The date is September 1, 2008. The scene, something out of Jordan Belfort’s Wolf of Wall Street stock-floor. Incessant ringing of the phones cut through voices shouting from one end of the room to the other, papers strewn all over the place, blood pressure turned all the way up.
Can you hear that sound? It’s a clock. And it’s ticking, the seconds falling away at a rapid pace.
An attempt is made to snatch Dimitar Berbatov from Manchester United’s grasp, David Villa and Fernando Torres mentioned. Hell, even an accidental £70m bid for Lionel Messi is swatted away by Barcelona.
The day ends with smiles all round, albeit exhausted and mildly confused smiles. Robinho, donning a grey suit and black backwards baseball cap, has arrived, holding up a sky blue kit, breaking the British transfer record and smashing a deafening gong to announce the arrival of a new era in English football.
Road To Riches
The chasm may stretch more than 200 miles, 4,141 days, and one division, but the situation on the blue side of Manchester that fateful day is not too different from the current predicament at The Valley.
In the three campaigns preceding City’s change in fortunes, and finances, they finished 9th, 14th, and 15th in the Premier League while facing the genuine prospect of relegation, staving off the drop by just four points in 2007. An absolute car crash of a club, the 2007/08 season culminated in the unmitigated disaster of losing 8–1 to Middlesborough, while their local rivals lifted the Premier League title.
The situation on the pitch was bad, but the state of the boardroom was substantially more worrying. City’s owner, the infamous former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, was on the run from the Thai authorities, seeking political asylum in the UK after £800m in assets were frozen by the Thai government. The club was struggling to pay its players let alone make a splash in the transfer market.
Then, a name previously unknown to the bulk of Premier League viewers announced his arrival on the global stage, eternally altering the football landscape in the process. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan bought the forlorn club and all hell broke loose from the offset with a clause in the takeover requiring City to sign a marquee name; and they had just one week to do it.
Mayhem In Manchester
Former Chief Executive Garry Cook, recently described the ludicrous episode, in an interview with The Athletic; “We had been given a week,” he said. “It was a marching order, a delegation of authority, call it what you will, and off you go. So that was when the comedy started, as if we hadn’t had enough comedy already.
“We had to find a marquee player. We were trying to find out where all the marquee players were in the world, who could be bought and, even if they couldn’t, how could we try?
“The agents were trying to divert players our way because they knew that clause was for big money. Somebody had a big cheque to write, and the agents loved that. We had a week and we were literally sending out offers everywhere.”
Berbatov ended up at United, the deal for Messi never got off the ground, and eventually, a seemingly Chelsea-bound Robinho signed on. Despite showing promise in his first campaign, Robinho quickly transformed into a major headache as his performances fell off a cliff amid concerns over his attitude. The former heir apparent to Pele managed just one goal in his second season, departing for Santos on loan before eventually landing permanently at AC Milan in 2010, City taking a massive financial loss.
Gary Cook’s team was desperate and ended up getting fleeced for a player that seemingly had no desire to brave the Manchester rain in order to be the centre of an extensive rebuild; only arriving for the mind-boggling wage packet.
Robinho’s agent knew City had to offer a blank cheque and give in to whatever astronomical demands he put in front of them, however ridiculous. The club’s desperation along with their sudden influx of cash, both apparent to the whole world, left them vulnerable.
Charlton now find themselves in a similar position. Only with much greater consequences.
Picking Up The Pieces
The Addicks went from having the smallest budget in the Championship at the start of the season to having an owner who’s net worth outmuscles the vast majority of his peers across the Football League.
On top of that, weighed down by the ownership of Roland Duchatelet, the Charlton squad is a bit of a depleted mess, kept above water by loans, academy graduates, and players on expiring contracts.
All that makes Lee Bowyer’s side appear rather desperate. A quick glance at Charlton’s squad reveals the need for substantial reinforcements and a quicker glance at the google search results for “Tahnoon Nimer” will get opposition clubs and agents licking their lips.
Clearly sensing an issue from the outset, Matt Southall addressed this exact point in his first interview after the takeover was complete.
