The diminutive winger has become the seventh summer addition to the Charlton squad and seems to be one to be excited about. The 22 year old travels down from Blackpool with rave reviews and the expectation of a rumoured £2m+ price tag.
Born in Liverpool, Apter was a part of the Tranmere Rovers academy until the age of 15 when he moved north to Blackpool. He signed as a professional in November 2020 and impressed in the academy. From 2021 he had a string of loan moves with a steady progression up the pyramid starting at Bamber Bridge before moving on to Chester, Scunthorpe and then back to Tranmere for his first season of league football.
The temporary switch to Tranmere proved to be fruitful with Apter scoring twelvegoals and getting six assists in his 37 league matches and picking up the League Two Player Of The Month Award for November 2023. He also caught the eye of the Not The Top 20 podcast who have been firm fans of him ever since.
A return to his parent club for the 2024/25 season saw the now 22 year old cement himself in the first team, making 45 starts. He also proved to be a creative outlet scoring eight times and creating three assists. A fantastic blog post from Mitch Cook’s Left Foot describes Apter as having “superb feet and a fantastic touch” but also warns that “He runs hot and cold. He's alternately brilliant and invisible.” There’s also a comparison to Pat Nevin which is praise indeed.
There are similarities in his goals to Tyreece Campbell. They both like to cut in from wide and curl the ball to the opposite corner of the goal. If you look at their shot maps they are virtually mirror images of each other. Even statically their goalscoring records are similar - Apter scored one more goal than Campbell but both outscored their xG in the 24/25 season suggesting that they put away tricky chances well.
The biggest question, as with a few of this summers transfers, is where he will play. Blackpool played with what was effectively a 442 at times, with Apter playing as a classic winger. He virtually hugged the touchline until reaching the final third where he could cut inside onto his left foot and create damage. The most obvious position would be the the hybrid wingback/hybrid role that Thierry Small filled. Apter would be a much more reliable attacking outlet, with four times the goals of Small scored last time out, but would have question marks about his defensive ability. That isn’t to say he can’t be solid defensively, just that there isn’t really a body of evidence to work from. There is potential that Nathan Jones will start Apter playing as a number ten behind the strikers but seemingly that is what fellow ex Blackpool man Sonny Carey was signed for. Wing back seems the most likely position and, with the solidity of either Kayne Ramsay or Reece Burke behind him, there will be room for errors but coming to terms with a new position in the Championship will be a steep learning curve.
Apter definitely seems ready to embrace the step up, telling the club website he’s “made up to sign for this massive club and I can’t wait to play in front of you fans at The Valley. As soon as I spoke to the gaffer I knew it was the place for me - everything about the project is so exciting. I feel like I’m ready to play at Championship level now and I want to step up and show everyone what I can do.”
Nathan Jones was full of praise saying that “Rob's exactly the type of player that we want to sign for Charlton Athletic - he's young, athletic, has a high ceiling and is a really technical player who had a fantastic season last year and did really well against us. He's an exciting player that can score and assist, and a player that will fit into our structure really, really well.”
Welcome to SE7, Rob.