Black History Month Players: Gary Charles
As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link,. With West Ham playing Aston Villa tomorrow afternoon, today's post and thread on X focuses on a player who played for both clubs, Gary Charles.
Born on the 13th of April 1970 in Canning Town, Charles grew up supporting West Ham & was almost signed for the club at 13 when he was training with the academy, as well as training with Arsenal, but was released by both clubs for being too small. Charles would then begin training with local side Clapton, where he was spotted by scouts at another local club, Leyton Orient at 15. Charles was just about to sign with the club, when he was scouted by Nottingham Forest, who signed him after a day on trial with the club.
Charles would make his professional debut with Nottingham Forest at the age of 17 in 1987, but his time at Forest really flourished when he was joined in the midfield by a young Irish midfielder that the club signed in 1990 by the name of Roy Keane. Due to his amazing technical and dribbling abilities, Charles was affectionally nicknamed by the Forest fans as "The Brazilian", with then-manager Brian Clough praising these abilities, when he said: "When he plays a one-two, he goes like a gazelle. It's so effortless that at first, it looks as if he's not moving, yet he's 40 yards up the field.". During his time wih the club, Charles would win an FA Cup runners-up medal in 1991, where a tackle made on him in the final by Spurs’ Paul Gascoigne, would rule the Spurs player out for several months & still defines Charles’ career to this day, despite no fault laying with Charles. This was because many felt that this tackle, which ruled Gascoigne out for almost a year, would prevent him from really realising the world-class potential that he had shown up to that point. But back to the focus of this article and on a more positive note, Charles would also win the full members cup with Forest in 1992, whilst also earning his only two caps for England in 1991 in two friendlies against New Zealand & Malaysia. He would never represent England again after this.
Charles would leave Forest in 1993 after making 81 appearances & scoring twice in 6 years with the club, when he would move to their fierce rivals Derby for £750,000. He later admitted that this probably wasn't the best idea, when he said: "I think I underestimated the feeling between the teams a bit... If you’d asked me to go from West Ham to Spurs I wouldn’t, and it was a bit like doing that". But Charles had two great seasons playing for derby, when in his first season, he was named in the first division team of the year as Derby narrowly missed out on promotion to the premier league, losing in the 1994 playoffs, spending another year with Derby before leaving for Aston Villa for a fee close to £1.4m in 1995. During his time with Derby, Charles would make 77 appearances for the club, scoring 3 goals.
Charles would then spend 3 and a half years with Aston Villa, making 107 appearances & scoring 4 goals, helping the club win the 1996 League Cup. But injuries would plague his time at the club & would affect Charles for the rest of his playing career. The injury that derailed Charles’ career was ironically picked up against his future club West Ham, when in a freak incident, his ankle snapped out of nowhere, leaving him unable to play football for almost 2 years. Unable to play the game he loved, Charles became frustrated & turned to alcohol to cope. This would start a long battle for Charles’ with alcoholism which he is still recovering from today.
After almost 2 years of not playing, Charles signed for Portuguese side Benfica. But his time in Portugal was short and ultimately disappointing due to injuries & bad performances due to such a long injury lay-off, only playing 6 games in as many months with the club. But despite a difficult two years, things looked up for Charles, when in 1999, he was signed by his boyhood club West Ham. But once again, injuries would limit his chances at the club, with Charles only making 8 appearances in 3 years at the club.
Charles would retire in 2002 at the age of 32 on medical advice, having had his career ruined in its prime by a freak injury that never truly healed. He laments not playing more for his boyhood club stating: “My biggest disappointment is not playing 100+ games for West Ham”.
After retiring, Charles’ alcoholism got worse & reached its worst point with a stint in prison in 2006 due to an incident involving alcohol. But his time in prison helped Charles re-evaluate his life & attempt to rebuild himself. He credits a fellow prisoner with giving him the push he needed to start his recovery. Charles states: “This old bloke asked me what I did when I made mistakes on the pitch. I said I tried not to repeat them, tried to learn. Why don't you apply that attitude to your drinking?". Using those words, Charles has been sober since 2008 and is still a recovering alcoholic. He regularly attends AA meetings & has followed the 12 steps to recovery. He’s also used football to aid in his recovery, gaining his coaching badges.
Charles has had a fairly good career in coaching with spells as assistant manager at Lincoln City, director of football at the University of Nottingham as well as a brief spell as manager of non-league side Nuneaton Borough in 2018. But away from football is where Charles’ calling seems to lie now, as he runs his own agency called Torando and works with the Delamare Clinic in Cheshire helping those from Sports & commerce backgrounds in tackling their issues with alcohol and drugs. Charles knows how hard the road to recovery can be and wants to help others on that journey. In his own words, he’s “so keen to help others, and to talk about it.” Charles has also rebuilt his life and is happy with how things have turned out these days. Speaking to the West Ham online Fanzine, Blowing Bubbles, Charles stated: "All I wanted out of life was a nice happy fulfilled life, and I have that now. I’ve got a lovely life, lovely children, I work with schools, I run an agency called Tornado & I work with Delamere, which I think will change a lot of people’s lives”
I, for one, hope it does change lives as whilst he may not have set the world alight at West Ham, we should respect Charles as a man who has overcome adversity in his life & is now trying to help others overcome the same adversity that he does every day.
Thanks for reading today's post. Today sources were two interviews with Charles where the quotes in this post come from. There are linked below and finally if you or anyone you know has been affected by the issues mentioned in todays thread, help is always there if you need it. Never be afraid to reach out & ask for it.
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