Charlton Athletic: Charlie Methven's SE7 Partners agree deal to buy club from Thomas Sandgaard

Charlie Methven was made famous by the documentary series Sunderland 'Til I Die

Former Sunderland executive director Charlie Methven has agreed a takeover of League One side Charlton Athletic.

His firm SE7 Partners has agreed a deal with current owner Thomas Sandgaard which is subject to English Football League approval.

Methven, who left left his role as a director at Sunderland in December 2019, and Edward Warrick are the two directors of SE7 Partners.

Sandgaard took over at Charlton in September 2020.

"We'll now work with SE7 Partners and the EFL to meet the league requirements, which is a process that can take some time," Charlton chief executive Peter Storrie told the club website.

"In the meantime, the day-to-day running of the club will not be impacted.

"Our preparation and recruitment for the 2023-24 season is well under way. We have our targets for our men's team and our women's team.

"Led by Dean Holden and Karen Hills, those plans continue to progress and will not be halted while we await the approval.

"The aim is to put the club in the best position to achieve our targets for next season - a top-six finish for the men's team and further progression for the women's team."

Another set of owners at Charlton

US-based Danish businessman Thomas Sandgaard was the owner, chief executive and sole director of Charlton Athletic

Methven and Warrick will be the fourth set of owners at the League One club in less than four years.

Belgian Roland Duchatelet, who was unpopular with the Addicks faithful, sold the club to East Street Investments (ESI) in early January 2020, but the club were relegated from the Championship that May.

After a falling out between ESI directors Tahnoon Nimer and Matt Southall, businessman Paul Elliott took over from ESI in July 2020 and ran the club for three months until Sandgaard's takeover.

Despite promises of investment in the team Charlton have not lived up to the expectations Sandgaard had for the Addicks when he took over.

They have had five permanent managers in just over two years and finished seventh, 13th and 10th in the three seasons under Sandgaard's ownership.

In October the parent company of Charlton reported a pre-tax loss of £6.8m for the 10 months to June 2021.

Fans will hope that Methven and Warrick can turn around the club's fortunes and send them back into the Championship.

Methven - who made a bid to take over Oxford United in 2014 - was made famous in the Netflix documentary series 'Sunderland 'Til I Die', which featured him and then-Black Cats owner Stewart Donald.

The fly-on-the-wall programme followed them over two seasons as the club were relegated to League One in 2018 and the first year of Donald's ownership after he had taken over Sunderland in the May of that year.

Analysis

Louis Mendez, BBC Radio London's Charlton Athletic reporter

"It's the end of an era with Thomas Sandgaard, and one which didn't go as well as people would have hoped when he first came in.

"It's quite clearly become stale over the past two seasons and two mid-table finishes under Sandgaard's ownership is not what people had come to expect.

"Not a great deal is known about the new consortium other than Charlie Methven is a big part of the deal, and his time at Sunderland isn't always spoken about in glowing terms by fans in the north east, but it is a fresh start.

"One name that has been linked is Joshua Friedman who is a United States-based investor.

"It's worth noting that the ownership of the stadium and the training ground still lies with Roland Duchatelet, which some fans are nervous about, and the lease for the stadium and training ground will need to be signed over to the new owners."