I wouldn't write Garner off in quite such a cavalier manner as some of you are. When we were good under him, we were very good. Perhaps he didn't quite tailor it to our players, but he did hit on a 4-4-2 with Leaburn, Fraser/Dobbo and Inniss/EOC as the spine, only for injuries to rob him of it
Garner can be successful but having a philosophy like his that he sticks to doesn’t align with a club desperate to get promoted and with a limited budget. He needs to be supported with time and the budget to bring in the right type of players. Instead we were renewing Inniss’s contract, making Stockley captain etc.
@ElfsborgAddick this must give you some comfort? Sounds like he’s a lot closer to Warnock, McCarthy etc than Garner. If Holden gets us to mid table he’d have done as much as any of those three you named could do in the same situation.
Garnerball wasn’t suited to average to poor league one players. They are basically just not good enough to have the consistency required. Too many of our players have an enormous mistake in them. I think Garners future is as a coach in the PL and perhaps not manager.
"Pure" coaches/managers do seem to have higher peaks and deeper troughs. I look at Liam Manning at MKD where last season with the right players his team were successful playing great passing football, whereas this year having lost and not adequately replaced many of his best players, it was a real struggle until he got sacked.
A more pragmatic manager wouldn't have overachieved like Manning did last season, but might have done better this season, grinding out results, rather than trying to play passing football all the time.
Great interview in the Athletic. Feel comforted in the fact that he will do his very best for us. Sticking his foot through the tactics board at ht v Oxford. Good stuff.
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
The guy was offered the job, of course he is going to take it, he'll have faith in his own ability, even Mr Fraeye did. My concern is with who appointed him, as long as the sale goes through, our new owners. Nobody will tell me otherwise, putting it mildly, there are a lot more people more qualified and experienced.
There aren't loads of good managers out there - we've struggled to find them.
He deserves a chance.
Rubbish.
Look at his managerial history.
What was Bowyer's managerial history? Or Powell's, or Curbs'...
Holden will almost certainly not be here in 12 months time.
We should have brought somebody in with experience, without a doubt.
It's not that simple though is it. A properly proven manager with experience and a good record is never going to take a short term contract at a basket case of a club like this. They don't need to, the risk vs reward is not worth it.
And until we know if someone, anyone, is actually going to complete a takeover, let alone who that someone is and their relative wealth and experience, no one will be offering the kind of money to tempt a proven name manager in.
This is fair enough but there MUST be somebody out there more suited. Fifty games on a CV when we were 3 or four points off the bottom four is not good enough. There cannot be any Charlton fan who was happy when they found out Holden was coming in.
But is anyone actually more suited? An experienced manager would know that going back to basics and getting the team spirit back... which is what he's doing anyway.
I was not very impressed at the time and he's far from proven but I genuinely don't think that in our current situation there's any (realistic) options that would have done any better.
I would have been very sceptical about anyone Thomas appointed on his own. Holden wouldn't have been my choice, that's probably a good thing because I would have given it to Mick Mccarthy!
Although some people won't ever be happy if it's not someone from the past, someone who "knows the club".
Are you just on the wind up Elfsborg? All our best recent managers have had no experience in management whatsoever and lots of our worst have had loads.
Holden’s only real previous managerial role saw him have a better win record than the (experienced) Nigel Pearson who took over from him.
He wasn’t anyone’s first choice, mainly because of the apathy in the club at the time, but he’s made an excellent start and has got that team playing really well already.
I really like how level headed he seems. Not too high for a win, not too down for a defeat. Just look for the positives and areas to work on and move on to the next.
You haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Elfs have you ! 😉
The guy was offered the job, of course he is going to take it, he'll have faith in his own ability, even Mr Fraeye did. My concern is with who appointed him, as long as the sale goes through, our new owners. Nobody will tell me otherwise, putting it mildly, there are a lot more people more qualified and experienced.
There aren't loads of good managers out there - we've struggled to find them.
He deserves a chance.
Rubbish.
Look at his managerial history.
What was Bowyer's managerial history? Or Powell's, or Curbs'...
Holden will almost certainly not be here in 12 months time.
We should have brought somebody in with experience, without a doubt.
It's not that simple though is it. A properly proven manager with experience and a good record is never going to take a short term contract at a basket case of a club like this. They don't need to, the risk vs reward is not worth it.
And until we know if someone, anyone, is actually going to complete a takeover, let alone who that someone is and their relative wealth and experience, no one will be offering the kind of money to tempt a proven name manager in.
This is fair enough but there MUST be somebody out there more suited. Fifty games on a CV when we were 3 or four points off the bottom four is not good enough. There cannot be any Charlton fan who was happy when they found out Holden was coming in.
But is anyone actually more suited? An experienced manager would know that going back to basics and getting the team spirit back... which is what he's doing anyway.
I was not very impressed at the time and he's far from proven but I genuinely don't think that in our current situation there's any (realistic) options that would have done any better.
I would have been very sceptical about anyone Thomas appointed on his own. Holden wouldn't have been my choice, that's probably a good thing because I would have given it to Mick Mccarthy!
Although some people won't ever be happy if it's not someone from the past, someone who "knows the club".
Are you just on the wind up Elfsborg? All our best recent managers have had no experience in management whatsoever and lots of our worst have had loads.
Holden’s only real previous managerial role saw him have a better win record than the (experienced) Nigel Pearson who took over from him.
He wasn’t anyone’s first choice, mainly because of the apathy in the club at the time, but he’s made an excellent start and has got that team playing really well already.
I really like how level headed he seems. Not too high for a win, not too down for a defeat. Just look for the positives and areas to work on and move on to the next.
You haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Elfs have you ! 😉
As you are the oldest poster on this board I shall show you the respect you do not give me.
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
Can someone pretty please copy and paste the article for us non subscribers?
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
Can someone pretty please copy and paste the article for us non subscribers?
I'm not a subscriber but got it by saying yes to seeing it in page format?or something like that in a pop up.
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
Can someone pretty please copy and paste the article for us non subscribers?
I'm not a subscriber but got it by saying yes to seeing it in page format?or something like that in a pop up.
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
Can someone pretty please copy and paste the article for us non subscribers?
Dean Holden’s journey to Charlton: Tragedy, unemployment and meeting fans in the pub
New Charlton Athletic manager Dean Holden, 43, walks alone into The Royal Oak public house on Charlton Lane, a minute’s walk from The Valley. The Addicks have just knocked Brighton out of the Carabao Cup on penalties, but Holden, on a contract until the summer, won’t take charge of the team until the morning. He wants to survey the mood of the fans of the club which he’s now hoping to stabilise after a turbulent season.
“I wanted to go into the pub straight after the game,” he tells The Athletic, but I had to meet my new staff and that was important. “And then everyone wanted a piece of me – that was a change after three months unemployed where nobody wanted to speak to me. So I met the staff and walked out of the ground.”
“I googled the address of the pub, which had been recommended to me and thought ‘Shit, it closes at 11’. But I got an Uber there as I wasn’t familiar with the area.
Charlton Athletic players celebrate after Sam Lavelle scores the winning penalty against Brighton (Photo: Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)
“It pulled up outside and I saw loads of Charlton fans. And they saw me and started banging on the taxi. I put the window down and they told me to come in for a drink,” says Holden.
“The landlord had got the fans out of the pub. He saw me. He let the fans back in. There were maybe 50 fans there. The Charlton fans were absolutely buzzing after beating Brighton – fucking buzzing, what an atmosphere!
“The fans put it right to me: give us something to shout about and we’ll back you all the way. It hasn’t been an easy time for them. Charlton were a Premier Leagueclub, now they are 18th in League One. There has been a lot of anger from fans. I wanted to hear how they felt. It’s one hell of a club but it was flat when I arrived, you could see it around the training ground.”
“It has been a really tough season for Charlton. I will do my best to get the players going, to make them look forward to going into training again.”
At midnight, Holden leaves a message to a friend: “I hope we get Man United in the draw.”
December 23, 2022
Charlton Athletic draw Manchester Unitedat Old Trafford in the 5th round of the Carabao Cup, to take place on 10 January.
Charlton sell the 7,403 allocated tickets within hours. United send a further 2,005 tickets, which are also sold. It will be their biggest away following of modern times.
Holden is from the Manchester United heartland of Salford and grew up supporting the team and going to games. He played for Deans Sport, the same team as Ryan Giggs, but when Holden wore a United shirt to training with his first professional club, Bolton Wanderers, he was told that was not the best idea.
“I was in my flat near Charlton for the draw,” he says. “I’ve not been back home since I got the job. I FaceTimed Joey, my eldest, and we watched the draw together online. The family were there. They went crazy when the draw came out, absolutely crazy. It was surreal.
“Then I FaceTimed my dad. Lump in my throat. He’s lifelong United. He’ll sit there and watch his son lead a team out at Old Trafford. I’ll take all that in my stride. But the fact we can take 10,000 on a day when there are train strikes shows the size of this club. I want us to show ourselves in the best light. I want our young players to show themselves against the biggest team in the world.”
