But Vol... He is on a free transfer because he ran his contract down. I would suspect he would have commanded a decent fee had he been under contract.
We have nothing to worry about ok - if we are in the bottom 3 come Christmas, ok, all RD has to do is paint the seats and all will be ok How many games have we failed to score in this pre-season? ok.
I feel an irrational urge to post something positive after weeks of predicting doom and disaster. Just looked at the highlights clip from Peterboro and I was impressed by the sharp and inventive passing in the first half. Yes, I know: --- it was an OS production and therefore skewed to show the best Charlton bits --- it was only against what I now find was a below-strength Div One team but my point is that we saw nothing like that in the preceding highlights clips against weaker opposition. There, I have said it, and I am not ashamed. Normal service and slagging off left, right and centre will be resumed tomorrow.
Just watched the highlights, first I've seen this season due to moving house to one which is "ideal for DIY enthusiast". Yes there was a lot of decent passing football from us, so maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Don't be sold the line by the Peterborough fans that it was not the first team, there were quite a few players that had just been signed who would be joining the first team squad - what you are hearing is the "its not the first team squad - we are signing Ronaldo and Bale next week" brigade. I think quite a few of that team will start for the POSH in their first competitive match. We also didn't play badly and certainly not much long ball at all. This was largely down to Henderson and Ben Haim who took the roll out from Henderson and carried it forward well, before some good first touch passing from most of the team. Harriot and Ventekole up front worked after a fashion but I think I would still prefer to see Harriot out left in front of either Wiggins or Fox and either Solly or Gomez at RB with Wilson in front and a different centre pairing up front. Interestingly when Joe P came on he appeared to be a good strong threat up front and one of his shots caused Ben Alnwick to count his fingers. It was a friendly with a lot of simulation by the posh players and one rather fruity "catch" by Ben Haim that probably would have resulted in a red card if it had been truly competitive. That said I do not believe we are going to be as bad as the naysayers predict. I don't think we will challenge for promotion but I doubt that we will be pushover for relegation either. My guess is that Peeters already knows what is his strongest formation and is, and is not fielding that in pre season but is currently establishing who can slot in where for substitutions and injuries. Pope will have to push Henderson for the keepers berth but I would go for a back four of (Solly or Gomez,) Ben Haim and Morrison and (Fox or Wiggo). In front the back four I would currently play Wilson rather than Guomundsson, Jordan Cousins, Yoni or Jacko with Harriot back on the left. up front I would like to see Tucodean and Ventekole. Two of those did not play at Peterborough and may play at Fratton Park, Three, also did not play in their best position. Again, do not be surprised to see an out of position line up in Southern Hampshire today. I won't be going but look forward to hearing from those who do. I guess that BenHaim may be rested today for political reason with the Pompey faithful, with Bikey replacing him in the line up. Looking at Bikey warming up on Wednesday I certainly wouldn't want to run into him on even a moderately bad day, he could do some damage to a chieftan tank.
