Charlie Methven on Gavin Carter’s new role at Charlton Athletic, academy focus and EFL partnership
Charlie Methven has welcomed the recent appointment of Gavin Carter as non-executive chairman at Charlton Athletic.
The League One club announced the move earlier this month – the change coming following a meeting of Global Football Partners, who own the Addicks.
Carter, a Charlton supporter, had been on the club’s board and also an investor since the group’s takeover in July 2023.
The rest of the structure remains unchanged.
“It has been a move in the making for a little while,” Addicks chief executive officer Methven told the South London Press.
“Gavin has been an independent non-executive for a little while and as he has become more across a lot of the detail in the organisation, the investors felt it was a good time to appoint an independent chairman.
“Every organisation should have an independent chairman, that’s just part of tidying up and tweaking our governance structures.
“When I say independent, I mean independent of the executives. I don’t think it is a good idea for executives to be chairman in the medium term because, in effect, you are marking your own homework.
“It’s all part of the process of maturing more as an organisation and becoming more accountable – becoming more cohesive and coherent.
“Pretty much every week both the board at Charlton, the senior management team and the ownership are constantly trying to find every small way to improve performance – never sit back and hope for the best.
“We’re constantly trying to push towards better performance. Appointing Gavin to that role is just one of those things and, as chief executive, I hugely welcome.”
Methven also says that a huge amount of focus has been centred on Charlton’s youth set-up.
And part of that includes making sure they are scouting the Kent area for talented youngsters.
Methven said: “We have been very clear throughout that we regard the future of the academy as being a real cornerstone of Charlton’s future. It’s easy to say it but really making sure that is true is a multi-faceted matter.
“Some strong decisions were taken in the summer about the structure of the U21 side, ready for us to become a younger side – have fewer players out on loan and to really enable a group of young players to develop together but also to be able to come across and train with the first team, start to integrate into that environment and be overseen by Nathan (Jones, first-team manager).
“That has been a really big success and the U21 team itself is having a good season. But, at the same time, you are seeing young players like Zach Mitchell, Kaheim Dixon, Josh Laqeretabua and Kai Enslin starting to make their first-team debuts. Then they come back out and then go back in.
“That is a much more detailed process than people might see looking from the outside.
“It is about having a technical board that assesses the future potential of our young players and maps out plans for each individual one of those stretching over six months, a year and 18 months – so that we don’t end up limiting the potential that sits on our doorstep.
“Part of that is sorting the structure that sits between the academy and the first-team. They are much closer than they would have been since we came to the club.
“The second part of it is really focused on increasing the talent pool we can access, in partnership with Mount Pleasant – which has really come to fruition in the last six months.
“Firstly our U21 team went over and did a pre-season trip to Mount Pleasant in the summer. Mount Pleasant’s U16 team came to Charlton for a tour – to play against our U16 team and an academy side. It gives our academy people at Sparrows Lane the chance to work out which Mount Pleasant players are potentially elite players of the future, from that tour three potential elite U16s have already been identified. It also allows us to start co-operating with Mount Pleasant staff on programmes and all sorts of knowledge exchange.
“That has been a big piece of work.
“Now we are just starting to turn our attention to our Kent hinterland, in terms of trying to structure our academy scouting reach over Kent, which is a large area which is, most, fundamentally a Charlton area.
“We are looking to make our academy power on. We are ranked in the top-10 in the country, and that’s great. But our plan is to become one of the top five academies in the country for productivity.
“We think that is a realistic goal but also an ambitious goal. There is a lot of stuff we’ve got to do to achieve that.”
It was announced in November that Charlton were selected to work with the EFL on a initiative aimed at increasing accessibility and inclusion across professional football.
“It is a major project that is going to be rolled out in 2025 and we are very proud to be selected by the EFL to be their partner in this,” said Methven.
“For Charlton to fulfill its potential over the next 10-15 years and onwards from there, for it to become a truly big club, it is going to need to attract more people who actually live in the vicinity.
“That is a really exciting project to embark upon. Paul Elliott, our vice-chairman, has taken it on with aplomb. It is going to be a pretty large scale thing which will uncover some interesting things which will be relevant for all of English football.
“There is no doubt that whilst diversity has made a big change in terms of the playing pool, and the coaching pool is becoming more and more diverse, these are decisions which can be made. But in terms of attracting fans – in terms of ensuring diversity – we can’t make that decision.
“We have to do the things that need to be done to enable different groups, from different areas, all sort of different diversity, to make them feel like coming to a men’s first-team game is something they want to do.
“That is going to be a major theme of 2025 and one we’re working closely with Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust on, making sure a process is also inclusive of Charlton fans as well.”
MAIN PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD