EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Millwall FC humble squad value compared with new Championship rivals including QPR and Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic humble squad value compared with new Championship rivals including QPR and Millwall

Championship squads boast significantly higher market value than the current Charlton Athletic first team.

Charlton Athletic prepare to rise up the divisions next season having booked a place in the Championship via a League One play-off win against Leyton Orient.

It’s the first time the Addicks will play in the second tier since the 2019/20 season and only the third campaign since the 2009 relegation. Nathan Jones has made it crystal clear that he intends not only to keep his side in the Championship over the next 12 months, but look to put the stepping stones in place to return to the Premier League.

Charlton Athletic spent eight seasons in the Premier League between 1998 and 2007, recording a seventh place finish in 2004. Speaking after the win at Wembley Stadium, Jones was asked if he could take the side back to the big time.

Nathan Jones sets lofty Charlton Athletic ambitions

He said: “Absolutely. I didn’t drop to League One to become a League One manager, I dropped to League One to manage Charlton and I believe with a fair wind, God’s will and a hell of a lot of work we can start to build something. We’ve had a really meteoric rise from 19th in League One to getting promoted but first and foremost we had to finish 4th in the league. That took an extra 31 points from what we had last year, 10 wins and a draw, that’s a big shift in terms of everything with clean sheets and the structure we built.

“We’ve earned the right now to be a Championship football club. Now the work starts tenfold because we go into an unforgiving environment. We land on a different planet and we have to be competitive.”

To do that, Charlton Athletic must fight to establish themselves in the Championship. The notoriously hard division can be unpredictable and the Addicks will need to invest wisely over the coming months in order to compete with sides that include Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton, who have just been relegated from the Premier League.

Millwall FC struck gold with Bradshaw and Ryan Leonard

Many Addicks first team players will feel prepared to take the step up a league but the club must also look to hold onto talent such as Thierry Small. The full-back is out of contract this summer and supposedly courted by teams including Millwall and Blackburn Rovers.

Last season, Jones went about getting the majority of his transfer work done early. That allowed the Welshman to work with the talent in pre-season. Explaining how important that was at the time, the manager said: “It’s one of the most important weeks of pre-season. First and foremost, because we wanted to get a lot of our business done early, it gives the new players an opportunity to gel with players we’ve had here.

“The earlier you get them in, the more work you can do. Because we train and play a certain way, it’s really important that those messages are applied very early and to as many of the squad that we’re going to take forward as possible.

“It’s been a tireless summer, real hard work. Everyone on the recruitment side – the club, the Board, everyone – has worked so hard to get these signings over the line, and we’re in a really good position.