Dithering Duchatelet

We have been saying it for months now that the club's immediate future is at risk given the lack of certainty about retention of the management team and key players.

Lee Bowyer has made some reassuring noises indicating he is confident his contract will get sorted and his quotes have all been forward-looking. However, until he has committed on the dotted line there is a risk his head could be turned. Derby County are being linked with Bowyer on the basis that Frank Lampard may be off to Chelsea. Derby are a similar sort of club to us but they narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League and their owners have undoubted ambition that Duchatelet lacks. Bowyer would see this as a bigger opportunity than the ham-strung job he currently has at The Valley. It may just be paper talk but it will give Bowyer more bargaining power and if he is approached it would be a tough decision to turn down.

What might persuade Bowyer to commit to Charlton was if he could see the club making the effort to secure the likes of Bauer and Aribo but neither of those deals have happened yet and Bauer has been clear that he was extremely disappointed not to have been approached about new terms much earlier. Equally big clubs are being linked with both players and money may well talk. Bowyer seems to already have acknowledged he will be fighting with his hands tied behind his back next season because of his relatively small budget.

Jonny Williams has already been released because his full Palace wages are clearly unaffordable and there was even a rumour suggesting Middlesbrough were interested in Taylor for £2m. You know that the Old Scrote would grab at that if offered.

It may just be over a week since the play-off final and players will be holidaying, but surely Duchatelet must move soon to start confirming the shape of the management team and the nucleus of the squad before he is out-manoeuvred. It probably doesn't help that he still has no Chief Executive driving these sorts of discussions here in London but that's his decision and after the shambles of Katrien Meire, he may just be enjoying a quieter life with no-one here to goad the customers.