Completely out of the blue, Charlton have announced the signing of Ivan Mesík from Dutch side Heracles Almelo.
The Slovakian international is The Addicks’ first signing of the summer window and he has put pen to paper on a four year deal.
The 25 year old has racked up over two hundred professional appearances across six clubs in Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Holland. The last two seasons have seen Mesík play regular first team football, racking up sixty three league appearances.
Speaking to the excellent Richard Cawley, Mesík has said that his strongest position is centre back but it would be not be a surprise to see him being deployed at left wing back. The left footer has played at left back before and Nathan Jones favours a more defensive wingback on that side so that Tyreece Campbell has plenty of space to attack. The more defensive left wing back gets balanced out by their more attacking counterpart on the opposite flank.
An attribute that Jones values above anything else is aggression. Mesík looks to have that in abundance, appearing relatively good in the air, blocking lots of shots and rarely being dribbled past. Of course, this is going off limited clips online and reading of statistics but it seems like a classic Nathan Jones signing. While his passing statistics are fairly middling that’s all they need to be. His ability on the ball looks similar to that of Lloyd Jones and all either of them are really expected to do is to feed the defensive midfielder or wing back ahead of them.
The signing of Mesík means the end of the road has arrived for Macauley Gillesphey who has signed for Bradford City. That Wembley free kick will be everyone’s strongest memory of Gillesphey but he lacks the pace to be reliable in the Championship. With Amari’i Bell’s injury issues the left centre back role is crucial and any supposed back-up is going to need to play lots of games. Mesík’s durability will be crucial whether he plays out wide or at centre back.
Lastly, the newest addition will be a set piece threat. Mesík is over six feet tall and will provide an extra target for Charlton and an extra problem for the opposition. That’s before you even get to his rumoured long throw.
Ivan himself is very pleased indeed about his move: “I feel proud, I hope my family is proud because it is a huge step for me, I feel amazing," he said. "I have had a good welcome here, so it feels great from the start, and I can’t wait to get started."
This is a signing out of the blue but very much in the Nathan Jones blueprint. Welcome to SE7, Ivan.
Here is a link to the club's full history of Ivan's career: