Charlton Athletic owner reveals what triggers contract renewals in Johnnie Jackson’s deal

Charlton owner Thomas Sandgaard has revealed that the automatic renewal in Johnnie Jackson’s contract is triggered by final league position.

Jackson was confirmed as the Addicks’ new permanent manager last Friday.

Charlton’s statement said extensions over the next two seasons were “based on success on the pitch”.

US-based Dane Sandgaard told the South London Press: “That is position-related and is fairly generous in his favour. Subsequent seasons it is similar to that. At all times the club has the ability to extend it. I’d say as long as Johnnie performs reasonably well he is very secure in his job.

“There are benefits and power to the club in how that plays out. I don’t want to be stuck with it if it turns out long term that wasn’t right.

“For both parties it couldn’t have been more perfect. He is still new, in a job like this. He gets the ability to prove himself without being nervous for his job every day.

“It was always the first-team manager at the forefront. So we didn’t know what kind of person Johnnie was. The more you get to know him, you get to know his winning mentality.

“The one thing that sticks out the most is his record in the first 10-12 games as caretaker. It was absolutely brilliant.

“It was as if the players were running twice as far in a game, fighting for the team, that made a huge difference. We also saw a different formation with three centre-backs, two strikers and putting a high press using wing-backs – that’s been very effective for us.

“What looked not such a competitive squad, which I thought we had collected in the summer, we can now see we do have the talent.”

“It was like we had a whole different team turning up at Sunderland which was a combination of new manager bounce, the new formation and the fact Johnnie has been able to get more out of the players than we have seen before. Possibly also playing some players in a better position than we had before.

“In the heat of the moment, I’d say eight or nine times out of 10 he has made good substitutions in the games. That’s probably a lot better than other managers do.”

Sandgaard decided he wanted Jackson to carry on in the role around a month before it was formalised.

“I sat down in late November with him and said: ‘I want you to be permanent manager’.

“We quickly came to terms in the big picture – compensation and many other things. The agents and attorneys get into it, it took a few extra weeks than it probably should have. I’m glad it finally worked out and all came together.”