Holden played professional football with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, Peterborough United, Falkirk, Shrewsbury Town, Rotherham United, Chesterfield, Rochdale and Walsall. He had ups and many downs – he’s worked out he’d lost four years of his career to injury.
Then he managed at Oldham Athletic, Bristol City and Stoke City, though he was mostly assistant manager in his time at all those clubs.
Christmas 2022
Holden takes charge of his team for the first time on Boxing Day. They are still 18th in the table and had been knocked out of the FA Cup by fourth-tier Stockport County.
“We drew 1-1 at home with Peterborough,” he says. “We were the better team. We hit the post to go 2-0 up. They went up the other end and scored.
“Then we went to Oxford. It was horrendous in the first half and we were 2-0 down at half-time. The standards weren’t good enough, my players weren’t running. Basic stuff. We were a rabbit in the headlights, feeling sorry for ourselves. I made a triple substitution at half-time and the tactics board got snapped in half. Right foot, straight through it. I lost my shit. You can’t do that more than twice a year as a manager or your players will lose respect for you.
“I needed a reaction from them and I got one. We were the better team in the second half and pulled it to 2-1, then they got a third after 82 minutes.
“Portsmouth were next on New Year’s Day. We were strong. We took 1,800 behind the goal. My brother was there in the away end with six kids – his kids and my kids. From start to finish it was a top away day. Class performance. Fratton Park was rocking and, to be fair, the Portsmouth fans were loud. We led at half-time and went 2-0 up at the start of the second half. We had control. We won 3-1 – our first win for 10 weeks.
“I don’t like it when players go in fits and starts to an away end and give it a half-hearted clap before going down the tunnel. It’s not really in my nature but I made sure we all – and I mean the non-starters, too – went properly over to the fans. They were singing ‘Leaburn!’ – he’s our young striker and his dad Carl is a Charlton legend. His mum is the player liaison officer.
“I was shouting ‘Fucking get in!’. I meant it. My family were singing songs. One of the stewards told my lad to stop standing on the seat. My brother said: ‘His dad is the manager!’ and the steward laughed and let him stay stood on the seat.
“We’re a reflection of those supporters and they need to see it. They love their football, they needed a cheer. The country is on its arse after Covid, it’s a shitshow. The least we can do is give it absolutely everything if they’re paying to see us.
“I never thought I’d compare Manchester to southeast London but there are comparisons. Working-class football fans. I can relate to that, I settled in quickly and I had to. It’s a good league, a tough league. Look at the clubs. Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton, Plymouth are flying… big, well-supported clubs. And we’re one of them. I just need us to get up that table.
On January 7, Charlton beat Lincoln City 2-1 at home. They rise to 12th.
“We should have been 3-0 up,” says Holden. “They got one back and it was time to win ugly.”
“Dean Holden’s Barmy Army,” rings around The Valley.
So Dean Holden is now Charlton’s manager, but it has been a long road to get there.
May 2012
Rochdale manager John Coleman, on a brief sabbatical from Accrington Stanley, calls Holden into his small office at Spotland. Rochdale have been relegated back to the fourth tier and the players know departures are imminent. It’s the day before the final match of the season at Leyton Orient away. Coleman tells Holden that while he’s his type of person, he’s not his type of player. Holden doesn’t take it personally, but he knows having a relegation on your CV at 32 doesn’t look good.
“We’d been fighting a relegation battle, the dressing room was divided, there was animosity,” he says. “My face didn’t fit because the manager who took me there had been sacked six months earlier. I was actually there when he took the call from the chairman firing him. He was cheery when he answered, there were tears in his eyes when the call ended. I’ve seen many managers sacked. It’s never good, but football is all about results.
“I knew after meeting John that I didn’t have a club. We went to Orient. Some of the players who’d been released wouldn’t play. I couldn’t do that. I gave it 100%.”
“We went on a family holiday two days later. That’s me and my wife Danielle (a radio and former children’s TV presenter) – a two-week break to the Canaries with our Joey, then five, Ellis, three, and Cici Milly, 17 months.
Cici isn’t herself, the parents think it’s a bit of a cold and put her to bed hoping she’ll be better in the morning. In the morning, Cici still isn’t well. Danielle calls Dean. Cici’s breathing is shallow and her lips are going blue. They call a taxi to a local medical centre and join a queue. A doctor takes a precautionary look and shines a light into her eyes.
“That’s when everything became urgent,” states Holden. Cici had contracted meningococcal sepsis – a rare bacterial blood infection. Nurses rush in, the doctors ask questions. They struggle to get a drip into her.
