"Never really kicked on" - Charlton Athletic regret outlined over Diego Poyet, West Ham decision | OneFootball

FLW's Charlton Athletic fan pundit has named a player who could have stayed at The Valley for longer.

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...

Several players have moved on from Charlton Athletic in the last decade or so, and there are certainly a few that the Addicks must wish could have stayed at The Valley for longer.

A number of exciting young players have come through the ranks at Sparrows Lane and gone on to make an impact in the Charlton first-team over the years, and some of them have established themselves as top players both in the Premier League and elsewhere in Europe.

The likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Carl Jenkinson, Joe Gomez, Ademola Lookman, Karlan Grant, Ezri Konsa and Mason Burstow have all played in the top-flight of English football after leaving Charlton, where they had been a part of the youth set-up before being handed opportunities to prove themselves in the first-team.

While the Addicks have received substantial fees for a few of their academy graduates, with Lookman having joined Everton for £11 million in 2017 and Gomez costing Liverpool £3.5 million in 2015, there is no doubt that some supporters would have liked to see those talents flourish in SE7 for a little longer.

One player who left The Valley for the Premier League at the earliest opportunity was midfielder Diego Poyet, who signed for West Ham United less than six months after making his Championship debut.

Diego Poyet may have benefitted from staying at Charlton Athletic for longer

FLW asked our Charlton fan pundit, Ben Fleming, whether he thought there was a player that the Addicks sold too early. He explained that although Poyet left the club at the end of his contract rather than being sold, it was a shame that he didn't stick around for longer.

"I think, to be honest, as a club we have done a pretty good job of extracting the most value out of players when they were at their most sellable," Ben told FLW.

"Look, could we have held onto players and got more for them? Yeah, but we had to be realistic in terms of where we have been in the last few years and what clubs have been coming in for them.

"Even if you look further back, guys like Ezri Konsa, Joe Gomez and Ademola Lookman, ideally you would love to have kept hold of them for a few more years and sold them for a bigger price, but it just wasn't feasible given the size of the clubs that were coming in and the sort of state that we were at.

"I know we didn't sell him - but I always say this - I think it was such a shame that Diego Poyet didn't stay with us for longer.

"He burst into the first-team when we were struggling down at the bottom of the Championship, and was excellent. We didn't convince him to sign a new contract, essentially, and let him go for free in the summer.

"He went to West Ham, and never really kicked on and fulfilled his potential.

"If we had tied him down to the club for a couple more years, and he had kept playing at the level he was, we could have got a lovely fee for him, but he also could have matured and had a sustainable career in a way he didn't ultimately have."

Diego Poyet's footballing career ended early after West Ham move failed to pay offPoyet signed for West Ham United in the summer of 2014, having turned down the offer of a new contract atCharlton, just a few months after he had been named the Addicks' Player of the Year for his impressive performances during the second half of the 2013/14 campaign.

Unfortunately for the midfielder, who is the son of ex-Chelsea man Gus Poyet, he only made three Premier League appearances for the Hammers, and even ended up returning to Charlton on loan in 2016.

Poyet eventually retired from football at the age of 23, and who knows what might have been if he had signed a new contract at The Valley instead of opting to make his move to the Premier League in 2014.

Poyet has moved early into the coaching game, and perhaps fortunately has worked twice as an assistant to his father already - briefly in Chile with Universidad Católica, before following Gus to the Greece national team job in 2022.

Could we see Poyet junior as a manager in England one day? Who knows, but for all the potential he had at his feet, he certainly was unable to fulfil it on the pitch.