Both Charlie Kelman and Richard Kone found themselves playing in League One last season and both of them did very well. Charlie Kelman scored twenty-one goals, taking home the golden boot with a Leyton Orient side who reached the playoff final.
Richard Kone wasn’t far behind, scoring eighteen goals for a Wycombe Wanderers side who reached the playoff semifinal. Following these blistering seasons, both strikers were on the radar of Championship clubs during the summer transfer window.
Kelman made it clear to his parent club QPR that he wouldn’t be extending his contract which was up at the end of the season. He would go on to sign for Charlton Athletic, the side who won the playoffs beating both Wycombe and Leyton Orient.
Whilst Kelman left QPR, Kone would join them, despite a lot of interest from other clubs such as Swansea City. So, we have two strikers who tore up League One last season and got their Championship moves, so why is one being viewed as a great signing and the other yet to get off the mark?
Charlie Kelman
The player who is yet to get off the mark is Charlier Kelman. You may think that this is understandable since Charlton are a newly promoted side so they must be towards the bottom of the table right now.
But you’d be wrong, they are currently 6th in the league table, three places above Kone’s QPR. Despite this strong start, they have lacked a reliable centre forward.
Their top goal scorer is midfielder Sonny Carey with four goals, followed by defenders James Bree and Macaulay Gillesphey who have two goals each. In fourteen appearances in all competitions, Kelman hasn’t registered a single goal or assist.
In his defence, only ten of these have been starts and he’s only made it past the 70th minute on one occasion. It’s difficult to understand why a player who scored twenty-one goals in League One last season hasn’t been able to find the net once since moving up a division.
For his previous club QPR, Kelman made twenty-three appearances in the Championship, coming away without a single contribution. It would be easy to say simply that League One is his level, but I don’t think that is a conclusion that we can draw just yet.
Kelman is only twenty-three and still hasn’t really had a fair crack of the whip at Championship level. He will be Championship standard; he just needs time.
Richard Kone
Kone on the other hand, has definitely lived up to the hype, netting four times in eleven appearances so far in West London. Importantly, Kone fits into Julien Stephan’s system well. We saw last season Kone thrive under Matt Bloomfield during the first half of the season, but the goals seemed to dry up under new boss Mike Dodds (who was sacked last month).
QPR have been crying out for a number nine for years now with the likes of Michael Frey and Zan Celar being unable to make the position their own. As mentioned, the Rs currently find themselves helping 9th in the table, just one point behind Charlton.
However, QPR have become slightly inconsistent as of late, losing to Millwall and very surprisingly Derby County. But if they are able to iron it out, there is no reason as to why they can’t make a real push for the playoffs this season.
For me, Kone was clearly too good for League One so his success so far in the Championship is of little surprise, whereas Kelman’s struggles are more difficult to identify. It is Nathan Jones’s system?
Are his previous struggles in the second tier holding him back? Only time will tell, but for now Kelman’s lack of goals isn’t a huge issue for the Addicks, but it soon could be if they want to keep up their brilliant start to the season.
