Pardew replaces Reed at
Charlton
Alan Pardew guided West Ham to the FA Cup final
Charlton head coach Les Reed has left the club by mutual consent to
be replaced by recently sacked West Ham United manager Alan
Pardew.
Pardew has signed a three-and-a-half year deal at the Valley and
becomes the team's third manager this season.
Reed was originally drafted in to replace Iain Dowie but has failed
to turn the club's fortunes around.
He managed just one victory at the helm and lost to League Two side
Wycombe in the Carling Cup quarter-finals.
Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough left Charlton seven points
adrift of Premiership safety and in increasing danger of losing
their top-flight status for the first time in seven years.
Reed was promoted from his job as assistant manager after Charlton
parted company with Dowie 12 games into the Premiership season in
the middle of November.
Reed was previously the FA's youth development director
Reed lasted just 41 days in charge - one of the shortest ever
Premiership reigns - even though chief executive Peter Varney said
his job was not under threat last week.
Dowie himself had only been appointed in the close-season to
replace the long-serving Alan Curbishley, who ironically has now
taken over from Pardew at Upton Park.
The news was announced at 1900 GMT on Christmas Eve and Charlton
say they will make no further comment until holding a press
conference at 1330 GMT on Boxing Day.
Their next match is not until Wednesday night when they entertain
Fulham.
Curbishley had been in charge at The Valley for 15 years.
Pardew was sacked by West Ham two weeks ago, after just over three
years in charge, less than a month after Eggert Magnusson's £85m
takeover of the club.
In that time he led them into the Premiership via the play-offs and
then last season took them to the FA Cup final where they were
seconds away from lifting the trophy against Liverpool.
Steven Gerrard punctured their dream by hammering in a spectacular
last-minute equaliser to make the score 3-3 and force a penalty
shoot-out which the Hammers lost 3-1.
However, their efforts earned them a place in this season's Uefa
Cup but they went out at the first hurdle to Palermo.
Pardew was previously in charge at Reading and, while there, led
them into the League's second tier in 2001/02. They reached the
play-offs for promotion to the Premiership the following season but
failed to go up and early on in the next campaign he moved to Upton
Park.