May 10
In a move to I would suggest that further puts us on the road to Category 1 status, Tom Pell has joined from Cambridge United to become Academy Manager with Steve Avory becoming Academy Director.
Please click for more“Great stuff. This is my Charlton” fellow Addick @HungryTed called out following the announcement of Grant Basey’s promotion from Kit Manager to First Team Development Coach today.
It’s hard not to agree with him, and indeed another sign that Roland Duchatelet is finally listening to advice given to him, a trait he has rarely shown. There’s been a long-needed liaison between the first team and the U23’s, as young men’s careers can easily make or break at this point. Steve Avory has championed this kind of mentoring and developmental role for a long time, and if anyone should know what level of influence and kinship is required at this stage of a player’s career it is Steve.
For an undisclosed fee. Roundly expected to have been £2m.
It was Bob Peeters who gave Karlan Grant, or Karlan Ahearne Grant as he was known then, his league debut at just 17-years old. He was nowhere near ready. The following season Guy Luzon and the infamous Karel Fraeye also threw him into the fold as the club staggered from one debacle to the next, eventually we were relegated as all matter of soft toys would rain down onto The Valley on a regular basis.
Grant was played in wrong positions, was horribly mismanaged, was sent out on loan, and bounced between youth football and the bench as other young strikers were loaned in ahead of him and all the while every time he looked up he had a new manager to talk to. Yes, Grant has been at Charlton since he was 12, but does he owe us anything?
Anyone that has seen Jeremy Sarmiento play for Charlton’s academy teams will not be surprised that we will sadly never get to see him play for the first team. The 16-year old midfielder is one of the hottest young prospects in the British Isles and his name has been a regular feature in sports pages. Now rumour has it that Benfica will pip Manchester City for his signature. Sarmiento has been in Lisbon discussing his future with Benfica.
It was great to see Ademola Lookman score for Everton yesterday. I was thrilled for the lovely young man. Every Addick can be rightly proud that he was ‘Made in Charlton’. It was equally as good to see Joe Gomez return from his long term injury for Liverpool last week in the FA Cup, and he too was on the bench yesterday at Old Trafford. It can be impossible to keep these players from moving to the next level, particularly when Charlton appears to be low on ambition, and the reality is that we have become a middling League One club.
I think under Robinson, if he is allowed a longer term to influence young prospects, we may see academy players stay to play closer to a century of games. Of course we know Katrien Meire’s view on moving our best young players on, and for Roland Duchatelet, it is just a way to make money for his network project.
Well ok, that’s a bit far fetched even in Pinocchio’s world.
First things first though, thank you to young Ademola, who at 18 at least has a sensible head on his teenage shoulders and thanks to those around him who at least preach patience and reality. Ademola could have gone in the window cheaply and for what? To sit in an academy full of high paid, pampered, appearance-less teenagers? Ademola has come up the hard way, the Jamie Vardy way, let’s call it, so rare that young player’s break into professional football via the back door these days. He comes from a different world than a Cristian Cebellos for example.
Ademola Lookman we will at least get to enjoy for a bit longer. To 2020? Do me a favour. To the end of this season? Probably.
Please click for more
A real shame to see Paul Hart leave his role as Academy Director. For all the muck thrown at Slater and Jimenez, the latters connections was the main reason Hart joined the Addicks in June 2011. The previous owners then held off an offer for Hart from Nottingham Forest, but rumours have abounded since early this year that Hart would leave at the end of his contract and possibly take up a similiar role with the Premier League Champions.
So, the announcement on the OS is a little bit strange, suggesting that both Hart and Steve Avory were invited to apply for a new post of Academy Manager, the merging of the previous Academy Director and Head of Coaching roles held by Hart and Avory respectively. Reading in between the lines, it looks as if Hart didn’t take up the offer. Spin or not, I don’t know.
Please click for more
Chicago Addick 