Charlton Athletic technical director Andy Scott on transfer window business and “rebuffing” approaches for youngsters

Charlton Athletic technical director Andy Scott says that the League One club rejected approaches for some of their young players in the January transfer window.

And he added that contract offers had been made to three of their young players.

With striker Miles Leaburn already on a longer-term deal, the most likely candidates to be offered extensions are centre-back Lucas Ness, goalkeeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer – who the club have an option on – and midfielder Aaron Henry, who is due to be out of contract at the end of June.

And Scott has made it clear that manager Dean Holden wanted to reduce the size of the playing squad.

The Addicks brought in five players last month and moved eight out. None of the additions signed are due to be in SE7 beyond the summer.

“The squad was too big,” Scott told Charlton TV. “Dean couldn’t train the way that he wanted to – for matchday preparations there were five or six that weren’t involved and it doesn’t create a good culture. Dean is very strong on that.

“Part of the remit was to trim the squad. The next part was to bring in better quality than what was leaving. And the third part was to ensure we had better balance about the squad and we had more options for Dean.

“In general we’ve ticked those boxes. We’d have liked one more in maybe but we couldn’t do much about that – we did everything we could. Generally we’re very, very happy with it.”

Scott says he has now moved on to a rolling contract after his initial terms – which ran until January 31 – have expired. Scott, COO Jim Rodwell and finance director Ed Warrick have been brought in by the Charlie Methven-led group who are in a period of exclusivity to acquire the club off Thomas Sandgaard.

Scott had said prior to the window opening that there would be no sale of the club’s prized talent.

Asked if the club were tested on that front, he replied: “Yeah, absolutely. The young players and players we have got here have done very, very well for us.

“We expected there to be interest and that was quickly rebuffed. There was no chance we were going to sell our young players. In fact, what we have done is offered contracts to three of our younger players – which is good – and hopefully we’ll get some positive news on that. And Jes [Rak-Sakyi] has done very well on loan from Crystal Palace and we’ve been able to keep him.”

Asked about his own situation, Scott said: “Part of the contract was if it went past January 31 it would become a rolling contract as long as all parties agreed. I’m more than happy to do that, given the circumstances, and so are the club. Hopefully we’ll get to something a little more permanent in the next week.

“After the window we wanted to have a breather, take a step back and review what we did and make sure it was right for everybody. Then we can sit down and discuss how it looks longer term.”