Les Reed (football coach)

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Personal information
Les Reed
Full name	Leswyn Reed
Date of birth	December 12, 1952 (age 54)
Place of birth	Wapping, London, England
Nickname	Uncle Les
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. Reed was formerly Technical Director of the Football Association between 2002 and 2004.

1 Playing career
2 Managerial career
3 Managerial stats
4 Footnotes
5 External links

[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] Managerial 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.

That same year he rejoined the FA as part of the England national coaching setup under Kevin Keegan. During England's worst tournament in recent memory, Euro 2000, Keegan's farcical management was highlighted by his abnegation of tactical responsibility and allowing Les Reed to respond to virtually all the tactical questions posed by the English press. Many journalists wondered in their columns how a manager and his coaching team had allowed a minor member of their entourage such an important role, one which they should have been taking responsibility for themselves ^[4].

Unfortunately Les Reed's answers belied how the Euro 2000 management team could not respond or react to changes on the pitch. Although performances and intelligent reaction are ultimately down to the eleven individuals on the pitch, Les Reed's, Howard Wilkinson's and Charlie Hughes' coaching methods have created generations of English athletic automatons unable to respond or make intelligent re-adjustments during a game. 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.^[5]

After working as a consultant, his clients including the Northern Ireland team (helping them beat England in 2005),^[6] 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 was replaced by Alan Pardew as manager on December 24, leaving Charlton Athletic by mutual consent.^[7]

Reed has since been 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] Reed is also 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]