Charlton’s hugely disappointing campaign limped to an embarrassing end as they were humbled 4-0 at Ipswich Town on the final day. Here’s Louis Mendez’s three takeaways from the 2021/22 season.
THANK GOODNES IT’S OVER
A sorry capitulation on the final day of a season that will go down as one of Charlton’s all-time lows points. Town were two to the good inside 11 minutes as unfortunate league debutant Nathan Harness was beaten by a screamer from Tyreeq Bakinson and then one-on-one by Wes Burns as the visitors were carved open too easily.
The hosts added a third shortly after the restart through Burns once more, before substitute James Norwood rounded off a thoroughly miserable afternoon late on.
Eight of those who made the matchday squad at Portman Road are either out of contract or loanees due to return to their parent clubs and it told during the display. Ask any Addicks fan who made the trip to Suffolk on Saturday and I can’t imagine they’ll be concerned if large swathes aren’t seen in a Charlton shirt again. The only good part about the game was that it brought to an end a campaign to forget.
A LONG SLOG
The Addicks end the campaign 13th in League One – 24 points off the top six and just 19 above the relegation zone. With promotion a stated aim, it goes without saying that the season has been an abject failure.
The tone was set during Nigel Adkin’s 13-game disaster at the start and despite Jackson’s revival from October onwards, the frailties of the squad were highlighted when injuries started to take hold.
The kindest thing that the last nine months can be labelled as is a massive learning curve. Johnnie Jackson will have learned all he needed to know about the squad he had available to him this year, certainly.
It is also important the ownership at The Valley absorbs the lessons of the campaign – with recruitment and management of expectation levels areas to work on.
TRANSFER BUSINESS EARLY
Thomas Sandgaard admitted last night, speaking to Charlton Live, that one of the major issues that derailed this season was the slow transfer window at the start of it.
Jackson has also emphasised the importance of the South Londoners doing their work early so he has a pre-season to mould his squad in his image on the training ground.
There cannot be a repeat of the mistakes of last year. They’ve been acknowledged, so there is no excuse this time around.