Charlton Athletic boss discusses Charlie Kirk’s future after re-emergence of Blackpool links

Reports over the weekend suggested the Seasiders were planning to return for the 24-year-old, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Bloomfield Road.

Blackpool had an option to turn Kirk’s loan deal into a permanent one, but they opted against doing so earlier in the summer.

Kirk has since returned to the fold at the Valley, where he scored, claimed an assist and won a penalty during Tuesday night’s 5-1 thrashing of Plymouth Argyle.

While the winger has featured in every game for the Addicks so far this season, The Gazette understands the League One club are in a position where they might need to sell to bring in further reinforcements.

Addressing Kirk’s future after last night’s game, Charlton boss Garner told London News Online: “I’m delighted for Kirky.

“Obviously it didn’t go the way he wanted last season and I know he had some challenges personally, in his personal life, that were difficult moments.

“But he is growing in confidence and you can see he is feeling more comfortable and he is such a talent.

“He’s now really working hard. Hopefully he’ll take lots of confidence from that moving forward.

“There’s been nothing as far as I’m aware [a move away]. I spoke to him on day one of pre-season and explained how we’re going to work here and what we’re going to do. And he’s doing great.

“As long as he’s in this building he is our player. I’ll be pleased if we keep working with him.

“But the window is still open and anything can happen with any player in our squad. Every player has got a price, that goes all the way up to the Premier League.

“Any club can get a phone call tomorrow, there’s a big offer for one of your players and it changes things.

“We’ll see how we go over the remainder of this window but the wide forwards tonight were really, really good.”

Over the weekend journalist Alan Nixon reported that Blackpool were keen to bring in a new left winger, with Kirk and Man City’s Morgan Rogers under consideration.

When asked about those links, Pool boss Michael Appleton told The Gazette: “I don’t think there’s too many positions you take your eye off.

“Clearly, having seen the first three games we’ve missed some decent opportunities, we’ve got into some fantastic areas and we want to improve the quality all the time in the final end of the pitch, that goes without saying.

“I believe one of those players is injured so they won’t be available anyway, but you’re always going to get linked with certain types of players. Charlie was here last year and sometimes if someone has a good spell, an indifferent spell or a bad spell, if they’ve had a link prior to me coming in you’re going to continue getting linked.

“But we’ll be mindful of the fact there will be some good players that will become available and some players who aren’t in other teams' plans at the minute.

“If that’s the case, we’ve just got to make sure we’re on the ball and ready if that’s the case.”