Former West Ham and England striker Tony Cottee has questioned Charlton’s strategy when it comes to appointing managers.

Roland Duchatelet has gone through four managers in less than two years since Chris Powell’s exit in March 2014.

Charlton appointed Karel Fraeye, who was previously at Belgian club VW Hamme, as caretaker boss at the end of October following the dismissal of Guy Luzon.

Cottee, who scored 146 goals in 336 games for West Ham, admits he is surprised the club have not turned to an English manager with substantial experience of the Championship.

The Sky Sports pundit told News Shopper: “It’s a fantastic club Charlton, but I don’t think they’re going in the right direction recently.

“Since the glory days of Curbs [Alan Curbishley], it’s been difficult being a Charlton fan - dropping to the Championship and then League One.

“They need to somehow get some stability in the club.

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“The Championship is a very tough, competitive league. It’s a good standard, very physical and challenging in terms of games and expectation.

“I don’t particularly understand why anyone would appoint someone without not only experience of English football, but also the Championship.

“It’s a specialist league that you need to get out of. For someone like Charlton, what about Nigel Pearson or someone like that? Someone who knows the league.

“Whether he would come is a different matter, but for me someone like that would be a much more sensible appointment.”

Before joining Charlton Jose Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon and Fraeye all worked in Belgium, where Duchatelet previously owned Standard Liege.

Cottee understands that the Belgian tycoon may wish to appoint managers who he has dealt with before, but the ex-England star believes this has led to frustration amongst fans.

“The owners are in charge and can appoint their own men,” he said.

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“If they’re from Belgium then they’re going to lean towards getting people from that part of the world.

“But it’s frustrating for the fans, that’s the problem, because they’re the ones who come week in week out and want stability.”

The Addicks enjoyed a productive summer transfer window - bringing seven players to the Valley.

However, only French midfielder El-Hadji Ba had any experience of English football having played one Premier League game for Sunderland in 2014.

“You’ve got to get the balance right with transfers,” Cottee added.

“You probably need two or three decent players from abroad but the nucleus of the side, I feel, still needs to have a British influence.

“Perhaps that’s what they need to do, to get that British influence back into the spine of the team.”

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