New boss Bob Peeters says the only target he has been set by owner Roland Duchatelet this season is to keep Charlton up.

The Addicks spent most of 2013-14 battling to preserve their Championship status, only guaranteeing safety in the penultimate fixture by beating Watford 3-1 at The Valley.

Since then Peeters has arrived to assume control from Jose Riga and assemble a new look squad for the upcoming 2014-15 campaign.

Duchatelet revealed when unveiling Peeters survival was the number one priority – something repeated again today by the man who got the nod to coach the team ahead of Riga.

The SE7 manager said: “The owner doesn’t want to get relegated, no team does.

“But he said to us the only thing is we need to stay up – that’s the most important thing.

“If you are doing well you need to show your ambitions, so it all depends on how quick the players settle in.

“We have signed a lot of young players as well, so we are looking at the future.

“I’m looking also long-term but if we can play top of the league this season we will deal with it.

“At this moment I think the team needs to know by playing games how strong they are.”

Peeters added: “For us it is also going to be interesting in the next three games how we will cope with it and how your players especially get used to a tough competition, because I don’t think they realise it is one of the five most difficult and toughest competitions in the world.

“For me the Championship football wise is tougher than the Premier League because they will let you play a little bit.

“In the Championship you don’t have the time, they put pressure on you.

“A few of them will need to get used to that.”

Duchatelet’s cautious assessment on survival first may have been an honest and logical one, although it didn’t necessarily go down well with every supporter.

Peeters isn’t completely ruling out a repeat of Burnley’s shock promotion success but doesn’t want to raise expectation levels on his newly assembled squad.

“I’d like to see Charlton top of the league but you need to be aware that it is going to be a very hard season,” the boss said.

“It is a league where everybody can beat everybody.

“I think last season before the start if anybody would have said Burnley would go up nobody would believe it.

“The most important thing is we are making progression. We will have hopefully an easier season than last season.

“We need to take one step at a time and try not to get into trouble this season and work on a team that can progress for the next two years.”

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