Steve Gallen: Charlton and Luton Town staff have good relationship – it helped us get Andrew Shinnie

Steve Gallen has revealed how Charlton Athletic’s reaction to losing Tom Lockyer helped them land Andrew Shinnie.

The centre-back, 25, had a relegation release clause in his deal and activated that to move to the Hatters on a free transfer on September 1.

Addicks director of football Gallen said: “To get Tom to sign the year before we had to put in the contract that if we get relegated he can leave on a free transfer.

“We didn’t pay for him. If you’re paying a transfer fee you would never ever agree to that.

“Tom had Hull, Swansea and ourselves and we really wanted him. I’m so pleased we got him. He was excellent for us.

“He didn’t find anything for a while [after relegation] so I was thinking we might be able to keep him. In the end Luton came in and took him. I’m not surprised. He’s a good player.

“Luton’s chief executive Gary Sweet rang me up and said: “Steve, I hate to do this but we’re going to take your player’. I said:

‘You don’t even need to call me’. He said: ‘We like to do things the right way’. Thank you for doing that. I respect you for doing that.

“You have to be careful because if I’d moaned at him, when I went back to him for Andrew Shinnie six weeks later – and I did joking that we’d done him a favour with Tom even though we hadn’t – I asked for him to help us out and they did with Shinnie.

“You’re calling in all sorts of favours because we’re paying a minimal amount to his wages and they’ve let us do it.

“He’s a good player. They didn’t want to let him go but they like him that much. We have friends at Luton – Mick Harford and Gary Sweet. Lee speaks to Nathan [Jones] and Nathan used to work at Charlton. I get the fans might not be best friends but the people at Luton have helped us.”