Winner at Windsor

I hope you will excuse me a personal blog, but my horse won at Windsor last night – Whoop , Whoop ! In a break from worrying about the shenanigans at Charlton, Junkanoo casually sauntered home by 4 lengths last night in the 735pm at Windsor.

Horse racing is a lot like football (or my horses are a lot like Charlton) which is that winning is seldom the outcome. The saying in racing is that its often ‘a long time between drinks’

Co-owned with my great friend Trevor Jacobs, who is a rather lukewarm Pompey fan, last night was a lovely balmy night in the sunshine and the outcome was never in doubt.

Enjoy your summer everyone and lets hope we get some long awaited good news on the ownership soon.

1958 Repeating itself

In 1957/58 Charlton needed a point to get back to the Premiership and Blackburn needed a win

At The Valley in front of a crowd of 56,400 Charlton lost 4-3 to Blackburn It took us another 28 years to return to the top flight.

I texted my Blackburn supporting mate this morning reminding him of that result and telling him that they needed a repeat 4-3 win at Millwall today.

It’s a shame, I didn’t have a bet on it ! Sadly it wasn’t enough for them.

Reassurance from Peter Storrie

The interview with Peter Storrie tonight is positive and slightly reassuring.

See https://www.charltonafc.com/news/update-peter-storrie

Given Thomas’s previous wild promises about European football and the like, its difficult to invest too much belief in the increased budget talk but I’m going to be an optimist until proven otherwise.

The player recruitment and contract renewal/clear out needs to be done early to show intent and give the fans reason to hope. We don’t want any of this lets wait until the end of August to do our business nonsense.

I renewed my season tickets because I support the club and not the owner. I don’t really understand those fans who talk about season ticket boycotts – who do they think they are hurting ? It’s a bad sign for prospective signings, owners and everyone involved when the club needs every supporter it can get .

How often I will use them rather depends on whether the teams merits watching.

Poor quality players at Charlton

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that regardless of how good the manager might be at Charlton the players are not good enough to make any kind of challenge in League 1. Given our wage bill, that’s depressing but true.

With the exception of Dobbo , who sometimes seems like a one man team and the more inconsistent Fraser, the midfield is woeful. We had no control or invention yesterday against a poor Morecambe side. Up front, playing a lone 19 year old striker in a home game against poor opposition seems like a pretty strange tactic to me, but to be fair who else could he play ?

I have renewed my season tickets because I always do regardless of how awful we’ve been …… but we have been very awful !!

Watching Brighton on tv ( I mean Brighton who are they ?? ) makes you wonder what on earth we are doing losing to Morecambe in Division 3. How did that happen ??? – Brighton somehow got some great ownership who have spent money and know what they are doing. Please can we have some of that and a bit of overdue luck in ownership

0-6 in the 3rd division

I might be wrong but I don’t think we’ve ever lost 6-0 in the 3rd division before. It has generally been another awful season, although some of the youngsters, inevitably overused, have showed promise and hope for the future.

Whilst I like Dean Holden, I do think that in the last couple of away games his tactics have been poor. We knew that Ipswich are particularly strong in the middle of the park , why on earth would you play only 3 with George Dobson the only one of them who puts a decent tackle in ? The set up today looked destined for a walloping from the off. We should have been much more defensive and added another midfielder. This comes on the back of the Bristol Rovers game where we should have won if we’d been more aggressive with the subs.

Anyway, I guess when you’ve got so many of the team today out of contract or on loan until the end of the season, notably Hector, Inniss, and Thomas ( our entire central defence) plus Morgan, Bonne, JRS, Henry, Sess, Kane and probably some others Ive forgotten, this kind of result is not really that surprising.

Support the Charlton Upbeats Walk with Gaddafi

I am proud to say that I have completed the Annual Upbeats Walk several times over the last few years and raised a few quid in the process. I can’t make it this year because it clashes with our Spring Plant Fair in the village and I am Chairman of the Fair. I can hear you chuckling from here but think ‘Vicar of Dibley’ and you have our village.

Anyway, my mates are carrying the flag as usual, Gaddafi pictured above is our leader, ably assisted by his pal, Taffy and he will be literally pulling the team along for 9.5 miles. It’s not normally the legs that go, it’s the arm from being pulled all the way. I suspect half way drinks won’t be served by the fragrant Raelynn this year but hey you can’t have everything.

