Bowyer leaves charlton (Signs a 1 year deal a day later.....)

Charlton Athletic have been unable to reach an agreement with manager Lee Bowyer regarding the extension of his contract.

The fact the club is for sale has not helped with finding an agreement. The current owner needs to take into account that a new owner may want to appoint his own manager. However, this concern did not stop the current owner proposing a contract extension of one year to Lee Bowyer, even though the club may be sold in a few weeks. Under those circumstances a multi-year extension would not be good business practice.

In addition, since the club is still losing money, which is one of the reasons why the club has not been sold yet, the focus on reducing costs means that we are extremely limited on payroll increases.

Lee has been offered a one-year extension to his contract at a level which is approximately three times what he had since his last increase when he became permanent manager in September. It is six times what he earned when he started as assistant manager in 2017 and 50% more than what any Charlton manager previously had (excluding the Premier League years). This reflects the strong desire we have to continue to have Lee as our manager. But Lee wanted much more.

The owner understands Lee’s point of view, because many Championship clubs pay huge amounts (some pay millions of £ per year) to their manager. It is fair that Lee feels he should be paid like many other Championship managers. That the average Championship club makes a loss of around £15 million per year is not something players should care about. The owners are crazy.

This is why we could not come to an agreement. Another element may have influenced as well. Unlike previous contract discussions, Lee wanted an agent to handle it. We reluctantly accepted. However, involving a player agent in a manager’s contract discussion is not healthy. If the agent helps make the manager more money, it may result in the manager to have a more positive attitude towards players proposed by the same agent, a conflict of interest. Obviously, Lee is above such things, but it is nevertheless not a healthy situation.

The club hasn’t started to look for any other manager in the meantime and does not intend to appoint a permanent manager, since the club is going to be sold. A caretaker manager will be announced in due course and in the meantime the other staff members will continue to prepare the upcoming season for which a lot of good work has been performed already.  

If Lee does change his mind before his contract expires and chooses to continue his good work at Charlton, he is still welcome to stay.

However our ability to sell the club is the most important thing right now.

Charlton Athletic boss Lee Bowyer has agreed a one-year contract extension with the club a day after the Addicks said they were unable to agree terms.

On Monday, the club said Bowyer turned down a one-year contract extension.

The 42-year-old led the Addicks to the Championship this season with victory in the League One play-off final.

"This has been a long process and I never wanted to leave, I love this club," he told the official website after signing a new deal.

"I'd like to thank the owner for giving me the initial opportunity and now for continuing to believe in me."

'All I wanted to do is stay at the club'
In Monday's club statement, Charlton said it would not be "good business practice" to offer Bowyer a long-term deal and a big wage increase when the Addicks were losing money and a new owner could be in place in a few weeks.

It described other owners as "crazy" for paying managers huge amounts in a division where clubs make a loss of about £15m per year on average.

Bowyer, who is currently in France, told Sky Sports on Tuesday that he was "not close" to leaving Charlton and did not know of the club's statement until he was made aware of it by his wife.

"I'd literally spoken to the owner (Roland Duchatelet) just before I'd spoken to my wife and had a normal conversation with him," said Bowyer. "It was civilised and we were negotiating.

"It was only when I came off the phone that I'd heard there was a statement that had gone out.

"Two or three hours after we'd originally spoken, he called me to say he'd like to agree what we'd spoken about earlier and let's move things forward, which was great to hear. All I wanted to do is stay at the club. I love the club."

The Addicks have been up for sale since 2017, with Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman in talks about a potential takeover.

"Lee has been offered a one-year extension to his contract at a level which is approximately three times what he had since his last increase when he became permanent manager in September," Monday's statement said.

"This reflects the strong desire we have to continue to have Lee as our manager. But Lee wanted much more.

"The owner [Duchatelet] understands Lee's point of view, because many Championship clubs pay huge amounts to their manager. It is fair that Lee feels he should be paid like many other Championship managers."