Parky responds to loan moans
Phil Parkinson has defended the impact of the loan signings made during his tenure as Charlton manager.
Keith Gillespie, Jay McEveley, Graeme Murty, Tom Soares, Darren Ward, Tresor Kandol and Danny Butterfield have all spent time at The Valley on a temporary basis since November, with varying degrees of success.
Deon Burton and Matt Spring also arrived on loan before their transfers became permanent, but, with the club's finances limited, Parkinson insisted moves of this kind were the only viable options available as he attempted to move Charlton away from the lower echelons of the Championship.
Speaking to the media ahead of Saturday's Valley meeting with Blackpool, who themselves have taken 21 players on loan this season, Parkinson said: "I can understand why some supporters might have a bee in their bonnet about the loans.
"Last year, Lee Cook, Scott Sinclair and, to a lesser extent, Leroy Lita weren't up to speed in terms of match fitness, but they played and other players were pushed out of the side. From that point, results took a serious downturn.
"But, in my defence, this year I haven't had any money to spend, so I either didn't change it or brought loan players in. I had to change it around, and the only avenue was to bring in loan players.
"Some loan players don't care, but if you get the right ones, like Graeme Murty and Darren Ward, no one can level that accusation at those types of players. They've been excellent, and I don't think this group of loan players have caused a problem."
He continued: "Ideally, you don't want loans, you want players on a permanent basis who you can work with and develop. But if loans are all you can do, then you have to go for that option."
With the Addicks standing on the brink of relegation to League One, Parkinson believes that rather than jumping ship, his squad is up for the challenge of helping Charlton return to the Championship at the first attempt.
The Addicks are unbeaten in their last four games, and Parkinson said: "We have played well of late, and we've shown we've got a nucleus of good players who we need to keep hold of to give us a great chance of bouncing straight back into the division.
"Some of the football we've played in recent weeks has been excellent, and two or three players added to this squad will make it a very competitive team.
"Early indications from the players are that they're up for the fight, and I haven't had one player come and see me saying they want to leave. They've been part of what has been a terrible season for the club and want to be part of getting us back to the Championship. The signs are positive that everyone wants to stick together and get this club back to where it should be.
"If you look at Leicester City, they kept a lot of the squad together [after relegation from the Championship] and they've built on top of that."
One area of his side which Parkinson is desperate to address is the striking department after watching a succession of forwards struggle to find the net on a regular basis this term.
"We need natural goalscorers in the team," he stated. "We've got some good players and we need someone alongside Tresor. He's a target man and leads the line brilliantly, but ideally you need a penalty-box type of player alongside him.
"That's been the difference this year. We've had a lot of pressure in games this season and we haven't capitalised by scoring."
The Valley boss has been impressed by on-loan Leeds United man Kandol, and revealed he would be keen to bring the former Barnet star to the club on a permanent basis.
"I'd love to sign him permanently," declared Parkinson. "He's been excellent and I think he'll get better as well. Despite his age, he hasn't had a lot of league football and I think he's got a lot of attributes. All the loan players have done well, but finances will dictate whether we can sign them permanently."
Parkinson is also keeping his fingers crossed that Chris Dickson can flourish at a lower level after finding life tough in the Championship.
"He's scored goals for Gillingham at League One level, so he does have a good record there," mused Parkinson. "We'll just have to see. Chris would be the first to admit he still has a lot to do to establish himself as a starter for Charlton at first-team level. His finishing - which is his best attribute - we haven't really seen at first-team level."
One reason behind Charlton's improved performances of late is, in part, improved fitness levels in the Addicks' squad since head of sports science Nick Davies returned to the club.
Welshman Davies returned to the club in December after previously working at Sparrows Lane during Alan Curbishley's reign at the Valley helm.
He then followed the former Charlton boss to Upton Park in July 2007 following Curbishley's appointment at West Ham United, but made the journey back to SE7 just before Christmas.
Parkinson said: "One key thing in the team is the ability to sustain a physical performance for 90 minutes. We were in a lot of games for 60 minutes and were then getting overrun.
"With the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Zheng Zhi, Therry Racon and Tresor, we've seen an increase in the amount of running power in the team. You need that in a team; without it you just get overrun and you end up losing games.
"Jonjo ran 13.6km against Birmingham City, which is the most Nick has seen any player run. That includes when he was here under Alan Curbishley and when he was at West Ham.
"In the game against Coventry City, Jonjo was playing well, but I think the Birmingham game had an effect on him. Jonjo has the capacity to work at an extraordinary level and he's developing and still growing."
It hasn't been an easy ride for Parkinson since he took the managerial reigns in SE7, and he said: "It's been tough but I knew it would be.
"I knew there was a massive challenge as there were so many gaps to fill in the starting XI. I tried to fill them but haven't been successful in turning it into positive results.
"The day I took over I knew how many things weren't right. From pre-season I didn't think our squad was good enough. We beat Swansea City and Reading, but I still wasn't sure the team was capable of maintaining that level of performance."
With the Addicks poised for a second relegation in just three years, Parkinson concluded: "When you come down a division and sell players, you're going to be weakened. We then finished 11th last year, sold another £5m worth of players and were weakened further.
"Equally, the players we've brought in over that period of time, a lot of them haven't worked out as we would like, especially in the striker department."
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