It’s a fantastic cause and if you aren’t already walking and can spare a few quid , please sponsor https://cact.gives/fundraising/taffy-and-gadaffi-325

A lazy sunny afternoon in Bristol

The wife and I both went to University in Bath back when decimalisation was a new thing so she didn’t need any persuading to spend a couple of nights down there. She went shopping while I made my way across to Brizzle Rovers.

To be honest, although we were pretty clueless, I rather enjoyed an afternoon in the sun with nothing to worry about. The bloke who had dressed up as Derek Hales in the full 70s kit including the vintage shirt ,ridiculously short tight shorts and complete with curly wig and false beard was probably the highlight for me – well done mate !!!

On the pitch, we weren’t very good and I have absolutely no idea why Dean Holden waited until Rovers had scored before he brought on any subs. Both sides were poor and the game was there to be won by whichever team upped the tempo. Joey Barton brought on 4 subs and won the game because of it.

For next season, the current defence – if they can keep Michael Hector- is good enough for play offs/ promotion. In the middle of the pitch, Dobson and Fraser are good enough, but need more talented support and Morgan and Payne clearly aren’t that. Up front, Campbell is too young to play every week and so is Leaburn. Rak Saki is leaving anyway and Bonne is definitely not good enough. So there you have it , we probably need 4 or 5 proper quality signings for the midfield and forward areas. If we don’t get those , we’ll be spending more time at grounds like the Memorial in Bristol.

Why you should be buying a Season Ticket for Charlton

I do think there is a lot of nonsense talked about Season Tickets. Whilst I totally recognise that times are tough and pretty much everyone is poorer this year than last.

Nevertheless, the cost of an adult Season ticket at Charlton at around £425 is absolutely nothing really when you compare it other forms of entertainment.

Yes, of course we’ve had a rubbish season but you don’t have to go every week if you get fed up with it. I view my season tickets as a subscription just like Sky Sports. If we have a really depressing poor spell, I just don’t go as much. If there is nothing to watch on Sky or Netflix I just stop watching for a while but I don’t cancel my subscription.

Put another way, reduce your beer consumption by just 8 pints a month and you’ve both improved your health, lost weight and funded your season ticket. It’s the same cost as just 3 West End Theatre shows.

And then just occasionally you get to spend a night with 9,000 of your tribe singing Charlton till I die until its ringing in your ears.

I don’t care about the owner and I loathe “addicks to victory” every time they play the dirge but of course the club need the money and I love the place so I will be renewing again and I really hope you do too.

Dear Thomas ………………………….

Please can you let us know what is going on with our beloved football club ? I am sure most of us appreciate that you rescued the club from Matt Southall and the other ESI crooks and we know that you tried hard at the start to invest in the team and communicate with the fan base.

Football in the UK is a bottomless money pit and none of the economics below the Premiership work for anyone. UK football is also very tribal and I have no doubt that you will be fed up with some of the abuse you have received- although I can assure you that Charlton fans are at the lowest end of the nasty league.

It is entirely understandable if you are looking for investors to share the financial burden or to exit completely. All of us make investments from time to time that lose money or don’t turn out as hoped- that’s life !

The club forms an important part of our lives and for many of us over several decades, its 55 years for me since I saw my first game. Admittedly, its been a tough watch for a lot of the time , particularly the last 15 years as we’ve slipped behind other London teams like Fulham, Watford, Palace , Brentford and even Millwall all of whom, we had historically viewed as direct competitors or smaller.

Anyway, what’s my question ? ……………….

Can you please show us the respect of a direct communication to tell us what is going on at the football club and your plans for ownership because the current decline without meaningful hope is heartbreaking

Huge player investment required at Charlton

For the first time in the last 100 years Charlton will be playing a 4th consecutive season in the 3rd division.
That assumes we will scrape enough points to avoid the drop

For a London club of our size that is a disaster. The current owner has proved to be hopelessly inept and unable to invest properly in the team.
The team is clearly 2nd rate and does not look capable of competing with the teams at the top of this division. A positive result against Sheff Weds is highly unlikely.
In order to challenge next season a huge investment in playing talent will be required. With the exception of Dobson and potentially Leaburn there isn’t a single midfield or forward player who is good enough. A big clear out.will be needed in the summer and Thomas’s normal ragbag of free transfers, lower league wannabes and loan players won’t get us promoted.

The Academy is great and can be relied upon to add one or two decent first team ready prospects every year, like Ness and Leaburn but more than that is wishful thinking.

Sandgaard hasn’t got the funds to get us promoted so where is the investment going to come from ?