Dowie Dumped By Charlton After Only Fifteen Games
Charlton Athletic sensationally sacked Iain Dowie last night, only 15 games in to his tenure. He had managed only two league wins in that time, but he had led his side to the quarter finals of the Carling Cup, with three wins, and with only lowly Wycombe Wanderers between them and the semi finals his side would have only been 180 minutes from the final.
The Addicks board once known for their patience and persistence, were not prepared to give Dowie time to produce his renown ‘bouncebackability’. They conducted a review of staffing and the management team. Where there conclusion was that the current situation would not improve, however to cause minimal disruption they have promoted the backroom staff. Les Reed will now be Head Coach, and Mark Robson will be his assistant in a ‘back to the future’ type move. Relying on their Charlton pedigree.
The board backed Dowie with over £11 million of transfer money, which many believe he spent wisely bringing a number of talented players to the valley.
Charlton were not exactly dead in the relegation waters, one victory with other results in their favour could have lifted them out of the relegation zone and back to back victories would have them languishing in mid table.
It will become one of the ‘what might have been?’ questions that Addicks fans will be asking for years to come, especially if Les Reed manages to relegate the team and they miss out on next years bumper television deal.
Alan said,
November 15, 2006 @ 8:15 pm
In many respects, Dowie’s sacking shouldn’t come as a surprise at all. Even with the influx of talent, Charlton has actively grown worse that last season when they were comfortably a mid-table side. There’s likely too much talent on the team for them to go down, but with the way the league has looked so far, it’s a strong possibility. Perhaps Dowie’s departure is just the kick in the pants that the players need to get back on track.
But yeah, after the whole fiasco with Crystal Palace, was it really worth it to bring Dowie to The Valley in the first place? Consider that he’s a manager with no proven record of success in the top flight and that he was replacing Alan Curbishley of all people — he who was in the running for the England job. So, really, it looks like Charlton misfired from the start by hiring Dowie at all.