Lee Bowyer - Re-Invented

As we sit on an unbeaten six game run 5-1-0, it is easy to forget that his return to Charlton as coach was not universally accepted.  As a non white, Asian heritage supporter Bow came back to the club with a lot of undesirable baggage from his past.  However, Robinson brought him in and it was very much a case of like it or lump it and I had no choice but to give him a chance.

It is difficult to get an impression of a coaches personality looking from the stands.  They don’t generally do the post match interview or get involved in the media, so it was not until Bromley Addicks meeting with Robinson and Bowyer that I could form an impression of French Lake Fishing Lee Bowyer.  I was pleasantly surprised by this thoughtful, knowledgeable and sometimes humorous new Lee Bowyer.  It was this exposure to him, more than the results, that has helped me to accept him.

Whilst success as a player does not always duplicate itself on the field of management, you just have to look at the ’66 World Cup winning squad, where only Jack Charlton came anywhere near success.  Bow is our most successful manager from a playing perspective, although some will argue Powell with his England cap count (5).  He played for Leeds and Newcastle when both were top of their game and for the Leeds side that qualified for the Champions League in 1999–2000, and which reached the semi finals of the UEFA Cup in 2000 and the Champions League in 2001. He was voted the Leeds player of the year by supporters in both 1998–99 and 2000–01.

    

Bow was definitely a winner and a fighter as a player.  If he was against you, you would see a snarling, hard nasty, feral player, but if he was on your side he was a player who we all admire, one who would die for the cause.  The player I would most closely compare Bow to is Roy Keane, a player who would drive his team forward and had a nasty streak, but it appears that Bow has more empathy with other players and those now in his charge.  Many a successful player has failed because they could not understand why the players they were managing could not do the same things that they used to do.  Bow seems well tuned to what his players can achieve and if Keane as manager created a toxic fear ridden dressing room, Bow seems to have created a sanctuary of companionship, team work and camaraderie that has delivered a never die spirit.

If he is hungry enough for it, and I do think that there is a question over that, he could become a very good manager, at a higher level than he currently is.

And as for my views, well every body deserves a 2^nd chance, especially when you meet them and they are winning!