With the loan window due to close on Friday, which parts of the team require most urgent reinforcement based on the opening 5 games? 1. A creative central midfielder. Sorely needed on the evidence so far. Pratley is nothing more than a stopper, and Aribo's passing doesn't lead to much being created. We need someone who can put their foot on the ball in the middle, dictate the tempo, and thread a pass. Think Dale Stephens... 2. A striker. Taylor has looked ok. Grant simply isn't good enough, IMO. And Ajose never seems to be either consistent or productive. A Bradley Wright-Phillips poacher is essential, but highly unlikely. 3. Cover in both full back positions. Necessary, but unlikely given the budget. Both Solly and Page are injury prone. Solly hasn't been great so far. Back up options as things stand are Sarr and Djiksteel. RD probably thinks thats enough to get us through the next 4 months - you can guarantee it wont be. Thoughts?
The area I think that needs strengthening most, at the Club, is the Board members of the Supporters Trust... perhaps with somebody with family ties (at Charlton) going way back... perhaps a member of Bob Stokoe's family? Why is there not a statue of Bob in the Boardroom? Perhaps it could replace the one of Jimmy Seed?
What we need is a new owner. The present one has just said in a Q & A that he's in no hurry to sell any of his football clubs, but until he does the quality of playing staff is doomed to head southwards, at varying speeds depending on who he can sell and who there is left to bring in on loan. BowJacko is doing an heroic King Canute act, but they are fighting against impossible odds.
Dick Plumb clearly said we were signing some guy from West Ham on monday. Imminent!!! But seriously. RD may not be in a hurry to sell, but someone could maybe let him know the value (always lower thsn he believes anyway) is plummeting down with the club. Serious cost cutting may seem a good idea, but there is a history of clubs in the EFL who have been sold for a pound as the owner cannot support the debts any longer. When you are selling a house, you might consider geting the painters in first to try and up the value. But with RD everything goes in reverse and throwing rocks at his own Windows seems to be what he thinks will get the market moving. University economics students could write top grade thesis about the difference in hs business strategies in Football and Electronics, but the last page will always be the same. The man is an idiot.
.....he's found his dog in the Sparrows Lane bushes then There's me ...trying to get 606 on a non gloating, football related theme again...and you sow another seed of flippancy
I think the problem is that we want too high a percentage of the wages of loan signings coming in to be paid by the parent club. That seems to be a sticking point.
Basically the problem with this thread is that bit's just not possible to build up any enthusiasm for whatever if any new faces come in. The consolation is that we don't have Robinson to tell us how lucky we are to get Kaikai, Championship clubs wanted him blah blah blah.
Potentially our best signing of the summer. If Josh Cullen was on the bench for West Ham on Tuesday evening then he has presumably been training, and all he will lack is match-sharpness. This may take a little time to come however, as since returning to West Ham for the second half of last season Cullen made only three late subsititute appearances, playing a total of seven minutes. I understand however that he did feature in at least some of West Ham's pre-season games? Cullen started two games for Bolton in the Championship during the Christmas football programme last season, playing 83 minutes against Sheffield United on 30th December and 77 minutes against Hull City on 1st January ... Bolton won both games. This was after a 15 match period where he made just one substitute appearance (6 minutes). The last time Cullen played 90 minutes for Bolton was on 23rd September 2017, in a 0-3 home defeat against Brentford. That defeat was the last of six straight defeats for Bolton. Josh Cullen was in the starting XI for five of those.
