Charlie Allen, to quote King Lear (putting my A-level english to good use) is a man more sinned against than sinning. (Thought this place could do with a bit more culture!) Seriously though, when we signed Charlie Allen everybody thought, here we go again, another Charlie Stimson type character, not good enough to play professionally but luckily daddy will give be a job. Not a bad strategy to be honest seeing as Blair Sturrock made it to about 30 before being found out! However over the past season I have to say that Allen Jnr was one of the biggest surprises last season, turning out to be a good footballer with a battery that seems to never empty. I was very quick to withdraw my criticism of him and Allen Snr for signing him as if Charlie wasn't signed by his dad everybody would be delighted about what a clever little signing he was to pick up a kid released by Notts County and make him into a competent (if not awe inspiring) League 2 standard midfielder. This is all well and good until I start to hear a worrying about of talk about how Allen Snr is only picking Charlie because he's his boy, a very unjust criticism. No player has covered themselves in glory this pre-season, granted, but Charlie Allen was never a David Wright/Jack Payne player who will put his foot on the ball and pick a pass over and over again, he is a bundle of energy that will chase the ball around the midfield with great enthusiasm that can make life very tricky for the opposition. What I am trying to say is that it was perhaps inevitable for the claim that Charlie Allen only plays because he is an Allen once he hits a tough patch, when in actual fact I imagine Charlie has the toughest time in training simply because he is Martins son and has to train so much harder to try and make his own way in football. Charlie is still a very young player that will steadily improve over time and while he may never be the heartbeat of the team he will be a very useful part over the coming years. Some of the criticism has been very unjust and think it doesn't look great if even after preseason people are beginning to get on the back of players.
great motor and just keeps on running, giving a good out ball toward the end of a game. bit of pace to beat playes as well. never gonna set the world alight but in my match day 18 week in week out when fit
He gets a lot of criticism and I think that is unjust as I think he is a decent player who works hard, yeah he may make mistakes but he isn't perfect, however with him you know that he will always run, run and run and he will do this all through the game. You don't get too many players like him so I think he is a good player to have at the club and I think he will do well in League One, he may not be a stand out player but he will work hard and I believe he will win us a few games as that is the type of player he is. I think that some people forget he is still young so he will get better and that will mean that his passing will get better as well as this is something that some criticize him for.
for me he just isnt good enough on the ball to make it above l2. When he came on at Woking on saturday he missed a couple of chances that he should've got on target but not only missed the target but put miles over, then put a couple of free kicks straight into the wall (as did Dack in the 1st half tbf). He's energetic and I think he'll end up an ok league 2 player, but it isnt enough to be saying "he's good until he gets the ball" about a pro footballer.
