New player. Signs. For 3 years. For a fee!

What a weird time to be a Charlton fan as Ms Meire would say.

On our knees, no money, no owner, not allowed to sign anybody, then just before bedtime a ‘Done Deal’ alert.

MK Dons’ 25-year midfielder Alex Gilbey joins for 3-years for an undisclosed fee. Three years. Fee. Huh.

Gilbey is so obviously a Gallen and Bowyer player. Gilbey says outright that he came to play for Bowyer. And Bow is over the moon. But we thought he was in France. This P.I. work demands long hours and the pay sucks.

Various people have been negotiating with the EFL including Gallen and Chris Parkes, and we have to take the signing of Gilbey, with possibly Conor Washington next, as very positive news. In relation to EFL’s view of the world, and chiefly Gallen and Bowyer’s view of the world.

Born in Dagenham, Gilbey came through the Colchester youth team with Macauley Bonne. Wigan signed him after they won promotion to The Championship in 2016, but after one season he moved to MK Dons where he has been their Player of the Year for the last two seasons. He has played over 250 games in his career, scoring 22 goals.

Kind of a global pandemic, football recession’s Dale Stephens….

Steve Gallen said of Gilbey: “When I’ve been showing clips of players to Lee over the last year, this one has always stuck out for him because of his attitude to run, get into the box, score goals and get back in to defend. This is the first bit of the puzzle and hopefully it will come together.”