Charlton Athletic in urgent need of January transfer window signings
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
Lee Bowyer is crying out for additions to his squad in the January transfer window – with Joe Aribo the latest injury casualty for Charlton Athletic.
The Addicks lost 2-1 at Coventry City on Boxing Day. Aribo is set for a scan next week to get further detail on the knee injury which forced him off against Gillingham.
Charlton are already missing Jake Forster-Caskey, Lewis Page, Josh Cullen, Igor Vetokele and George Lapslie – who looks to have suffered a fresh concussion at the Ricoh Arena. Naby Sarr is suspended.
Jamie Ward returns to parent club Nottingham Forest next week.
“I hope to bring in one or two quickly,” said Addicks manager Bowyer. “We have to, because we have got no bodies.
“We have to bring in at least two who are fit and can play.
“We are trying our hardest to find a left-back but there are not many out there who can come and play, apart from kids – and we don’t want to take a kid who is unproven.”
There has been fresh talk of a takeover being completed at Charlton.
Photograph by Keith Gillard
But Bowyer said: “I don’t think anything has changed. I’ve not heard anything so I assume we’re in the same situation [under a tighter budget under owner Roland Duchatelet].
“There is nothing we can do and change. I don’t really get involved in it [takeover talks] until something happens. At the moment nothing seems to be happening.”
Bowyer estimates that Aribo will be “out for a while”.
He said: “The first scan didn’t show that much, so we have got to re-scan it. But he’s out for a while.
“In this [Christmas] period you want to make changes [to freshen up the side] and we don’t have it. We have got kids on the bench but they are not ready to play.
“We are taking them along in case of an emergency – they are not ready. That is not fair on them to play them. We are down to the bare bones – we have got one senior player on the bench. It’s crazy but I feel sorry for the lads because the ones out there are giving me everything they have got.
“We need bodies but there is nothing we can do about it. It’s just the way it is.”
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