CHARLTON defender Cedric Evina insists he never wanted to leave the club after his long-running contract saga was finally resolved last week.

The 21-year-old former Arsenal youth product signed a new one-year extension on Friday, keeping him at The Valley until at least next summer.

And despite previous reports which suggested he had intentions on leaving SE7, Evina insisted he had always wanted to stay with the club and revealed that his manager Chris Powell forced the lengthy negotiations to go through.

He explained: “I never wanted to leave, I always wanted to stay.

“I made that very clear, it was just about getting it done.

“I’m glad the gaffer pushed it and it got sorted.

“I always wanted to get it done early but it got a bit messy and it went on a bit long.”

Evina added: “I’d got myself really prepared for pre-season and I thought when I came back it would be sorted.

“But I let everyone else deal with it while I was just training and doing my work, not concentrating too much on the contract thing.

“I’m glad it's all behind us so I can just concentrate on football now.”

The left-back grabbed an assist as Bradley Pritchard opened the scoring in a 3-0 victory over Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Saturday and Evina is raring to go ahead of the big Championship kick-off.

He said: “We're really excited, it’s been a good pre-season and we just can’t wait for August 3 to come so we can kick on and put all of the good work into action.

“I’ve got through 90 minutes today which was good and I’m feeling stronger every day.

“I wouldn't say I'm 100 percent match fit yet but we’re getting there.”

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