Its been a pretty short summer made even shorter by the activity going on down in SE7. As you will all realise I have been saying for some time that this will be our season and the new faces give me even more cause for optimism. However, the bookies, what do they know, have us just making the play-offs behind both the Sheffield clubs, Huddersfield and Preston.
To be honest we won't really know until at least 10 games in whether this year is going to be good or bad, most fans of the above teams are pretty confident they can make it out of this league at this stage of the season.
Lets look at what has been happening and why I must surely be right.
Goalkeeper
Robbie did well last year but he needs competition and now we've brought that in both he and John Sullivan should be good enough. One interesting note, according to the official site they are the same height but John Sullivan is a stone heavier!!
Defence
Dailly, Fortune and Francis have gone and lets be honest did you ever really feel that the opposition wouldn't score last season.. In fact we managed it 10 times, the seventh worst in the division, who were the top two, Brighton and Southampton, it's not rocket science you know!!
Cedric Evina and Rhoys Wiggins are both excellent defenders, I have a lot of time for Chris Solly despite his lack of height. I know less of Michael Morrison and more of Gary Doherty than I would like but time will tell on them. Its a massive improvement on last year, there may be more to come and surely we can get close to the 20 odd clean sheets we will need.
Midfield
If the main aim of the midfield is to create opportunities for the forwards and chip in with goals themselves then Scott Wagstaff and Johnny Jackson are the only two who should remain from last year (there is no room for sentiment here, sorry Jose!). Guess what, if we can offload McOxo that'll be the case, I tell you this Powell chap knows what he's doing! Of those coming in I only really noticed Danny Green and Danny Hollands last year as two standout midfielders, oh my gosh hes gone and signed them!!
Forwards
Who do we have again, oh yes, Paul Benson, he hasn't quite made it yet but he thrives on crosses, we need wingers who can provide that sort of thing, can anybody think of any? BWP I need say no more!! Again I have little knowledge of Paul Hayes so I can only hope!
I know I haven't mentioned everyone, I know a lot is guesswork and hope but surely every Charlton fan out there must be excited by the season ahead. You may question Chris Powell's experience or even his tactics but surely no one can say he hasn't replaced players who have failed with players who should do an awful lot better.
Today we will start to see, I'll be there, I can feel the excitement already come on you know you can feel it too!
Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today.
