Earlier this week one poster said that we are neither challenging for the play offs or in risk of relegation. Now, having supported Charlton for far too many years than I care to state here..... I am fully aware of our ability to shoot ourselves in the foot, so I am not so sure My feeling is that we will end the season just outside the relegation area and may not be safe on the last game of the season. What do others think? AllHell
I think we're safe, but I think the run in will be frustrating as we've seen far too many times- when we have nothing to play for we just seem to roll over. But make no mistake about it, surviving was the goal and if we achieve that then it's job we'll done. Not sure many teams will get promoted from league one, spend no money and then survive.
with this team we could have so easily been in the play offs. we either tire too early or lose concentration towards the end of games.
Agree with Super. We'll be declared safe then tail off and finish 3 places above the bottom 3. We will always look on this season as 'What Might Have Been'. My biggest fear is we will lose this side over the summer. Solly, Hamer, Stephans and Wiggins could feasibly go. Green, BWP, Hollands, and co. JJ will be a bit part past it player next year, as will Fuller if we keep him. Yann will be another year older. Money will be tight to get decent replacements and the main strength of this side, the unity of last season, will be lost. Next season could be traumatic and cold.
I think we're safe, but I think the run in will be frustrating as we've seen far too many times- when we have nothing to play for we just seem to roll over. But make no mistake about it, surviving was the goal and if we achieve that then it's job we'll done. Not sure many teams will get promoted from league one, spend no money and then survive.
Should/could we have made the okay offs? That would have taken a miracle IMO. Especially given the circumstances such as injuries. We still have too many glaringly obvious weaknesses to mount a play off push.
I think we both could and should have been in contention, absolutley. I'm not going to back that up with facts because I think it is obvious!
If you say fact after a statement, no one will ever argue it. Completely right about money too, AH. I don't think it'll be an inspiring end to the season, but when you consider everything it will be a good job for the season. But then there's the summer, which does concern me. I'm not happy with the amount of out of contract players we have. I hope it's not like the latter years of the Murray regime in which we sign lots of people on one year deals.
Have to agree with you, SuperC. When we were taken over the message was that we would build slowly and surely, learning from past mistakes and putting financial sustainability at the top. Well now it turns out that in spite of only spending the Jenkinson money on players(in 2011) we're still losing £8m. a year. The obvious target to cut expenditure is the wage bill, so you wonder who will be going in summer. Fact.
Agree with almost everything that's been written. I expect us to finish bottom half, though we could still just about be dragged into the relegation mix. I think we have the squad to do a bit bettre, and possibly push into the play offs, but that's not going to happen. I'm also a bit worried about the summer, as the bold talk of slowly building a squad to push to the Prem seems to have disintegrated after one promotion. Unless some sort of cash injection comes in, we'll be thinning the squad rather than strengthening, and you only have to ask Parky what happens when there's no money to spend and you have to build a squad to match the fans pretensions based on freebies, geriatrics, young hopefulls and temporary loanees.
Odd mixture of feelings. A little deflation that the momentum and joy of last May has been tempered by the reality that we are skint. Happiness that our League 1 winning side survived intact and have not embarrassed themselves tempered by a suspicion that with less tactically naive management they could have achieved even more (I am a CP supporter for the avoidance of any doubt but he clearly has things to learn). A sneaking suspicion that we will have a barren month and get dragged into a relegation scrap tempered by the fact that there are just too many teams below us who would all have to have a storming finish to get past us assuming that we don't completely combust. A pride in our team spirit and "having our Charlton back" tempered by a feeling that we are only a player sale or two away from it all unravelling again.
I feel our tough run coming up will see us week on week slowly get closer to the relegation zone, although, I am still surprised to see Wolves down there considering the quality they have in their squad. Do I think we will get relegated? No, but we won't be far off.
No play off option? I think we can still do it, this league is crazy how tight it is, before the draw this week we were 8 points off playoffs and 8 off relegation, I still think with a run of games we could make the play offs, no way will we get relegated got to aim for the up
In spite of the last three weeks, I'm happy with this season and, to a lesser extent, our current position. Is all about small margins in the Chamionship, there is no-team we can't beat and no-team who can't beat us. Just look at the last six games, win three in a row then lose three (Birmingham felt like defeat). Had we managed to hold out till the whistle in the last three we would be sitting in seventh, as it is we sit in 15th. In those games we were, IMO, by far the better team and should have won. Who expected us to do the double over Blackpool!? This league is so unpredictable you just never know, why can't we make the play-offs? Another run and it'll look good again. Slater is not in this for a laugh, he's in it to make money, and to make money he needs Charlton to reach the Premier League. I'm not saying he can't fail, but he ain't daft and I'm willing to bet that he knew full well about the financial situation before signing up, and has a plan. I appreciate its hard to see how we will strengthen/hold on to players during the summer, but it was far harder to see how a rookie manager could come along, pretty much replace an entire squad on a minimal budget, and destroy League One! So what if we offload a player or two, as long as the price is right, Sir Doctor Chris and his team of advisers will put the money to good use. Everything is going to be ok. Fact.
Can't find anything to disagree with there, Surrey. Jimbo, I've been trying to think back over my 45 plus years of supporting to a time when we weren't skint - can you remember one? Can anybody?
