I'll start this thread as no one seems bothered after the excitement on saturday. I guess I'll be watching on the stream. A win and we go through (or a draw and win on penalties) and anything else we go out. I'd be interested to see who gets rested. Stockley could probably use both a rest and also some goals, and some of the other mainstays will be happy enough to sit this one out. Hope we win but it won't bring me down too much if we go out trying.
I would expect 11 changes for this game. Charlton squad XI v Brighton yoof Fair play to anybody going to this match. I anticipate fewer than 1,000. This competition is so poorly attended it would save Clubs a lot of money and carbon footprint just to play it behind closed doors. Or for the clueless EFL to scrap it altogether.
Good game and thevteam looked fine. Of all people, it was JFC who looked our best player. But there were good performances everywhere.
Raises the old question again doesn't it. Why isn't Forster-Caskey even making the subs' bench for league games? If it is because of a pay-rise clause in his contract then I'm angered for two reasons; A) That our team's potential to compete is being wrongly restricted in a season where every tiny advantage on the pitch might make the difference between a chance of promotion (even a slim one) or failure again. B) That Ben Garner would be guilty of lying about it. Perhaps honesty and personal honour are not held in much regard anymore in football. But in my old-fashioned view integrity and honesty in sport should be important, as (unlike life in general) sport is supposed to be about fair play. Contract clauses should never prevent a player from playing. And if that is ever the case, fans should not be lied to in order to cover it up.
This is from a sponsor to Charlton. He isn't playing in the league because we don't want to pay the money he would be due if he makes another league appearance. This comes from Jake himself to someone I trust implicitly. In addition he is very unlikely to earn what we are paying him now if he goes to Wimbledon or anywhere else in L2 anyway. That's why he isn't complaining - he's getting paid pretty handsomely to do very little. He'll move when he gets a suitable offer or when he is out of contract.
I wanted to believe Ben Garner would not lie about this. But every league game that goes by without JF-C in the match day 18 adds more circumstantial evidence that he has lied. For what it's worth @Dick Plumb1 I am sorry if my refusal to believe this situation was the straw that broke the Camel's back and prompted you to close down your forum. I did not want to think that my years of opposition to Duchatelet - and not believing anything he said - had made me into a cynic who would automatically think the worst of anybody. I wanted to believe in the honesty of our manager and the CAFC owner. I can't blame Forster-Caskey really. Football is a mercenary business nowadays, and a contract is a contract. In his position I'd be happy to take the money as well. Seems there isn't much left to believe in now when it comes to Charlton Athletic. Sadly it makes me less concerned about whether we win promotion again, or to some extent whether or not the team wins its next fixture.
Our squad would be much stronger with JF-C in it, so what Tommy is doing is lessening our chances of making the playoffs. Apart from exposing BG's lie, it shows how stupid is Tommy's stewardship with this act of self-harm.
Has any Charlton fan, in any one of the Q&A meetings with TS, just asked him the question? Is Jake Forster-Caskey banned from the league team because of a clause in his contract? Yes or No. Surely this has been asked by now.
How much could it possibly cost to allow him to play? We have a lit of options in midfield, and he's only played some pizza cup games do no real acid test of how he'd be, but if he's the best option Garner has at any moment, he should play. Just nuts.
Exactly. A few extra thousand per week? A small price to improve our chances of promotion to the Championship. Unless Sandgaard is following Duchatelet's logic; that promotion will only increase costs. I sometimes wonder why Roland was so willing to deal with TS, after turning down many others. There may be more of a link between them than either has admitted to.
