Streets in SE7 quiet as Methven departs

Charlie Methven has stood down as Charlton's CEO, saying that the club is now on an upward trajectory and he can pack up his tent: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn4yjp7v9pxo

Reports from SE7 suggest that the streets around The Valley remain calm with no sign of fans rending shirts or returning their season tickets.

Normally in such circumstances one would use the words the cinema newsreels applied to the departure of Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in 1940, 'Thanks for all you tried to do.'   But I was never quite clear what Methven did, although he could talk the talk.

More here: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/sport/charlie-methven-leaving-role-as-charlton-athletic-chief-executive-officer/

The club is advertising the position.

Charlton and the success of Ademola Lookman

Turn the corner in the corridor leading to the sports hall at St Thomas the Apostle School and Sixth Form College (STAC) and, almost hidden away out of sight, you might miss the framed, match-worn Charlton Athletic shirt.   The display also includes a photo of a young Ademola Lookman.

The reigning African footballer of the year is, without question, the most successful player to emerge from STAC, a state-funded all-boys Catholic school in Southwark, south-east London. Yet Lookman’s is just one of several jerseys displayed on that wall, illustrating the sporting achievements of so many former pupils.

He achieved excellent academic results at STAC, with four A*s and five As in his GCSEs, before being picked up late, at 17, by Charlton. He rose rapidly through their academy to the first team and made 49 appearances before a Premier League move to Everton at age 19. A further 48 appearances on Merseyside led to a 2019 transfer to Germany’s RB Leipzig and subsequent Premier League loans with Fulham and Leicester City, until he settled on a permanent deal with Atalanta in August 2022.

“Ademola was academically driven because there was not even a thought back then about him taking up a scholarship let alone a professional contract,” PE supremo Reynolds commented.