Bob Peeters says he kind of understands why former Charlton keepers Rob Elliot and Ben Hamer decided to take a punt on a Premier League career – but added the best place for young hopefuls is The Valley.

Elliot came through the ranks in SE7 and was an established first team regular before deciding to join Newcastle in 2011, where he has played just a dozen games as understudy to Tim Krul.

His replacement Hamer made a similar decision this summer by hooking up with newly-promoted Leicester, but so far has been restricted to just Premier League game against Stoke when regular number one Kasper Schmeichel was ruled out.

Yesterday Peeters signed up academy keeper Dimitar Mitov on a three-year deal, prompting today’s question as to whether Elliot or Hamer had made a mistake quitting the club when they did.

“I think players make decisions,” replied head coach Peeters.

“If you move to the Premier League you know it is going to be very tough to play there.

“But again if you are a professional player and have been here for a while you want to go to the Premier League and earn more money.

“It is a bigger podium. Sometimes you need to respect that but at this moment I think the best environment for young players is Charlton because they know they have a management who will give them a chance.

“Karlan Ahearne-Grant five weeks ago was playing U18s and now he has already made his debut here at Norwich.

“He has proved to me every day that he is going to be a very good player, so if you are a youth here you know you are going to get chances.

“That will make the decision easier to sign a long-term deal.”

Young keeper Mitov may only be aged 17 but Peeters was happy to explain why Charlton had offered such a long-term commitment, pointing out the club didn’t want a repeat of the Diego Poyet situation which saw the highly-rated midfielder join West Ham this summer for peanuts.

The Belgian said: “He is training a lot with us.

“He is 17, he needs to progress but I think the vision of the management at this moment is sign the players when they are young and when they have not played a lot of games yet to show first that we respect them and we have a lot of confidence in them.

“But then again like last season with Diego Poyet, if you sign them too late and he proves something then they go somewhere else.

“I think if we develop players and give them long-term deals to develop to be a good player when the teams are coming in to take them they need to pay and you get rewarded for the work you’ve done.

“That’s what we are trying to do now with Karlan Ahearne-Grant, Joe Gomez and Dimitar to show also the fans –that’s the most important thing – that we invest in the youth and it is not only players from abroad who are coming in.”

Peeters added: “We believe in home-grown players and especially youth players.

“For me it is easy, if you have talents you need to keep them here and give them a long deal in advance.

“Then they have all the time to develop to better players and don’t have to worry about will I be here next year or will I have another contract.

“Their mind is at ease at this moment and can they can focus on training and act like professionals.”

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