Charlton Athletic: New Season, New Squad
Posted by The Addickted in Charlton, Transfers | 10 August 2007
The big kick off is less than 24 hours away, and with the pre-season drawing to a close it is safe to say that it has been all change at Charlton Athletic. Over the summer, Pardew has brought in 14 new faces and 16 familiar ones have departed, making the current squad the most unrecognisable the Valley Faithful will have seen for some time.
Lets start with the bad news from the summer, the inevitable departure of Darren Bent and the sale of other big players such as Luke Young and Soulemayne Diawara. They all make big dents into the squad and the likes of Bent are simply irreplacable. But every cloud has a silver lining, and the money from the clearout has brought in a quick, young strike force in Luke Varney and Izael McLeod. Managing to keep the midfield almost entirely untouched is a huge bonus and Pardew has also managed to bring in two very exciting defensive prospects in France U'21 captain Yassin Moutaoaukil and Jose Semedo.
So where does this leave us for the season? Pretty strong I'd say. I think Pardew's given us every chance of going straight back up, and if not he's built a young squad that will be even stronger a year later to have another crack at promotion. Of course it's not going to be an easy ride in the Championship and to describe the reasons for this, I'm afraid I can't avoid using the following clichés: The team needs time to gel, a lot of the players are untested at this level and let us not forget the painfully overused "the championship is a very tough league" argument.
Onto Scunthope tomorrow, getting the three points are really all we're after, but from a fan's point of view, there will be nothing better than a good old fashioned drubbing to settle the early-season nerves! I think it'll be shakey but we should win comfortably, 2-0 is my prediction.
Comments
I think AP is the new Arsene Wenger....Im quite astounded at the number of young, well credentialed quality continental players like Semedo, Moutaoaukil, Christensen and soon Racon that we are enticing to The Valley. I only hope that we do not become a 'nursery' for larger clubs (whether we go up this year or not, we are still small fry) and that these players are 'up for it' on a wet Tuesday in Blackpool.....
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