Friends Reunited !

A couple of " old " faces look set to return.

Happy New Year and it’s worth noting that the Addicks are unbeaten in 2016 !

All bodes well for 2016 then ? Well, er, no of course not !

Imminent surgery to our squad means some reshaping but who’s staying and who’s going is a bit of a mystery.

Williams has arrived from Boro on a short term loan. He would appear to be providing some much needed leadership. Roger Johnson is pretty much signed up it seems and Diego looks likely to follow.

There’s been a lot of criticism of young Poyet and he received some abuse when we played the MK Dons. Those dishing that out believe he left us purely to earn more money in the Prem. Diego will tell you that the club wanted to send him off to Liege and in addition that the failure to retain Riga was a major factor. I’ve no reason to disbelieve him and those abusers can’t know for sure so I’ll be happy to see him return and I hope it works out well for both parties.

There are vacancies in all areas but the need for a goal scoring forward is paramount. I really hope that we have at least one lined up !

Those leaving is not at all clear cut but names in the frame include Watt, Lookman, Vetokele and JBG. Apart from Watt, who in my opinion has been in more saloons of the last chance variety than he ought, it’d be damaging to see any of the others go.

The most notable and telling departure of any player would be Lookman as we are repeatedly reassured that we’ve put an end to having to sell or release our promising youngsters. Of course this usually manifests itself with the departure of at least one…….Exhibits A and B m’lud…….Poyet and Gomez !

The recruitment of a decent manager would go a long way to helping our bid for survival but that is increasingly unlikely with each passing day. Karel is now fast becoming as “ interim “ as Dario Gradi was at Crewe !

Can’t believe I’ve manage to mention those two in the same sentence !

Saturday saw us witness another poor game of Championship football with another failure to beat a poor side. I accept what that makes us but it’s so frustrating and to a degree avoidable. Even if we’re low on confidence and devoid of some of our better players we could at least set up to give ourselves half a chance of winning.

What on earth is the point of playing Vaz Te out wide ? Why is Big Mak allowed to stroll around the pitch and make little impact ( I know he scored but his overall contribution was poor ). The Dane should be frightening the you know what out of defenders but he possesses no real physical aggression.

God knows what the thinking was to move Solly to midfield and then put our best left back in at right back. Probably the same thinking that meant that said best left back didn’t start the game.

It was great to see Harriott return with a solid performance and but for two really good saves he could have scored the winner ! Young Callum now needs to repeat that effort on a more consistent basis as there have been many false dawns in his career.

Following the intense festive schedule we now have a break until the Cup game on Saturday. I’d not be too concerned about that and am happy to write the Cup off especially this year. The focus has to be on the league and survival if we can.

I’d be looking at the next league and the majority of my thoughts and energy would concern that. We have to pray that we can get the right folk in and that the “ interim “ doesn’t balls it all up and we may yet survive.

It’s not going to be dull on or off the pitch !