Tyreece Campbell could be heading for PL

Last year he was the favourite scapegoat player of many Charlton fans, but this morning Jamaican international; Tyreece Campbell is the subject of a special feature in the Football League Paper.

The FLP's resident expert Guy Branston has selected Campbell as one of three EFL starlets with Premier League potential.   He stats: 'The kid reminds of the quality wingers we've seen step up from the Championship over the years like Wilfred Zaha.'

'He's rapid, he moves fantastically and he's as slick as anything.  He's already played over 150 games by the age of 22 and I think he's got much more development to come.  He's going to get better and  better.'

Anthony Hayes, who coached Campbell from the age of 13, commented: 'People ask me who's the best young player I've worked with and for many years now I've said the one with the highest potential is Tyreece.  I still think he's only beginning to scratch the surface.'

Steve Avory, who spotted Campbell playing for a Southwark club at the age of nine, commented: 'The thing that always excited me about Tyreece was his ability to manage the ball at close quarters.  He has that one-v-one ability to go past players at speed with the dribble and get into goal scoring positions as a result of it.  And he was always a consistent goal scorer right through the academy journey.'

The article states that Campbell operates as a modern-day inside forward, preparing to use his speed and dribbling ability to cut inside off the left wing and take shots with his right football rather than hit the byline and provide crosses.

'Versus other Championship wide players and attacking midfielders, Campbell ranks in the top six for non-penalty goals, the top four for shot accuracy and the top two for goals per shot,'

'He has the composure and quality to fashion goal scoring opportunities from even low value chances.  For a team like Charlton who rarely dominate possession and take relatively few shots, it is an invaluable quality.'

We need simplicity after Cardiff says leading Charlton fan

Jonathan Grade remarked on X the other day that after winning at West Ham Charlton fans said we were heading for the Premiership, lose at Cardiff and we're going to be relegated.  'No perspectiv.' he rightly said.

I have no idea who Paul Sullivan is and why the BBC have selected him as the spokesperson for Charlton fans, but what he says is much more intelligent than a lot of the rubbish on social media.  Mind you, that is a low bar.

'Simplicity' is the key after Cardiff: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cr9dw2p02y2go

Encouraging signs at U21 victory

Nathan Jones has left his Welsh fastness and was at the U21 game, reports Richard Cawley. ‘Junior Nkeng definitely catching the eye. Hit the crossbar in the first half (might also have been a cross rather than shot). Wicked low cross in the second period which a Sheffield United player managed to lift over for a corner.

Winger Reuben Reid has been very good. Just added a third goal for the Addicks. Cut in off the left and a lovely curled finish into the bottom right corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area.

A 3-1 victory over Sheffield United at The Valley - goals from Junior Nkeng, Harvey Knibbs and Reuben Reid. Josh Edwards played the first 45 minutes. Penalty save by Logan Williams in the 49th minute kept the hosts' 2-1 ahead, denying Christopher Eadie a second goal of the afternoon.’

Varney on Curbs

Chatting with Curbs: a photo from a card Alan sent me when I was in hospital for the first time ever

Richard Cawley's interviews with Peter Varney about key figures at Charlton have been fascinating and the latest is about Curbs himself.   Print volumes are out of date but it would have been great to have all the interviews brought together in one place.

Here are a few key excerpts from the interview which is available on the South London Press Charlton Substack page.

'He had an unbelievable work ethic. He treated the club’s money as his money. I can think of ones who followed him that didn’t view it that way and had the mentality of ‘just get me another player’.  Why was he like that? Well, he is an east London boy. I think his upbringing was always about hard work.   The cornerstone of Curbs’ success was hard work and being good tactically, in terms of how he would set the side up.

Without demeaning anything Jimmy Seed did - you can take teams to promotion, through the leagues and cup success - but the game in those days was nothing like when Charlton were in the Premier League. 

We had fairly settled sides. The game was so fast. We had come up from a division, in those days, where a club didn’t have the same fitness levels as a team like Arsenal. But Curbs got Charlton’s team to compete.

For me it was always Alan that was our best-ever manager. That’s why when Thomas Sandgaard became the new owner of Charlton, I said I found it difficult to comprehend why he hadn’t been acknowledged in some way. Voice of The Valley editor Rick Everitt helped me get the message out there in February 2021, calling for Curbs to be recognised.

There probably were disagreements, but not over what you probably would think it would be about. It would be operational issues because I’d like to think, if you were talking to him, that I never expressed opinions on players or anything like that. 

You’ve got to remember that Charlton had 17 directors. What tended to happen, and it’s not a criticism of them, is that when a manager came to a meeting and, let’s say, you have lost a game, people would go: ‘Do we practise corners?’ This happened.

