Charlton Athletic struck gold with £800k transfer | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic struck gold with the signing of Icelandic defender Hermann Hreidarsson from Ipswich Town in March 2003.

Charlton Athletic established themselves as a Premier League stalwart in the 2000s, with a seven-year stint in the top-flight that saw them flirt with European qualification.

They had several players that were dependable figures and cult heroes during that time at The Valley, from Matt Holland to Darren Bent, but perhaps one of the more unsung heroes, at least from a wider perspective, would be Hermann Hreidarsson.

For a fee of just £800,000 due to Ipswich Town’s administration, the Addicks poached Hreidarsson away from the Tractor Boys and the Icelandic defender went on to become a fulcrum of the Athletic side that would continue to punch above its weight in the Premier League.

Under the management of Alan Curbishley, Hreidarsson embodied the successful ethos of the South Londoners with his hard-working tenacity matched by his general overall defensive quality.

At the time of transfer fees beginning to boom in English football, especially for teams pushing on from mid-table such as Charlton, the club managed to secure themselves a bargain with the signing of Hreidarsson.

Hreidarsson helped Charlton scale new heights

Hreidarsson initially moved to England from Icelandic outfit IBV in 1997, and he went on to make nearly 50 appearances for Crystal Palace before dropping the divisions to sign for capital city outfit Brentford.

Having then moved to another London side, Wimbledon, before spending three seasons with Ipswich, Hreidarsson returned to the top-flight and back to the capital city with an ambitious Charlton side.

Charlton, under Curbishley, gained promotion to the Premier League in 2000, and they then went on to finish ninth, 14th and 12th in the top-flight, before the arrival of Hreidarsson.

The summer of 2003, though, saw Curbishley become slightly more adventurous in the way in which he wanted Charlton to play, and that was reflected by them scoring 51 goals in 38 games, in comparison to having notched 45 the previous campaign and 38 the year before that.

That presented more difficulties for the defenders as they would have more work to do in a more open style, but Charlton’s defence was up to it, and Hreidarsson, thrown in at the deep end, thrived on it.

Aerially dominant, the Addicks were able to maintain a solid enough defence to play an even more enterprising style that remained effective, as they finished seventh in Hreidarsson’s first campaign at the club.

The next couple of seasons saw Hreidarsson remain a key man for Charlton with the versatile defender, capable of playing at both centre-back and left-back, proving to be excellent foil for the slightly more forward-thinking approach.

They achieved 11th and 13th place finishes in the Premier League, with Hreidarsson one of the pillars of the side that would then find itself having collapsed in the 2006/07 campaign.

Hreidarsson’s departure highlighted Charlton’s reliance on him

The 2006/07 season was perhaps Hreidarsson’s best as a Charlton player, despite having already become a fans’ favourite, but the Addicks finished 19th and found themselves relegated to the second-tier.

He won the Icelandic Football of the Year award, for a third time in his career but the first since joining Charlton, and earned a reprieve from second-tier football by being signed by Portsmouth, with whom he won the FA Cup 12 months later, upon Charlton’s relegation in 2007.

Curbishley had decided to depart Charlton in 2006, but the most important players for Charlton instead stepped up their own individual performance level, with Darren Bent also shining alongside Hreidarsson.

Despite their performances, three managerial stints from Iain Dowie, Les Reed and then Alan Pardew eventually saw a chaotic campaign that ended in relegation for Charlton.

Within two seasons of returning to the Championship, Charlton found themselves slipping through to League One, with the golden era of Curbishley and the early-to-mid-noughties well behind them already.

That golden era in the modern day for Charlton, though, did still produce some special memories and Hreidarsson was a key part of it, having joined mid-way through but then becoming a key man during their best season during that run.