Tuesday 21 May 2013

Cold Turkey!

...Bored already? I'm certainly beginning to get cold turkey. The only remaining thing to look forward to is the Championship Play Off Final and (please) watching broken hearted Palace fans crying at full time.

Following the 'none' Kuwaiti Varney lead takeover which actually turned out to be a buyout of Ebbsfleet from MyClub.com we can now begin to conject and read generally pointless rumors about who's coming in.

For me the big news so far was the contract extensions of key playing personnel at The Valley.

With Dervite, Harriot and Cort all signing on the dotted line. I think paired with Morrison, Dervite will make a centre back berth his own. The excitement of keeping hold of Harriot speaks for itself. At the very least if he does have an even better season we could see some serious cash coming in for him at the end of next season. (Or even better see him giving us a season in the top flight - getting a bit ahead of myself there!)

With seven players being released I don't necessarily believe we will see the same number of new player incoming. The squad was perhaps a bit over laden last term, which saw some decent players fail to get enough game time. To be honest Haynes leaving for me is not the end of the world, often he flattered to deceive and was never going to give us a striker in the Mendonca or Bent mold who would actualluay guarantee a certain goal and point return. I'd much rather see one of our exciting development striking options step up the pecking order.

So what do we need to further consolidate our Championship status?

Providing Solly stays, we are reasonably well covered for full backs. Maybe one experienced head on board as a squad player - the real shame for me last season was the limited chances on offer for Evina, who would walk into a lot of squads at our level. We do however need one more to cover at centre back, having released two.

With Wagstaff off and Green blowing hot and cold I think we need a decent Championship experienced right sided attacking midfielder. In the event that Hollands and Stephens do leave the club then we'd really need two central midfielders to offer cover for Jackson and competition for Pritchard.

Then finally, and this is the hardest (financially speaking) one, a foil for Kermogant who can play off of him in this division with the same success that BWP did in the third tier.

Easy then? One Centre Back, Three midfielders and a striker(who can score goals)!

Only another four weeks a the fixture lists out.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Addicks clinch best finish since 2007-2008...A wildly Optimistic Addick writes

When all said and done, once the dust settled what a great season we've had.

Our best finish since the disappointing 11th in our first season back outside of the top flight. What's truly remarkable is how the team, which pretty much was the League One winning side, learnt by their mistakes and grew into a very good Championship side.

For many reasons yesterday was an emotionally charged occasion. Chris Powell, his coaching staff and all the players looked like they really wanted to finish the season strongly rather than dreaming of a few month's off in the sunshine somewhere. For me it was the last time I would be sitting in my late fathers seat and using his season ticket - next time round the name on the ticket will be mine and i'll be in the chair he occupied for all of the twenty years we've been back at the Valley plus those that preceded our exile.

Over eighteen thousand supporters turned up to witness a great second half performance by the team. Bristol were it has to be said pretty poor, the way once we got our noses in front and Kermogant had got his brace the rest of the team, bench and crowd were willing him to complete what would have been a memorable hat trick shows how we dominated proceedings.

Obaka seems to be one of those strikers who may not be the most gifted but does seem to have the knack of being in the right place at the right time. A real old fashioned poacher. I'd quite like to see him back at the Valley next season.

Again Harriot impressed, although a bit of naivety and keeping hold of the ball for to long saw Wagstaff come on and make a lively cameo. I do like his work rate, and hope again he remains at the club as a squad player next term. Pritchard had one of those games where he had his right head on and put in a great performance.

The only downside was the comical nature of City's goal. For me Morrison's performances have been a bit patchy at times. (The awful back pass a point in question).

I know that it's now close season for us, and we invariably will start dreaming of glory next term. The rumor mill is gathering momentum of a take over by middle east based KEH following Varney's appointment there.

If this is the case I just hope that they stick with Sir Chris and give him the opportunity to invest their money and grow the team. To be honest my appraisal of what we need would be as follows.

A new center back to provide cover for Dervite (who should be shoe into the team next season in my opinion) and Morrison, at least two midfielders of first team quality and a striker who can play off of Kermogant (my player of the year).

That's all we need to add to be competing for promotion or the play off's.

Simples! (I did say that I was feeling wildly optimistic).