The Thistle Archive

This 20-year-old left-back arrived at Firhill in August 2024, signing a 3-year-deal with the club. He had recently departed Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the summer where he spent two and a half years in the youth ranks. Charlie earned his move to the English Premier League side in December 2021 after breaking into the first team at Southend United in the National League at the age of 17. After joining, Charlie started in Spurs’ under 18s team before working his way up to the under 21s where he was a part of the squad who won the Premier League 2 in 2023-24.

At the time of signing, Thistle manager Kris Doolan said:

Charlie comes to the club with a real pedigree having spent a couple of years in a Premier League level academy at Tottenham. On top of that, having initially come through at Southend, he already has a good understanding of what it’s like to play in a first team environment. Everyone knows we’ve been looking to add cover in the squad in a few areas and left-back is certainly one of those areas. We saw when Harry Milne missed the Clyde game that we had to move players out of position so adding Charlie gives us the depth we’ve been looking for. He only turned 20 earlier this year so he’s someone who can play a part now but also continue to develop and get better as he plays more games. Most importantly he comes here with a hunger to play and, as I keep saying, that’s something I believe every player we bring in needs.

Charlie had to bide his time to get a run as left-back in the Thistle first team, and he got his chance to do so in December 2024 when Harry Milne picked up an injury, playing in 6 successive matches. During those games he showed glimpses of promise as an attacking full-back, but was clearly not yet the polished diamond, as it were. With 2½ years left to run on his contract, Charlie departed Firhill by mutual consent in late January 2025, a strange end to a deal which had raised eyebrows in the first place amongst the critical Thistle support.