New signing
Yes, in late March. Where’s Andy Scott when you need him?
Charlton Athletic are pleased to confirm the signing of experienced goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis (more).
The 34-year-old joins on a short-term deal until the end of this season to add goalkeeping experience in the squad missing the injured Ashley Maynard-Brewer.
The Aussie has been training with the squad for a month following the injury to AMD, and Nathan Jones felt he’d rather pull the trigger on the free agent than have to deal with the emergency loan market if there is a problem with either Will Mannion or young Tommy Reid.
This makes sense and I suspect Maynard-Brewer is still a long way back from fitness and probably Bouzanis will take Reid’s place on the bench.
Bouzanis was last at Reading but left the club at the end of the last transfer window. His last appearances were the season before last when he was on loan at Sutton United and helped them to an historic promotion to League Two.
Bouzanis was born in Sydney but came through Liverpool’s academy. He has played almost 300 games over a varied career in England, Australia, Greece and the Netherlands.
Welcome Dean.
This says to me that AMB is likely to be out for the rest of the season – or most of it.
With one senior fit keeper we need some experience just in case. It looks likely we are going to be in the playoffs, it would be very risky to go in to a couple of must win games maybe also including a Wembley final with a reserve keeper who has yet to make a start even in a Vertu Trophy match.