"Games like Wrexham" - Charlton Athletic urged to fix big issue to ease Nathan Jones burden | OneFootball

FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit has given his view on which issue at the club needs to be fixed as a priority this summer ahead of next season.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

It is set to be an exciting end to the season for Charlton Athletic as they prepare to contest the League One play-offs.

After an inconsistent first half of the season, Charlton sat as low as 14th in the table in mid-December, and it looked as though they were heading for another frustrating campaign of underachievement.

However, a stunning upturn in form over the past few months has seen the Addicks surge into the play-off spots, and with just one game of the regular season remaining, their place in the top six is already secured.

Charlton suffered a rare setback as they were beaten 3-0 by Wrexham at the SToK Cae Ras on Saturday, and while the defeat saw their faint automatic promotion hopes ended as their opponents sealed second spot, it has still been an incredibly impressive second half of the season for Jones' men.

It remains to be seen which division the Addicks will be playing in next season, but regardless of the outcome of the play-offs, the club will need to make some key appointments this summer following the departures of Technical Director Andy Scott and CEO Charlie Methven in recent months.

Charlton Athletic told to solve costly recruitment problem

When asked which issue the club need to fix as a priority this summer, FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit Sam White said that bringing in a new Technical Director to head up the recruitment department and ease some of the burden on Jones will be crucial, and he believes the defeat at Wrexham on Saturday highlighted the lack of depth in the squad.

"The only issue that I can see at Charlton as a priority this summer is sorting out the recruitment," Sam said.

"Regardless of whether we get promoted or not, we really need to improve the recruitment side of things.

"We've gone from mainly Andy Scott deciding transfers, which led to players like George Dobson being pushed out the door, to Nathan Jones taking over control of that, which has worked really well, but we really need to streamline things and stop relying on youth players.

"Realistically, that's probably where our season has faltered quite a bit.

"When you see games like Wrexham away, they're bringing on players like Steven Fletcher, and we're bringing on 18-year-old Micah Mbick and 20-year-old Daniel Kanu.

"It just doesn't work if you're going to try and get automatic promotion, so that really needs to be sorted.

"Hopefully it's already in hand.

"I know they were looking for a new Technical Director or Head of Recruitment, but nothing has been made official yet."

Charlton Athletic must continue to trust Nathan Jones with recruitment

After the departures of Scott and Methven, Sam is right that Charlton need to bring in suitable people to help build a strong structure at board level to support Jones.

However, while there have been some notable failures, such as the £1 million signing of Gassan Ahadme, the Addicks' recruitment has been largely successful this season, with the likes of Will Mannion, Alex Mitchell, Josh Edwards, Greg Docherty, Luke Berry and Matty Godden all thriving at The Valley.

Jones has been heavily involved in many of those signings, so Charlton must continue to give the Welshman plenty of input into recruitment moving forwards, but he would surely welcome the arrival of a new Technical Director in order to reduce his workload.