By Simon Griver
ANALYSIS: It took just 61 minutes of Guy Luzon’s first home game in charge of Charlton for the fans to begin chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing.” Many might feel that a goalless draw against Wolves on his debut, to end a four-match losing streak, and last weekend’s 1-1 draw at home to Rotherham, to move the Addicks six points clear of the relegation zone, is a solid start. This is a team that has not won at home since October and was sliding towards the Championship relegation zone.
Luzon’s unpopularity with fans is something he shares with the only other Israeli to manage in England – Avram Grant. It is tempting to feel that anti-Israel sentiment is at play, except both men were often unpopular in Israel itself.
Grant and Luzon have much in common. Both had promising playing careers ended by injury, and became coaches in their 20s, Grant at Hapoel Petach Tikvah and Luzon at Maccabi Petach Tikvah. This makes it difficult to gain respect in the dressing room, and by extension among fans, because, as former Israel manager Shlomo Scharf once said of Grant, “he doesn’t know how it feels to go out and sweat for 90 minutes.”
But what Luzon and Grant most have in common is the ability to befriend club owners. This happened most famously at Chelsea where Grant was portrayed as Roman Abramovich’s crony. For Luzon, the charge was nepotism.
He made his name at Maccabi Petach Tikvah, owned by his uncles Avi and Amos. Subsequently, Avi Luzon, as Israel FA chairman, appointed him Israel U21 boss. But Luzon did get impressive results. Luzon has since become a close confidante of Belgian billionaire Roland Duchatelet, who owns both Charlton and Standard Liege. Luzon was unpopular in Liege from the start because of this.
But a strong league challenge, which saw the Belgians let the title slip in the last match, kept the fans quiet. But they vented their anger after a poor start to this season.
Luzon’s predecessor at the Valley, Bob Peeters, told Belgian media he knew his days were numbered when he heard Duchatelet had sacked Luzon at Liege, but kept him on as a consultant. Maybe so. But surely Luzon deserves more than 61 minutes to prove himself at Charlton.