Jones has more players available

Charlton have had a number of their players away on international duty and only Arthur Okonkwo, who had hooked up with Nigeria, has completed a full week of training because he returned earlier than the likes of Tyreece Campbell, Tyler Bindon, Ivan Mesik and Conor Coventry.

Nathan Jones told had told Richard Cawley's website that after the loss against Cardiff that Billy Koumetio, Kayne Ramsay, Micah Mbick and Will Mannion were set to be back after the international break.

Cawley notes that it’s been mentioned countless times before that Jones is reluctant to confirm player availability that can be picked up by the opposition. But the Welshman did impart some info.  Asked if that quartet were available, he said: “We are significantly ahead of when we went to Cardiff."

“Whether all those play, we’re not giving any information away. But they are all back in training and available. It’s just where we feel they are at, in their rhythm.  I’ve given away that we have got at least 25 players fit - because we have just had a practise match and three have been on the side.”

The Addicks go into the game without a win from their past five games while City snapped a two-match losing streak by beating Watford 1-0 last time out.

• Charlton have won one of their past six league games against Bristol City (D2 L3), a 3-2 victory in December 2019.

• Following a 2-1 win at Charlton last season, Bristol City are hoping to win consecutive away league games against the Addicks for the first time.

• Charlton Athletic have kept three consecutive home league clean sheets, with their past two games at The Valley ending 0-0. Burnley, in January 2025, were the last Championship side to have three 0-0s at home in a row.

• Bristol City have won four of their past six league games, as many as they managed in their previous 17 games combined (D5 L8).

• Bristol City's Rio Cardines has created the most chances (31) and assisted the most goals (6) in the Championship this season

Mbick offered new contract

Charlton Athletic have tabled a new contract offer to Micah Mbick, reports Richard Cawley.

The 19-year-old striker was the subject of a £5million bid from Southampton at the end of the summer transfer window which was rejected by the Addicks.

South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition understands that Mbick scored twice in a behind-closed doors friendly against Barnet last week.

The teenager was also a target for Brighton in January but the Addicks showed no desire to negotiate with the Premier League club.

Geography alert: Bristol Live is saying that Bristol City are heading for East London on Saturday,  Good luck on getting back through the Blackwall Tunnel, or perhaps try the Free Ferry.

Luke Warm

Many summers ago I headed from Helsinki in my favourite country of Finland on a flight to Oulu in the country's north.    I was going there to catch up with Charlton's Nordic tour (we drew 2-2 with Oulu).  The local youngsters were thrilled to see Finnish international JJ and be handed free Charlton merchandise.

There were quite a few Charlton fans there already, although I was probably one of the few with a smattering of Finnish.  All the talk was about new signing from Spurs Luke Young.   Asked about him, many fans inevitably responded 'I'm Luke Warm about him'.

Richard Cawley has carried out a fascinating in depth interview with Luke Young.  One thing that comes across is his respect for Curbs   The manager set up a meeting with Young at his brother's home in Little Venice to persuade him to join the Addicks.

Young admitted to Cawley that he failed to make a positive first impression.  “I was a little bit off the pace, if I’m honest,” said Young.

"People forget that, at 22, I had never been a regular playing 30-odd games in a season. So I was still learning my trade, from a first-team point of view. To play week in and week out, you have to learn how to deal with the ups and downs, to be resilient. Charlton was my first year doing that.

There were games where I played not so great and ones where I did well. But Curbs kept me in - no matter what. I think he knew the player I could perhaps become and he was patient with me. He gave me the games I needed.”

One of my memories of him is scoring against Liverpool in a 2-0 home victory.  A disgruntled Liverpool fan said afterwards at the station, 'I was so looking forward to this evening.'

I was interested to learn that Young has a Substack page based on his years at Charlton and I must try and find time to read it.  Unfortunately or not, I am getting more work at the moment that I can readily handle.

Not really shipshape and Bristol fashion

This international break has dragged on in my estimation, but it gives me a chance to look at Saturday's opponents Bristol City.   Ahead of the game, they have just announced the appointment of a new set piece coach which gives some indication of their intentions.

First, a disclosure.  I am a client of Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown and Steve Lansdown has been the benefactor of Bristol City.   I have been with them since the 1980s, and they have been superb, but that doesn't alter my view of Bristol City.

There has been a bit of edge between Charlton and the 'Robins' in the past   I seem to remember it kicking off in Bristol back in the day.  In his excellent book about life at Charlton, Gary Nelson recalls he went down to Charlton Station to catch the train after the game and there was a knot of Bristol supporters on the platform who recognised him and were rather menacing.

Bristol is one of the largest provincial cities in the UK, but Bristol City have never been in the Premier League.  They were in the old top flight between 1976 and 1980.   Apart from 2013-15 when they were relegated to League One, they have been ever presents in the Championship.

Why haven't they done better?   Like many clubs in the second tier they have suffered from having to compete with clubs receiving parachute payments: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/search?q=Bristol+City

According to the FLP, the latest deal the Premier League is offering the EFL is to cut parachute payments by five per cent over three years which is just a nominal amount (even allowing for the eroding effects of inflation).   The distortion of competition will continue.

Bristol is also egg chasing territory.  Indeed, Lansdown has built up a whole sports club on the Barcelona model which includes rugby union and basketball (Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers).

Bristol is also a rather unusual city in some ways.  Apart from Brighton, it is the only city that has a Green MP.  The city was clearly implicated in the slave trade, but I'm not sure that throwing a statue of one of the guilty men into the harbour expunged the memory.   What I am saying is that it may have fewer potential football supporters than many cities.   Some residents may disapprove of competitive sports.

