It’s the latest review of the week for Charlton Athletic.
Charlton goalkeeper Anna Koivunen saves from Melvine Malard - but Chelsea scored six times at The Valley on Sunday/Picture: Keith Gillard
Winless run for Charlton hits doubles figures
It won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that Charlton lost 3-0 at Middlesbrough on Saturday, extending their winless run in the Championship to 10 matches.
The only other team to win their first three matches in the second tier and then go that many games without a victory was Blackburn Rovers in the 1986-87 season.
The Addicks are 13 matches without a clean sheet on the road.
And this is the club’s longest winless spell since they went 16 games between December 9, 2023 and February 24, 2004 in League One.
Nathan Jones’ comments to South London Sport after the reverse against Boro made it clear that he knows the huge importance of successive home fixtures at The Valley - starting with Bolton Wanderers tomorrow night.
Harvey Knibbs did post-match at Boro/Picture: South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition
“Naturally confidence does go in peaks and troughs - that was evident today for them (Boro),” said midfielder Harvey Knibbs. “They are absolutely flying and everything is going flying into the back of the net. They took advantage of those little moments.
“When you are lacking in confidence those little moments can go the opposite way.
“We have got quality in this dressing room to get back to winning ways and that’s what we want to do on Tuesday.”
Boro boss Kim Hellberg was pleased with the performance of his side as they maintained their place at the top of the table.
“Charlton are a very strong group and have a lot of good players,” said the Swede. “They put up a lot of big defensive players with height and muscles, which we knew was going to be a battle for us. We defended those situations very well.
“We played good but maybe not at our best - I think 3-0 is quite a fair result. It tells you a lot about this group and the quality they have.
“I think we are a very uncomfortable side to play against - it is difficult to know how to approach us. We are good on transition, we are good when we have the ball and we are good on low blocks - we always try to look forward and create things.
“I don’t think there are many teams in Europe that create more chances than us.”
Chelsea go 1-0 ahead in the opening minutes at The Valley/Picture: Keith Gillard
Chelsea cruise to big victory at Valley
Charlton Athletic were hammered 6-0 by Chelsea in the WSL on Sunday afternoon.
The visitors took just three minutes to open the scoring when Nathalie Bjorn headed past goalkeeper Anna Koivunen.
Koivunen was at fault for the second as Melvine Malard made it 2-0 on 10 minutes, but she also made a couple of excellent saves - most notably a close-range one in the second half.
The margin of defeat could easily have been heavier with Chelsea striking the woodwork twice in quick succession. They finished with a whopping xG of 6.37 and had 36 attempts on goal.
Chelsea led 4-0 inside the opening 20 minutes.
Ashleigh Neville twice went close to putting the Addicks on the scoreboard with second-half headers, one of which was whipped away from the goal-line by a Blues player.
Charlton are bottom of the table and yet to collect a point. They have a derby at Crystal Palace on Sunday (2pm).
“We feel a little bit disappointed to give them the goals so early on,” said Charlton manager Karen Hills. “In the second half they probably took their foot off the gas a bit.
“They are an absolutely quality outfit but my players never threw the towel in. We have got to stick with it, keep believing in ourselves and try to pick up points from the teams around us.”
Charlton lost 2-1 to West Ham in the League Cup on Wednesday.
Grace Johnston scored in the 69th minute for the Addicks but by that stage they trailed to two goals from Ffion Morgan.
Charlton are seventh in Group B of the competition. The top eight clubs at the end of the group stages advance to the quarter-final stage.
The Addicks’ next match in the tournament is at home against Ipswich Town on November 11.
New CEO
Charlton Athletic confirmed that Ben Mansford had been appointed as the club’s new chief executive on Tuesday.
The full story is here.
Greg Docherty/Picture: Kyle Andrews
Will Doc operate a role for Preston?
North End boss Graham Alexander is running the rule over ex-Addicks skipper Greg Docherty.
The Scot, who turned 30 in September, has been a free agent since his contract was mutually terminated at the end of the summer transfer window.
“It was just a case of him coming in having a look at us and us having a look at him, and we will see how it progresses,” Alexander told BBC Radio Lancashire.
“He looks in good shape. He’s been a captain, he’s been a promotion winner, he’s got a voice, he’s got experience - he’s still got hunger.
“He sees this as a top club at a great level, and he would love to be a part of it.”
Docherty had played 129 Championship matches. The last of his 90 matches for Charlton came in the 5-1 EFL Cup loss to Tottenham.
Tennai Watson before the 2025 League One play-off final/Picture: Kyle Andrews
Watson training with Addicks
Tennai Watson has been training with Charlton as he looks to get fixed up with a new club.
