Thursday morning started with another signing out of the blue.

Right back Danny McNamara has made the trip across South London to join FA Cup winning club Charlton Athletic.

Or should that say rejoin? Charlton’s transfer business so far has two themes. Signings are generally out of the blue and half of them have come through the academy. In fact, both McNamara and Karlan Grant started off at Charlton Athletic Community Trust schemes before formally joining the academy. Their signings are a testament to the hard work that CACT coaches put in and are a valuable part of the Charlton community. I once won “Player of the week” at a poorly attended CACT summer holiday course, but, sadly I have not since signed for the football club.

McNamara was released from our academy aged 14 and played Sunday league football before joining Millwall. A series of loans then followed before he established himself for the Bermondsey side, eventually making 157 Championship appearances. He has also been capped twice for Ireland.

The 27 year old is primarily a right back and his signing signals that Nathan Jones is looking to play a back four more often this season. While McNamara theoretically could play as a wing back it wouldn’t play to his strengths. Although he told the club he likes to get crosses in, a 16% success rate last season hints at the fact it’s not his strong suit. However, the Sidcup born boy does rank highly on the defensive statistics with interceptions and aerial duels being particularly strong points of his game.

It should be noted that McNamara came back from an ACL injury midway through the 2025/26 season and only made 16 appearances. ACL injuries are notoriously hard to recover from and players often lose a yard of pace. Thankfully, McNamara has never been able to rely on his pace to get out of trouble so any change there should be minimal.

It seems likely that this is a back up signing to provide competition and cover for Kayne Ramsay although in a squeeze McNamara could also cover at left back. Hopefully gone are the days of seeing Tyreece Campbell shoehorned into a wing back position. Charlton’s back line seems set now and attention will hopefully shift to central midfielders and wingers. The signing of McNamara might not be eye catching but it could turn out to be shrewd.

Welcome back to SE7, Danny.