“We’ve got a few offers out for players,” the chairman explained on the club website. “The January window is a funny one-prices are inflated and, given who is behind the takeover, quotations get inflated as well so when Steve Gallen’s putting the call in for a player, a couple of zeros get added on at the end.”
The reality is that agents and clubs used to see Charlton as a wasteland, completely devoid of money, a perception that was largely true. Since Gallen’s arrival at The Valley in April 2017, the club has made 36 signings. 18 of those were free transfers and 16 loan deals. The remaining two? Macauley Bonne and Ben Purrington, signed for a combined total of less than £300k.
On The Back-Foot
Now, with Nimer and his deep deep pockets, agents and other club’s executives smell blood. They know this Charlton squad is a patchwork of ranging pedigrees, almost entirely on small salaries. They sense a pay-day and who could blame them, we all saw what happened with City.
In any negotiation Charlton are on the back-foot, trying to justify their valuation of a player and his proposed wages while on the other side of the table agents sit with dollar signs in their eyes, salivating at the reports they’ve read about the club’s newfangled wealth.
Agents and rival clubs simply expect Charlton to close their eyes and hand out blank cheques.
This transfer window is already a watershed moment in the ownership of East Street Investments. Charlton need to set a line in the sand. Either they are willing to pay well over the odds for players, something that will no doubt follow them into future windows, or, they stand firm and show that their intention is to run a smart and sustainable football club.
It was clear from the moment Matt Southall entered The Valley, clad in fitted jeans and a black turtleneck, that the second tact would be taken.
“Like with any investment, it is a long-term strategy for us,” said Southall. “First and foremost, it is sensible and it is sustainable.
“It is not going to be a boom and bust, we are not going to come in and buy Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi or Gareth Bale, as has been touted on Twitter! It is about building it for the long-term stability of the club.”
Returning For Gnanduillet
One of the first deals ESI looked at was for Blackpool striker Armand Gnanduillet. The club nearly signed the 27-year old in the summer for £325k, but the deal stalled at the last minute. Now, they were back in for him, and with just six months left on his contract, expecting a cut-price deal.
That was most certainly not the case as Southall explained recently; “The January window is a difficult one, prices are inflated, everyone knows who our board/ investors are. The other day, a midfielder had agreed terms with Steve Gallen. Then at the last minute, his agent called — he wanted another £1K per week. I asked Steve if he was worth it, and he said probably not, so we pulled the deal. Then Blackpool wanted double the amount for their striker from August. We said no. We need to lay the stall out.”
The Blackpool striker in question is no doubt Gnanduillet, and the price, exorbitant for a player who at 27 years of age has never played at a higher level than League One and will be available for free in the summer.
Granted, the seaside club have valid reasoning to their increased valuation; the striker leads his side with 15 goals and Blackpool remain locked in a heated battle for promotion. However, it goes without saying that part of the jump in price was due to who is funding the prospective move.
Losing Gallagher
Conor Gallagher is another prime example of ESI having to make tough decisions. Gallagher’s move to Swansea came in no small part due to the finances of the deal. Steve Cooper’s side will be paying a much higher loan fee than Charlton while also paying a larger portion of the Chelsea youngster’s wages, a salary that would make him one of Charlton’s top earners.
Without taking loans into consideration, Charlton have no less than ten first-team players with contracts set to expire this summer. The state of the wage bill has never been more important or more precarious. Giving top money to a 19-year old in his first season of professional football, who isn’t even a Charlton player, would be dangerous at best, and damaging at worst. Clearly this was not even on the table, Southall saying; “We can’t just take the wage bill from where we are now to multiples of that.”
Marcus Maddison is another name that’s been frequently and hopefully typed into the Twitter search bar by Charlton supporters. A fee was agreed for the Peterborough midfielder, but personal terms have proven a stumbling block. This hasn’t just been the case for Charlton with another team also agreeing a deal with the League One club and then running into the same issue.
Whether or not Maddison will come around to the terms Charlton have offered is beside the point; the club has stood firm and made it clear that they will not be taken advantage of regardless of who the owner is.
