When Roland Duchâtelet assumed control at the Valley soon after Christmas, the future looked a lot brighter for Charlton fans all across the world who had grown tired with the previous regime under Michael Slater and Tony Jimenez.
Slater and Jiminez were blamed by many for the contract situation involving the majority of the Charlton first team squad with Chatham based Chris Solly being in the minority for having a contract beyond the end of the current season.
Charlton fans were excited about the prospect of having cash to spend for the first time in ages but life under the new regime has already gone sour for many of the fans. Where’s the new signings and more importantly, where are the new contracts for the spine of the current team, Dale Stephens, Yann Kermorgant, Johnnie Jackson, Rhoys Wiggins etc?
New signings have come in with the arrivals or Astrit Adjarevic and Anil Koc from Roland Duchatelet other owned clubs, Standard Liege in Belgium and the signing of right back Loic Nego from Ujpest in Hungary.
These players are untried at Championship level and almost certainly weren’t on manager Chris Powell’s January wish list, however good they may be or prove to be in the future.
Whilst watching Charlton this season, it has been apparent that scoring goals has been the problem so when news appeared in the press today that star striker and Charlton idol Yann Kermorgant was on his way to Bournemouth to discuss terms on a reported £400k move to the south coast, Charlton fans were rightly in uproar, especially when news spread that manager Chris Powell was unaware that the deal had been done without any communication at all with him
£400k for a 32 year old injury prone striker would normally be passed as a good deal but with Charlton currently in 22nd place in the championship, fighting a relegation battle, the deal seems ludicrous for your top scorer when previous comments from the manager suggested that he was hoping to sign a deal with Kermorgant in the near future.
Long waves by Kermorgant after Tuesday night’s 3-0 away defeat at Doncaster to the away fans and sources close to the club suggested that Kermorgant knew that was his final game for the club.
I hope, as every football fan does that this is just conjuncture from the press and that Yann lines up for Charlton at Wigan on Saturday, after Friday’s transfer deadline has passed but I just can’t see it happening.
With Chris Powell only having six months left on his own contract, will Kermorgant leaving start an exodus of staff, including Chris Powell through the Valley exit door?
This has been seen at Roland Duchatelet’s other club Standard Liege, which led to riots outside the stands but Liege are now top of the Belgian Jupiler league, with top clubs after their young products. Is this Duchatelet’s ultimate plan? Building from within, Could relegation back to league 1 and playing the youngsters ultimately set Charlton Athletic onto bigger things and a bright future?
As a Charlton fan, I certainly hope so but ideally I want Chris Powell at the helm and the core of our side tied to long term contracts. Here’s heading to Wigan on Saturday.