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More than five years have passed since Phil Parkinson last set foot in The Valley but the Wanderers boss will walk out at his former club tomorrow with head held high.
Few in football could fathom why in January 2011, with Charlton sitting fifth in the table, Parkinson was sacked unceremoniously alongside his assistant Tom Breacker by the club’s new ownership.
The Londoners had been knocked out of the play-offs on penalties by Swindon Town the previous year and, under his stewardship, overcome some major money worries.
Harsh though it seemed, Parkinson bears no grudges. And his career path from there has very much been on an upward trajectory.
Success at Bradford City has been followed by a hugely encouraging start with Wanderers and as he goes back to Charlton for the first time looking to maintain the Football League’s only 100 per cent record, he is not bitter about the circumstances of his departure.
“It’s odd to think this is my first time returning to Charlton. I haven’t even been back to watch a game, which is quite bizarre,” he told The Bolton News. “It’s just never fallen that there was a situation to go back.
“I remember the weekend prior to us leaving we’d drawn at Colchester United and had a goal disallowed that should have stood.
“If that had been given we’d have been second in the league.
“But when I met the then-new owner Tony Jiminez a few weeks before I felt myself and my staff would be leaving.
“It looked a bit of a surprise one on paper because we were so high up the table but I had the gut feeling from our first meeting that it wasn’t going to go my way.
“I was pretty philosophical about it at the time. I’d been there a long time but my family were still living up north.
“I accepted that new ownership would want to make changes at some point and it was probably the right time to part ways. It happens a lot in the modern day game when clubs change hands quite frequently.”
One of Parkinson’s lasting legacies at The Valley was the signing of club captain Johnnie Jackson, who has since made more than 200 appearances for the club.
He is one of the few faces who have survived yet another ownership change, the club now in the hands of millionaire Ronald Duchatelet. Addicks fans have launched a series of protests against the Belgian entrepreneur but he has assembled one of the bigger budgets in the division for manager Russell Slade.
Charlton sit fifth in the table after two straight wins and though Parkinson is fairly sure what he will be facing tomorrow, he will be instructing his in-form side to use caution.
“I think they’ll play 4-4-2 but you can never be too certain,” he said. “You have always got to be careful. You need to know and anticipate what your opponents are going to do but it needs to be 80 per cent to 20 per cent, and more about yourself.
“We touch on the opposition but you don’t want to get given the team-sheet on Saturday afternoon and have the whole gameplan ruined because you’d been working on something different.”
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Few in football could fathom why in January 2011, with Charlton sitting fifth in the table, Parkinson was sacked unceremoniously alongside his assistant Tom Breacker by the club’s new ownership.
The Londoners had been knocked out of the play-offs on penalties by Swindon Town the previous year and, under his stewardship, overcome some major money worries.
Harsh though it seemed, Parkinson bears no grudges. And his career path from there has very much been on an upward trajectory.
Success at Bradford City has been followed by a hugely encouraging start with Wanderers and as he goes back to Charlton for the first time looking to maintain the Football League’s only 100 per cent record, he is not bitter about the circumstances of his departure.
“It’s odd to think this is my first time returning to Charlton. I haven’t even been back to watch a game, which is quite bizarre,” he told The Bolton News. “It’s just never fallen that there was a situation to go back.
“I remember the weekend prior to us leaving we’d drawn at Colchester United and had a goal disallowed that should have stood.
“If that had been given we’d have been second in the league.
“But when I met the then-new owner Tony Jiminez a few weeks before I felt myself and my staff would be leaving.
“It looked a bit of a surprise one on paper because we were so high up the table but I had the gut feeling from our first meeting that it wasn’t going to go my way.
“I was pretty philosophical about it at the time. I’d been there a long time but my family were still living up north.
“I accepted that new ownership would want to make changes at some point and it was probably the right time to part ways. It happens a lot in the modern day game when clubs change hands quite frequently.”
One of Parkinson’s lasting legacies at The Valley was the signing of club captain Johnnie Jackson, who has since made more than 200 appearances for the club.
He is one of the few faces who have survived yet another ownership change, the club now in the hands of millionaire Ronald Duchatelet. Addicks fans have launched a series of protests against the Belgian entrepreneur but he has assembled one of the bigger budgets in the division for manager Russell Slade.
Charlton sit fifth in the table after two straight wins and though Parkinson is fairly sure what he will be facing tomorrow, he will be instructing his in-form side to use caution.
“I think they’ll play 4-4-2 but you can never be too certain,” he said. “You have always got to be careful. You need to know and anticipate what your opponents are going to do but it needs to be 80 per cent to 20 per cent, and more about yourself.
“We touch on the opposition but you don’t want to get given the team-sheet on Saturday afternoon and have the whole gameplan ruined because you’d been working on something different.”
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