Football Season Guide

Charlton are coming off a very disappointing 2016/17 season, which they started with the intention of returning to the Championship, only to find themselves battling against the drop before steadying the ship and finishing in the mid-table places. Karl Robinson had the excuse of not being at the club from the beginning of the previous campaign and has therefore kept his job despite falling well short of expectations. However, the former MK Dons boss will have no excuses if he fails this time around, with Charlton considering themselves too big of a club to be in the third tier. However, Robinson has to deal with an air of negativity surrounding the club, as it is well-documented that large sections of fans want the owners out and staged protests against them on several occasions last season. The Addicks did an excellent job of keeping their squad together going into the new season, given that literally all of those who have left the club were rotation players at best. At the same time, they have completed the captures of three very promising signings in Mark Marshall, Tarique Fosu and Billy Clarke, while Jay Dasilva has signed on another loan deal from Chelsea. Marshall's capture is especially eye-catching given that if he and Ricky Holmes can perform on the same level as last season, Charlton will likely have the best pair of wingers in the league. It is obvious from the overall summer transfer activity that the Addicks have produced, that Robinson's reasoning was that the squad was far better than the table made them look and that Charlton will be competitive with only a few new signings. This certainly looks like a reasonable assumption, providing that Robinson has used the summer well to get his squad used to his passing brand of football.