Another valuable point away from home in our impending relegation scrap. Anyone else take 5th bottom?
It's not a great start I agree. Assuming we manage one home win in our next two games (Peterborough and Fleetwood, both presently above us in the table) Charlton will probably have 7 points from their first 5 games. In a few weeks time we should begin to get a few of our better midfielders back from injury, though they will not be match-sharp. It's looking like being a lower mid-table season not too dissimilar to 2016-17, though on paper our squad looks better than the one Russell Slade assembled. If all things remain equal we should be looking at 58 to 62 points from our 43 games. Enough to keep us out of the bottom third of the table but the top 6 will be well out of reach by January. However, things may not remain equal of course. There is still a slim chance the Australians may seal the deal in September. Most fans (myself included) will then want to know why they have sidestepped the summer transfer windows and whether or not they will sack Lee Bowyer. Things could get better or worse between now and the January window. January will be a critical time. If Duchatelet is still our owner, it will be his last chance to sell any one of about a dozen players whose contracts expire next summer. If he gives in to that temptation the danger of Charlton slipping into a relegation scrap will naturally increase this season, and become almost inevitable next season. On the other hand, the Australians may use the window to reshape the team according to their manager's wishes. If that is not done properly it could lead to trouble. I would trust Lee Bowyer not to get it wrong but he may already be gone by then if the Aussies are in charge. So basically we do need about another 45 or 46 points to stay in this league. That should be a given, but with so much uncertainty around at the moment sadly it is not.
The latest Apologist excuse is that we have 3-4 players coming back from injury in October ...with the exception of Fosu, the other three have appalling career injury records and we are highly unlikely to get a dozen games out of any of them. No disrespect to Accrington Stanley, who have done wonders for themselves, but when our fans arrived at their ground yesterday I saw some of them taking photos and actually laughing. It was pure non league. They had fewer than 1,500 of their own fans in the ground. The changing rooms were glorified portakabins and the car park was rubble. This is now the level we have sunk too. I can remember a few years ago, fans moaning that we had to travel to places like Ipswich Town ! I don’t have an answer as to when our decline will at least stall. What I do know is that genuine, long term fans have been incredibly let down and led on over this summer by a vociferous little band of publicity seekers from Australia. No sign of Andrew Muir or any of his supporters making that 530 mile round trip yesterday. “Infectious enthusiasm” my arse.
I have wanted this take-over to happen for as long as anybody, and I have tried to remain optimistic about the intentions and good faith of the Australian Consortium. But at this point I have to say, if they pop up in mid-September and complete the take-over, they had better have a full and honest explanation for why they have avoided the entire summer transfer window. Any bullshit is not going to go down well at all. Charlton fans have had it up to here. In fact even further up than that.
It’s absokutely pointless the Aussies taking over after 31 Aug. The damage will well and truly have been done. We will be stuck with this squad for 4 months. It will also smack of gutless opportunism and will provoke allegations that, once again, the Aussies only want to do it on the cheap. Plus, if they took over in September, imagine the 4 months of bullsh1t we would get... “They really plan to spend big in January” etc ...
I'm glad that I'll be back to non-league next Saturday. There was too much excitement in the build up to this game.
Pathetic attendance at the Den again yesterday TC ....including over 2,000 Derby ? #PeakMillwall - the best team in your history () ...and you’ve still only got 11,000 fans
Just wondered if Charlton fans think its the EFL's fault that 1) The Aussies are skint o 2) That they allowed Duchatelet to own the club instead of liquidating it?
Accrington’s big mouth chairman. Charges £20 to stand on an uncovered terrace, and the toilets are portakabins. Would suggest he looks closer to home before digging out Lee Bowyer..
The annoying thing is we gave him the opportunity to crow. There is a fair chance Gillingham will finish higher than Charlton this season. Maybe even AFC Wimbledon as well. That would mean we will be something like the fifth or sixth ranked South London Club. Only a few seasons back we were slugging it out with Palace for top spot.