The 29-year-old defender has been out of contract since leaving Barnsley at the end of last season.
Watson spent two years on the books of the Addicks after signing from Milton Keynes Dons in September 2023.
He played 40 times in his first season with Charlton and then a further 21 times as they won promotion from League One, including replacing Thierry Small in the 67th minute of the play-off final victory against Leyton Orient.
Chuks Aneke playing against Plymouth in a 2020 FA Cup tie at The Valley/Picture: Keith Gillard
Aneke retires
Chuks Aneke has ended his playing career at the age of 33.
The former Charlton striker posted the update on his Instagram.
He said: “I’d like to officially announce my retirement from professional football.
“Also, I’d like to express my gratitude to all the coaches, all the staff, my teachers, my friends and my family and the fans, the ones who supported me and the ones who didn’t.
“It was all part of an amazing journey and I wouldn’t change it. Looking forward to the second half.”
Aneke played 138 matches and scored 27 goals in two spells with the Addicks.
Conor Coventry and Harvey Knibbs/Picture: Focus/CAFC
Community Day shirt for visit of Blades
Charlton will wear a one-off shirt underlining the impact of Charlton Athletic Community Trust for Saturday’s home match against Sheffield United.
RSK, the normal sponsors, have agreed to the move.
The CACT logo will be on the tops along with the message ‘£83m generated in social impact’.
“From helping young people steer away from crime and anti-social behaviour to supporting older residents experiencing loneliness and isolation, CACT’s programmes continue to make a tangible difference across the communities the club serves,” said the club’s official website.
“The figure of £83m generated in social impact demonstrates the scale of that contribution and the lasting value created through the trust’s extensive work in health, education, inclusion and community engagement.
“The methodology used and figure reached is validated by the University of Greenwich, a long term partner of both the club and CACT.”
Thought id sum up my posts with an overall one for what I think is the root cause of the predicament Charlton is facing at the moment and sets the context for the challenge ahead. Thanks.
The big problem at Charlton Athletic
Nathan Jones is on his longest winless streak and this has put his position at Charlton in jeopardy, which he frankly acknowledge at the post match interview at the latest loss to league leaders Middlesborough.
It has now become do or die this week with two concurrent home games against Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Utd. After the flying start to the campaign how on earth did we get here!
In my opinion it started in the summer before the first game kicked off with the Board not backing the team with any sizeable investment. I believe the figure spent is around £1.5m and even if you charitably add the proposed £5.5m for the JRS debacle, then that is nearly half the amount invested in the summer before and even then that £12m was one of the lowest investments in the Championship.
On paper one of our owners - Joshua Friedman is a billionaire, according to public record and estimates has a net worth of $5 billion. Another one of our owners Gabriel Brener has a net worth of £350m. There are four other key stakeholders within the Global football partners who have at least a 5% stake and so I would assume they also have millions net worth.
Yet we only get £1.5m with the potential of another £5.5m, which I think was only going to be paid in instalments, which was one of the negative negotiating factors against Charlton for sealing the JRS deal (I acknowledge amongst other issues and the true picture of why it fell through isn’t completely in the public domain).
When its well known and I assume should be very well known by our Ownership and Board that you need to invest considerable more funds to really thrive in this league and when you consider on paper the net worth of our ownership - then why wasn’t the right investment required made available?
You can only conclude that is because Charlton is no longer their priority and they want out of the club. Indeed we have all the corroboration we need on this point due to the Guardian article earlier in the year. The board want out and they want to cash in at least three time the amount they paid (around £15m) for the club, which according to the market is unrealistic as we do not own our own assets; The Valley and Sparrows lane. This is probably why we haven’t heard any news or progress on new investment since Oakwell Sports advisory were engaged, back in July, to facilitate said extra investment/new ownership.
So we are stuck with another lame duck ownership who do not see their future at the club and are asking too much to attract a new ownership or extra investment, which means purgatory for the club in the foreseeable. This is compounded by an incompetent board: the whole ‘we want to grow the club in a sustainable manner’ peddled by Gavin Carter is obviously a smokescreen to try and put people off the true reasons why the ownership aren’t investing and Jim Rodwell who has overseen a calamitous transfer strategy.
Unfortunately, against this backdrop we know the first casualty isn’t the board but will be the manager, and to be fair even Jones acknowledges this and he is culpable for the teams results but i would suggest in any other job, they way he has been undermined would be a case for constructive dismissal.
Our only hope this season is that Nathan and the team, despite being undermined by the hopeless situation enforced by the club and board, find a way to start winning again and obtain survival this year in the hope a new ownership emerges, which is willing to dig into its pockets and properly finance the club and the team to at least an ‘average championship investment’.