Charlton failed with the signings of Rob Apter and Tanto Olaofe

Charlton signed Charlie Kelman from Queens Park Rangers for a cost of £5 million in the summer. Kelman was the best scorer in the third-tier during his loan at Leyton Orient.

In addition to Kelman, the club also signed Rob Apter from Blackpool for roughly £2 million and Tanto Olaofe from Stockport County for around £1.5 million.

Despite being selected the club’s Player of the Month in August, as Charlton made a promising start to their return to the Championship, Apter quickly fell down the pecking order, missing out on match day squads before leaving in the January transfer window.

The former Blackpool player has subsequently joined League One promotion contenders Bolton Wanderers on loan, while Tanto Olaofe has already returned to the third division and returned to Stockport, with Jayden Fevrier travelling the opposite way down to south London.

Both players shown flashes of quality, particularly Apter, but Nathan Jones’ lack of faith in them has resulted in £3.5 million in loan signings within six months of their arrivals.

Given Kelman’s slow start and the club’s reliance on existing players such as Tyreece Campbell and Miles Leaburn, those earlier, and completely understandable, suggestions that another attacker, such as Fofana, would have been surplus to requirements may not have predicted that things would go so poorly in attack.

Nathan Jones may have used David Datro Fofana at Charlton

Lyndon Dykes joined the capital city from Birmingham City in the January transfer window, and the Scotland international has started brightly, scoring in a 2-0 win over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

Kelman remained an unused substitute in Jones’ team that day, but tried and trusted players such as Matty Godden and the versatile Campbell came off the bench, with Dykes leading the way.

The players that haven’t quite managed to consistently cut it for Charlton and for Jones are the players that had little to no second-tier experience but had also never previously worked with Jones.

David Datro Fofana did not have second division experience, but he has played at a higher level and would have undoubtedly been a better choice for Jones than the apparent gambles of Apter, Olaofe, and even Kelman.

For a team battling against the relegation, and seemingly for a Nathan Jones side, low-risk additions where the ceiling may not be too high, but you are very much aware of the level of the floor, and that level is at the very least competency in the Championship, such as Dykes, Perhaps always be the way to go – and Fofana would undoubtedly have fallen into that category, so there must be some remorse that he is now a Ligue 1 player rather than a Charlton Athletic player.

Read more on Straightwinfortoday.com