Defenders Set To Part?

Charlton Athletic defenders Jonathan Fortune and Souleymane Diawara are both near to leaving the club it has been revealed today.

Fortune is set to join Charlton`s Championship rivals Stoke City after The Potters bid for the player was accepted early on Thursday evening. Stoke and Fortune are no strangers to each other as the 26-year-old spent the latter stages of last season on loan at The Britannia Stadium.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis is believed to have offered Charlton £400,000 for Fortune who is a product of Charlton`s youth system.

Addicks boss Alan Pardew told his club`s official site that he did by no means want the defender to leave or that he would not be part of the clubs Championship assault.

He said: ‘I’ll be honest, we have accepted a bid from Stoke purely for Jon’s sake rather than my own.”

‘I think there is the opportunity for him to play definitely in the first team there, but maybe he is going to stay and continue his career here and hope to get in our first team.’

It is thought that Fortune would like to stay at Charlton and consider a loan move to Stoke instead, as The Potters cannot match the money that he earns at The Valley. Neither club would be happy with this arrangement and Fortune is due to make a decision on his future in the next 48 hours.

Elsewhere Charlton`s Senegalese center back Souleymane Diawara has been subject of a bid from French club Bordeaux. Charlton have not confirmed Bordeaux`s interest but the French outfit have claimed that they are into the negotiation stages of a transfer.

Diawara is currently Bordeaux`s top target having played in the French top-flight previously with Sochaux from where he joined The Addicks last summer for a £4M fee.

Bordeaux chairman Triaud told French paper L`Equipe that he does not expect any deal for the defender to be completed before the start of the Ligue 1 season which gets underway this weekend.