“They shouted at me, asking how long she’d been ill,” states Holden. “One of the nurses was upset. They took her to the main hospital in an ambulance. We followed in a taxi, worried. We saw the ambulance had stopped with another ambulance by a petrol station. They were back to back, with the doors open. We got the taxi driver to reverse up the dual carriageway and go back. There was a policeman there. He wouldn’t let me see her. I tried to get forward but he rugby tackled me.”
The infection had spread rapidly through Cici’s blood, moving to her brain and causing her organs to shut down. Cici died on the way to hospital.
“You see it in the movies when they call someone into a room to deliver bad news. That happened to us. My mind went; I lost the plot. I thought they were going to put me in a straitjacket.”
“It’s over 10 years now and I speak to Cici every day,” he says. “It helps me. It was devastating, surreal. It sometimes felt like it hasn’t happened to me. I went through a grieving process and I didn’t know who I was. I was going through emotions I didn’t know existed. I changed as a person. Counselling helped my wife. Me? I went twice. Counselling usually has an end result but there can’t be one. Cici’s not coming back, is she?”
The minutes, hours, days and months after Cici’s death were a daze.
“She’d been gone 20 minutes and I was ringing an insurance company talking about death certificates,” he said. “I returned to the room and Danielle was cuddling her. She looked like she was asleep. It was crazy. I don’t think you can ever get over something like that. I had to call our families with the news. I felt guilty telling them.”
There was more concern the following day.
“Ellis was poorly,” says Holden. “We took him straight to hospital, passing the clinic where we’d taken Cici. It was four in the morning and Ellis looked across and said: ‘I just saw Cici. She gave me a hug and then flew away’. He didn’t know Cici had been in that clinic.”
The anxiety was crushing.
“I thought we were going to lose another child,” he recalls. “Thankfully, he got better.”
“Joe is 15 now, a footballer with Manchester City’s select – the team under the elite academy level. We had two more children, Mitzi, who is now nine, and Chase, four. They never met Cici, but they talk about her.
“Christmas brings it all home. We go to a Christmas carol service every year where they read the names out of the children. It’s a tough time for Danielle. Mitzi breaks her heart and cries her eyes out when there’s one song because it reminds her of Cici, who she never met. I think that’s beautiful.
“Cici is still part of our family.”
July 2012
Dean Holden needs a routine to carry on with life, but nobody will give him a job as a footballer. They think his head isn’t in the right place following the death of Cici. He’s worried he’s bringing no money in and that he’ll have to sell the family home. He begins to cold call managers from the Championship down. Most don’t even pick up the phone. He doesn’t leave a message because he knows they won’t ring back. When they do answer, Holden is ready with his perfect pitch.
“Hello, it’s Dean Holden. I’ve played 400 games. I’m experienced. I’ve got a great attitude. I want to play for you.”
Only one young manager, Dean Smith at Walsall, gives him the time of day. He says he’ll meet him for a cup of tea at 9am. Holden gets there at 8am.
“So,” Smith said after half an hour of testing Holden’s personality, “Wife? kids?”
Holden told him everything. “It was a conversation killer,” he explains. Smith called him a few days later.
“I’ve just got a little worry,” he said. Holden thought it would be his age, his injury record.
“I’m worried that what you’ve been through might affect your mind,” said Smith.
Dean Smith gives Holden the chance he’s desperate for. He’s forever thankful for it.
Autumn 2012
Walsall fans have taken to Dean Holden. Their team are doing well in League One and, to the tune of Cornershop’s Brimful of Asha, the fans sing: “He’s big and he’s Holden and he’s number five. Everybody needs a nutter in the middle, everybody needs a nutter.”
Coventry City’s David McGoldrick (right) and Dean Holden (left) battle for the ball (Photo: PA Images via Getty Images)
“I appreciated their support,” he says, “but I’m not a nutter.”
He stays at Walsall and starts helping Dean Smith to coach.
November 2015
He’s in charge of Oldham Athletic and they beat Crewe away. He has to get to Glasgow after the game to finish his UEFA coaching badge. He stands alone on Crewe’s train platform but it slowly fills with happy Oldham fans. They start singing ‘Dean Holden’s blue and white army!’
“The other passengers were looking at me,” he says. “At that moment, I was the proudest man in the world, the whole platform singing my name. It’s a great responsibility when you manage a football club. And I have it again now at Charlton. I’ll do everything I can for this club, but I still can’t believe we’ve drawn United. Everyone has been in touch for tickets but most of my family go to games anyway. There’s a seat in the Stretford End with my own name on from my own season ticket…”
Holden is sacked as Bristol City manager after six straight defeats. He’s been at the club since 2016. They are 13th in the Championship. He’d got the job having taken over as caretaker from Lee Johnson. With Holden as caretaker, Bristol City finished the season well.
