After Global Football Partners completed their takeover, Charlton Athletic had a busy summer at the Valley as they got right to work.
This season, the Addicks want to have a more competitive League One campaign. Despite the problems off the field, Dean Holden guided Charlton to 10th place in the standings last season, and they scored 62 points under his leadership.
With the off-field negotiations coming to an end, the club was expecting to close the 15-point deficit to the play-off spots and continue to improve. The club has already had many changes in the background, including a management change after only five games. In Charlton’s first league game, Holden had four losses and a single victory.
He left them 19th in the table and became the first EFL manager to lose his job this season. The London club will be aiming to bridge that gap and earn a place in the top six over the next eight months with Michael Appleton now taking the reins.
However, his Charlton side have an opportunity to strengthen in January, but will also be minded about losing key young talent and star players. The club is in close proximity to a hotbed of young stars by being situated in London and the Addicks have seen many great names come through their academy over the years, something that has boosted the reputation of the club.
Here, we take a look at who they may be set to lose in January, and how they may use that money to source a replacement or two to catapult themselves into the play-off picture before the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
1 Sell: Corey Blackett-Taylor
An obvious candidate to be sold this January, Blackett-Taylor is most certainly a name that falls into the category of players that the Addicks could face difficulty in retaining for the duration of this season.
The 26-year-old is a direct, pacy, and skillful dribbler and he’s been a star for Charlton yet again in the opening stages of the current campaign, building upon the previous term that saw him tally a career-high eight-goal haul.
2 Sign: Gavin Kilkenny
Kilkenny was a player who was linked with a move in the summer transfer window, but for whatever reason, a deal never materialised.
That means the Irish midfielder has stayed with Premier League side AFC Bournemouth for the first part of this season, where he has yet to play a game and has only been named on the bench a handful of times. His lack of involvement is likely to see him leave in January, whether that is a permanent deal or a temporary one.
3 Sign: Shola Shoretire
If Blackett-Taylor departs, the club may be in need of reinforcements out wide, and dipping into the Premier League loan market could be the best plan of action. There are likely to be many wingers available in January, and Shoretire is another young player who is on the books at a top flight side but is playing academy football.
The Manchester United winger can also operate as an attacking midfielder and spent the second half of last season on loan at fellow League One side Bolton Wanderers. Shoretire got plenty of game time under his belt and excelled at times for the Trotters in a different role. Charlton themselves have utilised the Premier League winger loan market well when last season Jesurun Rak-Sakyi enjoyed an extremely beneficial spell with the Addicks.
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