They have the longest-serving manager bar Sir Alex Ferguson in the Premiership, established stars such as Paolo Di Canio, up-and-coming talent with the likes of Scott Parker and some great foreign players as well.

Radostin Kishishev’s profile might not be as broad as Hernan Crespo, Laurent Robert or El-Hadji Diouf for example but his impact is almost certainly as great.

Capped 49 times by Bulgaria – he is a veteran of Euro 96 and is currently considering coming out of international retirement to go to Euro 2004 – Kishishev is also one of the few Charlton players who has played in the Champions League qualifiers and the Uefa Cup.

The right-back was assured in defence and creative in attack on Wednesday night when Charlton drew 1-1 at Manchester City.

And he believes the club’s good form could be rewarded at Euro 2004, with Scott Parker a strong candidate to be in the England squad and Claus Jensen playing for Denmark.

"I hope Scott goes with England and I believe he will go," says Kishishev.

"It would complete a great year for Scott. When I first came to Charlton, we didn’t see much of him – he was away on loan.

"Then last season a couple of players were injured and he took his chance. Just look where he is now.

"When you look at his body, you don’t think he would be the strongest player in the world. But his tackling and movement on the pitch show he is definitely strong enough and skilful enough to play at the top level."

Kishishev is the one Charlton player who has broad international experience at club and international level.

He was a rookie when Bulgaria went to Euro 96 and he has also enjoyed European campaigns for clubs in Turkey and Bulgaria.

His big decision now is whether to make himself available for Euro 2004 – Bulgaria are in the same group as Italy - having retired from international football four matches into the qualifying campaign.

"Twice my club in Bulgaria, Litets Lovech, won the championship and went to the Champions League qualifiers.

"Unfortunately we didn’t get through, we drew Spartak Moscow once and they had a really good team at the time. I have also played in the Uefa Cup a couple of times and have scored a goal.

"I don’t know yet about the next European Championship," he adds. "I retired six months ago. I had many reasons at the time to go away from the Bulgarian team.

"I have played in the European Championship before in England so I have experienced it. But there are six months to go until Portugal and maybe I will change my mind.

"Maybe I will talk with the Bulgarian manager. There are small problems between us, I am not sure what will happen next. But first I am going to concentrate on Charlton."

In the last two seasons, Charlton have been within touching distance of qualifying for Europe before falling away at the end.

Perhaps that is why the 29-year-old is reluctant to big up their chances this time even though victory at home to Wolves on Saturday could leave them five points clear of fifth place.

"We are doing very well in the Premier League, we have good quality players but we must qualify for Europe before we talk about how we can do," he says.

"It was great to see Paolo Di Canio score at Manchester City though. If he begins to score regularly now, it will be so great for Charlton.

"When you see our list of scorers, the main ones only have three or four. If we have someone who can get 10 or 15 goals a season, Charlton would always be in the top six."