Transfer Window Dressing?

Nottingham Forest 2 Charlton 0


Are Darren and Garry related? I think we should be told.

Those friends of mine who read my blog on a fairly regular basis think they have detected a trend. This is roughly that whenever Charlton have lost, and especially lost badly, as they did in Nottingham last weekend, then I am much more loath to put finger to key than when there is good news to celebrate. I have considered what my friends say, and my answer is "up to a point", for who would not wish to share his joy with the rest of the blog-reading and writing public when there is something to shout about? And as at the moment there isn't all that much to write home (or anywhere else) about at Charlton, then my absence from the web this week finds its explanation.

But of course this is not the whole story, and may indeed not be any part of it, for of course the holidays are over, I have returned to the Centre, and unlimited time for writing is not available to me, especially in this first week, as the routine hasn't kicked in properly yet.

The sorry tale of Charlton's defeat by Nottingham Forest is well-documented by now, and since then there has been a lot of speculation about the transfer market. As I stated last time, it rather looked as if Darren Bent was on his way, though Pards at first said he wasn't, and then that he might be, and now, again, that he isn't. There have also been rumours that one of my particular favourites, Jerome Thomas, might be off to Fulham. This has not been substantiated and there doesn't seem to be any reason why the club might want him to go there either.

And now today comes the news that Ben Thatcher, a character who was in the news for badly injuring an opponent not that long ago, has been signed from Manchester City, and that Djimi Traore has been signed by Portsmouth.

I was reminded of Traore this week, after Liverpool's sensational defeat against Arsenal in the League Cup. People at work were speculating that it was odd that Rafa Benítez doesn't seem to understand cup competitions, especially as over here in Spain they aren't regarded as all that important. And I suddenly remembered that he put a reserve team out a couple of years back when Liverpool were drawn away to my other club, Burnley, in the FA Cup. The match had been postponed due to heavy rain and so was a midweek catch-up job a couple of weeks later. Rafa, in his first season at Anfield, decided that away on a wet Tuesday night to a lower-league side didn't merit sending anyone important, and sent what was effectively a reserve side, which duly lost 1-0, the goal being a rather spectacularly silly own goal. Scored, I suddenly remembered, by a young player called Traore. Hmm.

Harry Rednapp thinks he can make something of him at Portsmouth, and let's hope so, as by all accounts he is a nice young man; but please don't let him come good till after Charlton's trip to Fratton Park in two or three weeks' time.

Oddly enough, the media have not been terribly critical of Charlton this week, and there have been numerous reports that, what with the appointment of Phil Parkinson and some timely tactics by Pards, Charlton might well climb out of trouble, now that they only have the league to bother about. Well, maybe.

Later today, Charlton host Middlesbrough. I read a very interesting story on the BBC, or was it F365? It said that Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate will be telling his team to try and win. Fascinating, the things these professional writers find to report about.

The picture is one I came across the other night, after the Forest defeat. Obviously I was looking for something which didn't show Charlton conceding goals, and I found this one of Charlton's Darren Ambrose and Forest's Garry Holt, and what I thought was how incredibly alike they are. Are they perhaps related? I think we should be told.