Charlton Athletic owner on future of former Blackpool loanee Charlie Kirk

Charlton Athletic owner Thomas Sandgaard is not ruling Charlie Kirk out of fitting into their plans for next season.

The 24-year-old winger spent the second half of last season on loan at Blackpool.

But the Seasiders have had a managerial change since the end of the campaign with Neil Critchley opting to become Steven Gerrard’s assistant manager at Aston Villa.

Blackpool had an option to make Kirk’s stay permanent for a pre-agreed sum which would have recouped the £500,000 outlay Charlton spent to sign him from Crewe last August but they did not take that option up.

The Addicks have appointed Ben Garner as their new manager last week and he has promised to produce an exciting brand of possession-based football.

Asked about Kirk’s situation, Sandgaard told the South London Press: “He was obviously someone we paid a lot of money for last season. We had him out on loan at Blackpool and he did really well, played a lot of minutes up there.

“We’ve seen interest in him. We’ve got to weigh that between the interest we see from some clubs, how we can utilise him in the squad and how he fits into Ben’s philosophy of playing attacking football.

“Charlie is an attacking footballer, so already there he has a big plus.

“We’ll see how it goes.”