Watched Palace v Fulham today. Very entertaining and two of the best individual goals you will ever see. Kasami's goal was brilliant. Very dramatic Roy of the Rovers stuff. But I actually thought Sidwell's was better. An almost impossible goal to score. He was falling backwards and had to shuffle his feet so he was almost on tiptoe. How he then managed to get such power into it I cannot understand. A little like Fuller's goal where he got power and backlift but much more difficult to execute. But Fuller injured himself doing it and undermined his career at Charlton. Sidwell trotted off laughing. I don't think even he could believe it. At the start of the season I would have bitten your hand off if you suggested Parker and Bent coming back to Charlton. Well, they could still do a job, but I fear their legs have gone. Bent didn't have much to feed on but never looked like getting on the end of anything or winning a header. Parker was OK but stayed in a small area of the field from his own penalty area to the centre circle. Hard to judge Jerome Thomas. His team were well beaten by the time he came on. Kieran Richardson was appalling. I can see Fulham coming in for Wiggins if that is the best they have. I used to think Senderos was a clown at Arsenal but he looks a very steady player these days. Palace down this season and Fulham down the following season as their average age is about 43. Charlton's critics tend to forget we are a very young team. I guess our starting XI against Blackburn was the youngest to start in the Championship on Saturday, but I don't know how to check on that. Wood was by far the oldest and he is only 28.
Someone pass the smelling salts I hate to introduce a dose of reality into this thread, but you say you would have been delighted to see Bent and Parker come back to Charlton. I feel the same way about Ronaldo and Messi. That's not going to happen, either. We are losing at least £7m a year, and Bent and Parker are both on a reported 40 grand a week each. Unless an Arab comes striding over the Greenwich Peninsular on a camel, looking a bit like a swarthy Peter O'Toole with £40m sticking out of his back pocket, we are going to have to settle for Mark Gower, I'm afraid. In a further foray into La La land, you then speculate that a Premier League team might be interested in Rhys Wiggins ? Maybe the player from 18 months ago, or even 12. The current version has lost it. Pacey wingers in the PL would have Rhys on toast. Michelin Man these days. Finally, "Charlton's critics tend forget they are a very young team". You could have added "with a very inexperienced manager" ( which is on page 8 of the excuses book). I make the average age of our starting 11 at Blackburn 25/26.
In spite of last night's result I still expect Fulham to be in the mix for relegation in the run-in. My theory is that every team has a fixed shelf-life in the Premier League if they can't challenge for honours. For example to finish 4th bottom would be a huge achievement for a newly-promoted team like Palace, but for Fulham it would represent failure, the manager would get sacked and probably there would be a huge clamour for shed-loads of money to be spent on the squad, which can have varying results.
Yes, but we see him week after week and can spot any decline. Those that don't watch on a regular basis, wouldn't be able to see this. Like the Wales manager, for instance - or else why would he have been included in last week's squad?
The injury Wiggy had was very nasty and can take a very long time to get back to your very best from... not physically but in the head. It will be interesting to see what sort of condition/form 5' 3" returns with ....
I have naturally never had any expectation that either would return to Charlton (though some here were fantasising about Bent once Villa wanted to get rid). My point was that, based on yesterday's showing, they would not be the transformational returning Messiahs one would expect from 40 grand players in the Championship. Wiggins had a very serious injury which knocked him back. He is slowly getting back to his best. But even now he (and probably Evina too) must be better than Richardson. I don't think the latter did a single thing right throughout the match. I was just commenting on how quickly he has fallen from grace. 24 actually. I have no idea if that was the youngest starting XI in the division but it might well have been. Players peak on average at 26/27 so that means we should improve simply by staying together for two years.
Think Wiggins has been good enough. His forward movement was always the best aspect of his game. haven't seen him been given the run around myself.
His defensive work has been fine. Maybe he'd get forward more if we had a wide left player who could help out with covering for him when necessary.
That's true, actually, when I think about it, I wanted him dropped for Evina. He has improved though.
Because Wales are desperate for players. I like Wiggins, and I hope he finds his form again, but, so far, he has been quite poor this season. Having said that, I do accept he has improved greatly since the Forest match, and this is a good sign for the months ahead. I do feel a bit sorry for Cedric, though. Back to Wales: Church scored the winner against Macedonia (and good for him, of course), but he wouldn't have been first choice had an array of players been available to Chris Coleman.
I have always wanted to see Evina and Wiggins paired out on the left one in front of the other. They would complement each other and could switch positions to keep the oppositions right sided players guessing. Honestly think they would run riot if they were given a run of games together down the left and got back to their best
You have touched on another reason why Wiggins is taking time to get back to his form of our promotion season. That year he had a regular partner on the left in Jackson and their interplay was a big element in our success. Since then he has had a string of different players in front of him, some of whom, like Harriott, contribute little defensively. The Wiggins/Evina combo has always looked promising on paper (especially for away games) but, apart from one(?) game, CP has ignored it so he must have his reasons.
Problem is Evina wants to play LB and not LM or LW, which confuses me because he is limiting his chances at playing massively
