Yeah I'm not getting the excitement around Pearce. He's ok, but as you allude to - no MM. Up until his injury he was average. His absence (along with others) coincided with a disappointing run of results and people seemed to suggest it was down to him missing. I don't think that's the case personally. We were just poor with zero squad depth.
I think that Pearce is a good leader and organiser. He is not an exceptional footballer but is solid.
Imagine if we have Jason Peirce and Michael Morrison in defence? Could be worse, we could have Naby Sarr and Roger Johnson.
No news on whats happening to our plethora of talent like Ceballos and Sarr. Expect them to be released come October after failing to offload them. We've been such a soft touch.
Great piece of business from the club. What dickhead was responsible for that? Oh yeah! The YouTube Scout with **** hair
The good news just keeps on coming! Official announcement on the new and rather smart looking CAFC website; Lee Bowyer has been appointed Assistant Manager, and Johnnie Jackson is the new First Team Player/Coach. Now the first team management trio is established, we can turn hopes towards some more good quality player signings...
Yes, I wondered about that. One possible explanation is that JJ's previous job did not finish until the last day of June, so the Club waited until his new position was contractually valid before making a joint announcement. Or perhaps they are just working to a 'timed release' plan regarding news of this nature. I know appearances can be deceptive, but there does appear to be more of an air of organisation about goings-on this summer.
3rd July update; I was waiting for a statement from the Club regarding our loan players from last season before I removed them. In the summer of 2016 one of the first things the Club did was announce that all the loaned players were leaving. I suppose this was because we had been relegated. As far as I know there has been no statement from the Club concerning loaned players during this summer. However I will now remove the loaned players from last season, as there has been no talk of retaining any of them (apart from Dasilva).
I won't miss him, and I'm not sure Karl Robinson will either. Losing him will weaken our squad a bit, but not very much. Somebody from the academy has to be sold to justify all the money being spent on it. In my view we'll be lucky to get £1m for Konsa despite his U20 World Cup connection. His profile just is not high enough. And did he really stand out for us last season. I don't think so.
I'm a big fan of Konsa - not convinced he's a midfielder, but hand on heart I'd have him as my main CB and to improve him there. I don't want him sold, but it's what RD does. Just a shame we forget he sold Lookman for 11mil in Jan..
14th July update; Nicky Ajose has gone on loan to Bury for the 2017-18 season. In my view better that he is away from SE7 if he doesn't want to be here, but it will be galling if he bags a hat full of goals for the Shakers. They have done a lot of business during this summer window, and they could be set for a strong season.
I just think your comments are very unfair. Konsa is an excellent footballer he is a centre half not a midfielder. He has time on the ball and can pick a pass. I have watched him since he played for the U18s and I thought he would go on to better things, as I did Lookman. I can't say whether he stood out last season as I didn't go to many games. Let me assure you that a number of top clubs have monitored Ezri for a while now. That includes Everton, Spurs, Arsenal etc. Whether he will move during this transfer window or January's I don't know. But he will definitely get a move to a bigger Club.
I have had another look at Konsa's performance stats last season and although to me he did not seem to be playing particularly well in the home games I saw, his statistics would suggest he had a more positive influence than I gave him credit for. Ezri Konsa had 30 starts last season. Charlton's average win rate was 33% in those games, but only 25% in the 16 games where Konsa did not play. Also, Charlton's average defeat rate was 27% from the 30 games Konsa played in, but was 37.5% in the 16 games he did not play. We scored 45 goals in the 30 games featuring Konsa (1.5 per game on average) but only 15 goals in the 16 games he missed (0.93 per game average). However we conceded 37 goals when Konsa played (1.23 per game average) and 16 in the games he missed (1.0 per game average) Konsa missed 8 starts under Russell Slade (on the bench for all of them) 2 starts under Kevin Nugent (both times on the bench) 6 starts under Karl Robinson (2 on the bench, 4 not in the squad 18) I know there will be other factors which can affect the stats, and Konsa's presence in the starting XI cannot be precisely mapped to the performance of the whole team in any one game, but the data I have looked at does seem to show that I have judged Konsa too harshly. He had more of a positive influence on Charlton last season than I previously thought, and if we lose him this season the weakening of our squad will be more serious than I anticipated. I probably put too much emphasis on my personal failure to notice the good work he was doing during games at the Valley. Apologies DickPlumb, I stand corrected. If the Club does sell him they may get £2m - £3m if they are lucky?
15th July update; Jorge Teixeira has left Charlton - signed for Sint-Truiden on a 3 year contract. One of our highest earning players, who still had three years of his contract to run; an expensive mistake corrected at last.