“We started the next season strongly. I was nominated for two manager of the month awards and we were second at Christmas. Then the injuries hit – 17 of them. We dropped right off, as expected. I learned a lot in all my time at Bristol, a great working environment. I learned especially how to handle people and also the harsh realities of what can happen in football management.
Dean Holden while in charge of Bristol City (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
“I had a video call with the owner a year after he sacked me, a really good chat. He actually said to me ‘I didn’t realise how good your win ratio was (at Bristol City), 45%.’ But losing that job burned me, I felt injustice and that sat with me for a long time. I’d manage in a different way now.”
August 2021
Michael O’Neill is sacked as Stoke City manager.
“Michael was good to me. He wanted me on the grass coaching and I liked to learn from a manager with a lot of international experience and build my confidence up again. He got Stoke into a better place, too, but I was gutted we never got to see the stadium absolutely rocking as it had been in the Premier League. We couldn’t win consistently enough on the pitch and Michael lost his job.”
As O’Neill’s assistant, Holden is asked to take over as caretaker until a replacement is announced. He takes his side to top-of-the-table Blackburn Rovers and they win 1-0. For his efforts, Holden is sacked on the pitch after the game.
“My phone went mad in the following days,” he explains. “People saying: ‘How can they treat you like that?’ Gradually, it goes quieter, but I was proactive. I went to see different people in football to spend a few days with them. Steve Cooper at Nottingham Forest. He’s class.
“Dean Smith at Norwich. We have history. Thomas Frank at Brentford is another great guy. All the other coaches look at you like you want a job, but I was there to learn. When you’re in this job the hours are long, but I don’t mind that and like to stay busy.
“Then it went quiet. I’d go watch Manchester United, buy a fanzine outside and support my team. The three months out of football were the longest I’d ever been out of the game.
“I got the odd text off the good ones: Paul Warne at Derby; Sam Allardyce, my old Bolton manager, he checked if I was OK, he understands, he’d been there; Warren Joyce; Pete Morrison; Michael O’Neill. Class men.
“I was getting pissed off about being at home and my wife said: ‘Get a normal job then if you want stability, a nine to five that you’ll hate. You won’t have the highs and lows that you have with football. Or one like she has, working in the media. She’s flying now and has a show on Talk TV, but it’s not always been like that. We want to show our kids that you can do what you want to do.”
“I had some job offers as an assistant at big clubs, but I decided to wait and I’m glad I did. I’m now proud to be the manager at a big club.”
Have to be honest when he joined I didn't listen to his first interview or the next couple as it felt like he was just passing through and I didn't really care. Having read the Athletic and Mirror interviews I really hope things work out for him here and he sticks around.
Great article, sounds like a great bloke. Love the fact he still has a season ticket at Old Trafford, must be buzzing for Tuesday. Been through such tragedy too, makes you put all the other stuff into perspective. If the results keep coming I hope he’s here long term.
This is a really interesting article and although parts of Holdens journey are tragically unique, it does demonstrate the brutality of football for professionals.
Can someone pretty please copy and paste the article for us non subscribers?
I'm using microsoft edge browser,
when the Athletic pop up appears right click mouse button on the article, and select 'open in immersive reader' it should then open up the article.
Comments
Don’t know if someone else has posted this? Holden on losing his daughter.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/charlton-manager-dean-holden-daughter-28901815
Tragic experience.
A more pragmatic manager wouldn't have overachieved like Manning did last season, but might have done better this season, grinding out results, rather than trying to play passing football all the time.
Dean Holden’s journey to Charlton: Tragedy, unemployment and meeting fans in the pub
December 21, 2022, 11.15 pm.
New Charlton Athletic manager Dean Holden, 43, walks alone into The Royal Oak public house on Charlton Lane, a minute’s walk from The Valley. The Addicks have just knocked Brighton out of the Carabao Cup on penalties, but Holden, on a contract until the summer, won’t take charge of the team until the morning. He wants to survey the mood of the fans of the club which he’s now hoping to stabilise after a turbulent season.
“I wanted to go into the pub straight after the game,” he tells The Athletic, but I had to meet my new staff and that was important. “And then everyone wanted a piece of me – that was a change after three months unemployed where nobody wanted to speak to me. So I met the staff and walked out of the ground.”
“I googled the address of the pub, which had been recommended to me and thought ‘Shit, it closes at 11’. But I got an Uber there as I wasn’t familiar with the area.
