Charlton Athletic prematurely lost £3.7m man to Laurent Blanc & Bordeaux – Alan Pardew was furious

Alan Pardew was incensed after Charlton Athletic lost a £3.7 million player to Laurent Blanc & Bordeaux too soon.

After being promoted in 2000, Charlton had become somewhat of a force in the Premier League under Alan Curbishley’s leadership. Charlton have made a few attempts to qualify for Europe throughout their seven seasons in the Premier League, placing as high as seventh in the 2003–04 campaign.

The 2006–07 season was extremely difficult after Curbishley left in the summer of 2006. Iain Dowie was replaced by Alan Pardew halfway through the season, but despite striker Darren Bent scoring 13 goals in the league that season, the south Londoners were unable to avoid finishing in 19th place. Following Dowie’s hiring, Charlton made a number of supposedly promising moves that summer, including Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Djimi Traore, Amdy Faye, Scott Carson, and Andy Reid, in an attempt to get going after Curbishley.

However, Senegalese defender Souleymane Diawara, who came from Sochaux for an estimated £3.7 million, was the standout summer arrival. But before being moved to Ligue 1 powerhouse Bordeaux in the summer of 2007, the Dakar-born centre-back would only make 23 league appearances for the team, thus instantly derailing, or at least significantly damaging, their aspirations to immediately return. Charlton would have thought they had a team more than capable of competing for at least a top six finish if Alan Pardew had been tasked with leading them straight back up.

While some important players did depart, such as Dennis Rommedahl being sold to Ajax and Hermann Hreidarsson joining Portsmouth on a free transfer, the team’s situation was evident by August, when they added a number of new players, including Luke Varney, Chris Powell, Paddy McCarthy, and Chris Iwelumo. Relegation would inevitably result in the departure of important players, but Charlton was able to complete some outgoing deals early on, which helped with their planning and came at a high cost: Luke Young joined Middlesbrough for £2.5 million in July, and Darren Bent moved to Tottenham Hotspur for £16.5 million in late June.

Consequently, any additional significant sale would seem to have been unforeseen, which would account for Pardew’s anger at Souleymane Diawara’s exit to Bordeaux. In August, Bordeaux, who had won the Coupe de la Ligue the year before and finished sixth in Ligue 1 under the coaching of 1998 FIFA World Cup champion Laurent Blanc, were able to steal Diawara from

The Valley for an estimated £2.6 million; in just a single year, Charlton lost £1.1 million on their initial investment. Pardew had criticised Blanc for openly announcing Bordeaux’s interest in Diawara less than a week before the trade was finalised: “Technical directors and managers of rival teams should never discuss players who have contracts elsewhere, in my opinion. It’s unfair and unsettling. “Souleymane Diawara has grown to play a significant role in our preseason activities. If we lost him, it would be devastating.

But Charlton lost him, and Pardew persisted in making public protests over the transaction, accusing Diawara’s agent of being involved and even hinting that legal action might ensue: “I didn’t want to lose Souley.” I’m currently debating whether to report him to the Football League and the appropriate authorities because his agent was a major factor in his departure. Charlton originally struggled to find a replacement for Diawara as the last few weeks of the transfer window passed, which may have highlighted how unforeseen his sale had been. Charlton signed midfielder Zheng Zhi from Shandong Luneng Taishan and forward Izale McLeoud from Milton Keynes Dons the day after his transfer to Bordeaux was finalised.

In addition, they signed former England international right-back Danny Mills and another midfielder, Therry Racon, from Guingamp. On the last day of the transfer window, they signed a centre-back, Sam Sodje, on loan from Reading. Even though Diawara left just days before a 1-1 tie with Scunthorpe United on the first day of the season, Charlton didn’t necessarily start too slowly despite the interruption. They ultimately lost to a mid-table finish as a result of a subpar second half of the season, and there will always be sadness over what might have been if they had the original roster and defensive depth they had hoped for.Under Pardew, Diawara had emerged as a key player for Charlton in the Premier League, starting most games in the second half of the season. His quality was evident after his sale, as he assisted Bordeaux in winning the French championship in 2009 and Marseille in doing the same the following year. In the meantime, Charlton started to deteriorate and would eventually drop into League One, which may have explained Pardew’s fury about the transfer.

Read more news on straightwinfortoday.com