In a Tweet from his new club in Kuwait. Personally I think this is a sign of what we will have to get used to under Duchatelet. Players coming in from overseas with a bit of a fanfare, failing to adapt or be good enough for the English Championship, and then quickly being shipped out. Some will say 'does it matter?', but to me it does. Turning CAFC into little more than a conveyor belt for RD's Eurotrash is really not what this Club is about, is it? In 30 years time we will all be looking back and telling our grandkids about our happy memories of seeing the likes of Derek Hales, Robert Lee, Mark Kinsella or Clive Mendonca gracing our hallowed turf. Does anyone seriously think that an RD Network player will ever be fit to join this pantheon of greats ? I don't.
A quick update on the progress of the first 9 Duchatelet signings: THURAM - Not good enough, gone. NEGO - Not good enough, still here. KOC - Lived up to his name, gone. POLISH PETE - £750K my arse, groats more like, gone. ASTRID - Unfit, gone. PETRUCCI - Not good enough, gone. REZA - Not good enough, gone. (RD also signed Tudgay & Obika on loan) I make this a transfer success rate of 0.0%
I dont think it was a case of RD not wanting Reza anymore... I think it was a case more of Reza wanting to go because he'd become a big-shot in the World Cup by scoring a tap-in. Bob Peeters himself said that he would have liked to have kept Reza yet said he would have to speak with him after the original Middle East move fell through as he didn't want players being at Charlton who didnt want to put any effort in (I dont want that type of player around either).. During that meeting Reza must have admitted he didn't want to be here so off he went. On the other hand you look at Loic Nego who fair enough isn't the greatest of players.. hasn't just appeared at the World Cup yet after only making the one appearance for Charlton has done the right thing by getting his head down and is working hard to try and break into the First Team... Then when you look at our First-Team this season we've only got two players from RD's "Eurotrash" in Yoni Buyens (some Belgians are saying we've got a cracking player who is just unlucky to have so much Midfield talent ahead of him for the National Team) and George Tucudean who from interviews appears to making the effort (again something you never seemed to get from Reza)... You could include Igor Vetokele.. Johann Gudmundsson in that Eurotrash comment yet are they trash or is it just sensible from Roland. With the Financial Fair Play rules now in full effect we could purchase an English Striker who has played Champions League Football (and who was top scorer for his club last season) yet they'd probably cost £10m... We've managed to get ours for £2.5m (roughly), yes he doesn't have experience in the Championship so could be a dud but you take that risk with any player you sign... take Fernando Torres for example, banged them in for fun at Liverpool yet doesn't a scooby (even if he was using Sat Nat) where the goal is at Chelsea
As much as I would have preferred Reza to stay, I think whilst his stock was high it's not a bad decision to cash in. He showed glimpses last season, but it was nothing more than hope that he would replicate his WC form. Agree about the past signings - but would say Astrid was a success. Unfit, true, but he got us some vital goals and assists. I also would say its obvious RD/his team underestimated the championship, but with players such as Gudmundson and hopefully Delort, does represent an improvement. I just hope the rest prove me wrong.
Fair points, but having now seen Vetokele live my prediction is that he will struggle in the Championship. He is fast, but small & lightweight. Another Reza, in fact. I don't want Buyens if he is keeping Jordan Cousins out of the side, as seems likely. You don't address the point that this endless churn of trash is stripping away the DNA of Charlton.
Spot on about cousins and buyens. The silver lining in Diego leaving was cousins being able to move back in to the middle. Or so we hoped.. The pre season consensus on Buyens isn't great either. He came in with a seemingly good pedigree, but hasn't been able to have any effect thus far. It should be cousins and 1 of JJ and Buyens for the central midfield berth.
Unfortunately I'm reserving judgement for a bit longer... We're only 6-months into Roland's reign and this'll be the first full season under him. Its could be within a few years of progression that we return to the Premier League with that trash and a lot of fans could end up having egg on their faces... Of course they could take us backwards in which case I will probably enter the same camp everyone else is in
Sure - but Buyens was meant to be someone who has played often for Liege and in european competitions. Not like Igor who had 4 minutes against Madrid or Bikey who spent last season in Greece or Cyprus. Buyens was someone we had hope for. We now just hope he's saving it for the league.
We've still got the badge and the Valley which are about the only things I can relate to these days. I am losing my affinity with the club Gone is the continuity where each season a couple of new players would come in the strengthen the core. Now it seems the players names and numbers are affixed with Velcro so the can come and go quickly. Can anyone put a number on how many pre-RD players remain, how many pre-RD players have gone, how many RD players are still with us and how many RD players have come and gone? I've lost track .
