Rumours that we have signed him on a freebie Has anyone got any info? My gut reaction is that he could form a half decent CB partnership alongside Morrison.
I thought he had been released by Portsmouth? apparently there are two players of similar names. I think we have signed the Israeli centre half who used to play for Man City & is about 33.
He wasn't bad a few years back, but I've no idea how good he is now... 33 years old... Another wait & see signing... A mentor for Joe Gomez perhaps..? If we can keep hold of him of course...
According to Wiki : Tal Ben Haim (born 31 March 1982) is an Israeli footballer who currently plays for Standard Liège. He can play at either centre back or right back. He has also played for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, Manchester City, Sunderland, Portsmouth, West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers. That would make him 33 and a centre back so probably the same guy.
A few on CL are claiming there are two players of the same name, the other one is a winger. Ben Haim a 5/10 signing in my opinion. Could do better, could do worse.
Don't want him, Not in a million years, never rated him and always seems to be on stupidly high wages at any club he's at... no thank you
Yeah I really don't like him, firstly I never really rated him and secondly the way he was around Portsmouth have led me to dislike the guy and I'm pretty certain that would be the same opinion for most football fans
Too many stories are circulating with this for there to be no foundation. I would HATE it of this move happens. What he did to Pompey should have meant no other club would touch him. Football wise - his best years are behind him at Bolton.
I know nothing about the insides of Portsmouth but surely it's not Ben Haim's fault for being paid a ridiculously inflated wage and then insisting he get's what's owed to him?
There is nothing wrong with signing a 33 year old (or older), per se. How old was Harry Cripps when Andy Nelson signed him..? He was well clocking it and his knees were dicky too, but he was an honest pro who did a good job and saw us through to promotion in 74 / 75 season. The acid test for Ben Haim is whether or not he wants to actually play for Charlton or whether he is just taking one last pay day at the *** end of his career. I don't know. My crystal ball is a bit fuzzy on this one. Time will tell.
I understand that point - but much like pardew taking us for a million when he knew we didn't have it - they also failed at their jobs and in Ben haim's case didn't deserve the money they paid. It's all well and good accepting the contract - but letting yourself go and not being in shape showed his character.
He was asked to default a percentage of his ridiculously inflated wages for a while so that the club could afford to keep paying other less well earning staff. He refused, so a lot of staff were made redundant earlier than expected. It's not his fault he was offered that contract, and is bad business management on the owners side, but I think it stinks when a human being earning that amount of money and who is obviously financially secure would think about lining his own pockets with scant disregard for others.
Indeed it is not if the old owners were still in charge but an Administrator had been appointed who was trying to sort out the mess... a number of other senior players did the decent thing and joined other clubs on lower wages (but obviously still enough to pay the mortgage and for the Range Rover!) .... Ben Haim was offered a good contract at West Ham and a Turkish side BUT refused to even talk about a move and sat doing nothing at a club with very little money but which still had to pay him his full £45,000 per week! His attitude stank and a lot of ordinary people lost their jobs because this odeous man refused to do the decent thing.... would I like to see this man in a Charlton shirt..... I would prefer to see a 40 year old Jimmy Floyd Moneybank!
