Look at the players Charlton have brought in, mainly on frees. Gunter, Bogle, Maddison, Gilbey, Washington. All 5 would walk into our starting XI at the moment. Cameron Jerome went to League One (MK Dons) on a free too. All very demoralising. The value has been there in the free agent market.
'free' I guarantee Charlton spent money they don't have on every one of them. Bogle alones wages will be double our best paid player. Gilbey would have been a decent signing but you have no guarantee he wanted to come to us. Maddison is a trouble maker and best avoided, thought he deserved better and ended up at Charlton. Washington was poor at Hearts so no thanks. Don't know much about Gunter. Free agents are normally free for a reason.
absolutely no sell on value , we arent interested. and you've no idea what wages they are paying, they could be a very expensive gamble.
A Charlton fan that I play 5 a side with told me last week they had all 5 lined up ready to sign, they were just waiting for the new owners to come in and the transfer embargo to be lifted. Obviously we could have put a spanner in the works while all that was going on.
FFP in League 1 is extremely stringent, they won't be able to overspend on wages unless they want transfer embargoes and fines from periodic review of their accounts and projections.
They signed 2 of those players literally the week they announced administration, so I doubt it. League gave them special exceptions.
There may have been exemption to allow them to sign players because of the crazy nature of the ownership struggle. They wouldn't be given dispensation to breech extremely rigorous FFP rules.
Well every player mentioned will be on way over 2k each per week so clearly they're doing something. Either big bonuses or signing on fees, or they're going to have to sign a bunch of academy kids on 200 per week to bring down average
I beleive there is a transition for newly relegated clubs and players on long contracts or players under a certain age can be discounted. If not, we'd have vreached FFP by a mile making such a big loss in our relegated season. That said, new signings after relegation and new contract awards are subject to FFP rules.
On the basis that they're better than what we've got from what I've seen. Perhaps the strikers are on a par with ours but certainly no worse. Different types of player and we know we need variety up front. Gilbey is the type of midfielder we lack, very highly regarded. Maddison is a quality wideman, better than Thomas. Gunter would easily be our best fullback and add experience to the defence. All in my opinion of course. But we do seem to overlook obvious additions to the squad who don't cost fees.
The wages of Brown, Radlinger, Dougall, Thiam, Pinillos, Cavare, Ritzmaier would probably amount to that, all of whom have gone without being replaced.
Each to their own, I guess, but Gilbey aside, they’re all types of signings I’m glad we don’t make anymore.
