CHIC Charnley was shown the door at Love Street yesterday when, as
expected, St Mirren's directors finally decided they could tolerate the
player's behaviour no longer, writes James Traynor.
They had been in negotiations over the weekend with Tony Higgins,
secretary of the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association, but
they took what they believed to be the appropriate and only action. In
effect, Charnley has been sacked, and it is expected that he and the
union will lodge an appeal to the Scottish League.
The midfield player's fragile temperament let him down again last week
when it was alleged he spat at Ayr United's Duncan George, and St
Mirren's directors felt they could not continue to back Charnley, who,
along with Barry Lavety and Paul Lambert, was sent off in the game
against Ayr. His dismissal was the latest blackspot in a volatile
career.
Charnley also had to leave two other clubs, Ayr and Clydebank, and
because of recent misconduct he is serving a five-match suspension. He
could be out of the game much longer now that St Mirren don't want him
back, and his prospects of being taken on elsewhere can hardly be
considered promising.
A boardroom statement said that Charnley's ''serious misconduct left
no alternative but to terminate his contract. The club want to make it
clear it could not condone such conduct, which is the culmination of
increasingly serious cases of misconduct since he joined the club at the
start of season 1991-92.''
St Mirren, who paid Partick Thistle #225,000 for the player, also
added that during his time at Love Street Charnley had been sent off
four times, cautioned seven times, and had accumulated 17 match
suspensions. Also, they claim they have well-substantiated instances of
Charnley using foul gestures towards both opposing and St Mirren
supporters.
Last February the then Saints manager David Hay was ready to get rid
of the player, but his successor, Jimmy Bone, gave Charnley another
chance at the start of this season and made him club captain. However,
the extra responsibility did not make Charnley behave.
He is now one of those rarities, a player sacked while still under
contract to a club.
Charnley and the union now plan to invoke Rule 54, which states that
termination of an agreement with a player is subject to his right of
appeal to the Scottish League's management committee. It also requires a
club to give 14 days' notice in writing to the player if a contract is
to be terminated.
If their appeal to the League fails, Charnley will take the matter to
the SFA, and Higgins said yesterday: ''I hope they will support us.
''We are not condoning the player's behaviour and he would be the
first to admit that he deserves to be punished by his club and the
authorities but, apart from a verbal warning from David Hay, the club
had never said to him he was on his final warning.
''Normal procedure in business would be to give a verbal warning, then
a written one, before a final one.''
Higgins suggested that a fine of two weeks' wages might have been more
appropriate, but St Mirren clearly have had enough and it seems they do
not intend paying Charnley the remaining 18 months of his contract.
However, they will have to pay him his wages while the appeals process
runs its course.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article