Its a "No" to Bolanos

Looking forward to marvelling once again at the skills of Christian Bolanos in a Charlton shirt? Well, think again because the Home Office has deemed that he is not good enough to work in the UK and have refused him a Work Permit. Monica at cafc looks on the bright side and doesn't rule out another go in 12 months time but of course by then another club in another country will be earning the benefits of Christians skills.

As wyn grant had already forewarned us last night, its not always easy to get a Work Permit but that will not lessen our disappointment.

With Curbs reluctance to employ exotic foreigners, perhaps our knowledge of these affairs was limited but as Wyn has already pointed out in his article Charlton are not the only ones to have suffered. Even the experienced Sam Allardyce had been refused when his attempt to sign Sergei Rebrov from Spurs fell through when denied the necessary paperwork in time to finalise the deal last summer.

Given more knowledge of these murky matters, perhaps we should have been suspicious when no numbers were forecoming from Deportivo Sarprissa on the number of appearances he had made and on Liverpools' decision not to offer him a contract. Did they know he would be refused a permit?

But one wonders if we are suffering from being a "small club". How can a young player voted the 3rd best in the World Club Championships last December deemed not be good enough? He played in 2 of the 3 Costa Rica World Cup games during the summer and his country is currently ranked 47 but at 22 he's obviously not going to be used in every international game by Costa Rica. The official Home Office rules state that players are supposed to be "of the highest calibre and able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in UK”. Judging from reports at all the games that Bolanos played it does seem ludicious that this decision has been made. Perhaps we should have employed a witness in David Pleat whose opinions of Bolanos last year were very high indeed.

So we're back again to 17 full internationals in the squad and with the number 23 shirt up for grabs. Will there be any more additions before things close tomorrow?