Lee Bowyer makes transfer pledge – and admits Charlton slightly weaker after Bonne’s QPR move
Lee Bowyer has made it clear he will only add players who can improve Charlton Athletic’s squad – pointing out they have plenty of time to strengthen their squad after this weekend’s home game against Sunderland.
The Addicks only emerged out of their transfer window on Friday when Thomas Sandgaard took over as owner.
They have signed Ben Watson, Akin Famewo and Marcus Maddison – but also sold striker Macauley Bonne to QPR in a deal worth £2million.
“There is no point signing players who are not going to improve us – otherwise you are wasting the club’s money,” said Bowyer. “Myself and Steve Gallen [director of football] have never done that before and we’re not going to do it now.
“There are lads out there now who are free agents but they want to wait for this unbelievable contract that probably isn’t going to be there.
“We’re not silly – we know we’re weak compared to where we want to be. But it isn’t going to happen overnight. We’ve got to rebuild the club. You can’t keep losing 12 players in the summer and bringing in 12 players – that’s can’t keep happening. It becomes impossible. I’ve said that before and my thoughts haven’t changed.
“My message to people who are concerned or worried is that myself and Steve are working as hard as we possibly can with the chairman’s backing. Myself and Steve were here until 9pm – we’re here every single night. We get here early. We’re looking at players and the pros and cons, because there are always pros and cons.
“We’d have been silly to refuse that [offer for Bonne]. Yes, it makes us a little weaker for the weekend. But we’ve got two weeks to fill the gap and we will bring in someone who will score us goals.
“It’s put more pressure on me and Steve, because we didn’t expect it to happen. But it came and it was the right thing for the football club and for us to let Macca go.
“He wanted to leave, so it’s not like we forced him out the door. He very respectfully went to Steve, pulled him for a quick chat and said: ‘I’d like to move on. I understand QPR are interested’. Steve told him that if we got the right fee we wouldn’t stand in his way.”
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