Here is the story from Sky Sports. Charlton's Iran World Cup star Reza Ghoochannejhad has opted to leave the club on loan ahead of the new Sky Bet Championship season. Sky Bet Charlton v Blackburn Charlton 21/10 Draw 23/10 Blackburn 5/4 Football Betting Bet £5 Get £20 Free The 26-year-old attacker, who only signed on a two-and-a-half-year deal at The Valley in January, has joined Kuwait Sporting Club on a season-long loan. Charlton head coach Bob Peeters said: “It was Reza's decision to leave. He told us that, after the World Cup, he wanted to go to another country. “If a player wants to leave then it makes it difficult because their mind is already weak from wanting a transfer – that is why we made the decision to allow Reza to leave. "Because he has left we may now look to see if we can bring in a replacement and see who is available, but at this moment we are working with the squad we have and I am happy with them." Ghoochannejhad, who became Charlton’s first ever player to score in a World Cup when he tapped in a late consolation in the 3-1 loss to Bosnia & Herzegovina, scored just once for the Addicks in 17 appearances. Charlton have so far signed nine players in the current transfer window, including former Premier League defenders Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey. They have also captured midfield player Frank Moussa from Coventry.
That's what Bob draws his fat salary for, to get slapped in the face by RD. A bit late to grow a pair halfway through the season. Managers who sign on to work for RD know exactly what to expect, especially Belgian ones. He can either stay in the job, continue to draw his salary, and hope RD does not economise on the Vaseline, or leave like Powell and Riga and look for another job.
Just purely looking at the football reasons for Reza possibly going into the side you would have to argue that whilst he looked lightweight last season he did seem to show signs of being a bit of a finisher and having good movement. Our team is better than that that he previously played in in terms of it creates more chances so the solution to me would be put him up front alongside a target man and see what happens. Ideally that target man should be strong powerful and intelligent; linking the midfield to the attack and drawing defenders in to free Reza up. Ideally that target man would be Yann Kermorgant. Everything goes back to RD's first and biggest error of selling Yann; and that exemplifies his fundamental lack of due diligence in terms of footballing research on the club and the championship before taking over.
Would you have Reza before Vetokele? I don't care how good a player is if they said they didn't want to play for you I would ship them out as quickly as possible. Reza isn't that good. I agree about the target man though.
I feel less confident as time goes on that Roland's experiment can work. The main problem is that Roland appears to be making the major decisions himself although he doesn't know enough about football in general and the Championship and Charlton in particular. I don't think he has chosen a particularly good manager, and if he sacks him you'd be taking pot luck on who we get. The rumours of dressing-room unrest are worrying, and it can't be helped when the manager is repeating things like "it's up to the chairman" and "you can't do anything about it". I wonder whether some players, Bikey for instance, feel bigger than the club? Only guessing. Katrien seems to be doing a sterling job, but Roland seems to me like an invisible puppet-master.
Well it goes back to last season when KM had discussions with poyet before receiving a wall of silence from Belgium. It was horribly mismanaged.
I wonder how Roland will respond if there is sharp reduction in season ticket sales when they go up for sale? Will he rethink his policy or will he tighten the financial restrictions even more? Of course I may be wrong and Bob turns things around, we'll see.
FHB - have you seen a couple of interesting posts on CL/ITTV in recent days from supporters of Upjest, the club owned by RD and his son?
"Ujpest lad" says that Dmitrov "has great qualities as a goalkeeper and is not afraid to use his feet", and is very professional in his attitude. He was 3rd choice keeper due to internal club politics. He also mentions that his club is full of "network **** players".
I suppose there are only really two things wrong with Roland's plan: 1 He can't pick a decent manager 2 His scouting network can't pick a decent player. So, apart from the manager and the players we're fine!
I'm getting totally hacked off with the Network now. Getting to the stage that I don't want it to work so that Roland will F*** off.
I'm sure I'm going to get slagged off but whilst I don't want Charlton to fail it seems the only way to bring this shambles to a head is for us to get relegated. Perhaps then RD will cut his losses and sell us to someone who cares about the club and we can bounce back with 102 points this time and start moving forwards. I'm past frustration and into apathy now.
About scouting by sitting on your arse in front of a monitor. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31043783
I didn't know this had become commonplace. There were over 100 scouts at one Youth Cup match, Vs Chelski, last season, so it can't have taken over completely. Mind you it would have saved Bob Paisley a trip to London when he went to Palace to watch a certain centre-half, but left before the kick-off. He was able to tell from the pre-match kickabout that this player couldn't kick a ball straight. I don't suppose these dvd collections show you what a player does off the ball, which is what a proper scout will be looking at.
A lot of clubs recruit freelance scouts - someone I know does it for a host of London teams, though hasn't done it for Charlton in years. These scouts are the ones who delve in to the lower leagues. It's where they hope their payday comes from, to little expenditure. Well cheaper than going through Europe.