“It pulled up outside and I saw loads of Charlton fans. And they saw me and started banging on the taxi. I put the window down and they told me to come in for a drink,” says Holden.
“The landlord had got the fans out of the pub. He saw me. He let the fans back in. There were maybe 50 fans there. The Charlton fans were absolutely buzzing after beating Brighton – fucking buzzing, what an atmosphere!
“The fans put it right to me: give us something to shout about and we’ll back you all the way. It hasn’t been an easy time for them. Charlton were a Premier Leagueclub, now they are 18th in League One. There has been a lot of anger from fans. I wanted to hear how they felt. It’s one hell of a club but it was flat when I arrived, you could see it around the training ground.”
“It has been a really tough season for Charlton. I will do my best to get the players going, to make them look forward to going into training again.”
At midnight, Holden leaves a message to a friend: “I hope we get Man United in the draw.”
December 23, 2022
Charlton Athletic draw Manchester Unitedat Old Trafford in the 5th round of the Carabao Cup, to take place on 10 January.
Charlton sell the 7,403 allocated tickets within hours. United send a further 2,005 tickets, which are also sold. It will be their biggest away following of modern times.
Holden is from the Manchester United heartland of Salford and grew up supporting the team and going to games. He played for Deans Sport, the same team as Ryan Giggs, but when Holden wore a United shirt to training with his first professional club, Bolton Wanderers, he was told that was not the best idea.
“I was in my flat near Charlton for the draw,” he says. “I’ve not been back home since I got the job. I FaceTimed Joey, my eldest, and we watched the draw together online. The family were there. They went crazy when the draw came out, absolutely crazy. It was surreal.
“Then I FaceTimed my dad. Lump in my throat. He’s lifelong United. He’ll sit there and watch his son lead a team out at Old Trafford. I’ll take all that in my stride. But the fact we can take 10,000 on a day when there are train strikes shows the size of this club. I want us to show ourselves in the best light. I want our young players to show themselves against the biggest team in the world.”
Holden played professional football with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, Peterborough United, Falkirk, Shrewsbury Town, Rotherham United, Chesterfield, Rochdale and Walsall. He had ups and many downs – he’s worked out he’d lost four years of his career to injury.
Then he managed at Oldham Athletic, Bristol City and Stoke City, though he was mostly assistant manager in his time at all those clubs.
Christmas 2022
Holden takes charge of his team for the first time on Boxing Day. They are still 18th in the table and had been knocked out of the FA Cup by fourth-tier Stockport County.
“We drew 1-1 at home with Peterborough,” he says. “We were the better team. We hit the post to go 2-0 up. They went up the other end and scored.
“Then we went to Oxford. It was horrendous in the first half and we were 2-0 down at half-time. The standards weren’t good enough, my players weren’t running. Basic stuff. We were a rabbit in the headlights, feeling sorry for ourselves. I made a triple substitution at half-time and the tactics board got snapped in half. Right foot, straight through it. I lost my shit. You can’t do that more than twice a year as a manager or your players will lose respect for you.
“I needed a reaction from them and I got one. We were the better team in the second half and pulled it to 2-1, then they got a third after 82 minutes.
“Portsmouth were next on New Year’s Day. We were strong. We took 1,800 behind the goal. My brother was there in the away end with six kids – his kids and my kids. From start to finish it was a top away day. Class performance. Fratton Park was rocking and, to be fair, the Portsmouth fans were loud. We led at half-time and went 2-0 up at the start of the second half. We had control. We won 3-1 – our first win for 10 weeks.
“I don’t like it when players go in fits and starts to an away end and give it a half-hearted clap before going down the tunnel. It’s not really in my nature but I made sure we all – and I mean the non-starters, too – went properly over to the fans. They were singing ‘Leaburn!’ – he’s our young striker and his dad Carl is a Charlton legend. His mum is the player liaison officer.
“I was shouting ‘Fucking get in!’. I meant it. My family were singing songs. One of the stewards told my lad to stop standing on the seat. My brother said: ‘His dad is the manager!’ and the steward laughed and let him stay stood on the seat.
“We’re a reflection of those supporters and they need to see it. They love their football, they needed a cheer. The country is on its arse after Covid, it’s a shitshow. The least we can do is give it absolutely everything if they’re paying to see us.
“I never thought I’d compare Manchester to southeast London but there are comparisons. Working-class football fans. I can relate to that, I settled in quickly and I had to. It’s a good league, a tough league. Look at the clubs. Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton, Plymouth are flying… big, well-supported clubs. And we’re one of them. I just need us to get up that table.
