Charlton Eye Swoop For Northern Ireland international

Charlton Athletic are eyeing a move for former Peterborough United striker Conor Washington, as reported by the Edinburgh News.

The Addicks were relegated from the Championship after just one season, but will be looking to bounce straight back next season. With doubts over their current ownership still dogging their preparations, fans are not expecting a raft of new faces, but they will need to draft in a striker to replace the departing Lyle Taylor.

It seems that striker is former Queens Park Rangers man Washington, who has 21 Northern Ireland caps to his name. Washington has been in the SPFL with Hearts, who were relegated last season, but he now looks set to return south and have another stab at the Football League.

The Chatham-born striker began his career with St Ives Town, before a move to Newport County in 2012. He helped them to the Football League, before swapping Wales for Eastern England with a move to Peterborough. He perhaps enjoyed the best of his football at London Road, bagging 33 goals in 94 outings. That earned him a move to Loftus Road for a fee thought to be in the region of £3m.

After just 14 goals in 98 appearances and four seasons in London, he moved to Sheffield United, appearing 16 times without a goal as they were promoted to the Premier League. He was released by Chris Wilder and moved up to Scotland, where he bagged just four goals in 21 appearances.

He now looks likely to sign a two-year deal with the Addicks as they attempt to get out of the third tier for the second time in three years.

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Our View

This would be a bold move by Charlton, Washington hasn’t shown any form for a couple of seasons now and has to be viewed as a risk, rather than a reliable scorer.

What he has done is bagged at this level before though and his presence would certainly add an element to the Charlton forward line that would unsettle defenders. If the price is right, he might be a calculated gamble that pays off for Lee Bowyer’s troubled side.