No Striking Options, No promotion

It’s easy for me to tell Thomas that he needs to put his hand in his pocket for another striker but I’m not the guy who is funding the club to the tune of £6-8m a year.The problem is that, however good Garner is as a manager, without some alternative experienced options up front, it will be impossible to get us promoted.

The longer we are marooned in the 3rd division, the more money Thomas will lose and the further behind Palace ( and God forbid) Millwall we are falling.

Letting Washington AND Davison go without a replacement arriving just looks silly. Stockley is an excellent player but in this system he is either going to get injured or completely knackered without any back up available. Apparently, another centre half is the priority which doesn’t speak volumes for Deji or Ness or indeed Sean Clare who can also play there, in addition to O’Connell, Inniss and Lavelle.

If I was the manager and had to choose just one position, I’d get another striker over another centre half every day of the week.

There again, I’m not the manager which is probably just as well !

No more Olly

The news that Olly Groome was made redundant yesterday after 10 years great service for the club is just depressing

it will prove to be a good thing for Olly and he will no doubt earn more money and have a good career elsewhere but it’s another HR own goal by Thomas.
As a minor act of protest I have immediately unsubscribed from all Charlton comms.

No more strikers ?

I want to be positive about our start. I thoroughly enjoyed the Derby game although on 99 times out of 100, given the chances they missed Derby should have won. QPR was really entertaining and by all accounts we played well at Sheffield Weds. So far so good and Ben Garner’s tactics seem to be a breath of fresh air.

The U21’s continue to stuff pretty much everyone, this afternoon 5-3 against a very strong Sheffield Utd side. The future continues to look bright

There is one dark cloud. I don’t really care what Ben says about not needing or not being able to afford another striker but if we don’t get one, I cannot see us getting promoted. I am a fan of Jayden Stockley he is an excellent League 1 striker but in this system particularly, its a huge physical ask for him to play virtually on his own for 90 mins every week.

Chuks is very good at this level too , but we will struggle to get more than 15-20 games out of him. Miles Leaburn looks really good ( better than Burstow) but he’s only 18 and cannot be expected to lead the line on his own.

If this transfer window closes and Stockley gets injured, we will be in deep deep trouble.

Tippy Tappy football coming to The Valley

I know I am expressing a Neanderthal view of football, but I don’t really like the thought of Ben Garner’s style of football. In all the years that I have been watching Charlton in the lower leagues I can only remember a couple of examples of teams who pulled it off successfully. Reading did for a while, Swindon briefly under Hoddle, maybe Brighton when they got promoted and that Swansea team where the entire team was under 5 foot and they were impossible to get the ball from. The Premier League is a different planet of player capability and only really Man City and Liverpool get away with it even there.

I am resolutely in the 442 camp with two good strikers, a la Wright Phillips and Kermit, Hales & Flanagan, Mendonca and Hunt, Taylor and anyone. I like powerful, big athletic teams playing like Rotherham and Wigan did last year and Peterboro did the year before.

Anyway, looks like Tippy Tappy is the way this year and its going to be a roller coaster as we watch Inniss, O’Connell and Lavelle make 38 short passes between them before dribbling out from the back whilst we all hold our breath or cover our eyes until its all over. I shall be watching the team with more hope than expectation. As it stands whilst some of the summer recruitment looks good, the current squad is not strong enough to challenge. Another experienced striker is essential with probably a winger and left back too.

I shall get behind the team as normal and who knows- maybe I’ll be a tippy tappy convert by the end of the season.