Monday 18 March 2024

Another Charlton starlet in the top flight

My partner laughs when we are watching a Premier League game, which she thinks is the only place football is played (apart from La Liga) and I say, 'former Charlton player'.

When Alfie Doughty was 18 he was sent on loan from the Addicksto Kingstonian in the Isthmian League. He spent around 10 weeks playing in the seventh tier of English football before returning to his boyhood club.

Five and a half years on, and Doughty has played in the fifth tier in the National League with Bromley, experienced relegation from the Championship with Charlton and struggled to get into the team at Stoke City.

Now he is 24 and has not only helped Luton Town get promoted to the Premier League but has become one of their standout players in England’s top flight.

Doughty spent 15 years at Charlton’s academy, coming through with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez and Aston Villa centre-back Ezri Konsa. His aim has always been to play in the top division and he is doing it with aplomb.

His versatility and trustworthiness have meant he has been relied on both sides of the pitch at wing-back, and heading into their match with Burnley, no Luton player had created more chances than Doughty.  A high number of those chances have arrived from set pieces, with Doughty in charge of free kicks and corners. Only West Ham United midfielder James Ward-Prowse has created more chances from set pieces in the Premier League than the Luton player this season.

Doughty’s drive and deliveries are among the top reasons Luton remain in a fight to stay in the Premier League. As for Doughty, this level looks more and more like one he belongs at.


Saturday 16 March 2024

Unbeaten run continues

Charlton are 17th in League One after a 1-1 draw at Fleetwood Town, ten points clear of relegation zone leaders Cheltenham, although they have two games in hand.

Alfie May's 25th goal of the season was not enough for Charlton as Fleetwood hit back late to earn a 1-1 draw .

May scored from the penalty spot but substitute Ryan Graydon rescued a point for the hosts with six minutes left, rounding keeper Harry Isted before tucking home from a tight angle.

The Cod Army started strongly with Xavier Simons denied by a super save from Isted. Former Addick Jayden Stockley also headed inches wide, still with less than 10 minutes played.

The hosts continued to press, Brendan Wiredu and Gavin Kilkenny also going close.

The Addicks' first decent chance came after 36 minutes when Macaulay Gillesphey drilled narrowly over the top.

The visitors went ahead in first-half added time when May tucked home a penalty after he had been felled by charm merchant Shaun Rooney.

Fleetwood went close soon after the restart when Bosun Lawal saw a well-struck shot saved by Isted. Wiredu also headed wide from Phoenix Patterson's cross.

At the other end Thierry Small's effort was saved by Jay Lynch, before Graydon went on to salvage a point for the hosts with time running out.

Top role for former Charlton manager?

 


Alan Pardew, 62, is among those standing in the election to succeed Howard Wilkinson as the chairman of the League Managers Association (LMA).

Now 80, Wilkinson is standing down at the end of the season after 34 years leading the organisation he helped to establish. Eight people, including both male and female candidates, have been nominated for the position and the LMA’s 680 members will send ballot papers next week and have four weeks to vote.

Pardew’s pitch includes that he has played and managed at every level, and that he wants to promote more inclusion of ethnic minority coaches.

No doubt he will not mention that he screwed up big time at Charlton.

Saturday 2 March 2024

How can Palace match Haaland?

John Textor called for the Premier League spending rules to be relaxed — or ditched altogether — so that rich owners can pump their own money into clubs and cut the gap with the top teams.  He was speaking at the Financial Times Business and Sport summit.  He also wants a World Super League.  The facilities at Selhurst Park may be a surprise to participants.

Textor’s Eagle Football Group owns Olympique Lyonnais, RWD Molenbeek, Botafogo and is the largest shareholder in Crystal Palace. Textor said spending limits stopped ambitious clubs from upgrading their squads in the transfer market and amounted to “anti-competitive behaviour”. He cited the example of Nottingham Forest’s billionaire owner Evangelos Marinakis. Forest were charged by the Premier League earlier this year for breaching spending rules.

