Gearing Up

Lots of positive news has come out of Charlton in the last couple of days, and for the first time in a long time I am starting to relax a little bit ahead of the coming campaign. The 2-1 victory against the spectacularly named Germinal Beerschot at the Olympisch Stadium (again spectacularly named, although the namer sounds like he must have had a few too many Beershots) was the best result of our pre-season to date. The widely predicted signings of Bolanos, Faye and Traore have all come to fruition for combined fees of £4m, and Dowie has claimed that there may well be another signing or two before the season begins.

Provided he is match fit, Faye will doubtless move into one of the central midfield spots in place of either Matt Holland or Bryan Hughes for the West Ham game, leaving us with a starting XI looking something like this:

..........................Andersen.............................

Young........Hreidarsson..........Karkouri..........Traore

Rommedahl......Faye.....Kishishev.....Hughes/Bolanos

...............Hasselbaink...........Bent....................

There are a couple of uncertains with that. Obviously Thomas is still to come back into that side once he is fit again, Walton could very well claim a starting berth ahead of either Kishishev or Karkouri, and Sorondo will also be pressuring the Moroccan for a place in the side, but on paper that side looks solid enough for a mid table finish to me.
Another article I found about Bolanos claims that he has experience playing at wing back, midfield, or even as an a striker if needs must, so there is versatility there. It's definitely the most complete our squad has looked since January, and it looks as though 21-year-old attacking midfielder Scott Brown could also become an Addick before next weekend.

Kudos to the club aswell for offering the valiant 32 away season ticket holders from last term free plane travel to and from the Utrecht game on Friday as a reward for their loyalty, although as Inspector Sands points out, if you are one of the 32 you may need to leave more time than usual for your checking in etc. Hopefully we can round the pre-season off with a win and a clean sheet.

My season ticket has finally arrived along with a host of other goodies including the 'Red Card', which in case you haven't received it yet allows each season ticket holder a certain number of benefits :

-> The right to buy 2 tickets for each of the 19 home matches, subject to availability.
-> Free entry into a prize draw to win an autographed home shirt
-> A bumper car sticker
-> Daily email bulletin detailing all news from the club (available here anyway)
-> Free entry to reserve and women's games
-> A tour around the Valley at the end of the season

All of this along with a flyer inviting each season ticket holder to join the cup ticketing scheme. A good idea which allows the club to debit your card whenever home cup tickets go on sale, and they will be automatically posted out to you before the game. Saves all of the queuing up down at the Valley on cold Wednesday mornings, and you'll certainly be glad you did it if there turns out to be an equivalent Operation Riverside this season...