Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer has revealed that he had no intention of becoming a manager at the time of taking on the role as caretaker boss.

The 43-year-old was appointed on an interim basis in March 2018 after Karl Robinson's departure, in what was his first role as a first-team manager.

The job was made permanent in September of that year, and the 2018/19 season would prove to be successful as Bowyer guided Charlton to promotion back to the Championship with a 2-1 win over Sunderland in the League One play-off final at Wembley, after a three-season absence from the second tier.

In total, he has gone on to take charge of 107 games, with a win percentage of 43%.

QUIZ: Can you identify these 15 Charlton players?

However, in an interview with The Coaches' Voice, Bowyer admitted that prior to landing the role, he was focused on continuing as assistant manager to Robinson, who appointed the 43-year-old as his number two in July 2017.

"I still had no intention of becoming a manager, though. My thinking was: I’ll just stay in the background where there’s no pressure on me, where I’m not going to get abuse from the sidelines… this is just a nice way of giving something back to the game," he said.

However it was all change when Robinson and Charlton parted company in March 2018, with Bowyer thrown into the deep end as caretaker boss.

Despite his doubts remaining about becoming a full-time manager, the 43-year-old admitted that he relished the opportunity when it came his way.

"I saw it as a new challenge," he added.

"Now I was back in the game, that feeling I had as a player – that need to win – was back. I love the club and I wanted to do whatever I could to help them get back into the Championship."

"I honestly believed we were going to do that."

Bowyer led Charlton to six wins in their last ten games that season, which saw them qualify for the play-offs after a 6th placed finish in League One.

The Addicks eventually lost their semi-final against Shrewsbury Town 2-0 on aggregate over two legs.

The Verdict

It is an interesting insight into how Bowyer was thinking at the time of Robinson's departure from Charlton. With the way things have gone since then, it proved to be a great decision.

Bowyer's comments also paint a picture of how certain managers look back on their experiences of playing in their coaching career.

In this case, the passion that Bowyer had as a player was certainly evident when he first took charge of the Addicks.