It was Charlton's Club Secretary Chris Parkes’s suspension that served as a warning that not all was what it seemed with Chairman Matt Southall according to former Addick Dean Kiely.

Mr. Parkes's suspension last week took the entire Charlton family by surprise considering the near 32-years of service he had given the club.

It is believed it was Southall’s decision to stand the club stalwart down for 'serious allegations against him', before re-instating Mr. Parkes to his post less than 24-hours later.

His suspension is believed to have resulted from the boardroom dispute that escalated between majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer and Southall over allegations of the Chairman’s use of club money to fund his lifestyle, a dispute that still rumbles on.

While we are led to believe Nimer’s legal team are now taking measures to remove Southall from the club officially, one person who has rightly resumed his place at the club is Mr. Parkes.

Kiely, who with over 200 games under his belt for the Addicks between 1999 and 2006, revealed he had fond memories of the Club Secretary and that when news broke of his suspension, he felt the writing was on the wall for Southall such was Mr. Parkes' standing at The Valley.

“When I saw that, that was the red flag for me,” Kiely said of learning the news.

“’This is crazy,’ I thought.”

“Under all the other regimes, whether they were good, bad or indifferent and you asked them to discuss Chris Parkes; you’re only going to say positive things.

“In terms of facilitating and going about his job to the utmost and benefit of Charlton, you’d say whatever he did it was for the better, not the detriment, of Charlton Athletic Football Club.

“Chris Parkes would be the fella that would knock on the door and say ‘hi I’m the secretary, whether you need this, that, the other, whatever you need me to do, let me know and I’ll get on and do it.'

“If you’re new into a club, you’d look around and go ‘OK- this type of guy, Chris Powell, they are the glue that holds this thing together, let’s get them on board and drive it forward.

“It seems it’s been decimated, which is not helpful.”

Regardless of his thoughts of Southall, Kiely said that all of the off-field drams would not be helping the club on the pitch.

With Lee Bowyer’s side in a relegation scrap, the boardroom chaos could distract many from knuckling down to the job in hand, which is avoidign the drop to League One.

“I’d imagine Lee Bowyer, his coaching and playing staff, to them this is turning into a soap opera that’s unnecessary.

“Everybody needs to put their shoulders to the wheel and help maintain Championship status, and this is just another unwanted hindrance.”