Collins Sichenje’s Charlton eye rebuild after surviving relegation battle
Reading Time: 3min | Tue. 05.05.26. | 21:21
Looking ahead, the Charlton boss confirmed that changes and evaluations will be part of a busy summer rebuild
Charlton Athletic, home to Kenya international Collins Sichenje, finished 19th in the Championship, securing survival in their first season back, but ended the campaign with head coach Nathan Jones calling for major improvements as the club turns attention to the next campaign.
Download our Mozzart Sport app for more news
Jones admitted that while staying up was a key objective, the overall standards must rise if Charlton are to progress.
“We have to have a moment of pride because we could have gone down and that would have been a disaster,” Jones said in an interview with the club's media.
“We had a wonderful start. At certain times, we’ve been unfortunate with injuries, but we have to get better individuals that make really good decisions over a period of time.
We are behind people in terms of pure talent and pure ability because we haven’t got those resources, and from where we’ve come from, people are more athletic than us as well. We have to improve on every single level.”
He stressed that survival is only a foundation, not the final goal for the club.
“We’ve stayed up this year, and that’s important, but I’m not in football to do that. I’m not just a survivor; I want to push boundaries, to do that, you have to just survive at times.
You have to make sure you do the first phase of everything, and we’ve done that, and now it’s time that we move forward.”
Jones also reflected on the final stages of the season, pointing to lapses in decision-making and game control.
“I was disappointed, really. It was an end-of-season game for long periods. They didn’t look like scoring, neither did we, so then we tried to really go more aggressive, which meant we left ourselves open, and we didn’t defend certain areas well.
Then we just made poor decisions, which we have in games, that’s the level, that’s what we’ve got to get better at.”
Looking ahead, the Charlton boss confirmed that changes and evaluations will be part of a busy summer rebuild.
“It’s hard work ahead of us this summer. On Monday and Tuesday, we have meetings with all the players and staff, and then it all starts again, and that’s the reality of it.
The thing for us is that at the first game of next season, myself, the club and the fans look and go ‘wow, we have improved’.”
Despite the frustrations, Jones praised the supporters for their continued backing throughout the campaign.
“The supporters have been wonderful. I hope they understand that today we went for the game and got hurt, that’s the learning curve for us, we can’t do that.
We could have sat in and got a point and got a 0-0, but it’s the final game of the season. If we’d needed a point, we would have done that.”