The South London Press is no more, but esteemed sports writer Rich Cawley will continue to keep Charlton fans up to date with informed comment via the Substack platform he has set up - southlondonsportcharlton.
(What is Substack? It is an online platform that provides publishing of subscription-based content.)
To subscribe to Rich Cawley's Substack platform costs £50 a year or £5 a month. https://southlondonsportcharlton.substack.com/
Below is Rich's first article on the subject of the likelihood of Nathan Jones leaving CAFC for Cardiff City.
If you want to continue having access to Rich's informed comment you will need to subscribe to his Substack platform. CAST will be publishing links to his articles but will, for obvious reasons, not be publishing complete articles (after this one)
"As starts to the week go, it could have been quieter.
I’ve been trying to get my head around how to use Substack (and I’m not technically that proficient) as well as other elements of embarking into the freelance world.
But at the same time there was speculation rumbling on over the weekend that Nathan Jones was in the running to be the next Cardiff City manager.
We’ve been here before with a Charlton Athletic boss winning promotion to the Championship at Wembley and then the sudden backdrop of uncertainty about their future. But the scenario is not the same.
Lee Bowyer was heading into the final weeks of his contract in June 2019. The celebratory hangovers after the Addicks defeated Sunderland had barely subsided before fears grew that he was going to be off. It descended into a game of bluff and owner Roland Duchatelet held his nerve, refusing to give Bowyer the bumper new deal that he felt his success merited. The fact Bowyer wanted to stay undoubtedly helped that the doomsday scenario did not play out. The fact that Bowyer only got a 12-month contract was insulting but also reflected Duchatelet’s firm intent to sell the football club.
Jones is not in the same boat as the former Addicks midfielder. He still has plenty of time to run on his contract. Charlton have a more settled ownership structure - Sky Sports’ coverage captured co-owner Gabriel Brener excitedly hugging Jones when he went up to the Royal Box, with his players, to get their hands on the League One play-off final trophy.
It’s no surprise that Jones, born in the Rhondda Valley, has attracted the attention of Cardiff. The 52-year-old has talked before about wanting to one day manage the club that he supports. As the Charlton celebrations started on the pitch at Wembley at the end of last month, Jones made a beeline for one lower section of the stadium - clocking a Welsh flag in the crowd. He gestured for it to be gifted to him and draped it around his shoulders as the party started in earnest on the lush green turf.
Jones has shown on multiple occasions that he can get sides promoted. Sometimes at Luton he started the job - putting everything in place - only to then be poached by Stoke City or Southampton and left others to complete the mission. Jones has talked previously about learning from those experiences. It is hard to envisage him walking away from Charlton to subject himself to another campaign in League One
That’s why the info I received on Monday that there was “no chance” of him going made so much sense.
Although that interest from Cardiff may also have been timely as Jones makes sure he has enough of a budget and backing to try and compete in England’s second tier. It certainly can’t hurt with any negotiations.
The reputation that Jones had at Luton was of out-performing his budget. He’s going to need to do that again now at Charlton. The Addicks were big fishes in a small pond in League One. Not any more.
They spent less than Birmingham City and Wrexham. The former will definitely be looking to do more than just ‘make up the numbers’ at their new level.
I asked one agent yesterday about what positions he had heard Charlton wanted to strengthen in this summer window and the reply came back: “Everything”.
Jones emphasised the graft ahead straight after the 1-0 win over Leyton Orient.
“Now the work starts tenfold. We go into an unforgiving environment. We were competing with Birminghams, Wrexhams, Boltons and Huddersfields with big budgets - now we land on a different planet and we have to be competitive.
“We’ve had one window, really, to recruit. We have to be meteoric in everything we do. We need an influx of quality - coupled with what we have - and then make some really tough decisions moving forward. We’ll do that.”
We will get an idea of the full scale of Charlton’s challenge when we start to see the moves that are made in the transfer market. There are areas that definitely need investment (and South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition will look at those another day). The last thing needed now would have been any upheaval and change when it came to their manager.
Longevity is not something that most bosses in SE7 have enjoyed since June 2016.
Charlton moved for Jones at the start of February 2024. He was their ninth managerial appointment since June 2016. Only one of the bosses in that period made it to a century of matches in charge - Bowyer (157).
Jones only needs to preside over three more games to overtake Karl Robinson (75). Four did not even make it to 30 - Russell Slade (21), Nigel Adkins (26), Michael Appleton (28) and Ben Garner (29).
Stability is key at any football club. There can be twists and turns but the noises are highly encouraging that the current man in the hotseat is going to be here for some time to come."
Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell
Rich has already produced another article which you can read if you subscribe. It is an interview with Will Mannion - "I couldn't feel my legs for the first twenty minutes at Wembley"
https://www.southlondonsportcharltonathleticedition.com/p/i-couldnt-feel-my-legs-for-the-first