Welcome back Phil Chapple

My psychic powers have worked once again.

Amongst the play-off fever, and for a lot of Addicks the anxiety of getting a Wembley ticket, the club announced today that Phil Chapple joins the Addicks as Head of Recruitment.

The former Charlton defender will be joined by Calvin Charlton, who has been named the Assistant Head of Recruitment.

I am led to believe that Calvin did not change his name from Calvin Hibernian, from where he previously worked!

Looks as if he’s from the south-coast originally but worked north of the border since 2016 when he was a Performance Analyst for the Scottish FA. It does look like he moved back south and was working remotely for Derby County these last few months under John Eustace.

I found this interesting interview done a couple of years ago here. Welcome to Charlton, Calvin.

Chapple was Head of Scouting Operations at Luton from February 2021, and prior to that Head of First Team Recruitment at Stoke, hired by Jones, who then took him to Luton when Jones moved back to Kenilworth Road.

Nathan Jones had this to say: “He was someone that had a big influence on me as a recruiter. I’ve worked with Phil at pretty much every club that I’ve been at – we took him to Stoke and brought him to Luton. Everywhere we’ve been he’s done fantastic work and we’ve always felt that we’ve been at the cutting edge of good recruitment.”

Alistair Clarke, who joined the club from Lincoln City in February 2024, has been promoted to Head of Emerging Talent.

Welcome back to SE7, Phil.