Championship move for Dion could boost coffers
SOUTHPORT boss Liam Watson was delighted to see Dion Charles earn his first senior call up for Northern Ireland recently.
The player, who cut his teeth with the Sandgrounders before moving to Accrington Stanley, has been linked with big money moves to Derby County, Cardiff City and Huddersfield.
And while there was no financial reward for Southport in Charles’ promotion to the senior NI team, a move to the Championship may boost the club’s coffers.
“Dion was already a Northern Ireland under 21 international when he left Southport, so no one’s going to add that into any deal, but we’d always prepared a bigger sell on clause because we believed he would go on and do what he has done,” said Watson.
“I spoke to Dion myself (before the recent internationals), trying to keep him humble and focused - he’d had a little bit of a wobble because he’d carried a couple of knocks in the last couple of games.
“I went to watch him recently against Sunderland and he’d be the first to admit he wasn’t at his best. But he’s a young lad getting a lot of publicity and reportedly a lot of interest from
Championship clubs. In the football world, if someone ends up with 20 league goals and gets a full international cap he is going to raise his profile. And if he raises his profile then he gets moved on. He’s got to be extremely grateful for what Southport did for him and for what Accrington have done - but above all, he’s got to be proud of himself.
“He had some frustrating days on the wing and then he was going to become a centre forward, but he bought into it, he worked extremely hard and if you look at it now it’s only about two years that he’s gone from Conference
North to playing for his country in a World Cup qualifier within two years as a centre forward. You don’t do that unless you’re prepared to roll your sleeves up and work extremely hard.
“I pointed out to him that he has now put his head above the parapet because he is scoring goals and goals change games. Results come with goals, so Accrington start winning games. When they have a little wobble, people look at Dion, thinking ‘come on, you’ve got to give us more.’ That just comes with the territory and that’s why centre forwards earn more money.”