Thursday 29 December 2016

End Of The Year Show !

Lookman's last time in a Charlton shirt ?

It seems that a trio of personnel will be leaving S.E.7 in the next few days. Two being entirely predictable and one less so.

Our CEO made great play of the fact that Lookman would not be sold in the January transfer window but it would appear that his move to Everton is pretty much a done deal. The reported loan back to us for the remainder of the season seems highly unlikely and no one can blame the Toffeemen for not agreeing to that if they are shelling out £10m for him.

The move would complete a meteoric rise up the football leagues for Lookman. There's no doubt that he is a gifted and talented player. He might not have done as well in League One as we might have hoped but the team has been poor and for me he has been played out of position.

Better coaching and players will no doubt see him produce some quality and I'm really pleased that he is joining such a sound club as Everton. It is a decent club and has always played football the right way. I hope for him that his career flourishes at Goodison.

The other two departures apparently are Fox and Nugent. Sheffield Wednesday are renewing their interest and I've little doubt that the player himself would welcome the move. It's a league higher and he is not enjoying a great relationship with the fans.

If Fox does depart then there's a real possibiltiy that Chicksen may get to start a league game at left back ! Yes, really ! In a rare good move even Robinson might have to play one of our best players in their proper position !

Nugent it would seem is about to join up with Mr Slade in Coventry in a move that would very much be our loss and Coventry's gain. The failure to hold on and give him more time as interim manager and try to persuade him to take it in a full time capacity is a real missed opportunity.

To date there has been no news of the jolly boys outing to see The President in Belgium. How we'd love to have been a fly on the wall for that meeting eh ? The lack of information from that is not surprising, however, I guess all will be revealed in due course as the transfer window reaches its conclusion.

We keep getting told that lessons have been learned but to hold such a meeting so close to the opening of the window almost beggars belief. As I stated before I've no idea why so many people had to travel to Roly anyway. However, it's one aspect of the bizarre running of our club.

One suspects that Roly will trouser the vast majority of any transfer money if Lookman goes. Whatever plan Roly sold to Robinson, the talkative one is about to find out how intent he is on achieving it.

We now face two games in 3 days and after an awful Boxing Day performance against MK Dons it's hard to envisage too much joy from them. One assumes there's a real chance that both Fox and Lookman may not play thus further depleting our squad.

After those games we have a break until we face Millwall again. Oh Joy ! One hopes that we have both some new faces in and one or two players back from injury.

First up though are Southend who are now unbeaten in 11 games and haven't lost at home in the league for some time. The Shrimpers rather like Sheff Utd had a sluggish start to the season but their good run of results has seen them rise up into the play off places.

Robinson will need to set the team up in a more positive manner than we saw on Monday. On occasion it's ok to see out the game but I'm still dumbstruck by the refusal late in the Dons game to have a strike at goal from a free kick on the edge of the area. Why you would not try for the second goal as time was almost up and with virtually nothing to lose is a total mystery.

Those that witnessed it will be as baffled as I was I'm sure.

Against the background of all the above the lads will do to come away from Roots Hall with anything. Let's hope they can and in the process reward the loyal band of travelling Addicks.

I understand that there will be a minute's applause in memory of two young Southend fans who sadly lost their lives recently. I'm sure our fans will observe that impeccably.

Come On You Reds !


3 comments:

  1. We are about to lose Lookman ,then Botaka to the African cup to further deplete our threadbare fit group, I can see only huge investment in at least four suitable players would give us any hope of being competitive in the run in. I just can't see it, I hope I'm wrong

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  2. Si, it's not shaping up well is it ! Hopefully our fears won't be realised or we're in deep do-do !

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  3. RD says results do not matter, so why sack RS after the Swindon result, it has to be becauss of the embarrasement caused by the demonstration. It was always evident that AL would leave, money is ruinning many clubs, but even in Gliksteins time players were bought and sold like commodities. In that era we knew the agenda today it is clear that RD is only interesting in asking the academy to develop players and to sell them to the highest bidder, this was l beleive was his stated intent. We may survive in league one this season but what about next season. RD has to undedstand the culture of the club and realise that he can achieve a greater pay day from one season in the premiership than many in the lower divisions. Where are all these potential investors in the club and why did they not come forward at the time the club was up for sale. The financial difficulties have been obvious since Iain Dowie spent vast sums of money of players who were unknown in this country and who could not operate in the top flight. RD is just continuing the process of asset stripping the club, a process which only stopped under Curbishleys stewardship

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