Charlton completed their squad this week by signing left back Pape Souaré and goalkeeper Stephen Henderson, both of whom were free agents.

Souaré is a 31 year old Senegalese international (22 caps) who played for Lille before joining Crystal Palace in 2014. By September 2016 he had made 46 Premier League appearances but he was then airlifted to hospital after being involved in a horrendous near fatal accident on the M4, breaking his leg and jawbone. He returned to training eleven months later but subsequently played only two more games for Palace in two seasons before departing for Troyes in 2019. He has played only 19 competitive club games in the last five years but, having been training at Sparrows Lane in recent weeks, it would seem that he has been able to quell any doubts about his fitness and motivation. He has been given a one year contract.

Stephen Henderson has seen even less action - just sixteen appearances since leaving Charlton in 2016. Twelve of these were for Nottingham Forest in 2016/17 but, since losing his place in the Forest team that year, he has played just four times - once on loan at Portsmouth and three times in a loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers. He has spent the last two seasons as a back-up goalkeeper at Palace without making a single first team appearance. In a career that has taken in fifteen clubs since he began at Aston Villa in 2011 his 53 games for Charlton in 2015-17 represents by far his most regular employment. He rejoins us on a one year deal. We remember him as a talented goalkeeper but, in particular, we remember the shell-shocked interview he gave immediately after the 0-6 defeat at Hull in August 2016.

Their arrivals mean that we now have two players for each position in the team and, even though we have some ground to make up on the early League One leaders, there is again a growing sense of optimism among supporters.

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