Charlton Chief Executive Peter Varney Wants to Keep Darren Bent and Alan Pardew

Charlton chief executive Peter Varney wants to keep Darren Bent at The Valley next season when the Addicks push for an immediate return to the Premiership. Charlton's relegation was confirmed last night as they lost 2-0 at home to Tottenham and manager Alan Pardew suggested last week that the club would not stand in the striker's way if he sought a move back to a Premeirship.

However, Varney this morning indicated the club will try to keep Bent in order to fire them back to the top flight within one season. "You saw the situation with Andrew Johnson [at Crystal Palace]," said Varney. "What we'd like to do is try to get back with the strongest possible squad we can but it's impossible to answer that this morning.

"There are all sorts of ifs and buts about Darren, he's an England international and will obviously want to play at the highest level, and I don't know the answer yet. But we've got to keep the strongest squad possible to get back in the Premiership. You have all got to stay together. Nearly 17,000 fans have already renewed their season tickets, and did that before they knew what status we had, Championship or Premiership. That shows the faith they have got, for Alan Pardew in particular. We've got to work on that, build on that, and create an atmosphere that gets us back up."

Regarding suggestions of interest from a consortium in the club, Varney continued: "I didn't see many sheikhs at the game last night! As far as I'm concerned it is total nonsense. There's been no approach, I think I would know if there had been an approach for the club. There is no substance in the story whatsoever."

Charlton are one of four clubs considering legal action against the Premier League regarding the decision not to dock West Ham points for fielding ineligible players and Varney expects developments this week. "The dust has settled, we have gone down, Fulham have stayed up and I think the situation will evolve over the week," he said.