A simple, straightforward thread to just aknowledge the fantastic management this season of Chris Powell. Remember the fears he was 'too nice' to be a manager. I know myself, amongst others, argued that if you've played at the level he did for so many years, that you could not be considerded too nice to achieve great things. I'm not getting carried away but feel that some of his decisions and conduct his year have been brilliant. These three in particular: 1. Making Chris Solly his number 1 right back. Powell made a decisive and early statement of intent in giving Solly the shirt for the first few games and how handsomely it has paid off. Showing trust and faith and being paid back in shedloads. 2. Bringing in a whole new squad. Got rid of some fans' favourites and didn't waver from what he believed we needed. Told us to judge him when he had his own squad and has come up trumps. 3. Creating a team ethos. He has managed to put a bunch of strangers together and within a few weeks had them playing out of their skins for each other. There is a real sense of shared vision and ambition. The huddle after the game on Saturday, right in front of our fans was a masterstroke. Without hearing a word he said it was clear what the message was. Loving what he is doing for our club at the moment. Long may it continue.
I honestly couldn't have asked for anything more this season I really would give this season a 10/10 rating so far
Strange, I was considering creating a thread just like this earlier! During the group huddle on Saturday, I noticed players nodding their head in agreement with what CP was saying, a small sign yes, but a good one. Also love how we have no stand-out performers. Okay we could argue that Bradley Wright-Phillips is one, but I struggle to think of any players who we would be screwed if they got suspended/injured. Not only do we have strength in depth, but we have such a brilliant squad that we could probably win games with only 10 players on the pitch. We also have no scapegoat (bar myself who constantly criticises Rhoys Wiggins and Ruben Bover, plus a few on here criticise Andy Hughes - yet only one of these has featured as a starting 11 player, and even he played brilliantly in the past 2 games). We shouldnt get carried away, the season is a long one and the thought of 'promotion' doesn't cross my lips just yet, but we genuinely have a squad to be proud of this season. One minor pickle, optimists do not read on. For me, the only downside to our current squad is I feel there are no true 'fan-favourites' who love the club and whom I feel I can identify with. I know most fans generally don't care about things like that as long as the squad are playing well, but (as regular posters were know), I was very disheartened to see Rob Elliott leave, as well as to a lesser-extent Semedo last season, as both appeared to love the club. Not saying our current players don't love being here, but I feel that very few of them would choose remaining at Charlton over a team in a higher league/offering a lot more money.
Thats a fair point WWOCB, and i won't disagree with you, but i will say semedo wasn't a fan favourite overnight. It's a new squad and given time i can see a few of them growing to love the club as much as we do but i would have liked to keep robbo, after Saturday i'm still not completely sold on hamer, he does make some odd choices, but then rob wasn't without his faults.
Glad to find someone who actually agrees with me on one of my points I agree RE Hamer, I'm not his biggest fan, but thats simply because Rob Elliott left big shoes for him to fill. Elliott was very error prone but he made up for that with his ability to pull off last-gasp saves and his general love of CAFC. As a footballer Hamer is actually growing on me, his distribution on Saturday was brilliant and I feel that generally he had a decent game, bar a few drops of the ball.
I couldn't agree more. However, my only question will be how he reacts to adversity? last season we never really found out, he had a great start, then went on to get 3 points of 33 or so, the reaction we've seen to that was.................sell everyone and buy a new squad. We won't be able to do that every time? I'm not saying the situation is the same, but we will hit real bumps at some point and how he deals with that will be very interesting and the true mark of the man, he still has a lot to learn yet, but I am VERY happy he's learning with us, all the way back to where we belong, future England manager?