There is also the presence of another club.   A number of provincial cities sustain two clubs, although arguably Sheffield might have a more secure place in the top flight if it had just one club, but Blades and Owls would never accept a merger.   The Bristol case is more like Nottingham: one leading club and a secondary one,

My view of the Gasheads is that they are real nut jobs.  When I was at uni, there was a Bristol Rovers supporter who drove around in a Triumph Spitfire bought by his indulgent parents.  My pal Annie used to shout 'Micky Mouse' at him when he got out of his car.  He didn't like this coming from a cool rock chick who was the guild of students social secretary and booked all the bands.

As far as I was concerned, he thought I was one sandwich short of a picnic as a Charlton supporter.   He was simply patronising when his wealthy and super cool girl friend bought me an expensive suede jacket for my birthday.   Let's call her 'Annabel'.

We all went our different ways, Annabel having returned Micky's engagement ring.  I encountered him in Canberra when the federal government appointed him to a job I thought I could have done better.  He made a complete Horlicks of it and returned to the UK.

Shortly after my first wife passed away in 2014, 'Annabel' suddenly appeared in my in box.  I had kept tabs on her very successful career and by this time she was a dame commander and an adviser to the late Queen.   She had kept everything I had written to her back then and wanted to return it to me and meet up in Exeter.

Meanwhile, Micky was living nearby and offered to drive me to a midweek match between Rovers and Charlton.  I knew that he was in touch with a mutual friend who was also in contact with Annabel and indeed had phoned me to warn me against meeting her.   What happened afterwards would be a good subject for a novel, but I decided that I didn't want to be questioned all the way to Bristol and back about what I was up to or what I had been up to in 1971.   As it happened, Charlton beat Rovers 5-1 and Micky said that he would have left me in Bristol which I am sure was no idle threat.

Annabel and I did eventually met in 2016 and I decided that enough time has passed to invite both her and Micky to my 70th birthday party.  Old Gasheads never forget and there was a confrontation.

Sadly, Annabel developed terminal cancer and I used to go and visit at her home elsewhere in the UK. When we had dinner for the last time were both hugging and in tears.  As the taxi driver drove me away to the station, he asked, 'What's the story with her?'

Okonkwo's brother joins my non-league team

Brian Okonkwo, the younger brother of Addicks keeper Arthur, has joined my non-league team (Leamington) from West Bromwich Albion.

In Saturrday's 4-0 win over Hitchin he made two outstanding saves from open play and then saved a  penalty. 

Bindon scores in Japan

Tyler Bindon's good form with New Zealand continued as the on-loan Charlton Athletic defender helped his country reach the final of Kirin Cup in Yokohama.

Having scored in a 3-0 friendly win over China on Sunday, the 21-year-old fired home the first penalty as the All Whites beat Panama 5-3 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw.

New Zealand will face the winners of the tie between Japan and Ecuador in the final on Monday, 5 October.

Bindon joined the Addicks on a season-long loan from Nottingham Forest in August and has made five appearances for the club.

Nigels lose their ultras

Before Palace’s opening home game of the season with Manchester City, the Holmesdale Front released a statement announcing they were “choosing to stop all organised activity as the HF inside the stadium” and cited “never-ending problems with the club up to the present day” among various reasons for the decision.

One of their concerns, relayed in a statement before February’s Conference League first knockout round home leg against Zrinjski Mostar, is a perception that the “club is determined to keep trying to force an American-style ‘experience’ on us”.

Chairman Steve Parish says it is “disappointing” to lose the group from Selhurst but believes there is nothing more Palace could have done, and cites safety and regulatory requirements.

“We’ve embraced them from the day I arrived here, and we’ve used them in our marketing,” he told The New York Times. “I don’t really know what’s at the heart of it. I understand that it’s difficult and frustrating at times — look at Lech Poznan, when they let off all those fireworks (in the opening Europa League match of this season at Selhurst).

“It’s hard because of the rules and regulations we have and the safety group. I understand it (and) we’re a very heavily-regulated society, so it’s frustrating for them sometimes. I don’t think that we could facilitate them any more than we do whilst trying to keep them safe and trying to get within the regulations.”

“I don’t really deal with them. They’re ultras, that’s not really how they roll. They have a dialogue with the people at the club on an ongoing basis. I understand how they feel. There are people that are around football who don’t want that kind of support at football grounds.

“I’ve personally had big battles on their behalf. I’ve been told by ‘the authorities’ on multiple occasions that we should ban the whole group. There’s an element where football fans are pushing back on it, where they want to have a bit more freedom to express themselves, but everything’s banned in England. It’s a fair frustration.”

There has been criticism of what some perceive to be a more ‘manufactured’ atmosphere pre-game and after Palace goals which the HF appear to believe stifles the organic approach they have tried to facilitate. Parish, though, says the choice is not binary.

“You have to be realistic,” he says. “We are a global show. We are putting on a show, and not everybody wants the same things all the time. There’s room for both of those things, but I don’t know a stadium up and down the country that doesn’t do any of the things that we do, and they work really well.

“There is a bit of a frustration sometimes from the fan base that they all have to do what (the HF) want all the time. ‘We have to sing their songs and do what they want, when they want’. Families come and sit in other parts of the stand and stadium and they want to hear some good music. Fans can’t sing the whole time in the lead-up to a game. You can always find a good compromise, and I think we will. Something will come back, and we’ll make it work.

“We loved everything they did. We were hugely supportive, and in the face of some quite vehement opposition. They’ve been an important part of what we’ve done. Anybody that wants to do something similar, we’re trying to accommodate it as much as we can, but not everything stays the same all the time."