Dale Stephens was not part of the Charlton squad that travelled to Nottingham with manager Chris Powell pulling him out of the party.

Chris Powell was asked whether he left Stephens out due to the speculation about a possible move to Villa:

“Absolutely, yes. He was going, he was not going, he was going and then he was not going, so in the end, after preparing my team for a football match, I just felt all that speculation and possibly the chance of him leaving at the 11th hour last night wouldn’t do us any good.

“I want clarity on my team on a Friday, as I always do the day before, so that’s what I did.

“He never travelled and I made that decision quite early.

“Dale’s our player and it hasn’t happened for him. He’s strong willed and strong minded and he will be OK.

“He will get over it and we will make sure he is right and ready to come back into the team.

“It’s disappointing maybe from his point of view but he’s at a good level and he will carry on playing for us, and in January something might happen again,” said Powell.

Chris is well versed in the art of dealing with the media now but it is possible to read between the lines. Clearly Stephens is unhappy that his move to Villa did not happen and Powell expects him to move to the Premier League in January. Before then, he has to knuckle down and perform for Charlton or risk bigger clubs losing interest in him.

It will be a test of Powell’s managerial skills to straighten Stephens’ head out and get the player refocused. The game at Forest was crying out for Stephens’ vision as the Addicks struggled to get a foothold in the game, a point Powell conceded:

“I suppose when you lose again there is an argument that you could say ‘yes’ but it gave a chance to someone else. I’ve got a good player in Jordan Cook and I gave him the chance today.

“I felt that Dale – who is obviously a good, good player – is someone who we’ve had a lot of speculation about this week, and I made the change,” added Powell.

It is hard to believe that Stephens would have had his mind totally on the game but his replacement, Jordan Cook, had a poor game.

It is pure conjecture whether the outcome would have been any different with Stephens inclusion – Forest looked a very good team – but what is indisputable, is that the Addicks turned in their worst league performance of the season without him.