Karl Robinson returned to the scene of his last failed managerial position yesterday and his struggling Oxford United side managed to stick a spoke in the Charlton wheel with a second-half equaliser to deny the Addicks momentum from Saturday's impressive win over high-flying Barnsley.
However, a comment from the verbose Robinson responding to the home fans booing of Ricky Holmes was very telling. Holmes was sold nearly a year ago to Sheffield United for a purported million pounds at a time when he was our top scorer and was largely responsible for point-winning displays of the early part of last season which meant we avoided a relegation struggle at the finish. When Holmes left, he naturally embraced his new club, and that angered some Charlton fans on social media. At the time Holmes remained fairly tight-lipped but there was a comment from him at the time along the lines of "the truth will out."
What Robinson made clear last night was that Holmes was sold from under him by Roland Duchatelet and that Holmes himself had little say in the matter which qualifies Holmes' comment at the time. It was fairly apparent that selling Holmes was a book-balancing exercise in the same vein as Gomez, Lookman, Cousins, Gudmundsson, Pope and Konsa but it's still gratifying to have that confirmed and in those tones.
It remains patently clear to me that, not only has Duchatelet left us deliberately short of a squad to challenge once again (Bauer's injury coincided with one point from nine after a promising run), but that he is very likely to be keeping an eye on who he can sell this January and an ear out for prospective buyers (of players). So the merry-go-round will begin once again.
Any smarter clubs should see us for the lame duck we are and know that there are bargains to be had given the owners lack of interest in the footballing side of things and his determination to cut his ongoing losses.
However, a comment from the verbose Robinson responding to the home fans booing of Ricky Holmes was very telling. Holmes was sold nearly a year ago to Sheffield United for a purported million pounds at a time when he was our top scorer and was largely responsible for point-winning displays of the early part of last season which meant we avoided a relegation struggle at the finish. When Holmes left, he naturally embraced his new club, and that angered some Charlton fans on social media. At the time Holmes remained fairly tight-lipped but there was a comment from him at the time along the lines of "the truth will out."
What Robinson made clear last night was that Holmes was sold from under him by Roland Duchatelet and that Holmes himself had little say in the matter which qualifies Holmes' comment at the time. It was fairly apparent that selling Holmes was a book-balancing exercise in the same vein as Gomez, Lookman, Cousins, Gudmundsson, Pope and Konsa but it's still gratifying to have that confirmed and in those tones.
It remains patently clear to me that, not only has Duchatelet left us deliberately short of a squad to challenge once again (Bauer's injury coincided with one point from nine after a promising run), but that he is very likely to be keeping an eye on who he can sell this January and an ear out for prospective buyers (of players). So the merry-go-round will begin once again.
Any smarter clubs should see us for the lame duck we are and know that there are bargains to be had given the owners lack of interest in the footballing side of things and his determination to cut his ongoing losses.
Normally I'd hold no store by anything Gobby has to say, assuming it was even intelligible, but we're well versed in the meddling of he who should not be named thus all too prepared to believe he shot RH out the door to the first serious bidder. RH's response to the obscene abuse from the covered end did him great credit indeed.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it was forced through but probably not £1M for a then 30 yr old who had never played above the 3rd tier. The extra daunting thing about this window is that some of our most promising players have not been secured on contracts, and may follow Bauer in not wanting to extend anyway - of course because of the shambolic situation.
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