With his Nottingham Forest contract expiring this summer, Charlton Athletic should look into summer reunion: Opinion | OneFootball

There isn’t a dull day in the life of Charlton Athletic right now when it comes to their multiple takeover sagas, with a revolving door of backroom staff going in and out of The Valley.

The December backroom additions of Andy Scott, Ed Warwick and Jim Rodwell have now all departed following the collapse of Charlie Methven’s reported purchase of the club, and now Peter Storrie is in as CEO as owner Thomas Sandgaard negotiates a sale with US-based businessman Marc Spiegel.

On the pitch though, things have looked a bit more positive than they did under Ben Garner.

Dean Holden was appointed until the end of the season following Garner’s sacking in December and in his nine League One matches in charge, 16 points have been picked up out of a possible 27.

Whether Holden remains in charge until the end of the season or he departs before then in the wake of the Methven deal collapse remains to be seen, but the Addicks are playing well right now, despite the lack of striker options available.

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Youngster Miles Leaburn is the club’s top central striker scorer with six for the campaign, but is currently nursing a hip injury, leaving just Chuks Aneke and Macauley Bonne for Holden to select from.

Aneke has his fitness and injury issues which are very clear and Bonne is only contracted initially until the end of the season and is yet to score in his five appearances.

Whoever is manager next season, strikers are going to need to be looked at, and perhaps the Charlton hierarchy should look no further than a certain ex-Addick in Lyle Taylor to make a return to London.

Now that may go down as controversial for some fans considering the circumstances he left the club in back in 2020 – they were fighting for survival in the Championship as the season was extended into July and played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 measures, but Taylor refused to extend his contract for another month as he didn’t want to risk injury and a big-money contract with another club.

Before that occurred, the Montserrat international had been prolific in-front of goal for Charlton, scoring 32 league goals in two seasons for them in both League One and the Championship, but he clearly had a decent move lined up at the end of his contract in 2020 and he ended up at Nottingham Forest.

It was somewhat understandable considering Taylor had never played at Championship level until his one season with the Addicks, but despite the wage increase, the forward failed to find regular football at the City Ground.

He appeared 39 times in the Championship for the Reds in 2020-21, but a lot of those outings were from the bench, whilst his time last season was split between Forest and a loan spell in the second half of the campaign with Birmingham City.

2022-23 has been disastrous for Taylor though, who was on the bench for Forest’s first two Premier League games but hasn’t seen action whatsoever, whether that be in cup competitions or even as an overage player for the under-21’s – Reading were linked with a deadline day loan move for him but ultimately nothing arose.

With his contract expiring this summer however, Taylor will move on from Forest and will soon be a 33-year-old, and he will feel as though he still has a year or two left in the tank at some form of level.

If the Charlton supporters who were angry at Taylor for leaving them without their talisman in a relegation battle can forgive him for having his own reasons for doing what he did, then he would surely be a great addition in what we assume will be League One next season.

Yes, he has a real lack of minutes since the 2021-22 season, but a full pre-season under his belt should sort him right out and get him into shape for a full year somewhere of being the main man.

And with Charlton seemingly having places up for grabs next season, why not turn to a man who has already done the business for them in two different divisions?