Charlton Athletic may always have £4m transfer regret – it involves Brentford FC | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic rejected a £4 million offer from Brentford for Lyle Taylor in 2019, according to the Chelmsford City striker.

Like many clubs, Charlton Athletic have had their fair share of financial and off-field problems in the last decade or so, albeit the Addicks appear steadier than perhaps ever, or at least since the Premier League days.

Despite that improvement around the club, there will always be frustration when money slips through their fingers and, as Lyle Taylor has outlined, the south Londoners could have pocketed £4 million.

Having been something of a journeyman for the vast majority of his career up until the point, he had shone for AFC Wimbledon through the mid-2010s, helping them gain promotion back to League One and then proving he could star in the third-tier, too.

Taylor moved to Charlton on a free transfer in the summer of 2018, signing a two-year deal, and his first season was an extremely impressive one as he fired Charlton to promotion via the play-offs, with 25 goals across all competitions.

The following season saw things turn sour, and Charlton will always be regretting the fact they didn’t cash in on the now Chelmsford City attacker.

Brentford went up to £4 million for Lyle Taylor

Following their promotion to the Championship, Lyle Taylor explained to the Undr The Cosh podcast that his wages increased from £4,000 to £6,000 per week.

The Montserrat international striker still approached then chairman Roland Deuchatalet about a further increase, but that was rejected and so he and his agent sought options for a move, with Charlton originally quoting Taylor and his agent, according to Taylor, a £1.5 million fee.

That eventually went up to £2.5 million but, as Taylor explained, fellow Championship side Brentford were still keen, and they kept on going up to £4 million before the deal fell through on transfer deadline day.

Taylor said: “At this point, it’s Brentford.

“I had a conversation with the people I needed to have a conversation with, to see what the club looked like from the inside, what the project was, what the manager was like. We had all of those conversations.

“The club (Brentford) said ‘Okay, £2.5 million, it’s done.’ Charlton said, ‘No, we want three’.

“At this point, it’s deadline day of the transfer window. I have played one game, against Blackburn in the Championship, scored one goal, we won 1-0 I think it was, and we have got Stoke at home on the second weekend of the Championship season and the transfer window shuts on the Thursday.

“On this Thursday, I’ve been told by my agent to go to Brentford it’s getting done. I’ve been given assurances by the manager of Charlton and by the Head of Recruitment at Charlton that it’s done, two and a half million.

“They moved the goalposts: ‘no, we want three’. Got the three. Three and a half, then it was three plus half a million in add-ons and performances-based add-ons. ‘No we want three and a half million up-front’. Done.

“’No we want four.’ Brentford went to four.”

After that, the deal collapsed with Taylor explaining how Charlton then produced yet another counter offer of £5 million and Brentford walked away, with Taylor understanding their stance but left fuming with Charlton.

Taylor explained that he called team captain Jason Pearce and club captain Chris Solly to explain that he wouldn’t ever play for Charlton again, feeling disrespected by the way in which the move was handled.

Taylor was talked down and did eventually begin to regularly contribute for the club again, scoring 11 goals in 22 Championship appearances in the 2019/20 campaign.

However, when COVID-19 hit and suspended the season in mid-to-late-March, Taylor refused to return to action when the season got back underway in the summer, rejecting a short-term extension to his contract with Lee Bowyer saying he refused to play due to the ‘risk of injury’, protecting ‘a life-changing move'.

Lyle Taylor left Charlton Athletic under a cloud

Having helped Charlton climb out of League One as a key man, and then prove himself to be a more than capable striker for the second division, it will always be of immense regret for Charlton how his time at the club ended.

It could have made them a hefty profit but, instead, saw him depart in controversial circumstances during a difficult situation at the end of his contract on a free transfer.

Taylor went on to play for Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City in the Championship before dropping to League One with Wycombe Wanderers and Cambridge United, prior to spending the 2024/25 season in League Two at Colchester United.

Now at Chelmsford City, it can be argued that Taylor fulfilled his potential, especially when the start of his career saw him bounce around from club to club and loan spell to loan spell.

There will always be a sense of ‘what if’ he had moved to Brentford that season, with the Bees getting to the play-off final that year before securing Premier League promotion a year later.

Charlton, on the other hand, spent the next six seasons of the post-Taylor era in League One before Nathan Jones guided them back to the second-tier last season – and, again, £4 million was and remains a lot money, so there has to be a sense of regret over that, too, as the years in the EFL wilderness may have been shorter with that windfall.