Reed falls victim to catastrophic cost of the drop

Last week Richard Murray, the Charlton chairman, addressed a small knot of reporters in the car park at The Valley following the club's home defeat to Wycombe in the quarter- finals of the Carling Cup. Charlton had been dreadful, the home support had given the head coach, Les Reed, a vituperative send-off, and called for his replacement by Alan Pardew.

Murray, speaking after Reed and his coaches had been smuggled out of the disabled exit in their Mercedes, pledged to give Reed time. He then dismissed Alan Pardew's management claims, crediting his success at Reading and West Ham to the coaches, Kevin Dillon and Peter Grant respectively, then stating he felt Pardew, so recently sacked at West Ham, needed time out of the game to spend with his family.

That was in the early hours of Wednesday morning. On Sunday evening Murray fired Reed and installed Pardew.

So is Murray just another duplicitous chairman in an industry which has long had a loose relationship with the truth? On the contrary, he is one of the game's more respectable figures. He has spent 15 years at Charlton because he loves the club, not because he wants to get rich off its back. There is no reason to believe that, while evidently concerned about Reed's stewardship, he was planning to axe him when we spoke. More than Reed he blamed Iain Dowie, Reed's short-lived predecessor, and even Alan Curbishley, whose departure last May, after 15 years at the helm, triggered the descent into chaos of a club which was once a byword for stability.

There are 35 million reasons why Murray changed his mind. That, with the recent conclusion of the Premiership's overseas television deal, is the minimum income each Premiership club will receive, each season, from August. Add in merit payments and appearance fees and the figure dwarfs the £20m for winning the Champions' League. It also renders the £1m income of Coca-Cola League clubs inconsequential. It is approximately the pre-season value of Charlton as a business.

Pardew is back in employment for the same reason he was made redundant - Premiership clubs cannot afford to get relegated and clubs which have been in the Premiership for more than four years, like Charlton, can afford it far less than newcomers likes Watford. Charlton have developed a Premiership-sized bill for wages and supplementary expenses (such as those Mercedes). Going down is potentially catastrophic, as Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City and Leeds have discovered.

That would have been on the mind of Murray and his fellow directors as Charlton travelled back from their defeat Middlesbrough on Saturday night. They had just witnessed Charlton's sixth defeat in eight matches under Reed, and their fourth shocking performance in succession. The forthcoming transfer window represented the last chance to reshape a poor squad and, with Dowie blowing £11m in the summer, they would be mortgaging themselves to operate in it. Given the high stakes, they did not trust Reed, with no experience in the market (his only previous management stint was at Wealdstone in the late Eighties), to spend wisely.

So Reed got the sack, on the eve of Santa arriving with his. It was a cruel blow for a decent man ill equipped to deal with the situation he was thrust into. When it comes to the theory of coaching Reed has written the book, literally, for he authored the Football Association's official guide to basic coaching.

After a modest playing career, on the books of Cambridge United, Watford and Wycombe without making a League appearance, Reed became an FA coach in 1978. Aside from a spell at Charlton, working with Curbishley as the club won their first promotion to the Premiership, he remained at the FA until rejoining Charlton this summer. Among his roles at the governing body he assisted Kevin Keegan at Euro 2000 and was the (acting) technical director from 2002-04. He also ran various courses, with Steve McClaren, David O'Leary, Stuart Pearce and Steve Bruce among his students.

Those who oppose the growing emphasis placed on coach education and qualifications will not mourn his exit. To them it will be proof that hard experience is far more valuable than "pieces of paper". Others will feel this was the right man at the wrong time. Reed can coach, though five formations in eight matches suggests an excess of theory, but can he inspire? Taking over a struggling team in mid-campaign requires different skills to building one on the training ground in pre-season. Experience of similar situations is an advantage and transfer acumen an asset but, most of all, it requires the ability to command instant respect and to instil confidence. With his pressed shirt and bookish spectacles Reed did not seem capable of either. He looked like a middle manager thrust on to the front line.

When Reed made his home bow he milked the applause. This self-aggrandisement seemed at odds with a man who acts as physio for his 14-year-old's parks team but it was the chance he had waited a lifetime for. The next home game Charlton beat Blackburn and it seemed he had a chance, even if it transpired that as Tahal El Karkouri drove in a last-minute free-kick Reed was trying to get a message on that another player should take it. That proved the high point of his reign. Reed, who, despite a lifetime in the game, seemed unprepared for the public vitriol and media criticism, is likely to return to obscurity. Murray will hope that, by acting as he has, Charlton do not follow suit.