Having made some mistakes myself I know how to guide players and handle them
Former bad boy relishes Charton role
LEE BOWYER’S chequered disciplinary record was always going to be dragged up once again as he took his first steps into management.
How, for instance, would Charlton’s caretaker manager deal with some of the headaches he has caused his own bosses over the years?
“The players are going to make mistakes,” he said a little tersely. “I hope they don’t, but it happens in every sport. Having made mistakes myself, I would know how to handle them and how to guide them.
“Of course I wish I had had my manager’s head on my shoulders when I was a young player. But that is not the case.
“All I would say to the younger player is to try to make the right decisions because it is a short career. But if you don’t, try to make things right. I have always been that person who has gone into work and given 100 per cent but I was very passionate and I was competitive.
“Terry Venables told me, sometimes I overstepped the mark. I was too competitive. That is the way I was.
“Now I am still competitive and want to win everything and I am going to set out to win every game and will be disappointed when I don’t. But player-wise I will be there for them and try to guide them.”
We shook hands at the start and end of our interview. But in the car park afterwards, Bowyer was still keen to assess how his words would be presented.
It is rare that he grants this sort of one-on-one access after attracting so many negative headlines for his past misdemeanours. Always prejudged, he feels, the one condition attached is that any subsequent article is a fair one.
Eventually, the 41-year-old was persuaded of the relevance of his past in terms of it being a useful learning experience for a new manager. He even shows a glimmer of embarrassment at his worst excesses.
“Okay, but I don’t see why you need to list out everything that I have done,” he counters. “They were all a long time ago, and I am a dad now.”
The dirt is not hard to find. But sparing the details for the sake of a pair of eight-year-old twins, suffice it to say Kieron Dyer, going on strike, McDonald’s and Champions League semi-final bans are all likely to feature in any Google searches.
At the same time, it is important to remember that the infamous 2001 trial alongside Jonathan Woodgate cleared Bowyer of all charges.
That period coincided with the thing that everybody forgets about Bowyer – that in 2000-01 he was arguably the best midfielder in Europe, scoring six goals to take Leeds to the Champions League semifinal.
Only Real Madrid striker Raul could beat that, but the praise was always muted.
“People did not write it, but I knew in myself that I was
I am competitive. Terry Venables told me I sometimes went too far
playing well,” he said. “But the team made me stand out.
“If they don’t see my runs, I don’t get the ball and I don’t score. Harry Kewell would slip me in. When I played my last year at Ipswich, I was still making the same runs but never got the ball. That is why I stopped.”
At least five years way from the game carp fishing on his own lake in France was not long enough for Bowyer to forget the football education he had picked up along the way.
Following the exit of Karl Robinson, who brought Bowyer back to the game as his assistant in the summer, that learning was channelled into an opening win against Plymouth on Saturday, where Bowyer unveiled a diamond formation that, quite simply, sparkled.
Unexpected tactical brilliance from a man who once knocked back a mixed zone interview request by saying, “I’m too thick to do an interview!”
“Were those the words I used?” Bowyer winces, 19 years later. “I don’t want people to think that I am thick!
“I am knowledgeable of the game – I have to be, I played at the top for 18 years. I was fortunate enough to play with top players and against world class players. And I worked under five or six international managers.
“If I have not learned from them, then something is wrong. All I am doing is passing my knowledge on to the players.”
Tonight he locks horns with a team-mate from those Leeds glory days – Northampton boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
“I would not have had him down as a manager, but I do know he is opinionated!” Bowyer said.
Bowyer may only get one game after that to prove his managerial credentials. Rumours of an imminent takeover by an Australian consortium - with fellow Leeds legend Kewell their manager-in-waiting – means director Richard Murray has already warned Bowyer that Monday’s game against Rotherham may be his last.
“If they get rid of me after three games, I don’t know if that would be enough for me to see if this is really what I want to do,” Bowyer admits.
On balance – all Bowyer demands, after all – the energy, passion, experience and sincerity that he showed during our interview would be a sad loss to Charlton and the game.