Discreet signings
One can find transfer rumours all over the internet. It only takes a keyboard, a social media account and an empty life but I don’t expect many Charlton transfer rumours to make it out in the open this summer.
Even known sleuth Rich Cawley might find it hard to prise information out of the club, and Nathan Jones is notoriously guarded.
The Addicks are shopping in an aisle full of other Championship clubs, and good value signings are going to be at a premium with players having plenty of choices.
Jones wants to add all over the pitch from goalkeeper, to defender to midfield to forward, but I think our dealings will be discreet, like that of Sonny Carey only coming to light at the time of the announcement.
I’m happy that Phil Chapple is now leading our recruitment drive, alongside Calvin Charlton and with overall decision making on talent by Jones.
Rightly so, the club have tight lips on budget and targets, but names that have been linked by reasonably reliable sources are Lukasz Fabiański, the 40-year old goalkeeper that will leave West Ham at the end of the month and has made it clear he wants to stay in London. Lincoln ‘keeper George Wickens has also been linked.
Then there is Brighton defender Odel Offiah, Leyton Orient midfielder Ethan Gailbraith, Dundee midfielder Josh Mulligan, out of contract young Peterborough winger Malik Mothersille and ex-loan star Jes Rak-Sakyi.
I suspect the squad will go to Slovenia straight after the Dartford friendly on July 12th, which is in 3 weeks and Jones will be very keen to have a number of new signings on that plane.
Not sure if its wise to sign Fabiański since his 40. We need a long term option in goal. i do think mannon might get better so maybe stick with him
Rumour has it Jones is eyeing an up and coming proven striker with potential….Derek Hales!!!….oh how we wish 😃
I hope that Mannion will be our No.1 goalkeeper, he improved throughout the season and although protected well by the defence he was very calm and composed during the play-off games. He was signed to be the No.2 but now deserves to be the No.1. Other positions in the team should have priority when there is likely to be a limited budget.
Does anybody know when information about the players in the U18 and U21 squads will be made public? I would like to know who has been retained and who has been released. We appear to have lost Gorka to Everton, but have other potential first year U18s been signed.
The problem with keeping our target signings secret is that they have agents and they/or their current clubs will happily leak the news that a bid has been made to push the price up. For example a couple of days ago the story broke that we had put a bid in for Ethan Galbraith, a day or two Huddersfield later were apparently offering nearly twice as much. I’d expect a few more such stories to break.
I see this as good – it means we have money to spend and we’re chasing a better quality of player, either they Championship ready or they have proven they can play at that level. We’re no longer scraping the barrel for L1 level players, those on our radar are going to be wanted by other clubs.