On January 7, Charlton beat Lincoln City 2-1 at home. They rise to 12th.
“We should have been 3-0 up,” says Holden. “They got one back and it was time to win ugly.”
“Dean Holden’s Barmy Army,” rings around The Valley.
So Dean Holden is now Charlton’s manager, but it has been a long road to get there.
May 2012
Rochdale manager John Coleman, on a brief sabbatical from Accrington Stanley, calls Holden into his small office at Spotland. Rochdale have been relegated back to the fourth tier and the players know departures are imminent. It’s the day before the final match of the season at Leyton Orient away. Coleman tells Holden that while he’s his type of person, he’s not his type of player. Holden doesn’t take it personally, but he knows having a relegation on your CV at 32 doesn’t look good.
“We’d been fighting a relegation battle, the dressing room was divided, there was animosity,” he says. “My face didn’t fit because the manager who took me there had been sacked six months earlier. I was actually there when he took the call from the chairman firing him. He was cheery when he answered, there were tears in his eyes when the call ended. I’ve seen many managers sacked. It’s never good, but football is all about results.
“I knew after meeting John that I didn’t have a club. We went to Orient. Some of the players who’d been released wouldn’t play. I couldn’t do that. I gave it 100%.”
“We went on a family holiday two days later. That’s me and my wife Danielle (a radio and former children’s TV presenter) – a two-week break to the Canaries with our Joey, then five, Ellis, three, and Cici Milly, 17 months.
Cici isn’t herself, the parents think it’s a bit of a cold and put her to bed hoping she’ll be better in the morning. In the morning, Cici still isn’t well. Danielle calls Dean. Cici’s breathing is shallow and her lips are going blue. They call a taxi to a local medical centre and join a queue. A doctor takes a precautionary look and shines a light into her eyes.
“That’s when everything became urgent,” states Holden. Cici had contracted meningococcal sepsis – a rare bacterial blood infection. Nurses rush in, the doctors ask questions. They struggle to get a drip into her.
“They shouted at me, asking how long she’d been ill,” states Holden. “One of the nurses was upset. They took her to the main hospital in an ambulance. We followed in a taxi, worried. We saw the ambulance had stopped with another ambulance by a petrol station. They were back to back, with the doors open. We got the taxi driver to reverse up the dual carriageway and go back. There was a policeman there. He wouldn’t let me see her. I tried to get forward but he rugby tackled me.”
The infection had spread rapidly through Cici’s blood, moving to her brain and causing her organs to shut down. Cici died on the way to hospital.
“You see it in the movies when they call someone into a room to deliver bad news. That happened to us. My mind went; I lost the plot. I thought they were going to put me in a straitjacket.”
“It’s over 10 years now and I speak to Cici every day,” he says. “It helps me. It was devastating, surreal. It sometimes felt like it hasn’t happened to me. I went through a grieving process and I didn’t know who I was. I was going through emotions I didn’t know existed. I changed as a person. Counselling helped my wife. Me? I went twice. Counselling usually has an end result but there can’t be one. Cici’s not coming back, is she?”
The minutes, hours, days and months after Cici’s death were a daze.
“She’d been gone 20 minutes and I was ringing an insurance company talking about death certificates,” he said. “I returned to the room and Danielle was cuddling her. She looked like she was asleep. It was crazy. I don’t think you can ever get over something like that. I had to call our families with the news. I felt guilty telling them.”
There was more concern the following day.
“Ellis was poorly,” says Holden. “We took him straight to hospital, passing the clinic where we’d taken Cici. It was four in the morning and Ellis looked across and said: ‘I just saw Cici. She gave me a hug and then flew away’. He didn’t know Cici had been in that clinic.”
The anxiety was crushing.
“I thought we were going to lose another child,” he recalls. “Thankfully, he got better.”
“Joe is 15 now, a footballer with Manchester City’s select – the team under the elite academy level. We had two more children, Mitzi, who is now nine, and Chase, four. They never met Cici, but they talk about her.
“Christmas brings it all home. We go to a Christmas carol service every year where they read the names out of the children. It’s a tough time for Danielle. Mitzi breaks her heart and cries her eyes out when there’s one song because it reminds her of Cici, who she never met. I think that’s beautiful.
“Cici is still part of our family.”
July 2012
Dean Holden needs a routine to carry on with life, but nobody will give him a job as a footballer. They think his head isn’t in the right place following the death of Cici. He’s worried he’s bringing no money in and that he’ll have to sell the family home. He begins to cold call managers from the Championship down. Most don’t even pick up the phone. He doesn’t leave a message because he knows they won’t ring back. When they do answer, Holden is ready with his perfect pitch.
