Players dropped

Scott Wagstaff, Ricardo Fuller, Matt Taylor and Salim Kerkar will not be offered new deals by Charlton, the club has announced. No surprise about Wagstaff, although a disappointment, and Taylor has unfortunately not really succeeded at this level. Kerkar has not lived up to his promise. Fuller is arguably too expensive given the number of games in which he has played.

Clearly we now need a new striker as I would not expect or want Bradley Wright-Phillips to be given a new contract. However, we will be constrained by what we can afford, not least in terms of wages.

Appleton quits

Blackpool manager Michael Appleton has given a new twist to the curse of Charlton by quitting a day before his team appear at Charlton to manage Blackburn Rovers. Steve Thompson, who took training on Thursday, has been put in charge of the team. Unfortunately for us, such circumstances can increase a team's cohesion and lead them to upping their game.

It is understood that Phil Parkinson has turned down the opportunity to take part in talks about the Blackpool vacancy.

With Dervitte suspended and Cort injured, Matt Taylor rejoins the Charlton defence tomorrow.

Charlton shore up defence

The Addicks have shored up their injury hit defence with a one month loan of Danny Seaborne from Southampton: Seaborne

He can play at centre back or left back. Presumably he will slot in at left back allowing Solly to revert to being right back.

Millwall tried to sign him on loan last month, but Southampton wanted his wages paid in full: Millwall

I have now found his Wikipedia entry: Seaborne . He hails from Barnstaple in deepest Devon and was taken on as a trainee by Exeter, but was then loaned out to various teams such as Clyst Rovers. He also suffered a broken leg in a game against Bodmin, but interestingly eventually formed an effective defensive partnership with Matt Taylor.

The career of Matt Taylor

An article here reviewing the somewhat unorthodox career of Matt Taylor. Not sure what I think of the young journo's writing style: Taylor

Taylor is, of course, on the fringe of the team this year and had the misfortune to pick up an injury before the game at Hull.

Elsewhere, Leon Clarke scored Scunthorpe's only goal as they drew 1-1 with the smaller of the two Sheffield teams.

Crystal Palace appear to have given up on a move away from Selhurst Park, but are in discussions with Sainsbury's about how the ground might be developed. This would include moving the away fans: Palace

The pressure is on - Matt Taylor

The pressure on says Matt Taylor in a column in today's Football League Paper. Read more about the interview at our new third division site: Diary

Two more signings

I have been working away for two days and (thankfully) out of internet contact I am not fully up to speed on the two latest signings. Rhoys Wiggins is a left back who has been brought in from Bournemouth: Wiggins

Apparently in the case of Wiggins we beat Watford to his signature and a fee of £300,000 has been mentioned. There has certainly been some serious investment in the squad for League 1 level, let's hope now that it pays off.

Matt Taylor, who is the former Exeter captain, has been signed after being released by the Grecians. He started life as a goalkeeper, but provides the centre back we have been looking for: Taylor

We really need another centre back, but it has been suggested that this might involve a loan.

I am relatively encouraged by the signings so far. We will soon be in to the pre-season fixtures which will give the Addickted a chance to look at them.

However, I never place too much faith in these matches as a guide either to form or how we are going to do in the season. The whole point of them is to try out different combinations of players and formations. Above all, we don't want to see any key players injured. One of my most vivid memories of these matches is seeing the frustration of Matt Svenson when he was injured at FC Roda, an injury that kept him out for some time and, as I recall, largely drew a line under his Charlton career (although he then scored a winning goal against us for Norwich).

I am in the process of creating a new third division diary format and I hope it will be ready by the time of the Crown Berger cup against Welling.