Kings of Leon

Yado Mambo will be a bit peeved I would suspect after Charlton signed centre half Leon Cort on a season-long loan from Burnley this morning. Mambo impressed against Reading in the week and was on the bench at Gigg Lane on Saturday but there may still be reservations about his ability to do a long stint in the first team, definitely I’d be worried if an injury to, say, Taylor and a suspension for Morrison resulted in Mambo and Doherty lining up in the first team together. Mambo needs a break-out year though and I think Powell will have him higher up his list of plans than Doherty as the season progresses.

I was surprised at how old Leon Cort was (he’s 31) and he’s had some clubs but has played mostly at a higher level, since he helped Hull to promotion from League One in 2004/5 anyway, and he’s also scored a fair few goals.

A striker has to the next port of call for Powell and there are plenty of rumours – take you pick from Crawley’s Matt Tubbs, Southampton’s Lee Barnard, Leicester’s Jeffrey Schlupp or Bury’s Ryan Lowe.

There were also a lot of ex-Addicks in the news this weekend. Almost 9 months after being relieved of his managerial duties at The Valley, Phil Parkinson became Bradford City’s new manager. The Bantams averaged over 11,000 at Valley Parade last season, easily the division’s best (Oxford were next with 7,200) and have good foundations to climb out of the division. Bermuda international Nahki Wells is at Bradford and he will be joined by Kyel Reid, who signed today on a 2-year deal. The very best of luck to Parky.

In today’s welcome press conference today, Parky was asked about Paul Benson and he confirmed that he has inquired about him. By all accounts Charlton have accepted four bids for Benson. Rotherham are a known other club.

Scott Parker is by the sounds of it on the verge of signing for Spurs. Parker is 30 now, and it is probably about the best hope he has of competing at the top half of the Premier League and being a first team regular, well since he left us in lurch anyway. By the way Spurs were 10 places below us in the Premier League (as they often were back then) when Parker signed for Chelsea on the last day of the transfer window in January 2004.

Another Premier League regular for us was Luke Young. The 32-year old has played continuously in the top tier for 14 years, mostly for us, and he signed a 3-year deal for QPR for an undisclosed fee.

In other transfer gossip in our division, Sheffield Wednesday are in talks to sign ex-Newcastle and Pompey striker Lomana LuaLua. The Owls are also in for Ryan Lowe, who I would think at his age would prefer a move nearer home.