Very sad to see Rhys Wiggins depart yesterday, yet another of our core of decent British players allowed to leave. My simple question to everyone is this. How would people on here feel if Charlton ended up this season "doing an Arsenal"... and fielding an eleven comprised entirely of foreign players? Arsene Wenger has always justified it by saying he "doesn't look at the passport", only the quality of the player. Considering the lamentable standard of many of Duchatelet's overseas signings, Charlton fans can hardly use the same excuse. Given that the player recruitment at Charlton this summer has been 100% non indigenous, I personally feel that something deliberate and sinister is going on. Count me out of any game when Charlton does not field at least one Brit. Looking at the make up of our squad, it will happen sooner rather than later. A sad, sad day when it does.
To be honest, I'd go along with Arsene, in that you don't need to look at the passport. You do need to look at the player. Our many failed overseas signings lately are'nt something to take away Charlton fans 'excuses', they are simply an inability to see that some players simply are'nt good enough. The other day, Wynn Grant pointed out that the whole 'championship experience' thing is a bit of a non starter, as football is notoriously 11 against 11, two goals, round ball and similar size pitch from Birmingham to Belize. All that said, the problem is championship players cost a lot, sometimes for Little quality (Luke Varney). In this case, I don't think RD is doing anything sinister. It's just that he can get 6 untried, possibly won't make the grade foreign players for the price of three british ones. He's not British, so it's not an issue for him. I would like to see us get in some Brits, from my own point of view, but that guy from Wolves is becoming this years Andy Delort saga, so it may not happen. Mainly, I want to see us win, and if we do it with eleven foreigners, you won't catch me sulking on here. Just out of interest Royston, where would you stand on Scots, Irish and Church turning out for the Reds? If we're going to be patriotic, we are God Save the Queen, not Flower of Scotland.
That's the whole point. It depends on whether Roland's scouting network have upped their game from their original performance, and also on whether our Academy will continue to have a major input to the team. Maybe we shouldn't read too much into the sale of Gomez, because he is so exceptional, as we will see in the years to come. I expect KAG to start on the bench and get chances to come through this season, possibly Holmes-Dennis, maybe Barnes if Solly gets injured. So we're a fair bit away from the Arsenal scenario.
Good points Ken. Personally I love the Brits and we have always had a strong history with Scottish players. Go back to the Lennie side in the 80s - Mark Reid, 50 grand from Celtic, Colin Walsh 125 grand from Forest. Great sporran wearing Iron Bru drinkin Jockos. People making the argument that RD won't risk over paying on British players should face the reality that heis underpaying on non British ones. It is laughable to think that there are not better British alternatives to the likes of Makienok and Nego and Thuram etc before him. Bergdich will have to be some full back to be an improvement on Wiggins. Ultimately any football club is about its heritage and history. We seem to be p1ssing all over ours.
I would not like to see us playing an all Foreign eleven. But if it happens it happens. Roland I feel has learnt his lesson in bringing in better Foreign imports in Kashi, Sarr, Bergdich etc to go with Gudmundsson. They are definately a step up on Nego. Thuram, PP, Koch etc. Whether we like it or not Foreign imports are much cheaper than established Championship players. I hope our Academy keeps on producing players that can push on into the first team. Ironically the next two players in could both be British.
the situation at charlton reflects what is happening with the road i live on. the decent neighbours of old are slowly moving out and the eurotrash is moving in. the romanian who has only been there a year has already alienated everyone on the street with his "cash for crash" antics and the threatening to kill every cat on the road. but, like with everything else, he probably has more rights than me in our society as he always has the race card ready to wave. saying that, the poles who have moved in have been genuinely brilliant and integrate nicely. my point is, some who come in will be ok, others wont. what can we do about it? nothing. it's not our club. i am moving house though.
On the other hand, I expect to see more of our own being used. One advantage of having a manager who does as he's told.
For the past few years the one noticeable thing is that Charlton itself never benefits on the pitch from the academy. Any good players are very very slowly introduced to the team and have a part time use. Then they are sold and we never see even a glimpse of the best of them.
To be honest, it will be a sad day if/when it comes. I remember giving the Chelsea fans stick when it happened to them and arrogantly stated it would never happen at charlton. Fortunately I don't see any of those guys any more
strange thing is half the rumours around socail media were linking us to British players, yet we sign none, either we had no intentions or the rumour mill is just kids in bedrooms making **** up. Will be a said day indeed are there not rules about playing home grown players, or is that just premiership?
That's an unusual thing to say given that Solly and Cousins have been our players of the last 3 seasons. Have we not benefited from them on the pitch? I agree about losing Gomez so soon though. I feel that if we'd held on to him for another year we could have got more money for him. I see what Royston is saying, but what matters most to me is that our players give their all for the club, and being foreign doesn't prevent that. On the other hand I can't help thinking that a Charlton team with no Brits would be missing something. I can't yet see that happening though.
I'm not one for being a flag waving patriot. Ain't my style... It just seems so phoney! Interesting to note, that since Doucèbag took over, we've not had a British manager, or whatthehell he likes to call them. I would be getting more excited if we were signing players I could pronounce their names, and ones that we've seen play week in and out, on Football League Show. Players that get stuck in too. A lot of these (previous ones) were lightweight and went down. Annoys me, like a player that's tough, play through anything.
I would prefer to see more English players. Nothing against Scottish, Welsh and Irish players (and we have had some great club servants from those countries) but they are just as foreign as French and Spanish to me in football terms. It is just a question of value for money. Mediocre English players cost too much and we cannot afford the better ones. We have no idea yet whether Ba, Sarr, Makienok, Ceballos, Kashi, etc, will be good enough. If they are not, it won't be because they are foreign, but because our scouts and buyers are incompetent. JBG is foreign but a useful and popular player. And why the digs at Arsenal in particular? They have Gibbs, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Chambers and Welbeck in their first-team squad. I am sure that is more Englishmen than some Premiership clubs. I would be happy to see Charlton field eleven *****lians if they played half as well as Arsenal. Everything privately owned is open to international takeover or control nowadays. It is the nature of capitalism. If you don't like it, move to North Korea. I bet all their players are Korean. Dominicans don't have much to be proud of, but they are fiercely proud of their rum. They just will not believe me when I tell them that their iconic brand is Scottish owned. If you want to support your country, support England (but Vol doesn't). Supporting your club is different.
You are gradually degenerating into a parody of yourself. I await your revelation that RD is an extraterrestial freemason.
According to David Icke he probably is.... F*** The New World Order. It could be worse. He could be a scientologiest.
Sinister. The way of the Left Hand. If you've read Denis Wheatley you'll be very afraid. It would mean that Roland is a servant of The Devil himself. This would tie in with Vol's hatred of anything left-wing. In fact Wheatley believed that communism was literally the work of Satan. Then we must face the question- has Roland made a pact with Auld Nick to achieve success at Charlton?
The thing is - solly can't be moved on because of his knees. We'd need £2M realistically for the deal, but no one will pay that (insurance wouldn't permit him being viable). Cousins - we know he's a decent bid away from being sold. Though that point isn't fact, just an educated guess. In that time we've seen jenko, poyet, shelvey and Gomez (plus the fella who moved to arsenal who's escaped me) move before their time. The argument about poyet not wanting to stay is redundant as I've mentioned several times before that the club removed the offer to him (due to not knowing what league we'd be in) to then sign wiggins up on a 4 year contract. He alluded on social media that something wasn't right, though that was naivety as he never revealed it. But it's the story I've told for the last 18 months. And it was from a certain ex defender who some will know I have links too.