“Hello, it’s Dean Holden. I’ve played 400 games. I’m experienced. I’ve got a great attitude. I want to play for you.”
Only one young manager, Dean Smith at Walsall, gives him the time of day. He says he’ll meet him for a cup of tea at 9am. Holden gets there at 8am.
“So,” Smith said after half an hour of testing Holden’s personality, “Wife? kids?”
Holden told him everything. “It was a conversation killer,” he explains. Smith called him a few days later.
“I’ve just got a little worry,” he said. Holden thought it would be his age, his injury record.
“I’m worried that what you’ve been through might affect your mind,” said Smith.
Dean Smith gives Holden the chance he’s desperate for. He’s forever thankful for it.
Autumn 2012
Walsall fans have taken to Dean Holden. Their team are doing well in League One and, to the tune of Cornershop’s Brimful of Asha, the fans sing: “He’s big and he’s Holden and he’s number five. Everybody needs a nutter in the middle, everybody needs a nutter.”
“I appreciated their support,” he says, “but I’m not a nutter.”
He stays at Walsall and starts helping Dean Smith to coach.
November 2015
He’s in charge of Oldham Athletic and they beat Crewe away. He has to get to Glasgow after the game to finish his UEFA coaching badge. He stands alone on Crewe’s train platform but it slowly fills with happy Oldham fans. They start singing ‘Dean Holden’s blue and white army!’
“The other passengers were looking at me,” he says. “At that moment, I was the proudest man in the world, the whole platform singing my name. It’s a great responsibility when you manage a football club. And I have it again now at Charlton. I’ll do everything I can for this club, but I still can’t believe we’ve drawn United. Everyone has been in touch for tickets but most of my family go to games anyway. There’s a seat in the Stretford End with my own name on from my own season ticket…”
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February 2021
Holden is sacked as Bristol City manager after six straight defeats. He’s been at the club since 2016. They are 13th in the Championship. He’d got the job having taken over as caretaker from Lee Johnson. With Holden as caretaker, Bristol City finished the season well.
“We started the next season strongly. I was nominated for two manager of the month awards and we were second at Christmas. Then the injuries hit – 17 of them. We dropped right off, as expected. I learned a lot in all my time at Bristol, a great working environment. I learned especially how to handle people and also the harsh realities of what can happen in football management.
“I had a video call with the owner a year after he sacked me, a really good chat. He actually said to me ‘I didn’t realise how good your win ratio was (at Bristol City), 45%.’ But losing that job burned me, I felt injustice and that sat with me for a long time. I’d manage in a different way now.”
August 2021
Michael O’Neill is sacked as Stoke City manager.
“Michael was good to me. He wanted me on the grass coaching and I liked to learn from a manager with a lot of international experience and build my confidence up again. He got Stoke into a better place, too, but I was gutted we never got to see the stadium absolutely rocking as it had been in the Premier League. We couldn’t win consistently enough on the pitch and Michael lost his job.”
As O’Neill’s assistant, Holden is asked to take over as caretaker until a replacement is announced. He takes his side to top-of-the-table Blackburn Rovers and they win 1-0. For his efforts, Holden is sacked on the pitch after the game.
“My phone went mad in the following days,” he explains. “People saying: ‘How can they treat you like that?’ Gradually, it goes quieter, but I was proactive. I went to see different people in football to spend a few days with them. Steve Cooper at Nottingham Forest. He’s class.
“Dean Smith at Norwich. We have history. Thomas Frank at Brentford is another great guy. All the other coaches look at you like you want a job, but I was there to learn. When you’re in this job the hours are long, but I don’t mind that and like to stay busy.
“Then it went quiet. I’d go watch Manchester United, buy a fanzine outside and support my team. The three months out of football were the longest I’d ever been out of the game.
“I got the odd text off the good ones: Paul Warne at Derby; Sam Allardyce, my old Bolton manager, he checked if I was OK, he understands, he’d been there; Warren Joyce; Pete Morrison; Michael O’Neill. Class men.
“I was getting pissed off about being at home and my wife said: ‘Get a normal job then if you want stability, a nine to five that you’ll hate. You won’t have the highs and lows that you have with football. Or one like she has, working in the media. She’s flying now and has a show on Talk TV, but it’s not always been like that. We want to show our kids that you can do what you want to do.”
“I had some job offers as an assistant at big clubs, but I decided to wait and I’m glad I did. I’m now proud to be the manager at a big club.”
(Top photo: LINDSEY PARNABY/AFP via Getty Images
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