Fan favourites are often those that have come through the ranks or have given blood sweat and tears over the years for the club. That sums up theposition of an Elliott or a Semedo last year and why they became fans favourites. Because of the wholesale changes we as fans haven't yet been able to see these newer players identifying with the club, but nothing helps a player identify with a club more than being part of a successful team. We have those who have come through the ranks in Solly and Wagstaff, We also have those who have come through adversity and want to play for us because we are offering an opportunity to them (BWP wasn't going to Reading because of his "dodgy knee" and Kermit having missed that penalty appeared on very few xmas card lists). We will see them develop over theyear to become the favourites. What interested me after Chesterfield match was the resumption by CP of his official duty at the tunnel mouth after the game, this could be because he didntwant one of the current players to try and stand out from the rest and replace Elliott (who himself tried to replicate CP) or is there some other underlying meaning that I may be missing?
Playing devil's advocate here, and I will then proceed to argue with myself Powell has had money to spend which most managers at this level could only dream of. We have more or less assembled a League 1 All Stars team, which darn well should be up the top of the league. Last season CP was unable to get anything like the best out of what was admittedly a very poor team. Now the counter to that: any fool can pick and choose the best players in the league, but it takes a very good manager to mould them into a team (look at Man City). Powell has done superbly on that front, we can all see that these players all fight for each other and there are no prima-donnas among them. Last season he did make mistakes, but now he is showing that he can learn from them, weaning himself off the Jason Euell substitution for instance. Apologies for the confused nature of this post, I otherwise agree with everything SJH says
Like Eliott and Semedo you mean? You seem to be torpedoing your own argument here. I disagree that very few of them would choose to remain at Charlton as against moving up a division and earning more money. In fact, I would be fairly confident NONE of them would stay, and I wouldn't blame them. It's their career and it can be cut brutally short (look at Kelly Youga). It is the club's job to move up the divisions so that it can retain their loyalty and pay them more. Failing that, to get a decent transfer fee for them that can be used to make the team even stronger. Worked with Jenkinson and perhaps with Elliott (too early to tell). That "loyal one-club" stuff only works these days where a player has found his right level and his club has found its right level and they can stagnate in mid-table together. As for "fans' favourites", blimey, give them a chance! Most of the team have only been with us a few weeks. It takes longer than that to fall in love, though some of us seem to already have a crush on the Kentish Cantona.
In a sense, yes. Giggs and Scholes are rare exceptions but they and their club found their level and "stagnated" there (which happened to be at the top of the heap). They could only (maybe) improve by moving abroad to one of two clubs, and even those two clubs were not always a better option throughout their careers. And all three have said they didn't fancy living abroad. That attitude is becoming ever rarer as even poor families can and do travel to other countries and football teams are a hodgepodge of different nationalities. One Premier match I was watching had 19 different nationalities on the pitch.
don't forget CP actually turned over a summer profit as well with the sales of Jenkinson and Elliott CP may have spent some money but the team assembled has probably cost no more than about £750k total, someone might be a bit more accurate and again been assembled at a cost less than the fee we received for Jenkinson.
I'm not torpedoing my own argument Eddie, I'm referring to how I/we perceived them last season - I genuinely believed Elliott could challenge Sam Bartram for most CAFC appearances as long as he stayed injury free, hence my disappointment when he left for a team in a higher league offering him a lot of cash. Similarly after Semedo stated he'd sign for life, a lot of fans spoke of how refreshing his sense of loyalty was - only for him to sign for Sheffield Wednesday. The general loyal player/fan favourite/player to identify with also refers to how little some players acknowledge the fans. The majority of players on the pitch leave it with a few thousand fans singing their name, yet some of them hardly seem to make the effort of raising their heads, let alone clapping the fans in return Martinho, I believe we spent a fair bit more than that, I'm led to believe Green and Stephens were 350k + 250k or something along those lines, with Wiggins and Hamer being a similar price. Then there's the nominal fee's for the likes of Smith.
great article sir john im led to believe martinho is pretty accurate with his belief that total outlay was covered by jenkinson deal. cert in terms of acutal fees spent. i think we have already seen that Jose was a very limited footballer. if he is ur best, then u aint that good. so ponderous on the ball. compared to stephens, his passing is Diadora league compared to Zico
I do believe it was our chairman who said about a month ago in a 2 page report in the evening standard that all our transfers (to that point) had been covered by the jenkinson fee or were free transfers (he also said he was a man city fan)
