Les Reed (football coach)

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Les Reed
Personal information
Full name Leswyn Reed
Date of birth December 12, 1952 (1952-12-12) (age 55)
Place of birth    Wapping, London, England
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
19??-19??
19??-19??
19??-19??		 Cambridge United
Watford
Wycombe Wanderers		 0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)   
Teams managed
2006 Charlton Athletic

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Leswyn Reed (born December 12, 1952 in Wapping, London)[1] is an English football coach and was the manager of Charlton Athletic, between 14 November and 24 December 2006. He is now Director of Football of Fulham. Reed was formerly Technical Director of the Football Association between 2002 and 2004.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

As a football player he was on the books of Cambridge United, Watford and Wycombe Wanderers as a centre forward,[2] but did not play any League matches for any of the three clubs.[3]

[edit] Coaching and managerial career

[edit] Early career

Reed started his coaching career in non-league football, coaching both Finchley and Wealdstone. In 1986 he joined the Football Association as development officer, and worked there for nine years. In 1995 he left the FA to become Alan Curbishley's assistant at Charlton Athletic. There he helped Charlton win promotion to the Premiership via the playoffs in 1998.

[edit] The FA and England

That same year he rejoined the FA as part of the England national coaching setup under Kevin Keegan. In 2002 he replaced Howard Wilkinson as the FA's Technical Director. During his second spell at the FA he authored the FA's official coaching manual, The Official FA Guide to Basic Team Coaching (ISBN 0340816007) but was sacked by the FA in 2004; the FA still owe Reed £700,000 on his contract in a dispute that has not been resolved, as of November 2006.[4]

[edit] Charlton Athletic

After working as a consultant, his clients including the Northern Ireland team (helping them beat England in 2005),[5] Reed returned to Charlton to become Iain Dowie's assistant manager in summer 2006. After Dowie's sacking on 14 November 2006, Reed was promoted to the manager's post. During his six-week spell in charge, Reed managed just one victory and his Charlton side were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Football League Two side Wycombe Wanderers. Reed's spell at Charlton became infamous as the media attacked him on a regular basis, nicknaming him "Les Miserables" and "Santa Clueless",[6] and was later voted in an unofficial online poll "the worst manager of all time". Reed was replaced by Alan Pardew as manager on December 24, leaving Charlton Athletic by mutual consent.[7]

[edit] Fulham

Reed was linked with a consultancy role helping Northern Ireland boss Lawrie Sanchez, who approached Reed after a League Managers’ Association meeting at West Bromwich Albion in February 2007.[8] He had been considering consultancy roles with the FA’s of Turkey and Latvia, and he revealed that he could return to Charlton in an overseas development role.[8] Reed re-surfaced as Director of Football at Fulham in April 2007, where, ironically, he helped the club stay up at the expense of Charlton.

[edit] Managerial stats

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win %
Charlton Athletic Flag of England November 14, 2006 December 24, 2006 7 1 5 1 14.28

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ In December 2006 Reed's age was stated as being 53, so it is likely he was born in 1953. Reference: "Reed banking on his winning research to give Charlton lift-off", The Guardian, 2006-12-02. 
  2. ^ "Who Is Les Reed?", BBC Sport, 2006-11-14. 
  3. ^ There is no record of a Les Reed ever playing League football. Reference: Hugman, Barry J. (1998). PFA Premier and Football League Players Records (1946-1998). Virgin Books, pp. 454-455. ISBN 1852915854. 
  4. ^ "New man can be hit but Tom Jones won't be his assistant", Evening Standard, 2006-11-14. 
  5. ^ "Reed: My part in England's downfall", TeamTalk. 
  6. ^ "Les sacked for giving turkeys Xmas off", Daily Mirror, 2006-12-26. 
  7. ^ "Pardew replaces Reed at Charlton", BBC Sport, 2006-12-24. 
  8. ^ a b "Papers: Uncle Les to return?", Addickted.net, 2007-03-08. Retrieved on 2007-03-08. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Charlton Athletic F.C. – Managers

Rayner (1920–25) • MacFarlane (1925–28) • Lindon (1928) • MacFarlane (1928–32) • Lindon (1932–33) • Seed (1933–56) • Trotter (1956–61) • Hill (1961–65) • Stokoe (1965–67) • Firmani (1967–70) • Foley (1970–74) • Nelson (1974–80) • Bailey (1980–81) • Mullery (1981–82) • Craggs (1982) • Lawrence (1982–91) • Curbishley and Gritt (1991–95) • Curbishley (1995–2006) • Dowie (2006) • Reed (2006) • Pardew (2006–)