Nathan Jones drops enticing Charlton Athletic transfer hint as signing confirmed

Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones dropped another transfer hint as the club confirmed the signing of Cambridge United goalkeeper Will Mannion on Monday morning.

The shot-stopper completed the switch to The Valley following the expiry of his contract at the Addicks' League One rivals. Mannion will add competition for the role as first choice goalkeeper, with Harry Isted and Ashley Maynard-Brewer linked with moves away from the club.

Jones welcomed Mannion, who made 14 League One appearances last term and was a key figure in the U's late survival battle, to the club with a statement shared on the official Charlton website.

In that message, Jones also informed supporters that the club was in the market for another goalkeeper acquisition, stipulating that they would not only be League One quality but Championship-ready too.

The Welshman said: “He [Mannion] is an experienced goalkeeper. We’re looking to improve every department over the summer in what is a big recruitment window for us. We identified Will as a real good goalkeeper who has done fantastically well at Cambridge and he did well against us in the game that he played. He’s someone that’s a real good profile in terms of size, he’s on his way up, he’s really hungry and he wants to get to and play at a higher level. That’s what attracted us to him.

“He’ll provide real good competition to those who we bring into that department and obviously he brings a real talent to it. We want to improve the department. We’re looking to bring in two goalkeepers to have a real competitive edge to them and two we believe can play at not just this level, but also can play at the level above.”

Jones went on to add that he hopes that all the club's transfer business would be wrapped up by June 27th, when the first team returns for pre-season duties. The manager admitted that the approach was 'bold'.

He added: “I’m sure that by the time that we do get to the first day of pre-season, we’ll have the majority, if not all, of our squad in place. That’s so important because pre-season is a real big time, an important time to gel the squad and lay down certain things.

“We believe we’ve agreed with a few, so they should be announced in due course. But we try to keep everything in-house and quiet because all of the signings and all of the people we're speaking to will have vast competition from higher leagues and a lot of the teams in our division.”