Charlton Nil

Were all Dooooomed !!!

2009-07-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Okay Don't Panic !!! This isn't going to be just another "oh were crap, no news is crap, parky is crap" post.

It will however be a bit of a realistic view of where we seem to be as we head ever closer to the start of the new season.

The squad is looking pretty thread bare on experience, it must be said. Very light up front, it's not such a case of no recognised goalscorer (I think those days are long gone, for now) it's more a case of just no decent strikers. Burton is okay, and could do a decent job in division three. Dickson is a sprightly and fast player when he puts his mind into it, but I really do not see many goals in him.

Fleetwood just does not seem to have any part in Parky's plans (if this is the case he must be truly awful looking at some of our various loanee's last season). Gray (I know this will split people) is in my opinion complete poo. He never did anything for us in the time he was at the club. And injuries aside just did not look like he had goals in him.

It would be unfair to comment on Tuna, but in the game I saw him come on as sub at the end of last season he really looked out of his depth and very nervous.

Defensivley we are also (particulary if Fortune goes) extremely thin on the ground. Basey will do a job for us, i'm sure of that, and the two new signings look okay on the face of it. Even if we do sign another centreback we still have no real back up or competition for places. A bit like last season really.

The only real area where happily we look very formidable is the midfield. If we can keep hold of Bailey, Jonjo, Racon, Semdo etc we will have one of the most combative and creative midfields in the division. Trouble is I would imagine there are quite a few Championship and Premier managers who would quite fancy any one of this lot added to thier squads. If the takeover does not transpire to happen can we afford not to take what money is on offer ?

It will be interseting to see how the youngsters get on today against Barnet, as it is begining to look like maybe with the exception of a couple of loan signings what we have now is what Parky has got to work with. (We can only hope that the loans are long termers, like Millwall used to such effect last season).

With 9000 plus season tickets sold, along with those that will pay on a match by match basis we will start the season as one of the better supported in the division.

Personally, putting all of the doom and gloom aside, i'm really looking forward to what will be an intriuging season full of first's, and I would imagine lots of twists and turns along the way. (That after all is traditionally the Charlton way. And perhaps if we start to give some youth a chance, like in the good old days, we'll start to see some 'Charlton type' players wearing the Red Jersey again at long last.

Told you I was a lazy blogger

2009-07-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

Then was March and now is July.

We got relegated (no real suprise there then), followed by not alot of news coming from The Valley, recriminations about not alot of news coming from The Valley, finally some news from The Valley 'Chairboys up first for Addicks', then the departure of two senior player in Ambrose & Hudson. A Spanish centreback arriving. Varying rumours of a change of board have also blighted the Summer. And now we're just a week away from the first proper pre season friendly against Welling.

Close season, what close season? I'm almost nostalgically missing those boring weeks of absolutley no football. Okay, true there was not alot of news coming out of Charlton, but hardly a day went by without some football to watch on the tele or some kind of big news/rumours in the football world.

As far as the new season goes, i'll hold fire on making any kind of predictions on how we will fair and who will play until the next week and the Welling game is out of the way as i'm sure the revolving door in and out of the Valley should swing a few more times over the next few days.

I'd be quite interested to see Fleetwood play as this may just be the perfect division for him find his legs in.

Cheers

Putting the (footballing) world to rights...

2009-03-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

So having had several false dawns as a blogger over the years, I have strangely chosen now (Charlton's worst league position season since 1984-1985 when we finished 17th in the second division) to begin musing over the state of the modern game, Charlton in general abd all manner of other stuff.

Interestingly, being a bit of a sad statto (you could describe me as Colin Cameron on Acid), I've been nosing around at where we are now as a club and what we can look forward to next season in the third division (yes I know it's actually called League One, this week anyway, but I subscribe to the same school of thought as 'second division and proud').

How bad have we really been this season ?

Well, having endured such delights as at home to Barnsley/Sheffield United and to many other home humiliations this term I think we can safely say bloody awful.

Once you look at things statistically, in seasons spent in the second division (or whatever stoopid name it was being called any given year since the inception of the poomiership) over the last 40 years, it shows that however bad things seem there have been worst seasons. (Well one in fact).

Season	Tot Pts*	Av. Per Game	Goals Scored	Pos	Games Played	Wins
1979-80	28	.06	39	22^nd R	42	6
2008-09	28	.07	41	24^th R?	38	6
1969-70	38	.90	35	20th	42	7
1970-71	38	.90	41	20th	42	8
1977-78	43	1.02	55	17th	42	13
1971-72	45	1.07	55	21^st R	42	12
1984-85	45	1.07	51	17th	42	11
1978-79	46	1.09	60	19th	42	11

To get a true representation I've had to convert the older season's from 2 points for a win to three. Based on the figures it is shaping up to beour second worst season in the second division, even if we fail to win another game, we have scored more this term and our points per game average and total won't dip below that of the dreadful of 1979-80, and we've already scored more goals. Of course with 24 points still to play for this position could well change and improve.

If we get relegated (ever the optimist, well you have to be when supporting Charlton), what can we look forward to ?

It's been 28 years since 1981 when we last saw a player in a Charlton shirt kick a ball in the third division.

Firstly there's the potential for some not seen for some time local derby's.

In the event that Millwall miss out on promotion (an outcome that i am sure we are all keeping our fingers crossed for, number three in South London would not be good) we have the prospect of re-aquainting ourselves with our South London neighbours.

Other potential derby's could be Leyton Orient provided they manage to avoid the drop, almost certainly Brentford who look a cert for automatic promotion from the fourth division, and (what has over recent years for the Kent club become a bit of a grudge match) Gillingham who are also looking a good bet for promotion.

First's for Charlton to play in League football this season would be Dagenham & Redbridge, Morecombe, Macclesfield, Accrington Stanley and Aldershot (Well the new version of Aldershot anyway).

It will also be our first ever outing in the Johnstone Paint Trophey (Football League Trophey) since the competition began in 1982-83 season. Not exactly as mouth watering as European football, but it does offer a chance of some fun midweek away games and even a chance to see us play at the new Wembley.

Also, having only seen the addicks appear twice on sky sports this season, we should all be able to look forward to Charlton actually featuring more often live on the box. And it tends to be on a Friday night. So there is potential to watch us down at my local club on an evening undisturbed by kid's/wife/dog.

Can't make today's game against Preston (wife working) so will be listening in on CAFCTV. Will i'm sure be popping in with thoughts on the game later on.