Here goes nothing, a blog of the 2013/14 Championship season from the view point of a Charlton Athletic casual northern away day supporter.
It's been a very weird week of reading views of other Charlton fans, actually, no it hasn't, it's been fairly normal coming to think of it. The pessimistic moaners moaned that we only had one striker, then after the shock sale of David Button to Brentford had another reason to complain as we were left with just one senior 'Keeper, the very able Ben Hamer, as well as the one senior Striker, the man we all dream of a team of, Yann Kermorgant.
The David Button news came mid-afternoon on Tuesday and was a shock to most, a player who only a few days earlier had 45mins of our final pre-season game and challenged the No.1 Hamer last season, it was not a predictable sale. Button will prove to be a good signing for Brentford and is expected to be the Bee's number one choice this season after they themselves sold Simon Moore to Premier League new boys Cardiff City.
Anyway, back to reasons to moan... Charlton Life and twitter were full of rants and hashtags being put into overdrive as people struggled to see why we had sold. There were a few who loyally supported both the 1st XI and the successful U21 XI last year who believed that Nick Pope could be used as a No.2 choice, and also, it must be said, with the farcical that is the 'emergency loan' if there were to be a problem with Ben Hamer, it would not be too difficult to bring in a Premier League reserve or youngster for a month or two.
So then, late Wednesday night, my twitter timeline exploded... (I mainly follow Charlton fans) This tweet came out of nowhere telling us a deal for Marvin Sordell was near completion.
Sordell, a long term target for Powell, has featured for both the England U21 side and also played in last years Olympics. We missed out on a loan deal for him in January and us fans had not really considered him since, so this news was a bolt from the blue, and got everyone excited just before midnight.
Thursday came along and everyone woke up to the Sordell rumour, Bolton fans said it was a done deal, and we even made it into BBC's Gossip Column! The news before this announcement was that of Simon Church signing, on a two year contract. Released from Reading over the summer, it was known he was training with us, and going by our one senior striker was unsurprising. This was very quickly followed by the Sordell confirmation. A year long loan. Euphoria hit the Addicks fans as we had signed two players, two strikers, two people we actually recognised the names of pretty well!
That was until somebody decided to check out the pairs goal-scoring records, which I won't mention as they are so heavily affected by sub appearances.
Anyway, tomorrow is Bournemouth, and we have 3 strikers! (but only 1 'trusted' goalkeeper in some eyes)
Powell has 2 decisions to make in my view.
1) 4-4-2, with Yann and Sordell up top, dropping Dale Stephens
2) Who plays RM, Bradley Pritchard who is ever dependable, or go with the impressive pre-season form of Danny Green. (must also be noted Pritchard has also got a fair bit of pre-season form behind him)
My view is that it will be 100% Pritch who starts if we go 4-5-1. HOWEVER, I have an inkling, that Sordell will start, and CP will want Greens delivery and quality, which often goes missing, to test the suspect Bournemouth defence, and supply Yip Yap Yann and Sordell.
Thus, my team would look something like.
Hamer
Solly Morrison Dervite Wiggins
Green Jackson Gower Harriott
Kermorgant
Sordell
Expect Kermit to play a slightly withdrawn role and dropping in and Sordell to just stick on the last man and run channels.
I reckon we will see Bournemouth knock the ball around nicely, but also be rather toothless (almost like us vs Inverness!) with Pitman and Ritchie expected to miss out.
If we start 4-5-1 it will be a battle of midfields we will win eventually, if 4-4-2, we will look very dangerous, but sacrifice a bit of stability down the middle.
Either way, we should take 3 points, just a question of how comfortably we do it!
Lastly, two things of note to keep an eye on for us fans.
1) It is believed that Rhoys Wiggins could be heading out the exit door as the club looks for funds to strengthen other areas.
2) Ex-loanee Jon Obika was left out of a Spurs development squad game a couple of nights ago, fueling speculation he will get what he wants in a return to the Valley.
Here's to my pre-season optimism!
Sam
@FlipsideSam
