Charlie Methven has no doubts Dean Holden is the ideal manager to deliver success on the pitch at Charlton.
Methven is one of seven members holding more than a five percent stake in the Global Football Partners (GFP) group which finally assumed control of the Addicks from Thomas Sandgaard last week.
The former Sunderland executive director and board member even played a key role in Holden’s appointment by Sandgaard just before Christmas.
And Methven can’t speak highly enough of the man tasked with leading Charlton’s League One promotion bid.
He told BBC London: “Dean Holden is not just a very fine coach, he is also an absolutely fantastic man.
“I was responsible for him effectively coming to the club in the first place because I recommended him to Thomas Sandgaard back in early December last year when we were in the process of acquiring a club.
“Thomas was kind enough to say: ‘Look if you are going to buy the club then you should have some say in the appointment. Who do you recommend?
“And I said: ‘Well, I recommend this guy’.
“Thomas met him and said: ‘Spot on. What a great guy – let’s appoint him. I want to appoint him even if you guys don’t take over’.
“So absolutely 100 percent we believe Dean Holden is the right person to take the club forward.”
Methven added: “I think he is not just a fine head coach but also he is part of that healing process because he is a man of such obvious integrity and decency.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of fans but the fans I speak to have bought into Dean as a person as much as they have as a coach.
“But that is not enough on its own. Many fine head coaches have been undone by not having the right infrastructure around them.”
Methven again reiterated GFP’s initial promise upon their successful takeover completion that actions will ultimately speak louder than words if the Addicks are to ascend upwards again.
He explained: “The feel-good factor at the club will come from success.
“Success will come from being run in a professional, competent way which pays sufficient respect to the fact that the majority of the money that is being spent is actually the fans’ money.
“Obviously there has been a lot of owner funding in recent years but even during those years the majority of the money that was spent is fans’.
“What I’ve heard a lot of in the industry over the last five or six years from often being in and around similar divisions to Charlton is that a lot of fans are calling for professionalism and a senior management team that knows what it is doing.
“I’m afraid it is very difficult to have it both ways – to have a professional senior management team that knows what it is doing that is actually in charge and then to have owners crashing in all over the place trying to do feel-good exercises.
“We strongly believe that the feel-good factor at Charlton Athletic will only return when actions meet words, and actions have to lead to success on the pitch. We are absolutely crystal clear in our mind about that.”
