Bowing to the inevitable

Back from Frankfurt last night and, to be honest, quite surprised that Darren was still with us. I've kept up-to-date with developments whilst I have been away on the various blogger sites and Charlton Life, and was even beginning to hold a faint hope (misguided, I know !) that he might stay. Every newspaper report just seemed to be a copy of another, so I wasn't entirely convinced he was going.

And then I log-on this morning to Forever Charlton ... crap, he has left ... and as expected by the media, to the Spuds. Can't say I am overjoyed by this. If he was to go, I had hoped it would be to a better team. Unless they sell, he may find himself on the bench quite a lot, definitely not something he is used to. I hope not, because he deserves far more than that.

At least we stuck to our guns and got a great price for him. A lot of (jealous) fans from other clubs (particularly Palaaaarse) were telling us that we had blown our chances by not selling in January and if we were relegated we would be in such a state of weakness that we would have to sell at a far lower price ... yeah, course we did!!

And respect to Darren for not moving just for the sake of money ... the Hamsters would have been a far worse move despite the salary you would have obtained.

You go with our best wishes Darren and leave us with a lot of great memories. Just make sure, when you get re-sold again, it is to a team that is more admired.

I wonder how the Spuds fans will react. They have been all over our sites shouting that Bent is over-valued and they do not need him. Same on their own Rivals site. In fact, the spat that they had on Frankie's place was one of the funniest things I have seen this year. I wonder if they will now go back and say how brilliant Darren is ... ;-)

I asssume Pards will be happy as he will hopefully now be a given a share of the money for the transfer chest. Whilst Pards appreciated the value of Darren, I think he had his eye on him leaving from day one. Remembering his comments during the January transfer window, he knew that he needed more funds in order to re-build the team, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Darren was injured at the time, he may well have gone then.

Oh well ... on to another era ... and it seems to involve a lot of younger players. Semedo looks an interesting prospect although he hasn't been able to guarantee a first-team spot at his previous club. I intended to give a summary of my thoughts on the current squad, but found that it had been done far more competently than I could have done by New York Addick.

Just noticed in Addicks Premiership Diary that Mattie has signed a further one year contract. I'm pleased with that as I am sure he can still do a good job for us for one more season.