Charlton boss Nathan Jones wants bulk of summer transfer business done before the end of June

Nathan Jones has set his sights on Charlton Athletic doing nearly all of their summer transfer window business before the end of June.

The Addicks are unbeaten in eight League One matches under the Welshman, who was appointed manager at the start of February.

Now that Charlton have pulled clear from relegation danger, the focus in the medium term is to build a squad that can challenge at the top end of the table.

Asked if he expected to get much time off this summer, Jones told the South London Press: “Very little, to be honest with you.

“I usually take a holiday, but it is probably one of my busiest times because we are planning and driving something.

“Once we come back late June we want there to be a different feel to the place. Hopefully we will have pretty much, 99 per cent, of our squad in place.

“That is the type of thing we want to create here and not going into pre-season where we are six short and we are signing players in August.

“We want to get everything done in June, if possible, so by the end of June we have a full six weeks for everyone to work together.

“That is the plan. That takes a lot of hard work through May and June. For me to be on holiday, you can’t necessarily do that.

“I’ll make sure I take some time off to rest because there are a lot of people in my life who sacrifice stuff for me to do this – they have to be repaid. Then I’ll make sure I keep Charlton at the forefront of everything we do.”

The Addicks have seven matches still to play this season, starting with Exeter City today.

“We want to lay foundations here,” said Jones.

“Yeah, we’ve got a big summer coming up but we’ve got to make sure we do the job in hand now for the next month or so – and then we can start planning. Behind the scenes we are making moves for next year, because we have to and that is good planning and good decision-making.

“But our primary focus is on keep getting points, keep working with this group, keep evaluating this group, keep improving this group – getting it to a point where, in a month’s time, we can really make sane decisions moving forward.”