Can’t Afford Failure
City chose to accept their desperation and pay the fees necessary through gritted teeth. Four Premier League titles later and despite Robinho’s failure, the decision seems justified.
The unfortunate reality, however, is that Charlton don’t have the luxury of being able to get these decisions wrong. Whereas the Premier League has taken a relatively relaxed approach to Financial Fair Play, the inflated TV revenues offsetting most teams’ worries regardless, the same can’t be said for Championship life.
The English Football League have already shown themselves willing to administer harsh punishments for financial breaches with Birmingham, deducted nine points last season, the poster-child for consequences of financial mismanagement.
Derby is another club that should stand out as a giant blinking warning sign to Charlton and supporters demanding a large immediate outlay. Having spent big money on the likes of Martyn Waghorn, Jack Marriott, and Krystian Bielek, the club find themselves farther than ever from the Premier League. Not only has their spending not brought success, but just this week they were charged with FFP breaches of their own. Sitting 15th in the Championship and facing a deduction as great as 21 points, the wilderness suddenly looms much larger on the horizon than the promised land for Wayne Rooney’s Derby County.
With no safety net as in the Premier League, the danger for Championship clubs is very real. Having seen risky financial models sputter and fail over the last few years, it makes sense that new ownership would desire a cautious approach.
Strengthening The Squad
However, while ESI’s stance thus far in the transfer window is amicable and likely a harbinger for future success, there are deficiencies in Bowyer’s squad that simply need to be addressed if Charlton are to stay in the Championship. Clearly exasperated by the entire process, the Addicks manager spoke about the need for new blood prior to Saturday’s away trip to Preston.
“We recognise the squad needs strengthening because of injuries and loan players going back,” he said.
“It is tough in January, as people move the goalposts.
“We want to bring people in as soon as possible, but they have to be the right type of player. Any player has to strengthen us.”
Bowyer perfectly sums up the two key points and the two opposing forces in this transfer window. Point one, the team desperately needs reinforcing. Ding! A bell has just chimed, inaudible to the common human, but just loud enough for agents to be alerted, now hungrily beginning to circle. And Bowyer’s second point? The changing terms? Seems that the agents have arrived and are delighted at the opportunity to take advantage of suddenly wealthy Charlton.
Lacking Quality
While the challenges of this transfer window are gigantic, this Charlton squad relies far too much on spirit and is likely missing the requisite numbers and quality to adequately face the relegation battle.
Josh Davison is a fine example. The 20-year old striker plays with the boundless spirit of a young man chasing a dream that didn’t seem possible just a few short months ago. The same can be said about numerous other youngsters, including Alfie Doughty.
The growing fear is that while these youngsters bring great pride and raise excitement levels, the statistics bear rather grim reading. The Addicks have won just once in their last 16 Championship matches and rank dead-last in terms of shots per game (9) and key passes per game (7).
The never-say-die attitude fostered in Bowyer’s squad has kept them competitive in almost every single game. The 2–1 defeat to Preston was the 11th time this season the Addicks have lost by one solitary goal. While the margins are incredibly tight, each of these defeats still attribute nothing to the points column and it is starting to become increasingly clear that attitude alone may not be enough to stave off relegation.
New Blood Needed
Bowyer wants new blood and he knows it’s needed now, “We need to [get players in],” said the Addicks boss after the defeat to Preston.
“We need to bring bodies in, that’s obvious. I know it, Steve Gallen knows it and the chairman knows it. The sooner, the better for me. The sooner we start bringing bodies in the better because we need help.
“Not just for myself, the players. They need help. They know it. Everyone can see what’s happening. A bit of help and a few more players coming back and then we’ll give ourselves a better chance.”
Numbers and quality is needed in equal measure. With less than a week remaining in the transfer window and those mirages of dollar signs staying firmly put in agents’ visions, difficult decisions need to be made.
Either the principles guiding the club’s January so far will have to be slightly relaxed in order to get their desired targets, or, the club may be required to do what has become the norm over the last few years; get creative.
