‘The most underperforming club in English football’: Pundit’s big statement as former Crystal Palace owner makes Portsmouth, Derby County and Charlton Athletic calls

The Blues have been grouped with Derby County as the outfits in the football pyramid who are most out of kilter with their current surroundings.

TalkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan is the man who has made the call, with a SEVENTH season in League One on the horizon.

Jordan brought up the club he once showed interest in buying Pompey in 2012 ahead of the period of community ownership, when discussing the current takeover at Charlton.

Charlie Methven’s SE7 Partners have agreed a deal with current owner Thomas Sandgaard, subject to EFL approval.

When responding to prominent Charlton fan Rick Everitt on White & Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner disagreed with his assessment the Addicks were the biggest underperforming outfit in England - instead pointing to Derby and the Blues.

In a nod to their potential, Jordan said: ‘This new group of people (trying to buy Charlton), I’ve been aware of the deal, I know who’s behind it and I also know who’s involved with it. They spoke to me about it and Chalrton and I aren’t going to be bedfellows under any auspice.

‘There’s some interesting people with some interesting thinking and there’s some football operators in there.

‘Charlie Methven was part of the group with Stewart Donald who geared Sunderland on their own money to buy the football club. They took parachute payments, they discounted them and used that money to buy the football club.

‘I don’t think anyone at Sunderland particularly admires them and I think some of the videos of the fly-on-the-wall stuff shows some of the characteristics of certain people.

‘So I wouldn’t be full of joy if I was Charlton, but I know there’s a couple of operators in there who get football. I know who they are, but it’s not in my gift to say who they are - they will come to the front pretty quickly. They know what they are doing and they know how to get a football club moving in the right direction.

‘I would dispute they are the most underperforming club in the pyramid because I would suggest Derby County and Portsmouth could make that observation about themselves as well.

‘But certainly Charlton aren’t a football club who should be languishing, as much as it gives me a wry smile every now and again because of my relationship with Charlton and their previous incumbents like that twerp Richard Murray. Notwithstanding that, they are a club who shouldn’t be in that league.’