Three worst transfer windows in Championship

You certainly know that Coca Cola Championship has always been an excellent springboard for young and talented players who are seeking their place in the Premier League slot, hefty transfers and fame. Also, the best second league in the world serves as the fine rebound for experienced veterans to prove they still have some juice left and that they can help teams they are attached to in some way. This summer was also turbulent, reaching the culmination at the end of August when transfer window was slowly closing. There have been a lot of surprises and here we will point out three teams that had certain problems during that period.

Watford are already looking for players to loan since they don’t have enough players for the pace of the competition. However, main problem is money. Ever since they have been relegated from Premier League two years ago, Hornets are left without their bonuses, big sponsor pools which all had the drastic impact on the budget. This team, which was fighting for promotion last year until the very end only to be defeated by Hull in the play-off semifinals, has lost its key players. Main playmakers have all gone – Gavin Mahon (QPR), Jordan Stewart and Nathan Ellington (Derby County), Steve Kabba (Blackpool), Danny Shittu (Bolton Wanderers), Darius Henderson (Sheffield United). John Hurley from Burnley and Gregorz Rasiak from Southampton were the only ones to arrive, while Darren Ward from Wolves has signed the contract few days ago. Due to his growing injury list, manager Aidy Boothroyd is suffering with the squad, so it happened that, in the game with Reading, he was forced to field only one striker (Will Hoskins) among all 17 registered players for the game.

Although popular Hornets are still occasionally displaying the form from the time they were pillaging across the Championship (like their win over West Ham 1-0), the fact remain that there are dark clouds over Vicarage Road this season, and that relegation fight is more realistic prospect than play-off run this year. Former chairman and long-standing financier, pop star Elton John, has made some severe public criticizing regarding the club policy in the last two seasons. His most recent remarks are all narrowed down to a single question: “You sold the players, where’s the money?”. It wasn’t so long ago when Ashley Young, Marlon King or Dan Shittu wore their yellow kits and the memories of that time are still strong.

When we talk about Charlton, we can freely repeat a lot of things we have said about Watford. After seven years spent in Premiership, Addicks had trouble adapting to Championship, ending the last, terrible season on the 11th place. Manager Alan Pardew failed to motivate his players who had gained their reps playing in Premier League (Matt Holand, Zheng Zhi, Marcus Bent,…) and the failure was inevitable. Valley side from London, just like their neighbors Watford, have lost their hefty sponsor pools for the new season. Transfer window went pretty badly, the team lost its biggest stars: strikers Chris Iwelumo (Wolves) and Marcus Bent (Birmingham City), midfielders Majid Bougherra (Glasgow Rangers) and Amdy Faye (Stoke), right-back Ben Thathcer (Ipswich), then defense king Paddy McCarthy (Crystal Palace). Mark Hudson came from Palace to take his place, and the team also loaned experienced Linvoy Primus (Portsmouth) and striker Hameur Bouazza (Fulham). It is all insufficient to feed the ambitions of such club and definitely insufficient for play-off fight this season.

To make it even worse for Charlton Athletic, there is a real infirmary among the players who wore Addicks’ shirt last year. Best Chinese player Zheng Zhi has played his first game this season, while Svetoslav Todorov, Izale McLeod and Darren Ambrose are recovering. Pardew is forced to recall the teenagers he had loaned and to promote some reserve team players. It appears that club’s policy will bring this team to the situation where only a handful of fans at Valley can only dream of the 7th place they had only four years ago in the Premiership.

Southampton are third (but not the last) club with budget problems, thus forced to sell out their best and most talented players over the two last seasons. This summer, Saints were left without Youssef Safri (Qatar), Polish attacking duo, Gregorz Rasiak (Watford) and Marek Saganovski (AB Kopenhagen), Andrew Davies (Stoke), Jermaine Wright (Blackpool), former skipper Klaus Ludvekam (retired), Inigo Idiakez, Alexander Ostlund, while young Nathan Dyer also left these days heading for Sheffield United. It is almost entire first team from last season. Although the club is a real nursery of young talents (most recent are Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale), every power source has its capacity and it appears that Saints’ is nearly drained.

Extremely young and inexperienced team led by Dutch manager Ian Poortvliet is so far with a half successful season, able to surprise both positively and negatively. One certain prospect in store for them is a struggling relegation fight. Summer transfer window saw the club being boosted by two ‘kids’ from big clubs (Tommy Forecast, Jack Cork, Tomas Pekhart), and also by French Morgan Scneiderlin from Strasbourg, and some of them might be set to shine. We will see about that.

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