Alan wanted to see out the final year of his contract but he felt there were clauses in his terms that were prohibitive to being able to go and test himself in the Champions League. I won’t give you the figures, but it was a financial penalty, so if Liverpool wanted him as their manager they had to pay Charlton ‘x’ million. That was considered to be a block on testing himself at the very top level of the game.'

A memory of my own

The European Commission rang me up one day (obviously this was before Brexit) and said that they hadn't got anyone to head up a mission to an environmental conference in Kunming in south-west China and would I step in?

One thing I learnt from that visit is never underestimate the Chinese.   My minder in Beijing was a very smart young woman from the Department of Party History who accompanied me to all the sights.   I did manage to break away once and use a smattering of Mandarin to get a cab to an alley where I knew I could buy wall hangings with US dollars.

In Kunming the local television wanted to interview me about air pollution and my minder from the EU office in Beijing gave me the go ahead.  I was then confronted with statistics about air pollution in Greenwich.

The Chinese knew that I was interested in football and took me to look at training facilities used by the national team of which I was critical.  Probably coincidence, but I wss watching national television one evening and there was a feature on how Curbs and Keith Peacock worked together.   I might add that these days China National Radio calls me 'Whine' Grant.

The club was interested in the possibility of a tour in China and/or Japan, but Curbs wasn't keen.  I was asked to have a quiet word to brief him about the two countries.  I knew it was hopeless when he mentioned that the 'Emoress of China' had just had a baby.  He was a football genius (and he had his finances looked after very well), but currentt affairs was not his suit.

Latest Championship club to risk points deduction

Sheffield United could face a 12 points deduction from the EFL because of court cases: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2026/09/legal-worries-at-blades.html

Euell starts with an away point

Interim Preston North End first team coach Jason Euell secured a 2-2 draw at the Super Hoops on Saturday.   His side was 2-0 ahead at the break.   Despite some tough talk by him to the team at half time, 10-man QPR improved in the second half and scored a last minute equaliser.

Reflecting on his personal pride in the experience of managing PNE after the 2-2 draw at QPR, the 49-year old said: “I enjoyed it. It's something that I'm familiar with, yes, at different levels and at different stakes, but I've done enough games as an assistant, first and coach, to get to know what it's like and the touchline."

“I enjoyed every minute of it, every moment. Sometimes it's that stepping back, giving yourself a little bit of a breather and thinking space to go again, but it's just wanting to focus on the players and give them as much support as I can.”

He admitted it had been a tough week for people at the club with change coming so soon in a season, but says it has been business as usual for most, and it will be until a new manager comes in.

Charlton down to 9th. Jones: Rwy'n cymryd cyfrifoldeb llawn

Charlton fell outside the expanded play off places to ninth after Wolves beat West Brom 1-0 yesterday.  Fortunately, Norwich lost at home to Bolton.  The Addicks are three ways down the form table.

Nathan Jones branded the performance of his Charlton Athletic side as “inept” after a 3-1 loss at Cardiff City before he disappeared into the Welsh valleys.  Disappointing is an understatement,” he told Richard Cawley. “The positives were (Arthur) Okonkwo, (Miles) Leaburn and the three clear cut chances we had. Apart from that we were out-battled, out-passed and out-run for the majority of the game.”   (Some fans thought that Conor Coventry, who has been called up for Ireland, had a decent game.

“I just didn’t recognise some of the players out there. I take full responsibility, because I prepared the team. But stuff that we prepare and that we do on a regular basis, I didn’t see today.

“You can’t build a performance if you don’t work hard, if you don’t press, if you don’t get on second balls and you don’t do the basics well. When you do win the ball back, eventually, you just keep giving it away. Some of the times were unopposed and we didn’t show any quality. Those things mean you’re in for a tough afternoon.  Our intensity, work-rate and how we went about it was poor. And we’d had a good week of training.”

Charlton have missed Nathaniel Chalobah’s composure in the middle of the pitch. The summer signing, who has had a chequered injury record prior to signing a one-year contract in August, has missed the last five Championship matches.

Ouma, who is on a season-long loan from Sparta Prague, is struggling to show why he was coveted by the Addicks..

Campbell did not escape criticism despite once again showing a clinical touch when put through by Bindon.  The Jamaican international is joint third for goals in the Championship - on the same amount as West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and former Addicks loanee Lyndon Dykes.

“He has to learn the game,” said Jones. “There are times he has to affect the game without the ball. He affects it constantly with the ball - he is a runner, he got in a few times and took his goal really well.  But you have to affect it out of possession as well, be in good positions and that is what he has to learn.”

AI avatar Desmond from Deal commented: Jones has condemned himself out of his own mouth.   Top half of the table before the international break is not acceptable.  Now is the time for the board to show courage.’