Charlton Athletic fans in the stands during the Sky Bet Championship match at The Valley, London. Picture date: Saturday August 7, 2021.
Technical director at Charlton Athletic on the Blackett-Taylor and Dobson contract dispute
Charlton Athletic technical director Andy Scott is planning contract talks with some of Michael Appleton’s squad – confirming that there were bids for Corey Blackett-Taylor before the transfer window closed.
We reported recently that Derby County had tried for winger Blackett-Taylor.
And ambitious Wrexham, whose financial spending power means they are able to offer wages that exceed plenty of clubs in League One, wanted Addicks skipper George Dobson.
Both Blackett-Taylor and Dobson are out of contract at the end of June.
Scott told the South London Press: “I’ve spoken to both the agents before the window shut. I spoke to Dobbo’s agent a couple of weeks after I joined. He phoned and said: ‘What’s the situation?’ I said: ‘Let me get my feet under the desk first!’
“Things have changed, a new coach has come in so we’ll see how that pans out. But there are plans to keep players and talk to them, ones out of contract that we feel are going to be assets to the club. We turned down a couple of offers for Corey. Corey was well aware of that – we made it clear we wanted to keep him.
“The plan now that the window is shut is to speak to the agents and see where they see things, what we can do.
“Equally we have got to look at where we are with some of our younger players. We need to see whether there is National League loans or what the plan is. We can’t just collect players that aren’t going to contribute to this football club.
Picture : Keith Gillard
“We’ve got some really talented young players. We need them to get in the side and show what they can do, then we can take it further.
“We’ve got a lot of assets at this football club but we want to build a squad. We don’t want to keep changing 11 players every summer. We’ve got a lot of players out of contract at the end of the season.
“Naturally people are going to fall by the wayside. We want to keep our best players if we can, sometimes situation dictates that you can’t.
“We’ve got to understand where we are financially and where we are in the league. Getting promoted certainly helps you keep your best players. It’s an opportunity for them to play well and for us to do well, with them in the side. Also try and tie them down for longer – hopefully that will be in the Championship with the other players we’ve got on longer contracts.”
