Charlton Athletic boss grateful to Crystal Palace duo for helping defender deal to happen

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Lee Bowyer is confident that Charlton can get Ryan Inniss’ career back on track – and has thanked Crystal Palace duo Steve Parish and Dougie Freedman for helping make the deal happen.

The 25-year-old centre-back, hyped as one of the country’s outstanding prospects as a teenager, made a permanent move to the Addicks on Tuesday.

Inniss has signed until at least 2022, with the option of a further 12 months.

Charlton are operating under a salary wage cap in League One and Bowyer was quick to praise Eagles chairman Parish and director of football Freedman.

“There weren’t many right-sided defenders around and as soon as Ryan came available we jumped at it,” said the Addicks manager. “We have to thank Dougie and Mr Parish. They made it possible.

They could’ve made it difficult, but they didn’t.

“We’re grateful because the salary cap makes it harder to get people in.

“There is a rivalry between the two clubs but they have helped the lad out, which has helped us out.

“Ryan is a good defender. He’s got a good physique. But the most important thing to me is that you can play. I don’t ever want to bring in players that can’t play – no matter what position – because we play from the back. You must be able to handle the ball.

“He is a winner, a leader and an organiser at the back. He’s going to be good for us.

“His career went a bit stale, for one reason or another, but he’s in a good place now. Now it’s about re-kicking his career. That’s all we do – re-kick. Karlan [Grant] has just gone to West Brom and he was playing League Two [on loan at Crawley] 18 months ago. Josh Cullen has just moved [to Anderlecht]. Krystian Bielik went stale at Arsenal [before a season-long stay with Charlton]. This is the perfect place for Ryan.”

Chelsea have also taken Chelsea left-back Ian Maatsen, 18, on loan. The Blues have a call-back clause – which they applied last January for Conor Gallagher, who ended up switching to Swansea for the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign.

“There are recall options in all the loans – we have the same power when we loan our players out,” said Bowyer. “With Conor it was the first time it has happened to us.

“It’s disappointing but don’t forget we loaned out Alfie [Doughty] last season and we called him back. Bromley weren’t happy about that. So sometimes it happens.

“You aren’t in control of that when it is not your player. You can’t just not take a player because there is a chance of a recall. Even if you only have them for six months it is six months where you can use their quality, it’s better than nothing.”

Charlton were chasing at least two loan signings as our paper went to press.

The Addicks are keen on QPR striker Paul Smyth. Bowyer also wants to bring in a midfielder.