Nathan Jones on Championship play-off change for next season, Thomas Kaminski injury and whether James Bree is now off Charlton Athletic's list of summer transfer targets
Addicks boss provides update on Thomas Kaminski and is asked whether Lloyd Jones is one of the division's top centre-backs
Nathan Jones held his pre-Birmingham City press conference at Charlton Athletic’s Sparrows Lanes training ground on Thursday afternoon and we were there.
This website asked the Welshman about a Championship story that broke in the morning - that the second tier will have two extra play-off places from the 2026-27 campaign.
The teams finishing third to eighth will go into the knockout although the clubs in the bottom two spots will first face an away match at the fifth and sixth-placed sides, the winners progressing to a two-legged semi-final against those that were third and fourth in the standings.
South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition also asked Jones for his thoughts on Harry Clarke’s impact since arriving from Ipswich Town and it led into a question about James Bree - does his fine form for Southampton mean that the wing-back has been struck off their list of summer targets?
On top of that, the Addicks boss discusses Lloyd Jones. Is he one of the top centre-backs in the division? And he makes some interesting comments about last season’s 1-0 victory over Birmingham City at The Valley.
Nathan Jones/Picture: Paul Edwards
Before we jump into the questions from this website, Jones did talk a bit about injuries in the club section of the interview.
Charlton are set to be missing Reece Burke for the visit of the Blues with Collins Sichenje, his replacement in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Wrexham, holding the top of his left hamstring in the closing stages of the fixture.
“Reece has had a really frustrating one because he has picked up injuries he has never had before,” said Jones, who admitted last weekend’s match had resulted in some casualties. “We did everything we could. We didn’t take him to West Brom and trained him [instead] so that he would be ready for Saturday. We knew playing Collins regularly after he came off the back of half a pre-season in Serbia and then coming into the energy and intensity of a Championship game would be tough.
“Lloyd came off in the week (at West Brom) and then we had to put Collins on. Burkey came off and then we had to put Collins on - it was just a knock-on effect.
“There is the frustration of losing a few players because it takes away a bit of competition.
“It is just a quad one (with Burke). He hasn’t had a run of games. He is a fantastic athlete and a high-loader. It’s just he has picked up little things that he hasn’t picked up before. There has to be a reason for that, which we’re trying to get to the bottom of. It is frustrating for him. He was very emotional having just come back to then be back out again. We will get there with him.”
So how about those changes to the play-off structure from last season? If it was in place this time around then even 17th-placed Norwich City would only be six points adrift of sneaking into them.
