Lee Bowyer has a nice plot - but he has resigned

It may also be relevant that of Charlton's current squad, there are now only 4 players who know what first-team football was like before Lee Bowyer took over.

Jason Pearce
Jake Forster-Caskey
Ben Amos
George Lapslie

And only three of those were regulars in the team when Bowyer turned things around that season and got Charlton into the play-offs.
(Lapslie was a newcomer to the senior squad who only had one sub appearance all season).

Moreover, there are only 4 other players in the current squad who were part of Bowyer's promotion campaign of 2018-19;

Darren Pratley ... 20 starts in 2018-19
Albie Morgan ... 4 starts
Jonny Willams ... 13 starts
Ben Purrington ... 17 starts

And none of these players (not even Pratley) were 'regulars' in Bowyer's usual starting XI.
DP spent most of the second half of that season coming off the bench, or as an unused sub.

The whole of the rest of the current CAFC squad were not part of Bowyer's early success at Charlton Athletic.
We fans remember that success and still admire LB because of it, but we need to remember most of our current players were not part of it.
Indeed, for all practical purposes this season so far, Darren Pratley is the sole survivor from those days.

 

Taking off Williams invited pressure in the last 15 min, and sent out the wrong message to Shrewsbury. It was Shrewsbury FFS - you’ve got to stay on the front door.
The draw ended up being a fair result, Amos was our MOM yesterday.,

 

............again.

 

You cannot replace managers every season, stability is the key to any success.

 

LB urgently needs to identify his best starting 11, and play it every week. I’ve been saying it for ages. Apart from the injuries to Doughty & Inniss, there is nothing stopping him.
We have had a good look at many of the squad players now, and they are not world beaters.

 

Just watched Bowyer's post-match, he looks completely drained, at the end of his tether. Said "I'm fuming" several times, the dressing room on monday will be a place to be jolly careful what you say.

 

I'm afraid the writing is on the wall.

Stick with LB and give him the rest of the season?
Or act swiftly and back a new manager to maximise promotion chances?

Neither choice guarantees avoiding yet another whole season (2021-22) in the third tier.
But a decision needs taking soon.
Either way the honeymoon is over for Thomas Sandgaard, but that was bound to happen eventually.
We'll need to see a bit less of the fun rock dude and a little more of the bullet being bitten.

 

Fanbase critical of Lee Bowyer -

 

Unbelievable how quickly things can change. It seems we were over-reliant on our excellent back 5 for results, all those clean sheets, as soon as our 2 CB's are injured the other weaknesses are exposed. We were also reliant on Doughty for pace.
We've also seen Bowyer apply the nuclear option to Morgan, Bogle and Williams when they don't get it right. If this affects morale as badly as it could things could quickly get worse.

 

The criticism is justified but wanting him out isn’t, IMO. He needs a full season under Sandgaard.

 

.

 

Cheers Lee
Thanks for seeing us through the bad times, putting up with all the sh!t.
But new owner now looks like we can get a better manager.
Au revoir.

 

That's how it normally works.

 

Bump

 

What's your priority this season folks?

• Promotion
• Bowyer

That's what it boils down to.
Nothing wrong with staying loyal to the gaffer, especially for us fans.
Many might be content to give him next season too, and hope to get back to the Championship maybe in 2022-23.
But to my mind we might as well have kept Roland as our owner if that's the way it's going to be.

The fulfilment of ambition requires excellence.
Are we excelling this season?


LB has five games to turn things around in my opinion, starting this weekend.
If we don't improve and I was TS, I wouldn't trust him with January.

 

He has players signed in the dark days, a few that triggered contract extensions, and a limited number signed after the embargo lifted whilst under a salary cap.

I think he needs a clear run of being able to sign players he really wants. That could mean writing off thìs season and starting with a clean slate next year

 

Give him the season , he had a very rushed window in the summer due to takeover stalling , he’s had the wage cap to deal with when we did eventually get taken over and just when we looked like we had a solid back line we suffered losing the strongest two out of it . We’ve had a dip that’s all -and we have another window looming , let’s see where we are in two months time as seriously would say!

 

I think the majority of fans still feel this way.
If Thomas Sandgaard agrees with them, then I hope it ends well in May.

I'd take no pleasure from seeing LB sacked - it would be harsh because of everything he has done well in the past.
Maybe I'm tying myself too closely to what TS said about promotion being the target this season.
I trust in Sandgaard's judgment.
If he gives Bowyer the season, fair play to him.

I still have to say though, my feeling is we aren't going to go up without a really radical change.
And that can only be
A) A spectacularly good January window (likely?) or
B) a new and more expert tactician, given January to make key changes.
I know injuries are a real wild card in all this too. But we hardly ever have good luck with injuries.

Just my view...

 

This will sound very unambitious, I'd give him the season regardless because another season in League One wouldn't be the end of the world. We no longer have to fear for our short term future as Sandgaard is on board.

I think he deserves it as he could've left several times but didn't for some reason. We're by no means at all out of it and can be third if we take advantage of our game in hand. I would like to think Gallen & Bowyer are working hard now to get some decent attacking players through the door in January.

However, that doesn't mean I'm not annoyed by his actions relating to Williams in the last game, the substitution was stupid, reckless & impulsive. You can bollock a player after the game but to self-sabotage by bringing on an unnecessary defender was idiotic. I suspect he must've regretted it a little bit after.

 

Clearly some of the players are not Bowyer type players. How much has he checked out Steve Gallen's recommendations? Curbs would watch a player several times, home and away, the responsibility was his. Not being privy to the inner workings at Charlton I can't say for sure, but it seems that he has been taking Gallen's word on players. In Levitt's case not even Gallen's word. Managers stand or fall on recruitment, scouts recommend, managers decide. It's not clear whether Bowyer or Gallen has been deciding.