Countdown to 22-23: Charlie Austin aims to revitalise Brisbane Roar this season, and has the pedigree to do so, writes Tom Smithies.
There’s something a little bit old-school about Charlie Austin, and something equally old-school about a football career that almost went nowhere, was rebuilt on resilience and soared from non-league to near the summit of the Premier League inside five years.
The fact that he learnt from some seriously high-profile managers from Ronald Koeman to Harry Redknapp, and spent training sessions fending off Virgil van Dijk to convert crosses from Sadio Mane, is all the more remarkable for the fact that at another point in the same career he was supplementing his football with bricklaying.
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Before he was even 20, Austin had nearly thrown it all away; before he was 27 he had been called up by England. All of that may explain why, he admits, he continually feels the need to prove himself, especially to his peers, and that includes his new team-mates at Brisbane Roar.
Austin is an old-fashioned No.9, a goalscorer who thrives on good service into dangerous areas. He always has been, even in his teens when those goals were being scored for a Sunday league side that was barely even semi-professional.
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Then the goals flowed for Poole Town, an actual semi-pro side at the time in the seventh tier of English football – so many that he was offered a trial by Bournemouth in League Two, whose head coach was Eddie Howe. Bournemouth wanted to sign Austin but were told by the Football League they couldn’t thanks to a transfer embargo.
“I thought that was it,” admits Austin now. “I thought that the opportunity to play professional football was going to go. I thought I’d go and earn some decent money in the non-league but I was just disappointed.
“(But) a Swindon Town scout had watched me the week previously, and it just ended up working out that three days after I was told Bournemouth couldn’t sign me, I went into Swindon, so I didn’t have too much time to dwell on it.”
Not only that but Swindon were League One, and the goals continued to flow for Austin. Eddie Howe, meanwhile, switched from Bournemouth to Burnley and this time was able to effect a transfer to bring the striker up to the Championship.
“Eddie’s quiet from the outside but when you’re on the training pitch, listen, he’s very intense – he did a lot of one on one sessions with me and helped me a lot early on in my attacking movement, my movement inside the box, and I have a lot of a lot of gratitude for Eddie,” recalls Austin now.
“He tried to give me an opportunity at Bournemouth and then when he got his move to Burnley he gave me another opportunity to play for him but also to test myself at Championship level. I think it was for 16-18 months maybe I was with him and I enjoyed every moment.”
Austin is similarly effusive about Sean Dyche, who took over Burnley when Howe returned to Bournemouth for family reasons and lasted almost a decade at Turf Moor.
“He was very good for me, Dychey, he just wanted me to stay in the middle of the goal, you know – stay in the box, not too much running, let the team play for you as such, and I enjoyed it. It was no surprise in my mind why he had such a long managerial career at Burnley – finished top half of the Premier League, which is tough, when they got relegated they bounced back, got to the Europa League. His resume actually speaks volumes.”
There was clearly method in Dyche’s madness as Austin scored 25 goals in 37 games, prompting QPR boss Harry Redknapp – on a spending spree to build a promotion push towards the Premier League – to buy him as the focal point.
“He’s a great character, I loved playing for Harry – he was a good friend of my grandad’s, my dad’s dad, so I knew him beforehand,” says Austin, who knew he’d get the ammunition to score from gifted ball players like Nico Krancjar and Yossi Bennayoun. “Harry said to me, You make the runs in the right areas and they’ll find you… I was fortunate enough to do that and they did.
“Harry didn’t do so much coaching as such, that wasn’t really him. But the man management side, that was brilliant. Every time I went across that line I was full of confidence because that’s what he gave me. We got promoted from the Championship and I’d never played in the Premier League before. But we never signed a striker to take my place so I think he backed me and it worked out well to be honest.”
Austin is a confident figure but also does a nice line in understatement – “quite well” meant him coming fourth in the Premier League top scorers list in 2014-15, prompting Southampton to sign him for £4m six months later in the wake of QPR’s relegation.
Ronald Koeman was assembling an enviable squad, book-ended on the pitch by Van Dijk and Mane, and Southampton finished sixth that year. Though Koeman was lured by Everton six months later, Austin initially revelled in his new surroundings.
“Playing with Van Dijk every day, with Sadio Mane, both just a different style of player – the intensity, they’re international players and it just made you want to learn, it made you want to be better,” Austin says now.
“Being with them definitely helped my career. Ronald Koeman was only there half a season but for him to sign me and give me the belief, it was fantastic.
“That’s why the next year was so disappointing. I started really well, had nine goals by the end of November I think it was. I felt really good, really strong mentally, I was in a good place and I could really push on to the next level.
“And then I dislocated my shoulder which kept me out for four or five months and needed surgery. Then the following year, I took a bit of time to get back in because we signed Marco Gabbiadini and when I did get back in, I was on five goals in four games and I tore my hamstring tendon just before Christmas, out for 16 weeks.
“When I came back the club wasn’t in a good situation, the manager had been sacked, Mark Hughes had taken over and was trying to get out of the (relegation) situation that we were in and thankfully we did.”
Austin was never likely to suit the playing style of Ralph Hassenhuttl when he took over Southampton, and after short stints with QPR again and West Brom, Austin is in the orange of Brisbane Roar for this season and next.
“I think you always have to prove yourself no matter what you have in your resume as such,” he says. “You’ve still got to prove yourself because every club you go to it’s new players, new fans, new coaching staff, you have to prove to them that you are the player that they have signed.
“I always found throughout my career that’s something that I’ve always had to do, prove yourself to the players. I think even now coming over to Brisbane, I think it was still part of my psyche that I had to prove to myself and to prove to the league, and my new teammates.”
