Good article from today's Times which I have copied in full as it's subscription only.
A flicker of optimism is rippling through The Valley, where rancour and disaffection have reigned for so long. Nothing on the field, in truth, can heal the wounds inflicted by Roland Duchâtelet, Charlton Athletic’s much-maligned owner, who has reduced the club to a shell of the one that he bought almost five years ago, but Lee Bowyer, the club’s somewhat unlikely manager, appears to be giving it a damned good try.
Saturday’s 2-0 win against Wimbledon was Charlton’s sixth from their past seven Sky Bet League One outings and lifted the south Londoners to fifth in Sky Bet League One table. And, with a young and industrious group of players, there is a suggestion that something might be stirring. “When I was here as a kid it was a nice family club,” Bowyer, who began his playing career at Charlton, says. “There was a good relationship between the fans and the players. But when I came back, 18 months or so ago, it didn’t seem to be like that anymore, and it’s a shame, because it’s a great club.
“When I took over as manager I knew that was something I had to try to put right. And that’s what I’m doing: I’m just trying to make the place what it was [like] when I left. Make our football attractive to watch. We’ve got great players, and they’re all together. And that goes a long way. Once you include the fans in that, it becomes a very difficult place for other teams to play.”
Given that Bowyer was relaxing by his fishing lake in France little more than two years ago and never envisaged a post-playing career in management, the former Leeds United, West Ham United, Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Ipswich Town midfielder is as surprised as anyone by the events that led him here. “I had no intention of being a manager,” he says.
“My wife basically said, ‘You can’t sit here watching telly all the time’. I had to do something. She said, ‘Go and do your coaching badges, see if you like it’. That’s how it happened and it’s all escalated from there.
“When I first came here [in 2017] it was only just to help out the midfielders for a couple of days [a week] under Karl Robinson. Then I became the assistant. Then Karl left [for Oxford United in March] and I was the manager. I had no plans, no intentions, but football’s crazy, things change and, now I’m doing it, I’m enjoying it.”
Bowyer swiftly lifted Robinson’s faltering team from ninth to finish fifth with six wins from the final ten games of last season. After defeat by Shrewsbury Town in the play-off semi-final, summer plans were restricted by the proposed takeover of the club by an Australian consortium — that has still not materialised — and it was September before Bowyer lost the “caretaker” prefix to his title of manager.
Behind the scenes, meanwhile, with the club continuing to haemorrhage £8 million a year, a drastic cost-cutting drive was under way, which yielded a number of unflattering headlines including those you may remember about youth team players no longer being allowed bottled water during the hottest summer in years.
Bowyer was given the smallest budget of Duchâtelet’s tenure and just two free transfers, Lyle Taylor and Darren Pratley, plus four loan signings, were added to a squad that has also been hit by injuries.
Bowyer was unable to fill the bench for the opening-day defeat against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light and the loss of Josh Cullen, a West Ham United loanee who dislocated a shoulder, and fellow midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey, who is out for the season with a knee injury suffered in August, have been particularly sorely felt.
Bowyer, who cites Terry Venables, Bobby Robson, George Graham and Graham Souness as illustrious managerial influences, regularly speaks of the togetherness and spirit fostered through hard work within the group, but the greatest reward of the job, he says, is seeing the improvement of the young players under his charge. “That’s why I’m in the game,” he says. “To pass on some of my knowledge.”
Joe Aribo, an elegant midfielder who was playing for Staines Town before joining the Charlton academy in 2015, is perhaps the pick of a fruitful crop who have been heavily relied upon this season. The tutelage of Bowyer and Johnnie Jackson, the assistant manager, Aribo says, has helped him to add goals — five this season — to his game and there were reports last week of admiring glances from clubs in the Premier League and Bundesliga. Having seen the likes of Ademola Lookman, Joe Gomez, Nick Pope and Ezri Konsa sold in recent seasons, though, there are fears that Duchâtelet may look to cash in next month, when instead reinforcements would be more welcome.
So long as Duchâtelet remains, momentum is fragile. Last week, a survey by the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust revealed that 81 per cent of fans no longer go to games as regularly, with 31 per cent of those boycotting entirely until there is a change of ownership.
Bowyer, 41, whose performances at The Valley persuaded Leeds to part with £2.8 million, a then-British record for a teenager, in 1996, rarely passes comment on the club’s off-field issues — “I can only control what’s going on on the training field and on the pitch on a match day,” he says — but his name was chorused with gusto at full time on Saturday.
Controversies pockmarked the career of the combative midfielder, of course, whose name will for ever be linked with the trial that he and Jonathon Woodgate, his former Leeds team-mate, stood in 2001 for grievous bodily harm with intent and affray. Bowyer was acquitted, of course, but perceptions have not always been kind and nor, perhaps, are they easy to shake.
“I don’t know. Again, it’s something I can’t control,” he says, speaking in a quiet corner of The Valley. “Whenever I can’t control something, I try not to focus on it. What I’m doing now is working hard when I’m at work. And when I go home, I’m a dad. That’s all I do. Nothing else. I think I am — well, I know I am — a respectful person. I try to treat everybody the way I want to be treated. At the moment we’re doing well as a football club. Everybody seems happier here again — staff and fans. So myself and all my team are doing something right.”
Indeed they are. Last week the South London Press reported that the legendary Jimmy Seed is the only permanent manager in Charlton’s history to have had a better win ratio than Bowyer’s 55 per cent after 30 league games. On Saturday, however, when Naby Sarr received the fastest red card in Charlton’s history, after just 56 seconds, for a reckless challenge on Tennai Watson, a long afternoon in treacherous conditions looked to be on the cards. Mitch Pinnock, the Wimbledon winger, kindly reciprocated by getting a second yellow for simulation in the 33rd minute and the home side, dominant throughout, sealed the points with second-half goals from Taylor and Mark Marshall, a substitute, with four minutes remaining.
Bowyer may be in the early throes of management but evidently he is not one to try to temper expectations. “My job is to try and win promotion,” he says. “I’m a winner. I have to win. When you don’t it hurts.
“If we can get back into the Championship — and obviously the owner’s trying to sell the club — you never know what might happen. If someone was to inject a bit of money, then who knows what we can do?
“We’re doing well without that just now. But it’s a great club, I’ve no doubt someone will buy it — can’t tell you when, but it’ll happen. Until then we’ll just keep working hard and see where it takes us.”
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Comments
Thanks for taking the time and effort to get that to us BA......much appreciated.
Great article, very very knowledgeable. Every bit of publicity helps.
Ever thought of becoming a politician?
For its author to have so succinctly & accurately stated the facts, surely means it was written by a true fan !
I especially love the way he/she "got" our Bow......an honest, no frills, "what you see is what you get" manager indeed.
Although it's a shame that only subscribers will read this piece, at least it may keep the wolves ( and the Spanners, and the Massive etc) from our door when the realisation dawns that we have one hell of a manager at OUR football club.
Long may it last !
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Robertson_(footballer)