Don Goodman has stated that he's 'shocked' that Lee Bowyer stayed at Charlton over the summer.

Bowyer has been impressive since taking over as Addicks boss, and in his first full season at the club guided them to promotion after a play-off final victory over Sunderland.

Now his side are in the Championship, and they've been performing excellently. Bowyer's side sit in the automatic-promotion places after six games of the season, with victories coming over teams such as Reading, Stoke and Brentford.

It'll be interesting to see whether they can keep it up, but Goodman has highlighted the work that Bowyer has done so far this season.

Speaking to the Official EFL Podcast, Goodman said: "The job that he did last season, and the season before, was remarkable, but this is taking it to another level.

"Lee actually lost three or four of his top, top players you know, Aribo, who went to Rangers, Bauer the centre-half, Bielik went back and then ended up going to Derby, so these are three crucial players. So to see him scrape a bargain here, and a loan signing there and put it together and get it to gel so instantly is great.

"I was shocked that he stayed at Charlton with the greatest respect. With everything that's going on at the club, there were plenty of really interesting jobs in the Championship throughout the summer, and I was surprised he wasn't linked to two or three of them."

The Verdict

What a season it has been so far for Charlton. Goodman is probably right saying that he's shocked that Bowyer stayed throughout the summer, in what was a very odd period for Charlton.

The owner and Bowyer have had a number of problems over the last year and it wouldn't be surprising if they were to come up to the surface once more in the coming months.

However, Charlton are currently full of confidence and playing some excellent football. They are rightly getting the praise that they deserve.