Belgian Takeover

there are other forums out there where this is their only hope for the club. they have not thought through the consequences of doing so. they play football manager with the club saying things like "go out and get a manager who can play football" without any idea of who they would appoint; and basically blame SCP for everything including the weather. the people on there are angry and deluded.

we had a complete rebuild not so long ago. but that was in the summer. this is mid-season. what we need now is stability and gradual progress - which SCP was delivering until our last owners became skint.

Roland will want the same - he's owned successful teams before and he didnt do it by going out and shelling out millions. if he got rid of SCP it would cost more in the long run as we'd then have to replace all of SCP's players.

 

Stability and gradual progress. It worked for us before, and it can work again. I like it, so let's make sure Paul Hart gets a new contract ASAP.

 

Well, sounds like another signing. Another loan. Another player who can't get time in the Liege starting line up. In our position, can we really afford to be blooding the also-rans from another team. We really need a couple of cast iron players in the positions we need filled (striker, etc), not the cast offs from Belgium in`positions we have covered (more keepers ffs!!!)
It's early days, and the transfer window is still open, but my continuing assessment of this takeover is that it's not what we wanted so far. Rome was'nt built in a day, but we're flirting with relegation, and we need to iron that out first. The pitch issue needs to be addressed in the summer, but now, lets get a twenty a season striker in.

 

Who do you suggest that 20 goal a season man is Ken? I don't think he is going to spend any money in this transfer window, it will be some more loans from Liege.

 

Dunno Dick. He knew when he bought us a) our league position and b) the dates of the transfer window. Thus far, we are just loading up with loans from one club, coincidentally owned by him. As I said before, it's early days yet, and yes, we did need a major strengthening of the team, but so far, we are just looking at providing playing time for Standard players.
Plus, just to make it clear how demanding I am, I want twenty goals between now and the end of the season.

 

No goals again. Dick, do you really think I'm wrong to suggest we need a striker (Radio Kent just summed up the match with 'Charlton need to buy a striker').

 

Why doesn't he at least give Pigott and Smith some sort of chance to show what they can do? If not why did he bother bringing Smith back from Wimbledon?

 

Twenty league goals a season is asking a lot. You could pay three million for a Championship striker and still miss out. You look at the five strikers in the table who are likely to score 20 this season and they would all cost upwards of five million. And there are several below them who would cost upwards of a million and won't get 15.

More cost effective to strengthen our midfield so we don't have to rely on players like Jackson, Pritchard, Green and Harriott or keep on overplaying Cousins. Do that and even our limited strike force would get enough, from more and better chances created, for us to stay up.

There have been a number of midfielders who have moved on frees or for less than half million who would have improved our side. If we cannot afford them we have no chance of affording a twenty goal a season striker.

 

We still have no real idea of his motives, but when you hear it reported that he wants to make money out of a football club, that scenario normally ends badly for fans, as many of our Belgium friends have reiterated...

CP was reported as being upbeat about RD at first, and looked it in his first video interview about the takeover, but this newer report sounds a lot less upbeat... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25780833

Come on RD give us some long awaited hope, if that's asking too much, how about a striker that's worthy of the term striker.

 

No, Iwan, I wouldn't change your nom-de-plume just yet.

 

No no Iwan, looks like a fine name to be going on with.

 

I don't think you are wrong to want a twenty goal a season striker, because I want that as well. What I was saying is where do we get that striker from and how much is he going to cost.

 

Is january really going to pass with no significant improvement in the squad ?

I cannot believe it will. Would RD want the club he just took over to go to league 1 ? Wouldn't that be a major NO ??

 

You would think that would massively devalue his investment. Two million for three players would have seen us into a comfortable mid-table position and with a shot at the play-offs next season. I never thought we were in serious danger of relegation, but with Wiggins out for three games, Solly no longer a stalwart, all our rivals showing improvement, and our pitch problems, I think we are in big trouble.

I am more than happy that we are not announcing targets. That is the way Curbs operated. But CP is clearly not confident that we are seriously looking, and that is worrying.

 

I guess it depends on whether RD thought his Liege cast offs were more than good enough for him not to invest further money.

 

CP was looking forward to the take-over, as were a lot of us. Looking at the situation now after Roland's first couple of weeks I'd say there has been no good news, and we are becoming firm favourites for relegation. I can't see our goal drought ending. Jacko's on the slippery slope, Church doesn't score and Kermit can't do it on his own(CP doesn't fancy Pig or Smith), and Roland won't spend. We might grind out the draws, but we need wins, and that means scoring goals (sorry to state the obvious).

 

I thought there would be funds made availible for the january window. Part of our happy(ish) reception for the takeover was we might have funds to buy in, and if you're going to buy a striker, you might as well mbuy a good one. after all, do we really need another three goals a season striker like Church?
I'm sure a good striker would cost money, but a bad striker or no new striker might cost relegation, and I doubt that would help his investment in Charlton. There was talk of Le Fondre, though after yesterday, I don't see him going anywhere. But as I said, lots of talk from RD and CP about strengthening the squad, but so far, it's just been helping the Standard squad players at the cost of our own.
I repeat, it's early days, but so far I'm not at all impressed.

 

I think that Roland won't give Powell any money to spend as he is a dead man walking. I may be wrong but I don't think Powell was consulted about the Standard players that have been brought in. I think The Belgian wants Powell to keep us safe and during the close season is when major changes will happen.

But the way things are going, without an investment on a decent striker or two we are heading for the wastelands of Div 1. So In the next couple of weeks Roland has a major decision to make. Does he stick or twist.

 

Just a quick thought. I remember in the seventies we had a sort of tie up with a Danish club which resulted in us getting in a couple of Danes. One I think was Viggo Jacobsen, but age has removed a fair few memory cells. They all ended up going back, and in part that was bacause they were'nt good enough to hold down a regular first team spot.
I mean no disrespect to the Belgian or Danish leagues, but if we're just going to bring in square pegs from Belgium (plus maybe oddbins from Alcorcon and Carl Zeiss jena) we'll be in the same spot, plus delivering a nasty upper cut to the ambitions of a very successfull youth team policy. The policy seems to be a swap shop between the stable of clubs rather than building a competetive team.

 

The other one was Johnny Ostergaard.