NEW signing Lee Martin is eager to finally kick-start his career after arriving at Charlton from Ipswich on loan for the season.

The 23-year-old attacking midfielder has already represented eight different clubs in his young career before arriving at The Valley, without making more than 20 appearances for any of them.

And after being frozen out at Portman Road, Martin is hopeful that he can finally get back to enjoying his football at the club he grew up around.

He said: “I tried to impress at Ipswich but I’ve found games limited. I made eight starts and it wasn’t enough.

“Obviously in pre-season you’re in and out, you play 45 minutes here and this and that, but I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been training with the kids, so it got to the point where enough’s enough.

“If my face doesn’t fit in, then I’ll move on.

“I’ve got nothing bad to say about the manager.

“As far as I’m concerned, I just had to get out and play football.”

On his journeyman-like start to his career, he added: “The stats don’t lie, obviously, but if you actually look at my loan spells I was injured a lot and I was mostly going out to cover for people coming back from injuries.

“That was in my younger years and if I could, I would probably try to forget about it.

“But it’s part of the learning curve and it made me realise that I want to go further in football, I don’t want to be another one who has just drifted through it.”

Martin revealed two factors led to him wanting to sign for Charlton above anyone else – his Bromley upbringing and his prior connections to the Addicks’ assistant manager Tim Breacker.

He explained: “I’ve worked with Tim previously at Plymouth and at the back end of May I spoke to Tim.

“Tim spoke highly of the manager and from everything I’ve seen so far, he’s 100 per cent right.”

“I know the manager’s brought me here to play me.

“At the end of the day, I’m delighted to come to a massive club.

“I remember coming down here when they were in the Premier League as a young lad.

Martin added: “I moved up here at three and grew up around Bromley.

“If anything else popped up, I still had Charlton in the back of my mind.

“It was only Charlton that I really wanted to play for.”

Manager Phil Parkinson was understandably pleased with Martin's arrival.

He said: “Lee was a player we asked Roy Keane about when we felt that Lloyd Sam was going to drift away.

“Obviously with Lee he can play in behind the striker, which is his favoured position, but he can also play wide right or wide left.

“I think he’s a player of exceptional quality and he wanted to come here.

“He’s a Bromley lad and this is his local team.”