This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Ahead of the weekend, Charlton Athletic were reportedly planning contract talks with current boss Dean Holden.
Holden's current deal at The Valley only runs until the end of the season, and Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard recently revealed that he wanted to secure the 43-year-old on a longer term deal.
Holden has been in charge of the club since December and has taken charge of 12 matches at the club so far this season.
His record in those is six wins, one draw, and five defeats.
With the above in mind, we asked FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit Ben Fleming for their thoughts on whether talk of a long-term deal for Holden at The Valley is good news for the club.
"Getting Dean Holden on a new contract would be a really good move for the club." Ben explained to FLW.
"Obviously we don't really know what's going on with the takeover, potential takeover, so I'd be surprised if Sandgaard committed to a financial outlay of giving Holden the new contract when he's absolutely looking to sell and seemingly in the latter stage of agreeing something . Who really knows.
"I think you Dean Holden's come in, he's spoken really well and has delivered good form on the pitch.
"He's clearly inhibited by the fact that our squad is, you know,a mid-level League One squad.
"I think it would be really positive move to give him that security and obviously entice him to stay because, you know, he may well have offers.
"There was rumours linking him to the Huddersfield job, and he may well have offers in the summer, so yeah, I think that'd be really positive move by the club.
"Whether or not I can see it happening is another altogether but I think he's thoroughly impressed so far and if we can get him down on a long-term deal and make some smart signings in the summer then who knows.
"But the first part of that has gotta be tying him down.
"That would be a really positive first step, but not what I expect to happen given our situation with the takeover."
The Verdict
The fact Charlton's current owner is looking to sell clearly complicates things.
New owners may come in and want to bring in their own man, for example, therefore there are definitely reasons not to give Dean Holden a new long-term deal.
However, our fan pundit sounds impressed by the job Holden has done so far and in that sense, if the club were to lose him it would be a real shame.
It's going to be interesting to see if indeed Holden does sign a new deal and if so, for what length given we know Thomas Sandgaard wants out.