Michael Appleton was appointed as Charlton’s new men’s first-team Head Coach on Friday morning.
The 47-year-old, who has penned a two-year contract with the club, arrives with a wealth of experience having worked in each of English football’s top-four divisions.
Below, view a gallery of photos from Appleton’s coaching career to date.
Born in Salford, the former midfielder came through Manchester United’s academy and had spells with AFC Wimbledon, Lincoln City, Grimsby, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion during his playing days, making 168 career appearances and scoring 15 goals.
He cut his teeth in coaching with former club West Brom, initially working within the club’s academy before progressing to the first team where he assisted Roberto Di Matteo and Roy Hodgson. He also oversaw a Premier League game - a 3-3 draw at home to West Ham United - as interim boss in February 2011 following Di Matteo’s departure.
Managerial spells with Portsmouth, Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers followed before he was named as Oxford United’s Head Coach in the summer of 2014.
While with the U’s, he steered his youthful side to automatic promotion to League One and reached back-to-back Wembley finals in the EFL Trophy. The Oxfordshire side just missed out on a top-six finish in their first season back in the third tier.
Following a successful three years at the Kassam Stadium, Appleton joined Premier League side Leicester City as Craig Shakespeare’s Assistant Manager. He managed the Foxes on a temporary basis in October 2017 and won both of his games at the helm - including a 2-1 triumph at Swansea City in the top-flight.
He re-joined West Brom in April 2019 to act as a First-Team Coach under Caretaker Manager James Shan before being appointed as the club’s U23s Manager four months later.
In September 2019, he accepted an offer to return to management with Lincoln City, where he would go on to develop another promising, young squad over a three-year period. Indeed, Brennan Johnson, who recently completed a deadline-day move to Tottenham Hotspur for a reported £47.5m fee, enjoyed his breakthrough campaign under Appleton’s tutelage, scoring 10 goals and registering 12 assists.
He managed almost 150 competitive games for the Imps and led the side to the Sky Bet League One play-off final in 2020/21, narrowly losing out to Blackpool.
Appleton most recently worked in the Championship as Blackpool’s Head Coach.
