At Charlton, Lennie Lawrence’s feats of escapology were compared with Harry Houdini – now he’s hoping to tunnel his way out of the National League with Hartlepool
At Charlton, Lennie Lawrence’s feats of escapology were compared with Harry Houdini – now he’s hoping to tunnel his way out of the National League with Hartlepool At Charlton, Lennie Lawrence’s feats of escapology were compared with Harry Houdini – now he’s hoping to tunnel his way out of the National League with Hartlepool
Surprisingly, whenever the Great Escape is on TV between the darts and tins of Quality Street every Christmas, Lennie Lawrence is not among the fugitives.
English football’s great escapologist was typecast as the king of brinkmanship at Charlton in the 1980s, and he would have been just as comfortable tunnelling his way out of the stalag or hurdling the barbed wire on a motorbike like Steve McQueen. But it is a staggering feat of endurance that Lawrence is still going strong as a manager at 77 – more than 42 years since he first slipped into the cockpit at The Valley.
He is thought to be the third-oldest active manager in world football and, with respect, at his age taking over Hartlepool United in the National League is probably a more thankless hand than having his pensioner’s winter fuel allowance frozen.
“Why am I still going? Because I don’t believe in retirement – it’s that simple,” said Lawrence.
“I’ve been at Hartlepool in various different capacities from non-executive director to consultant then assistant manager and, all of a sudden, they asked me to take over in the short-term and then to the end of the season. People have been saying I’m back in management – but I never left. Maybe I haven’t been picking the team or calling the shots, but I’ve stayed in the game.
“As a former owner of mine once said, ‘What’s all this retirement lark about? You work, you die, that’s it.’ Whatever your walk of life, you need to keep going. I believe I may be the oldest current manager in Britain, but my age isn’t the reason I’m doing this job – it’s because I think I can do it and make a difference.”
Since Lawrence moved back into the dugout following Darren Sarll’s dismissal, Pools have lost only once in nine league games.
His reboot of the club’s culture has restored optimism to the town where they once hung a monkey for being a French spy and voted Hartlepool mascot H’Angus the monkey into office as mayor – twice. “At any club, the management and staff set the culture and that permeates through to the dressing room,” said Lawrence.
“That’s always been important, never more so than now, and it starts with honesty – always being honest with the players. If you forge a mutual trust between the manager, staff and playing squad, there’s always hope.
“Then you’ve got to be up to date with modern trends, understanding modern players and the way they operate – and if you’re not up to speed, they will smell it a mile off. If the players aren’t having you and they don’t fancy your methods, you’ll soon know about it. Without that basic trust, you’re toast.
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Image:
Stu Forster /Allsport)
“But if the culture is right, it gives you the best chance of getting results – and fortunately, our results have been decent lately. Our target is simple – to mount a play-off challenge. We will struggle to catch the top three or four, who have a lot more points than us, but there are several clubs capable of finishing in fifth, sixth or seventh, and we are one of them.
“Apart from Oldham and Southend, our fanbase and attendances are up there with the best in the division and my impression of Hartlepool is that this is a League Two club which has found itself in the National League. Reaching a higher level than that might be hard, but it’s not impossible.”
Lawrence’s body of work at Charlton, who were evicted from their spiritual home at The Valley in 1985 before returning after seven years as unloved tenants at Selhurst Park and Upton Park, were astonishing – but it was not the sum total of his achievements.
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Image:
Harry Trump)
He led Middlesbrough to promotion, as founder members of the Premier League, 32 years ago and was in charge of Grimsby when the Mariners shocked Liverpool in the League Cup at Anfield. After 1,161 games as a manager in the League, he is now eyeing his fourth promotion.
“Charlton wasn’t just a club – it was a cause,” said Lawrence. “It was the only club forced to leave their stadium and return to the same ground (Coventry would later go through similar messy leasehold arguments).
“I still keep an eye on their fortunes because I spent almost 10 years there and we spent much of it defying the odds. People do forget that wasn’t my whole body of work as a manager – it was only the start, and I’m not finished yet. Certainly not retired.”
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