YOUR CALL, ROLAND
Former Charlton star Rob Lee’s message to Addicks owner
IF YOU don’t want Charlton, sell up is Rob Lee’s blunt message for unpopular Charlton Athletic owner Roland Duchatelet, soon to bring up his fifth year in charge.
Lee’s nine-year spell at the Addicks was a turbulent time at boardroom level and the majority of his 300 appearances came in their wilderness years away from the Valley.
The midfielder made his debut in 1983, the club’s last year at their spiritual home before they were booted out to Selhurst Park amid financial turmoil.
But even in view of those difficult times, the 21-time England international reserves a unique disgust for Duchatelet’s regime.
“Charlton is a family club and I’ve never seen so much animosity over an owner,” said the former Newcastle star.
“I don’t get these guys who buy clubs and don’t have any interest in running them. They have a lot of money, maybe they get bored and buy a football club.
“It’s not like a business. You’ve got passionate people who’ve been involved for generations.
Passionate
“I worked under Sir John Hall at Newcastle – he loved Newcastle United and he built the club. We haven’t got so many of them now.
“Roland has antagonised so many people. He’s decided he doesn’t want to spend money. It’s simple in my eyes – if you don’t want it, sell it.”
Selling up appeared to be the plan for the Belgian, who bought the club in December 2013, but lengthy talks with an Australian consortium seem to have hit the buffers.
A bitter dispute over bonus payments, as employees of the club claimed discretionary payments had been withheld, was blamed for deterring prospective buyer Andrew Muir.
So the play-off push mounted by Charlton boss Lee Bowyer and his team stands in remarkable defiance of the chaos that engulfs them.
Lee and Bowyer’s spells at Charlton, Newcastle and West Ham didn’t overlap but they were both born within the sound of Bow Bells and the pair are firm friends.
The 52-yearold feels Bowyer, unlike his predecessor Karl Robinson, is playing his cards right in distancing himself from the board. “I know Lee very well and he’s doing a great job with the team, it’s just obviously off the pitch that’s the problem,” he said. “I think he will just get on with it on the pitch and rightly not get involved in anything else. “Charlton’s a big club in League One and they were in the Premier League not long ago. “If they want to get promoted, you all need to be pulling in the same direction and it will be a shame if what’s going on in the background undermines the efforts of the players and the management.”
Lee has plenty of interest in matters at the top of League One – his son Elliot’s rich vein of form has helped launch Luton above Charlton and towards the automatic promotion places.
The 23-year-old’s clinical edge hasn’t been dimmed by being deployed in a number ten role, highlighted by a streak of five goals in three games in late November.
Content
Dad Rob is content Elliot’s career is safe in the hands of Nathan Jones, who guided the Hatters to promotion from League Two last term.
“Elliot is doing very well,” said Lee, whose other son Olly left Luton to join Hearts over the summer.
“He’s always been a striker but Nathan has played him just off the front and he’s taken to it like a duck to water.
“Even if you play him just behind the front, he’ll still get goals.”