Deji Oshilaja on Charlton Athletic takeover talks – and boost of Lyle Taylor return at Boro

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Deji Oshilaja is not paying a lot of attention to Charlton’s takeover situation – and reckons the players just need to crack on with their jobs.

East Street Investments have agreed to purchase the Championship side off owner Roland Duchatelet.

ESI issued a statement on Friday saying they were working on “the final details” to satisfy the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test.
Matt Southall, who will be the new chairman if the takeover gets the green light, was at The Valley for Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Sheffield Wednesday.

Oshilaja said: “We just concentrate on the football side of things. We have to concentrate on what we can affect – that is playing football and training hard.

“If it does go through then we’ll react accordingly. If it does happen it will be great for the fans. It’s been something that has been in the pipeline for a while.”

Charlton have an injury crisis and were without 14 players for last weekend’s fixture.

They have picked up only two points from their last seven matches but could have Lyle Taylor and Chuks Aneke back for Saturday’s game at Middlesbrough.

Conor Gallagher has served his one-match ban although Tom Lockyer will be unavailable after collecting his fifth caution of the season.

Charlton are bottom of the form table for the last six matches.

“As a squad we aren’t worried,” said Oshilaja. “We’re down to our bare bones and know the results haven’t been good enough.

“But we dissect the games a lot. We’ve been in every game. We’re going through a bad patch at the moment – everyone does at some stage. We’ll continue to work, get out of it and finish strong.”

“If we can get Lyle back on the pitch at the weekend that will be amazing. We’ve got great attacking options, the key for us now is to keep them fit.

“It’s actually crazy [the amount of players unavailable].”

PICTURE BY PAUL EDWARDS