Charlton Athletic made a move to sign Arsenal's Tyreece John-Jules over the summer, according to director of football Steve Gallen.

The Addicks were preparing for the new campaign after suffering relegation from the Championship last term.

As well as that, the South London side were looking for a replacement for club talisman Lyle Taylor who had left The Valley to move to Nottingham Forest on a free transfer.

Several strikers were linked with the club, but according to Gallen, a move for the Arsenal youngster was always going to be difficult given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding both ownership and budgeting.

Speaking to London News Online, Gallen said: “The Arsenal lad, Reece John-Jules, was someone we wanted to sign. But at that stage we had £1,300 [a week] to spend.

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“And I think Arsenal probably looked at the stuff behind the scenes at our club – to the outside it is in disarray and the fans are talking about we could be days away from administration and being kicked out of the league.

"They could’ve been right but internally you don’t always know those things; you go tunnel vision and focus on convincing Arsenal to send their player to us because we’re going to make them a better player – like we did with Conor Gallagher, Jay Dasilva and Josh Cullen.

“I think Arsenal felt we weren’t in the right position at that time, and they were probably right.”

The Verdict

This would have been a great signing.

Tyreece John-Jules is a player with a big future ahead of his - something that he is starting to show for Doncaster Rovers.

Missing out on him will be a blow for Charlton, but based on the positive start to the season it seems that Gallen and the Addicks won't lose too much sleep over this.