Lee Bowyer has suggested that he felt it was the right time for him to move on from the Valley as he decided to leave the club and then take over as Birmingham City manager.

It has been a hectic week around the Valley with Bowyer having made the decision to resign from his job on Monday. Following his resignation from Charlton, there were reports that he was set to take over at Birmingham. That came with the Blues set to part company with Aitor Karanka after a difficult run of form in the Championship for the Blues.

Charlton are already in search of a potential successor for Bowyer, but they did manage to win their first game since he left the club on Tuesday night securing a 3-2 success against Bristol Rovers to lift themselves back into the top six in League One. The Addicks have already been credited with a potential interest in former Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley.

Speaking to Blues Tv, via London News Online, Bowyer revealed that he felt that it was the right decision for him to leave the Addicks after three years in the job. He also suggested it was not an easy decision to make but the chance to take over at Birmingham was too good an opportunity to turn down.

He said: “It was tough to leave Charlton. We’ve created a lot of good memories, and Charlton fans hadn’t had those memories for a long, long time. When I took over it was in a bad place. I was able to turn that around.

“I’ve done three years there and when I had the opportunity to come here, it was the right time for me to move on – a new challenge. I understand it is going to be a challenge. But that’s the person I am. I love a challenge and I have to keep pushing myself. I feel I can help the club. I did that at Charlton – improved the place – I believe I can do the same here. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

The verdict

You can understand Bowyer believing that it was a tough decision to leave Charlton given that he has managed to enjoy a lot of successes during his three-year spell in charge of the club and he did manage to guide them to the Championship in 2018/19. Overall, it has to be said that he performed very well for the club and despite a turbulent summer still had them in top-six contention.

However, Bowyer has a relationship with Birmingham from his playing days and that always going to make it tough for him to turn down the chance to make the move back to the Championship. He faces a very tough challenge now to get his new club to Championship survival.

Bowyer will be remembered fondly at Charlton for some of the good work he had been doing, but there was perhaps a sense with some of the results and performances at times this season that things were coming to an end anyway for him with the Addicks. He might be right that it was the best time for all concerned that he moved on.