East Street Investments withdraw contract offer to Lyle Taylor – and set to listen to offers for Charlton Athletic striker
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
East Street Investments have withdrawn their contract offer to Lyle Taylor – and are set to consider any bids they receive for the Charlton Athletic striker in this month’s transfer window.
ESI are running the Championship club after completing their takeover deal with Roland Duchatelet last week.
They wanted Taylor to stay and are understood to have put together a lucrative deal until the summer of 2022 that improved his basic salary and included a loyalty bonus and signing-on fee. There was also an option of another year.
ESI had put a deadline in place for the former AFC Wimbledon and Millwall frontman to respond which has passed.
Taylor has not been placed on the transfer list. He turns 30 at the end of March and this month is a final chance for the Addicks to recoup a fee.
A thigh injury suffered in last week’s defeat at Swansea could keep him out until late January.
The Montserrat international ran down his contract with the Dons before joining Charlton in the summer of 2018. He was a pivotal part of the SE7 outfit’s promotion from League One and has scored 32 goals in 58 matches – along with producing a large amount of assists.
Taylor did turn down a contract offer made by previous owner Duchatelet.
The Belgian businessman rejected multiple bids from Brentford for the fans’ favourite at the end of the previous transfer window.
Charlton are looking to add to their frontline options before this weekend’s league meeting with West Bromwich Albion at The Valley.
They remain keen on Blackpool striker Armand Gnanduillet.
The big French striker came very close to signing for the Addicks – a deal just missing the cut-off on deadline day.
Gnanduillet has scored 15 goals in 27 matches for Blackpool, including netting against Reading in the FA Cup.
Charlton were interested in Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster but he looked set to sign on loan for Swansea as our paper went to press.
ESI have confirmed they own The Valley as part of their takeover and have a commitment to buy the club’s training ground within the next six months.
There doesn’t seem to be any loyalty these days as many of the Charlton ‘heroes’ from last season have shown, like Joe Aribo.
The game is all about money and it is not a sport anymore, it is a business and maybe Katrine was right about us being customers and not fans. We just didn’t like to believe it.
It is such a pity that it has come to this and the days of Keith Peacock, Jonny Summers, Sam Bartram have long gone, but we have to face facts and these guys have worked hard and want the money like any other job.
I remember hearing the Scot Parker story where he was approached by Chelsea and then told Alan Curbishley he couldn’t train anymore !
It’s all very understandable but sad for the supporters who like to think that the players feel the same for the club as we do.
Scott Parker was foolish accepting the offer from Chelsea. I believe if he’d stayed at Charlton longer and developed as a player, he would have had far more appearances in the England side. He never really fulfilled the potential he showed at Charlton.
taylor did the same at wimbledon he waited until he was out of contract and although wimbledon offered him as much as they could he moved to charlton,he was unknown until the wimbledon manager found him but as we all know there is no loyalty only pound notes ,