"Massively wrong" - Charlton Athletic crticised for 2014 transfer misfire | OneFootball

FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit details Yann Kermorgant's 2014 sale and subsequent replacement were deals that the club got massively wrong.

Highlights

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…

Charlton Athletic are looking to end what will be a five-year Championship hiatus this season and supporters will be hoping that they have a player that is capable of firing Nathan Jones' side to the second tier.

The Addicks got off to a winning start on the opening day of the season in a 1-0 away win over Wigan Athletic, in a 2024/25 League One season that is hoped will see the club being among the promotion contenders.

To do that, scoring goals will be crucial, after the departure of last season's League One Golden Boot winner Alfie May departed for fellow third tier rivals Birmingham City this summer.

Addicks fans will hope that new arrivals Gassan Ahadme and Matt Godden can help to replace May's goals, but as with any signing, there is always the potential for them to go down as major misses.

Charlton fan pundit: "Did absolutely nothing"

Just as will all EFL clubs, the South Londoners have had plenty of signings that didn't live up to the billing.

FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit, Ben Fleming, recalls a series of events in a winter window a decade ago in which the Addicks got their business hugely wrong.

Fleming said: "The club got it massively wrong in January 2014, letting Yann Kermorgant go in the middle of the season when we were fighting relegation from the Championship.

"Letting him go to Bournemouth and then bringing in around that same time in the January window, Piotr Parzyszek, the Polish lad from De Graafschap for six figures or so.

"Clearly, Kermorgant is one of our better strikers at the club in the last sort of 10 years, and Parzyszek came in for six figures and did absolutely nothing, and left pretty shortly afterwards.

"I think that, although you never really know to what extent we could have held on to Kermorgant, but certainly letting him go and that being the replacement and that going so horribly wrong, didn't exactly go down particularly well."

Parzyszek would go on to make just one appearance for Charlton Athletic, before eventually being released in February 2016, when he would then return to De Graafschap.

Charlton just got away with Kermorgant sale

Kermorgant had bagged five Championship goals in 21 appearances before he was sold to the Cherries halfway through the Addicks' 2013/14 season, leaving the club without their main source of goals.

As an indication as to how much the Frenchman's goals were missed at The Valley, Marvin Sordell finished that season as the club's top scorer in the league with just seven goals, meaning Kermorgant was just two goals away from still crowned with Charlton's golden boot that year.

Chris Powell would lose his job in March, before Jose Riga would steer the club to an 18th-placed finish, avoiding relegation to League One by seven points.

Kermorgant would go on to enjoy a fruitful two-and-a-half-year career with Bournemouth, scoring 27 times in 69 appearances for the club, before making a move to his final club in English football in 2016, Reading.

There he would continue his knack for finding the back of the net, bagging 19 goals in 45 Championship appearances during the 2016/17 season, before seeing out the final years of his career back in France with Vannes.

Kermorgant retired from football in April 2020, bringing an end to an 18-year professional career that saw him leave a legacy as a true Championship cult figure.

Parzyszek has gone on to have respectable career

Since leaving Charlton as one of their biggest flops in recent memory, Parzyszek has since enjoyed a career that has taken him across European football, and seen him enjoy far more enjoyable spells with clubs than his time at The Valley.

Having spent time in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Italy and Spain, the now 30-year-old forward has cashed in on a 10-goal and four assist season in all competitions with Polish side FC Emmen, and moved back to Belgian football.

Parzyszek signed a one-year deal with the option of a further year with Belgian second division side RWD Molenbeek, where he will be hoping to fire the newly relegated side back to the Belgian top-flight this season.

In a career that has seen him play Champions League and Europa League football, Parzyszek has definitely found more success bouncing around the continent than by staying in England.

Perhaps there was always a player in there after all. Whether it was because English football was just a level above what he was capable of, or whether he could've eventually blossomed with time, is something we'll never know.