Thursday 24 July 2008

What has happened to Bougherra deal?

Apparently Real Betis have been reluctant to pay the £2.5m up front, instead wanting to link it to all kinds of incentives, so Charlton are playing hard ball and have stalled the deal. It seems they would settle for £2m.

Sam Sodje has had a falling out with Steve Coppell at Reading who won't let him go on the pre-season tour to Sweden. However, there seems to be little chance of Charlton putting in a bid even though Peterborough have pre-empted their effort to sign Highland League ace Paul Coutts.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know why we wouldn't make a bid for Sodje. Can't we afford him?

Wyn Grant said...

I don't think so. We are still in a financial hole.

Anonymous said...

Wyn - when the bloggers met with Murray, I understand he said we would be selling before we buy. We've done oodles of the former, but sweet fanny adams of the latter.

I get the distinct impression that the Board are not driving for the Premiership this season. More a case of financial stability first, and see what we can achieve with smaller squad/youth a distinct second.

What's your view of our long term strategy - the reality as opposed to the stated?

I don't recall Hull/Stoke/Bristol City spending last summer. The Baggies seemed to sell.

Pembury Addick

Kings Hill Addick said...

Pembury Addick,

Richard didn't actually sat we had to sell first, he said that we would be "Net Sellers". I took this to mean that we have a figure (which he wouldn't disclose) that we need to raise after sales and purchases are all completed.

I think this was based on selling ZZ for c. £3m, Bent for £1m and Big Chris for £750k. Thus we are well short of what we were hoping to raise which could well mean no money for purchases.

The club did a share issue to raise £20m and only raised £15m so if the shortfall was £5m (and this is pure speculation) you can see that we need to raise something like £2.5m more plus what ever we are going to spend before we start to recruit new faces.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Kings Hill.

If your speculation is correct we are talking about the need to raise £7.5m (£5m for the share shortfall, £3m they were hoping for ZZ, less £0.5m more that we got for Bent).

Even if we sell Madjid then, we aren't going to buy.

So the strategy is financial prudence first, promotion second.

Given how even the division is, you don't have to be that special to go up (two of the promotees showed that). Strong in spirit is probably more important.

But I can't kid myself - its mid table with an outside chance of the play offs isn't it?

Pembury Addick

Anonymous said...

I think its top10 outside chance of automatic. I believe that this year the division is stronger than last, but if you look at last year the teams did well are those with team work and commitment, that could be what gets us up next season, it really is down to Pards to blend a football team this season

Anonymous said...

I would say this year is AP's real chance to show how good a manager he really is.
I have a feeling he will do well with a restricted squad...........maybe I'm a dreamer.

Afar Addy