I think this will be a successful period if the signings come off and we'll be in the prem once again, but we won't have many of those players to go "ooo, He was great and loved the club" Jacko, Wilson, Morro, Wiggins are the only ones in the squad now I can see where we will hold them up as characters of this period... I agree entirely with Vol about the Eurotrash wont be held in high regard. I will happily have the eurotrash be a success, but yes, I think it will be a revolving door and a time when we will not really be able to connect with or appreciate the players at our side personally compared to what they just do on a pitch.
Morro, Solly, Jacko, Wiggins, Wilson, Church, Harriott, Cousins honestly think that's all the pre-RD we have left
it doesnt feel like charlton anymore. even at the open/fun day on sunday we was just wondering around not really knowing the place anymore. it's just business now. all of the new players answered the same answer "yes i like it here, it's good", "yes, i'm ready to go", "hopefully we'll do well". same time last year i ended up talking for ages with andy hughes and being asked to give him a shout on twitter for a cuppa in blackheath as i'd seen him there loads before.
Henderson... Ben-Haim / Bikey they've only conceded once in the games they've played Tucudean... Has two goals - Vetokele... Has three goals - Gudmundsson... Has one goal Moussa has been injured so couldn't do anything. At the end of the day... Pre-Season Friendlies will always be meaningless for me, i.e. the season under Dowie didn't we pretty much win everything with James Walker (a Striker who didn't make the grade banging in the goals). When you look at our Squad only Buyens... Gudmundsson.. Vetokele... Tucudean have no experience in England Compare that with our Squad back in 2000/01... Kishishev... Shields... Johansson... Bartlett and Bagheri all came from outside England Whats the difference...? Yes our 2000/01 Squad was a lot more British in depth but again when you compare the starting elevens from today and back in 2000/01 the experience of Championship Football is around the same
None of them, although I.V took his goal well at Pompey. Tal Ben Haim looks at least 14 years past his best
A comment I picked up from a fan on social media about the Open Day went as follows: 'my son asked me who the men in red were wandering on the pitch. I looked and told him I thought they were our new players' (there was no introduction /announcement over the tannoy, apparently). It is not just moaning for the sake of it. The Club was dying on its feet under Murray/S&J, and it is nice to have new seats and guacamole pasta at half time in the North Stand. But the bottom line at any club is the players/manager & an affinity with the loyal supporters - now smashed to bits under RD.
The connection to the club via players and manager may be getting smashed by RD... but if he gets us into the Prem how many of us would complain? (apart from the influx of Plastic fans)
People are saying that the club is caring less and less for fans but was it THAT different under Curbs' era (i.e. Because that was the moment we went into the Dark Years after he left) Back then we'd know nothing about a Transfer Deal until it happened (there wouldn't even be rumours).. there was no twitter so communication definitely worse than it is now (Apart from the website which I prefered when we had our own) and the first Open Day I ever remember was done by Alan Pardew. Roland has been in for 6-months and the major complaints have been: (1) We'll only ever get Liege.. Ujpest.. Whoever cast offs from the other network clubs (Agreed we got them in January but that was always because its a terrible window for doing business.. i.e. where are they in their droves now) (2) We'd be a Feeder club for Liege... Only Piotr Parsley has left for another network club which I'm certainly not surprised about (3) Yes he chose not to renew Jose Riga's Contract which I'm disappointed with but look at him up at Blackpool.. I know its a mess but it seems that if there is a slight problem he tries to jump ship, which could easily have put RD off him (after all he already did that once when he left Standard Liege for Qatar) Instead - He's improved the pitch so expect better Football on the eye this season (Reckon we could be a bit like Forest... very dangerous passing but not quite strong or consistent enough to challenge) - Youth Academy is being improved which hopefully means we'll have more Youngsters playing for the club, more kids who we can relate to in the long run Instead with the last point fans seem to be impatient and want everything now now now... Yes you could say he made the mistake of letting Poyet's contract run down but what could he do when Diego chose to leave... the blame for that lies at the feet of MS / TJ because they dithered and let his Contract run down so late in the first place.
Fox, Piggot, Pope, gomez are all in the squad as well and although academy product they predate RD. Yes there has been a quantum shift of players including the ones that came in last season from the look of it. From what I saw at Peterborough our defence should be ok since Ben Haim worked well with Morro, yes he may be past his best but he read the game really well and didn't get beaten, his distribution was good and accurate. the midfield weakness may be Jacko rather than Buyens or Cousins and the real issue lies up front where we need improvement. Certainly from Peterborough, Ventekole looked capable of slotting in a few and if we add the mysterious Frenchman we may score more than last season. The off the pitch improvement appear sensible, we won't know until after the fifth or sixth game as to whether we have a side that is gelling or just jelly.
