Tuesday 11 November 2008

Ian Harte

He turned out for the reserves against Millwall this afternoon, apparently conceding a penalty. The Irish defender spent a long portion of his career at Leeds United and was released by Sunderland in the summer after one year at the Stadium of Light.

He has been sniffing around quite a few clubs since then, training at Leeds in the hope of finding a berth there, but also hanging out at Wolves and Sheffield United. He even went to Norway for a week earlier this month at a hope of getting taken on by a club called Varenga. On the any port in a storm principle, he has now turned up at The Valley.

In his day he could certainly turn it on: Harte

I think our squad is already more than big enough and we don't need any loan players or ageing talents. Just pick the core 16, get them used to playing together, and hope it works out.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hermann Hreidarsson has also been rumoured to be interesting Pardew.Clearly the manager has issues with his current left-backs,you may recall he trieto sign Armand Traore on loan last season.

Kieran Gibbs,another Arsenal youngster would be a better bet than Harte or Hreidarsson.

I would agree the squad is big enough in terms of numbers but we are lacking in certain areas.A target man has been sorely missed
,as has an out-and-out goalscorer.The board are doing the right thing in insisting that Pardew must ship out in order to ship in.

Wyn Grant said...

The Herminator is at least a known quantity and can be intimidating in central defence as well. But Gibbs sounds exciting although I don't know anything about him.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you saw the Arsenal v Wigan game last night Wyn but Gibbs was exceptional,very quick with the ability to defend.

Steve Bruce more-or-less got Birmingham promoted with a team laced with Arsenal loanees,Larsson,Muamba & Bendtner.

I have no problem with the Herminator but wonder if he will still have the enthusiam to play in Tier 2.

Wyn Grant said...

I didn't see the game which was presumably on Sky (not permitted where we live) but I would be happy with an Arsenal loanee. What I don't want is 'free agents' looking for a route back.

Anonymous said...

I thought Gibbs was fairly poor defensively last night. Out of position on a regular basis and most of Wigan's attacks came down that side. All in all I can't envisage him being the answer to our defensive problems, which let's face it is defending set pieces. Plus look what a great success our last left back called Gibbs was. I'd prefer Hermann, although wages would be a problem and if we were to get another Pompey defender, our defence might as well play in blue.

Anonymous said...

Left back is the least of our worries. What use could a not good enough for anyone else has-been possibly be. Giving him a trial just cos he's available shows the quality of intellect currently running charlton's coaching. Hermann would be a retrograde and expensive step even if he is just to replace Primus who will have to be purchased (unlikely) or sent back in January. Loan players to fill up the too numerous vacancies in Charlton's defense may be pragmatic in the desperation to avoid relegation but loans inexorably erode the squad and returns diminish at increasing rates.
Save Our Songbirds (grill a squirrel for tea)

Anonymous said...

I think giving the 'has beens' a go has more to do with our available finances than their availability. But unless Pards latest tactic is to get a 0-0 draw in every game surely the priority must be for a quality forward!