The Remainder of the Season 24/25

Excellent analysis
Tells it like it is - not an effort to spin failure or excuse those responsible.

 

There can't be another club which has had such a succession of terrible owners- The Spivs, Roland, the Danish Egotist, The Con-men.

 

Sadly we are far from alone in that unhappy situation.
We do seem to suffer from it worse than most other London Clubs though.

Our potential for success is almost limitless. Even five years ago we still showed we could bring out double the capacity of the Valley when the occasion warranted it.

 

Now we struggle on bringing in 30% of our capacity, sad times.

 

Forgot ESI, the worst of the lot.

 

Of the top 9 teams tonight, 7 won, 1 drew, and our loss.
A bad day at the office.

 

Yes, but it was Birmingham. I expect they spent more on their goal scorer than the value of our whole team.

If our owners won't invest, we will never have class. Only form.
And as we all know the former is permanent, the latter temporary.

 

Absolutely, we're on the same level as them easily imo.
They have shown the way with spending money.

 

The results went well for us tonight

 

Orient are flying. Wrexham’s arse has gone. It’s getting very exciting now.

 

I understand that the Wrexham owners are considering drafting in extra football expertise to assist Phil Parkinson.

The person concerned lives locally.

 

Also handy if he needs his supermarket groceries delivered

 

Should we end up in the play-offs then we'll have a very good chance of going up, we'll have been on a blistering run.

Wycombe and Wrexham away then Burton at home being our last three games, I can see those two aways being our downfall and we'll be going into the Burton game outside of the play-offs relying on many permutations.

I'll say that we'll miss out.

 

Book mark this I make Elf’s our very own Nostradamus

 

Oui oui

 

Oui man.

 

We're now clearly in amongst things, ultimately I think the second spot is a bridge too far but we can cement a play-off spot with sufficient momentum.
As a result I'd heavily favour a 125 at that stage.

 

@Watameire please refrain from posting further on this thread

 

The play-offs are a great way to make the last month of the season more exciting, as 95% of the time there are still places at stake right up to the last weekend of the regular campaign.
But they are not such a great method of determining fitness to survive in a higher division.

It can be argued that any team finishing in a place 2 spots or more below the lowest automatic promotion place is not good enough to have earned promotion at all. And that is only if the number of automatic promotion places is judged to be fair.

In other words, if Charlton finish below third place this season we won't be good enough to cut it in the Championship.
Because over the 46 games of the regular season we would have performed less well than whoever does finish in third place.
Our two play-off successes tend to support that argument;

1998 - finished 4th (won play-offs) ... 1999 relegated
2019 - finished 3rd (won play-offs) ... 2020 relegated

In 2019 Charlton even earned - on the last day of the regular season - what would have been the third automatic promotion place (had there been no play-offs) and yet we were still not good enough to compete in the 2nd tier the following season.
That suggests that three promotion places may be too many, from the point of view of fitness to survive at the higher level.
Perhaps there should only be two.
Remember, for around 100 years there were only two promotion places between the 2nd and 1st Divisions.
And for decades, from the two parallel 3rd divisions (North & South) to the 2nd division there was only one promotion place per region.

Every time Charlton have finished 1st or 2nd in a league season we have survived in the higher league the following season.
Twice - in 1975 and 1981 - we have stayed up after finishing 3rd when there were no play-offs.
That does at least give evidence to the case that three promotion places is the right number.

I still believe that unless CAFC earns the right to automatic promotion this season, or at the very least finishes in 3rd place, we will not be fit to survive in the Championship. And the greater the margin by which we use the play-off system to get up, the greater the margin by which we will get found out next season.

In a nutshell;
Only automatic promotion this (or any other season) shows we have a fighting chance of staying up.
Automatic should be the only target worth achieving.

PS:

Now, I admit back in December I predicted we would be 14 points below 6th place by the end of February. I was very wrong about that.

I could be just as wrong about everything I've just posted above.
In both cases I was trying to use available evidence to justify my argument.

If I'm wrong again then happy days
I'll give up trying to predict the Cub's future. And maybe even just enjoy our unexpected success...

Sorry, I know that was quite a lot to work through.
I used to post at such length regularly, many years ago on another forum.
Now I leave that task to the real experts.

 

Let me post one last time on this thread please….

Elf’s knows sh*t and you can book mark this. Not making the playoffs ? What was he on about the clown