Andy Scott: Charlton will give Michael Appleton the stability needed to be successful as head coach

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Andy Scott is confident that Charlton Athletic’s hierarchy can provide “stability” to bring out the best in new head coach Michael Appleton.

The Addicks appointed the 47-year-old as Dean Holden’s successor a week ago and he has had a clear week on the training pitch ahead of tomorrow’s League One fixture at table-topping Stevenage.

Appleton won automatic promotion in League Two with Oxford United and also took Lincoln to the League One play-offs. His last role was a second stint at Blackpool, a seven-month spell ending with his dismissal in January.

“Dean left the role because we wanted to be successful this season, or give ourselves the best chance,” technical director Scott told the South London Press. “We needed someone who would work with the group we have got, to make them better and more organised.

“When you go through this process you speak to a hell of a lot of people. Some want the job, some don’t want the job, some you can’t afford and some are desperate for it and will do anything to come and sit in front of you.

“There are agents involved and other clubs involved. We spoke to a whole plethora of people from different backgrounds and countries – I spoke to a number of foreign coaches.

“We challenged all the candidates on areas we didn’t feel they were strong on and Michael was part of that. We did a lot of analysis on his career.

“He has been successful at Oxford and Lincoln – both stable clubs at that time with good ownership, who supported the manager, and with a young squad. He was able to coach them, without interference. He developed young players and understood the style of play he wanted. He implemented it well.

“We believe we can provide Michael with stability – to go and work on the grass and not be caught up in all the politics that takes away from being a manager.

“He’s been very open about some of the experiences he’s had – how and why it went wrong. He’s very clear in how he wants to do things and that he didn’t do some of those things at the clubs he failed at.

“I’m hoping we can be the beneficiaries from those learning experiences and also how and why when it did go well.”

Scott had a brief spell as technical director at the turn of the year when SE7 Partners entered into a period of exclusivity to buy the club from Thomas Sandgaard. He returned to the position when their takeover was completed late in July.

“The top six is a realistic expectation for everybody,” said Scott, 51, who has worked in prominent recruitment positions
at Swansea City, Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Watford.

“Given the circumstances of how late we’ve come in and what’s happened at the club, we’ve had to recruit at the back end of the window – to make sure we had a strong enough squad.

“It’s not how we’d have liked to have done things but we’ve got to deal with what we’ve got.

“I still believe this is a league we can be successful in with what we’ve got.  We expected to be challenging at the top of the league, regardless of when we came in.

“The expectation of myself, the board and the ownership is we want to make this a Championship infrastructure – at the minimum – even before we get there.

“That’s my job now, to make sure we have the strong foundation built to get promoted and stay in the Championship and progress even further, challenge at the top of that.

“Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the club hasn’t driven elite performance here and this is what happens – things go wrong.

“Some people accept going wrong is okay – it’s not. I don’t want to be in League One. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in the Championship and higher – this club can get there. But it needs more mental strength, leadership and drive – that’s my job.

“I don’t make any excuses that I want to succeed. I don’t care how we succeed. I want us to move up. I’m sick of everyone saying to me: ‘What a great club it is’. We’re not a great club. We have been a great club, but we need to be a great club again and need to find a way of getting there. We are a big club that should be embarrassed where we are and the way things have happened at this football club.

“I’m embarrassed that we have lost five games – it shouldn’t happen. We should never accept it, certainly not a club we want to progress and be successful.

“If it comes across I’m a little bit spiky, upset about it or aggressive – I am. Because I need to be the leader of this and drive this.

“There are people who have invested a lot of money and I’ve got expectations.”

Scott says that when he came to Charlton he removed himself from social media.

“If we live our lives by opinions on there then a lot are going to be negative and not shouting about our virtues,” he said.

“I’ve got to commit to the decision I made and I’m doing that based on all the information I’ve got – who wanted the job, who we could speak to, who could come in and do the job now.

“We thought about lots of different things – like projects and people who were different and didn’t know the league. It kept coming back to the fact we still think we can win and be successful this year. To have an experiment or someone a bit left-field didn’t feel right at the time.

“We’ve got to commit to it. Whoever we appointed there would be people who liked it, people who didn’t like it and people who don’t care. That will still be the case until we start winning games. If we win games there will be more people that like it and less people that don’t like it.

“I’ve got to give Michael the best support I can to allow him to do the job. He’s got a squad and we can’t add to it – unless we get free agents. Chances are we’ve got the squad and that is there until January. That is you lot. You’ve said you can work with them. You believe you can get them there and win games. We believe you can coach and get this group performing the way they should do – that’s it.

“I’m not going to interfere. I will support him as much as I possibly can. I’ll give him the resources, I’ll help with the staffing and build around him – but ultimately now it’s over to Michael. It was our decision as a board to pass that baton on to Michael. We feel he has got the experience, the leadership and coaching skills. He’s got the negative experiences that drive people to be more successful and he’s also got the success to know what it is like to win.

“If he needs something from me, I’ll see if I can provide it. But it’s down to him getting on the grass and working with the players now.”

Holden was the first managerial casualty of the EFL season.

Asked if it was a bold decision to act so early in the campaign and remove the former Bristol City boss, Scott said:  “Any change of manager is bold because you don’t know what it is going to look like when you have changed them.

“It’s not just on results, that’s a big part of it, but you look at the process, the environment and what is going on – interaction of staff, mood of players and you see changes. You make decisions based on that.

“We don’t want this to be a waste of a season. We want this to be a successful season. We felt making the decision when we did left Michael with plenty of games to be successful with a group we feel is a strong one in this league.

“We know things aren’t going to be perfect overnight and that a lot of change needs to happen at this football club.

“We want to make sure we are getting the best out of the squad we have got. We can at least challenge at the top end of the league where we feel we should be with the squad we’ve put together.”