Peter Varney's Charlton Athletic diaries: The INSIDE story of putting together the 2011-12 League One title-winning squad and bringing in Chris Powell as manager
Recruitment is THE most important thing if you want to be successful as a football club
Every month South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition is catching up with Peter Varney, the club’s former chief executive and a boyhood fan of the club, to get his tales and inside info from when he was in a key position of responsibility in SE7.
In this seventh instalment, Varney talks about the recruitment process for the 2011-12 season which ended with the Addicks winning the League One title.
Chris Powell is hoisted aloft after Charlton’s final game in the 2011-12 League One season/Picture: Keith Gillard
RECRUITMENT IS THE BIGGEST THING WHEN IT COMES TO SUCCESS IN FOOTBALL - SO MUCH PLANNING AND HOMEWORK WENT INTO OUR TRANSFER ACTIVITY
Charlton Athletic finished top of the League One table in the 2011-12 season with 101 points - making it a dream first managerial appointment for Chris Powell. The south Londoners lost just five matches and had the best defensive record in the division - conceding just 36 goals - as they finished eight points clear of nearest rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
Probably the best place to start is in October 2010, because that is when things at Charlton Athletic began to unravel. It was the precursor to the 2011-12 success.
I was nothing to do with Charlton in 2010. I was in the US for two weeks and I got a phone call from Richard Murray, the club’s chairman and majority shareholder, to say he was now the only funder of the club. The other financial backers were no longer in a position to fund it going forwards. I totally understood that because they had done nothing but put money in for the whole of the Premier League years and afterwards.
Richard told me he could keep it going until the end of December.
He told me he was talking to a group of people. I said I would check them out for him. That went down badly with the wife because I was then going to be on the computer forever more. I spent a day checking out the names he had given me. One had been convicted of defrauding an elderly neighbour out of money. They were Manchester-based, from memory.
I went back to Richard and said: “You can’t get involved with these people. If you’re running out of money, would you be happy for me to put the word out that there is a possibility of acquiring the club? If you say you want £100million for it that is going to restrict who comes in, bearing in mind we are a League One club. The appetite for League One clubs isn’t as great as it is for clubs in the Championship that have a chance of going into the Premier League.”
I put the word out. Tony Jimenez contacted me. At that time he’d been involved with Newcastle and Mike Ashley. He said: “What’s the deal?”
