Charlton Athletic academy set to received extra financial injection after GFP takeover
The Addicks have one of the most successful youth set-ups in the country, producing a succession of players who have gone on to be sold to Premier League clubs.
Attacking midfielder Karoy Anderson, right, and right-back Nathan Asiimwe are the latest to catch the eye.
But Charlie Methven, a shareholder in Cayman Island’s based GFP which completed a takeover of Charlton a week ago, says it will be the technical department – headed up by Andy Scott – which will make the call on whether prize talent should leave.
“We have to raise enough money from commercial revenues and ticketing revenues and – if not – then unfortunately from ownership funding, to try and make sure those decisions, when they are made by the technical department, are made for the right reasons,” said Methven. “You allocate budgets to the technical department and if you are doing that with it depending on selling academy prospects all the time, then you’re going to get caught out at some point. That is a money magic tree that should never, really, be shaken in that way.
“The academy is a great production line. I think the view of our people is that it needs a little bit of love and a little bit of investment is required to try and maintain it as well as push it on a little bit further.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the noise the technical people are making is that there is a bit of investment coming into the academy. It’s well-known in football that Steve Avory (academy director) and his team do an outstanding job.
“Maybe it’s just a case of giving them a little more support to enable them to carry on doing that job.
“Everyone understands a player comes, at a point in their development, where it is the right thing for him to move on. And maybe it is also the right time for the club to realise some upside from that asset. But it has to be a technical department decision. It should not be driven by the ownership deciding that is the way to fund the club – I feel very strongly on that point.”
Predecessor Thomas Sandgaard had tried unsuccessfully to obtain category one status for Charlton’s academy.
“My experience of running a cat-1 academy at Sunderland was that it didn’t help you in terms of not having your players poached,” said Methven. “Ours were still being poached left, right and centre.
“Clearly when it come to attracting players, it doesn’t look like Charlton are having any problems.”
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