Charlton Athletic respond to Alfie May, Huddersfield Town transfer offer | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic are reported to have rejected a bid from Huddersfield Town for star forward Alfie May.

Pete O'Rourke revealed yesterday that Michael Duff's side had placed a bid for May, in order to try and re-unite with the pint-sized striker who he worked so well with at Cheltenham Town.

The 2023/24 League One top scorer only joined the London-based side at the start of last season for a reported £250,000 fee from teh Robins last summer, according to London News Online.

May, 30, only signed a two-year deal upon his arrival at The Valley, and the Terriers have tried to make his stay there even shorter. Those attempts have been rebuffed, however, as Charlton have said no to the bid that Town sent for their main man.

This is according to Richard Cawley, of London News Online. There has been no mention of the size of the fee that Huddersfield offered, and Cawley added that there is no guarantee of another bid coming from the newly-relegated side.

The feeling is also that May's departure wouldn't be sanctioned anyway until Athletic boss Nathan Jones has found a replacement for the 23-goal forward.

If the 30-year-old does get sold by the Addicks, then his old side, Cheltenham, will receive part of the fee. They put a sell-on clause agreement into their deal with Charlton when May left them, as per Gloucestershire reporter Jon Palmer. The percentage of the revenue that they would get is not currently known.

It should come as no surprise to anybody that teams at the top end of the third tier are looking to see whether they can get their hands on May. In the last three league campaigns he has scored 20-plus goals for two separate teams that have finished 15th or 16th in the table - 23 in 2021/22, and 20 in 2022/23, with Cheltenham, plus 23 with his current club last season.

His emergence as one of the top forwards in the division wasn't an obvious one. When Cheltenham won League Two in the 2020/21 campaign, he registered 16 direct goal contributions (goals and assists combined). His prior seasons in League One weren't massively fruitful either.

May managed to find another gear in his game, even as he edges closer to the latter stages of his career. The number of years that he has left at this high-performance level can't be predicted. He could be a very late bloomer, or he could start to drop off very quickly.

Because of his age profile, clubs like Huddersfield, who are looking at him, may be more cautious with the size of their bids, although you'd suspect that it at least somewhat dwarfs the fee that the Addicks paid for him last year.

Alfie May would be a smart purchase for Huddersfield Town if a deal can be done

There were a multitude of reasons as to why the Terriers were relegated - their lack of firepower up front being one of them. They certainly need to strengthen up top if they want as quick a return to the second tier as possible.

May is an obvious choice to aid them in this situation, but what happens if they get promoted next season? Can they be sure that they could rely on him to make the step up, again, to the Championship? He'll turn 31 on the 2nd July, so he will be 32 when the 25/26 campaign starts.

Having someone of that age who has never played at that level as the man that you rely on to score goals is a big risk, and maybe one that isn't worth a £400-500,000 bid, if that's the sort of money Charlton are looking to get.