In Italics (Macca, Miles, Mannion and Tanto) i think we shpuld be looking to collect a fee if possible, some will be easier than others.

Neil01 said:

Agreed on midfield required and keersmaker the Belgian looks a poss - fits the bill and Oxford down … others after him also though … upgrade on carey though …

De Keersmaecker is a CDM/CM not a CAM 

MarcusH26 said:

Nixon had Derby as the favs for De Keersmaeker, wouldn't surprise me if that had some truth. 

A stopped clock is right twice a day.

Bostonaddick said:

From what I have seen of him the last few years, Knibbs seems a little bit like Carey in that he has an eye for goal but doesn’t do much on the ball.  Nothing wrong with that but we really need someone in the attacking mid who can create for others and help in possession.  Hard to find but needed

That’s not what Nathan Jones has ever wanted in a number 10 though. He wants a 10 with energy to lead the press and the ability to score goals. That is why we signed Knibbs and Carey because they fit that perfectly. I’d be very surprised if we sign another 10 this summer because we’ve just bought 2 that are perfect for what the manager wants 

Fans have been begging for a creative midfielder since Jones took over, and not having one hasn’t held us back at all. We aren’t going to sign a creative number 10, and we don’t need too in our way of playing 

Neil01 said:

Crispywood said:

Neil01 said:

Agreed on midfield required and keersmaker the Belgian looks a poss - fits the bill and Oxford down … others after him also though … upgrade on carey though …

De Keersmaecker is a CDM/CM not 

that definition only exists cos of fifa - 😂 CM is a centre mid play 3 of them and you can mix it how you like… we need to bolster midfield we were constantly overrun and had no possession all season … doc and Coventry not good enough on the ball 

Ok then a CM that is more defensive who likes to sit deep and dictate play opposed to the box crashing CM who likes to attack and get around the box that Nathan Jones uses that better? 

Oggy Red said:

clive said:

https://www.charltonafc.com/news/202526-academy-retained-list

As is often the case, a big wedge of U21 team players released, as they are seemingly not progressing sufficiently towards the 1st team squad - or blocking the pathway of younger promising players.

I feel for them.
It must be gutting to be told at that age that there's no future for them at the club.

For some though, they still may elsewhere make a decent career in the game - if they have the drive and determination to overcome a major setback like this.

And a bit of good fortune.

I can't see Richman on that list. One of those who impressed on Saturday ?

NabySarr said:

Bostonaddick said:

From what I have seen of him the last few years, Knibbs seems a little bit like Carey in that he has an eye for goal but doesn’t do much on the ball.  Nothing wrong with that but we really need someone in the attacking mid who can create for others and help in possession.  Hard to find but needed

That’s not what Nathan Jones has ever wanted in a number 10 though. He wants a 10 with energy to lead the press and the ability to score goals. That is why we signed Knibbs and Carey because they fit that perfectly. I’d be very surprised if we sign another 10 this summer because we’ve just bought 2 that are perfect for what the manager wants 

Fans have been begging for a creative midfielder since Jones took over, and not having one hasn’t held us back at all. We aren’t going to sign a creative number 10, and we don’t need too in our way of playing 

We do need some creativity and an element of putting defences on the back foot when we have the ball at our feet however.  It might not come from the number 10, but where will it come from?  

NabySarr said:

cabbles said:

NabySarr said:

Bostonaddick said:

From what I have seen of him the last few years, Knibbs seems a little bit like Carey in that he has an eye for goal but doesn’t do much on the ball.  Nothing wrong with that but we really need someone in the attacking mid who can create for others and help in possession.  Hard to find but needed

That’s not what Nathan Jones has ever wanted in a number 10 though. He wants a 10 with energy to lead the press and the ability to score goals. That is why we signed Knibbs and Carey because they fit that perfectly. I’d be very surprised if we sign another 10 this summer because we’ve just bought 2 that are perfect for what the manager wants 

Fans have been begging for a creative midfielder since Jones took over, and not having one hasn’t held us back at all. We aren’t going to sign a creative number 10, and we don’t need too in our way of playing 

We do need some creativity and an element of putting defences on the back foot when we have the ball at our feet however.  It might not come from the number 10, but where will it come from?  

I’m sure we will look to add a central midfielder who has more quality on the ball. I don’t think they are necessarily going to be a chance creator though, more that they will make more passes into our wing backs, attacking midfielder and strikers than Coventry and Docherty do, so as a team we will then create more chances because we will get the ball more in good areas 

The creativity is going to come from the same methods it has done for 2.5 years under Jones. Pressing and winning the ball high up out of possession, in possession getting wing backs/TC 1v1 in wide areas, or playing off long balls to a front man/into the channels and then set pieces too. That’s how we’ve scored goals under Jones up to this point and when we had a good team in league 1 it easily created enough chances and goals to win games consistently 

I think this is a good call out, although I hope that our new #8 will have the quality to drive forward with the ball as well as pick out a pass. But I think you're right in that they're more likely to be the "assist to the assist maker" rather than the assister is a fair shout. 

MartinCAFC said:

Crispywood said:

MartinCAFC said:

Crispywood said:

wolfgang said:

Posters always say what a great job NJ did in keeping us up, but ignore the fact that he has handicapped us, possibly even endangered us, for the coming season, with all the overpriced or overpaid crap he has signed which will limit our ability to strengthen the team. 

 no guarantee if another manager came in and spent that 11-12M (8.6M paid this season)  that they would have kept us up. Yes Knibbs Tanto Apter have been a complete waste so far but not every signing is going to work out, there definitely wasn’t many of us screaming for the likes of Carey Bell Coady this season 

Knibbs a complete waste really? Completely disagree there I would say we've not seen enough of him yet given he didn't get a proper pre-season, often started on the bench due to the form of Carey and then had a bad injury. 

Not saying he hasn’t been unfortunate and I’m not saying he won’t come good but the matter of the fact is we spent 1.8M to play 656 mins of championship football 

I noticed you since posted £1.8m twice in your posts, which yes on the face of it for 656 mins isn't great value but in all honesty £1.8m in The Championship doesn't buy you much else. If we were in League One paying that kind of fee then of course you'd want to see a lot more return but a Championship fee £1.8m is low money. The aim of making money in this division is to find those lower league gems for a fairly reasonable fee and then sell on for a big profit. Azeez from Reading to Millwall for example. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't.

Of course Olaofe and Apter are transfer fees paid out that haven't worked out (yet) but again its all low money and both fees are below par for average fees paid out in The Championship.

£1.8 m can also often be £0.6m or £1m, when the transfer fee is broken down in to upfront and add ons.  If there are add ons then they could be tied up with team performance such as staying up and final position and individual performance based on full match appearances and / or minutes played, as well as goals and assists.