Jun 23
And some good news on a Sunday. Jake Forster-Caskey has signed his offered contract and will wear the red shirt in The Championship next season.
The injury and the timing of it last summer was heartbreaking for Jake and all Addicks as great things were expected on the back of an excellent season the year before, which only got better under the tutelage of Lee Bowyer.
I am sure Steven Gerrard had a huge influence on Joe Aribo’s decision to move to the Scottish Premier League with Rangers. If Lee Bowyer improved Joe, then Gerrard will take him to the next level as a footballer, and an athlete.
Yet, it is hard not to shake your head by this move. Short term, okay. Playing under Gerrard, getting regular games, challenging for trophies (again), throw in a bit of Europa Cup. But, the SPL has been as graveyard for many young players, and old, and what happens when Gerrard leaves, or Aribo outgrows that team? Is the SPL the stepping stone, the evolution of a player ready for a move to the EPL?
Those fixtures look a hell of a lot better than the last few seasons, don’t they? More familiar foes from our long history with no disrespect to the sides in League One.
So we start on the road at Blackburn, a team we have played in the league 35 times. A big away end, and hopefully loads of noise coming out of it. Our first home game is Stoke City, one of many occasions I guess when the Jimmy Seed will be full. We haven’t played Stoke since 2008.
We then go to fellow promoted Barnsley, and then are at home midweek against Nottingham Forest and then Brentford on the Saturday.
This is not a week for those Addicks with a dodgy ticker. Bad news tonight as Patrick Bauer aka BFG said his farewells to Charlton fans.
Not wholly surprising and we can’t say he never warned us. You have to think with a slightly more healthy budget he may have stayed but he maybe ready to move on after an often difficult four years. And of course he’s leaving on the ultimate high.
And now we got Lee Bowyer, we’re f’kin dynamite.
Glorious news. “Charlton Athletic are delighted to confirm that Addicks’ boss Lee Bowyer has agreed a contract extension with the club.” (more)
What a difference a day makes, or really an evening. Lee Bowyer and Duchatelet agreeing to a deal last night just hours after the owner once again went into one of his mental rants airing the clubs dirty laundry in public.
In the fact the two stories sit side by side on the official website. It really is bonkers.
Roland Duchatelet has typed or dictated some scatterbrained old tosh in the past, but yesterday’s beats the lot.
As always blaming everybody and everything other than himself. The man has no shame. Dragging into public consumption details of salaries and negotiations is utterly disgusting. He trashes other clubs and their owners because as we know only Roland has the plan for a sustainable and successful football club.
Duchatelet has dealt with agents broadly since he and Katrien Meire were in charge of the club. We had the third highest agent fees in League One in 2018 and in two seasons RD lined agents pockets to the tune of over £1m. So why the dig at Lee having a representative? The poor bloke has had to deal with Duchatelet’s representative Lievan de Turck for ages. Conflict of interests my arse.
Bermuda lost their opening game at the CONCACAF Gold Cup last night 2-1 to Haiti. Bermuda took the lead right on half time when captain Dante Leverock powered home a header from a corner.
It was a dream score at the break and until then the half had been pretty even with Bermuda trying to keep the ball and having much the better of the chances. Haiti came out stronger in the 2nd half and in the end their fitness and strength prevailed.
Counting the days, the months and the years 😞
