Lee Bowyer wants Johnnie Jackson to be his assistant at Birmingham City
Lee Bowyer is ready to make Johnnie Jackson his assistant manager at Birmingham City – if the Valley fans’ favourite is not handed the Charlton job on a permanent basis.
Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard told the South London Press earlier this week that he expected to name a new boss before the end of the week.
Bowyer resigned as Charlton manager at the start of this week and joined another of his former clubs.
And the 44-year-old wants to resume his working relationship with Jackson, who took caretaker charge for last night’s 3-2 victory over Bristol Rovers.
Nigel Adkins is the odds-on betting favourite for the Valley vacancy. He has formerly managed Southampton, Reading, Sheffield United and Hull City, who he left in June 2019.
Jackson was asked about whether he could follow Bowyer to Birmingham yesterday. He said: “We haven’t gone down that road yet. Whether that conversation will come, who knows. Honestly, for a day and a half now, I’ve just had to focus on preparing the team for tonight.
“Whether I’m here, whether I’m not here, the football club is the most important thing. I didn’t feel like if I had a distraction or if my thoughts were elsewhere that that would be the right thing to do. So, I literally parked everything else up and said we’re going to concentrate on what do we need to do to win this football match tonight. Let me concentrate on that and then maybe after that there will be further conversations.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
No disrespect to Nigel Adkins, but he has not been in management for a while and his track record is not that good. Not sure if he is the right man to take Charlton onto better things. As far as Jonnie Jackson is concerned, if Charlton do not offer him the permanent managers job, then he must be free to leave, which would be a shame, but not the end of the world. I just hope that TS gets good advice from the likes of Steve Gallen etc, as he has no experience of football managers, other than Lee Bowyer. Whoever is appointed, he must be the right man for the job, otherwise all the hard work put in by Lee Bowyer and co will have been wasted.