“Has this really been a problem, that everyone is going bankrupt? The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Somebody shows up and tells Marinakis, an incredible guy in terms of resources and assets . . . and says we know you have [the money], but we’re worried about you Mr Marinakis. Don’t spend it.”

He went on to say that linking spending to revenue would merely make the Premier League less and less competitive and people would lose interest.

“I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland [of Manchester City]”, he said. “If you get an injury you don’t get to pull a £15mn player off the bench you’ve got to take somebody from your academy because you can’t afford to have that player on your bench. That’s not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this?”

He added: “Don’t tell me if Leicester City can do it, anybody can do it. It’s broken.”

Friday 23 February 2024

Let's hit the Curbs myth on the head once and for all

The myth that Alan Curbishley was pushed out by impatient fans at Charlton is one of the most persistent in football and it needs debunking: https://talksport.com/football/1759338/debunking-myths-charlton-alan-curbishley-sacked/ 

The board did not handle his departure well, and particularly his replacement by Dowie, but that is another matter altogether. 

Tuesday 13 February 2024

'Jones must act fast to save Charlton'

 A young fan complained the other week that supporting Charlton involved endless suffering.   It was ever thus.  Indeed, a sports historian once told me that suffering was what football was all about.   Just read the reference in Alan Sillitoe's novels and short stories to Notts County.

I have had three periods of joy with Charlton.   The first was in the 1950s with Jimmy Seed as manager.  The second was the return to The Valley, the build up to the Premier League, the Greatest Game and Curbs as manager in the top flight.   Finally, I would add Chris Powell getting us out of League One as champions.

70 years of suffering does give you some perspective.   I don't want us to play in the fourth division for the first time, but if we have to, we will.   I still think the chances of relegation are 50/50.   There are 15 matches to go, we are not actually in a relegation position, we have a better goal difference than teams around us and we often play better in tough matches.  Having said that, as The Times put it in their headline yesterday, 'Jones must act fast to save Charlton.'

This goes beyond changing the formation.   If the players are not good enough or motivated enough, no formation will work even 1-9-1 as used by San Marino.

I know that Charlton fans like the worst case scenario so here is what a friend who went to Reading:' it is impossible to find the words to indicate realistically how awful we were against Reading.  I genuinely believe an average pub team would have beat us, we were that clueless, no movement, no skill and no ideas.  We genuinely cannot get any worse, NJ looks like he has an impossible task. I am afraid Div 2 is looking nailed on after last Saturday.'

It will be ironic if I get well enough to return to The Valley only to see us relegated.

Peter Varney has said we need to start looking at recruitment strategy now, but that is difficult when it is not certain which division we will be playing in.   Relegation would mean selling Alfie May.

I think that the club's problems are deeply rooted and structural and go beyond the failings of any one individual.   I argued this in a series of posts earlier in the season and I will consolidate them as one essay on Charlton Retro.  

What happens tonight will be crucial.


Tuesday 6 February 2024

Turning the oil tanker round

It's difficult to judge the way in which Charlton fans have reacted to the appointment of Nathan Jones from comments on social media.  The loudest are not necessarily representative and even if one did a poll, it would not be based on a proper sampling frame.

Nevertheless, there seems to be more scepticism and grudging acceptance than I expected.   The fan consensus was that Appleton had to go.   At the end of the day, results matter.

Nathan Jones was well regarded by Luton fans, as the Chicago Addick has shown.  Peter Varney, who knew him, has paid him a warm tribute.   He states: 'I have worked with Nathan Jones and pleased to see he is referenced as the manager. He has a tremendous work ethic and fans should get ready for a ball of energy on the touchline. A very positive move and he will need time to impose his standards with the players he wants.'

Then we have Charlton fans grumbling because he is not a Londoner.   It doesn't matter where he comes from, it's whether he can energise the squad and getting them scoring goals and avoiding defensive howlers.   It's a big challenge.

It's a tough and vital test at Reading on Saturday, but turning the oil tanker round may not happen that quickly.   What is important is that fans, not least the devoted away fans, give him and the team unstinting support.