Goodbye Darren Pratley
Darren Pratley has announced that he will be leaving the Addicks this summer. The midfielder played over 100 matches for us and scored one very special goal and four others since Lee Bowyer signed him on a free from Bolton in July 2018.
Pratley is 36 and the time is right for him to consider the next stage of his career. Playing may still be an option, especially after starting 39 games for us last season, but I’d imagine that he would be looking to combine a coaching role as well. He has some excellent leadership qualities and has played at the highest level of the game.
At times this past season his decision making has looked like he was coming to the end of his career, but he was a tremendous signing, and he came at the time when we needed leaders. I never saw him shirk a challenge and he gave us every ounce of emotion every time he wore the shirt.
And as for that semi-final goal, Addicks all over will be watching ‘that’ goal for years and years to come.
The very best of luck for the future Darren.
Chicago Addick 
I agree that it’s time for him to move on.
He’s been a great servant as you suggest but we need younger and more mobile players, as stated in the press, we had the oldest average age in League 1.
Pratley did a good job for us over 3 seasons because he always gave his best efforts on the pitch but time now to move on, I think his leadership skills could lead to him being a good coach. Now Bowyer has gone maybe Adkin’s should bring in his own coaches as Jackson and Euell were Bowyer’s men and may maintain his biased attitude to certain players, let’s have a fresh start..
Both Jacko and Jason are club legends and both are highly regarded coaches, and were here long before Bowyer arrived in management…..
A great player who never gave anything less than his best, he was a physical presence in our midfield and a proper pro.Considering he was a free signing we got a lot of value out of him and he’ll always have that goal for us to remember him by. We were really struggling in that match – a 3-1 aggregate lead had become a 3-2 lead then 3-3 and finally into extra time Marquis scored to give Doncaster a lead, we needed something and it’s then that the leaders in the team took over, Lyle Taylor sent in a low cross and Darren Pratley was there in the six yard box to hold off challenges and get a toe on it to take us into penalties.
There’s a risk with some players though that they go one season too many and this year he struggled a bit, the relentless round of playing Tuesday, Saturday and then Tuesday again took its toll on a lot of players and the mistakes crept in – in his case not glaring bad mistakes but things like not closing down opposition players quickly enough and letting midfielders get shots in.We conceded too many goals from the area that he should have been patrolling and so this feels like a good time to let him go. At his age I presume he’ll be looking to move into coaching and management and I’m sure he’ll be good at bringing through young players and instilling in them what they need to develop alongside their talent in order to make it.
As so often Shadow i agree with all of that.