Squad

Great point, we have an amazing manager and owners that have the clubs best interest at heart, I just wish we were better at transfer windows 🤣

RW is spot on when he talks about wanting a good preseason. Last term we had 13 games in the first two months, losing 7. Of the rest we managed just 3 wins. Who can forget some crappy results at home too. 4-0 to Portsmouth, 3-0 to Stevenage. What about that crap result at Fleetwood. That was painful.

Caraboa Cup, EFL trophy, league. You name it, we did bad. The cups don’t matter other than the opportunity to earn money and add a bit of interest. So in reality important enough. Thankfully we picked up and even flirted with the play offs, until a rubbish January window. Do I spot a trend? Deja vu from the January before and our windows in general.

Thankfully and hopefully we start this season with Agyei looking good, our big hope for a better start and fewer games 10. A squad with a tad more experience. A great manager. As ever hope over expectation.

At least the most disappointing result of the season if not the worst. We'd finally started to look good enough for this league, the Stevenage loss being an expected blip in a run of decent results. I don't think Fleetwood had even scored a goal before playing us. They certainly hadn't picked up a point. Then we conceded from a move they were attempting for the third time in ten minutes. Truly dreadful.

On the Charlton forum a few are saying we will be in relegation scrap with our current squad. They didn’t rate DJ at all saying league 2 standard at best and thought we’re more ambitious.
They think ruel a big loss too.

Funny how others perceive from afar I haven’t heard the R word mentioned with us at all from anyone on here, but makes you think - we need to sign some bodies now

Shame we can only “hope” our players do a good job for us this season

I still think players will come in, they have to. We suffered in two ways last season due to a lack of depth, a very poor start and running out of steam. We can only hope, now it’s too late to deal with the former, that the kids step up and we don’t get preseason injuries.  But still time to ensure we don’t run out of steam.

But I struggle to take seriously club comments about players any more.  Believe it when it happens is the best way.

Done the math Thor.  Reduced playing squad, reduced wage bill. Been wondering for a while if we are going through a period of belt tightening. Losses have been high and probably unsustainable.  As eca pointed out we have a big backroom team. Also invested in ground improvements and although financed over a long period, still have to be managed. The costs are stacking up. The income opportunities limited.

The club are focused on getting the structure sorted out for the long term, fair enough. But I hope not at the expense of the playing squad.  Right now it feels that way. We should be ok at coping this season, investing in a good manager a wise move, we will need him.

This is interesting and think will prove how good a coach that Richie is.

Richie coached the best out of DJ when he had him at Swindon. Kelman, whilst not prolific with us, played his best football under Richie. He is now a year older, wiser, more experienced, and back with a coach who knows what to expect of him. Same with Smyth, Ruel, El-Miz.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens to Ruel at Bristol Rovers. Sad to see him go, but i think we sold a peak Ruel to Bristol Rovers, i don't think he'll get much better. We did this with Ogie too, Richie knew he'd gone as far as he could with him and Gillingham came wading in. Sort of like selling a stock or share at its highest price. I think this is good business. Sad to see them go, but top business. Perkins could solve this, he may not, has he ever really been coached as a first-team player? Look how raw Forde was when he turned up to how he left.

Will El-Miz thrive under a different regime? He didn't thrive at his other loans and only looked good at Orient with Richie.

Can the Everton lad pick up from where El-Miz couldn't? The signs are that Jordan Graham looked extremely happy playing under Richie after not being too keen on his Birmingham roles. Ollie O'Neill is another with a proper season under his belt now, time to thrive or falter? Maybe we don't need a Forde.

Shaq Forde? Could he be another Kelman or Smyth that only looked good with us? Again it'll be interesting to see where he goes and how he fares.

Of course it works the other way too. Piggot just wasn't for us and Richie, although a good player, ultimately it was a waste of a year for all involved and he sort of seems to suit Wimbledon.

Mungo - just on your peak Sotiriou point, if he put away the easy ones last year he would have had 10 more goals. The year before the same. If some coaching can unlock that … because he gets the chances because he gets in the positions