Lee Bowyer spoke to TalkSPORT on Thursday morning, following the club's relegation to League One on Wednesday.
Below are some of his quotes from the interview.
On how he was feeling following the relegation...
"That’s probably the lowest I’ve felt in my whole career, including playing, and I did have a relegation playing. That hurt a lot because of the hard work we’ve put in all season and because we were so close. You have to give credit to Barnsley, to keep pushing the way they did, against a very good Brentford side but it hurt."
On everything he has had to deal with on and off the pitch...
"We’ve had to juggle a lot. There is so much that has gone on that no-one even knows, even of late, it’s been frightening really. It’s scary really, to see that things like that happen behind-the-scenes at football clubs. I feel for everyone, because we have a lot of good people that work hard and that care, we’ve got fans that care so much and all we wanted was to be given a fair chance and things would have been a lot different. It just felt like it was backs against the walls all the time and the rug getting pulled from underneath. I said to Johnnie Jackson on my drive home last night: ‘Could we have done any more, could we have done anything differently’ and Johnnie said the same as what I think, that we are getting blood out of a stone with this group of players and we pushed them and couldn’t get any more out of them and that is what hurts, we just needed that little bit of help and in January that got promised and if anything that went the opposite way because we weren’t able to bring players in, when we desperately needed help and that is what hurts me, because we all tried so hard. We all care so much about the club but we had no help and if you keep cutting corners then this is what happens.
On Paul Elliott...
"I’m going to speak to Paul because I have to be fair, I always say it how it is, Paul Elliott didn’t have to step up and if he didn’t, we would have gone into administration 100% and he has stepped forward and he has put money in the bank, more so than the people before. He has put money in the bank and we were getting paid, so we could at least have a go at this season. What will happen now, I don’t know. I will speak to Paul, he comes across as a very good man and a nice man, that’s the truth but he didn’t have to step up and he did. I will chat with him now and see what happens going forward because we’re still under an embargo, so we can’t even plan for next season. I said this the other day, whatever the division, we can’t make plans. With this embargo sitting over us, we are losing so many players that are walking out of the door now, loan players, players out of contract, how are we meant to rebuild when we are under an embargo? I don’t know what is going to happen, I just feel for everybody at the club.
On how he kept the players focussed...
"You just have to try and put on a brave face. Whenever you step onto the pitch, that’s where we all love to be and our job never changed, it was to improve the players and get the most out of them. Me and my staff, I think we can hold our heads up high, and people behind-the-scenes and say ‘we gave everything for the football club’ and so can the players. For what we lacked in quality, they made up in heart and we went out and fought every game, we didn’t get the results that we should do at times but they tried and that is all you can ask for as a manager. We got everything out of them and we fell short and that comes back to cutting corners. If you cut corners then the group that you have can only do so much. You saw it last night in the game, it was frightening, the difference between the two teams was unreal."
On his bond with the Charlton fans...
"I’ve always had that bond with the Charlton supporters. I played with the club when I was a kid, then I came back and we went to the playoffs first time around and then in my first full season we got the promotion, so I’m always going to have that bond. We went to Wembley, had a great day there and got promotion and there has been some great times this season, we’ve had some great results and great performances. I don’t think it is the right time to start talking the day after you get relegated about what my situation is going to be. I think the most important thing is that I speak to Paul and see where we go.
"I’ve never felt so low in my life, I’m not in a good place as it stands today."