Exclusive: Lee Bowyer to continue as Charlton Athletic caretaker boss

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Lee Bowyer has agreed to carry on in caretaker charge of Charlton Athletic – as owner Roland Duchatelet continues making decisions while the club’s takeover talks drag on.

Duchatelet made the call to sell talented young centre-back Ezri Konsa to Brentford this week.

And the South London Press reported yesterday how the Belgian businessman, desperate to offload the League One outfit, has been in London looking to nail down some key issues.

One of those was the managerial situation. Bowyer had been in caretaker charge for the final two months of the season – turning around the club’s fortunes on the pitch to secure a League One play-off spot even though they were unsuccessful over two legs against Shrewsbury.

Duchatelet is understood to have met the former Charlton, Leeds, Newcastle and West Ham midfielder to discuss about him continuing in the role.

The Addicks players are back for pre-season training later this month and there still remains a doubt whether the club will go away on a tour, as they did under Karl Robinson last summer when they used Ireland as a temporary base.

The fact that there has been a significant player sale and the move to extend Bowyer’s spell of running the playing side only cements the feeling that the Australian-backed consortium – fronted by Andrew Muir – is not as close as first appeared to completing a takeover.

Duchatelet has been in talks about selling the club since before the end of 2017.

Sources close to the Muir-led group had still indicated yesterday that they were still keen to complete a deal and that the takeover had not collapsed.