James Callaghan "Chic" Charnley (born 11 June 1963) is a Scottish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach. Charnley's playing career lasted nearly 20 years, with spells at

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

, St Mirren, Hibernian and

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, however he is perhaps best known for his numerous spells at

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

. He also was a coach at Thistle for a short time and was briefly assistant manager of Clyde. Throughout his career, Charnley had a reputation as being a hot-head; he was sent off 17 times in a senior career which lasted for nearly 20 years.

Club career

Charnley played for a number of clubs, including Ayr United,

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

, Hamilton Accies,

, St Mirren,

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

(on loan),

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

, Hibernian and

Cork City Cork ( ; from , meaning 'marsh') is the second-largest city in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the county town of County Cork, the largest city in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the List of settlements on the island of Ireland ...

. He also played for Junior clubs Rutherglen Glencairn,

Pollok Pollok (, ) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,000 at its peak, its population ha ...

, Tarff Rovers and Kirkintilloch Rob Roy. Charnley acquired his nickname in his youth when he would sell poultry door-to-door in the

Possilpark Possilpark, colloquially known as Possil,Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, where he was brought up as a supporter of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

.Just for kicks
The Guardian, 17 February 1996, via Partick Thistle History ArchiveChic Charnley
Hibernian Historical Trust In 1994, he had a trial for Celtic playing one game for them in a friendly against Manchester Utd at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

. Many rated him as the best player in the game and it was rumoured that he had done enough to win a contract. However, Celtic's manager

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenn ...

was sacked not long after this friendly game and rumours of a move to Celtic came to nothing.

Partick Thistle

As a player, he is best remembered for his time at

. He played for the club on a few different occasions and is considered something of a cult hero at Firhill, as well as a member of their Hall of Fame. He initially left Partick for St Mirren in June 1991 in a swap deal that saw he and David Elliot exchange for Mark McWalter and George Shaw. Charnley was an inconsistent performer with displays ranging from poor to outstanding and occasional outbursts of indiscipline and violence. At many points in his career, it seemed that top-flight football was beyond him. He was freed by Partick Thistle when the Glasgow club was in the Premier Division. During his time at Thistle, he and two other players were approached by two teenage boys during a training session in a Glasgow Park. Despite suffering a stab wound to his hand when one of the boys brandished a Samurai sword, Charnley was able to disable his attacker with a punch.

Hibernian

He made his Hibernian debut in August 1997 against Celtic, where late on in the second half he latched on to a misplaced pass from fellow debutant

Henrik Larsson Edward Henrik Larsson (; born 20 September 1971) is a Swedish professional association football, football coach and former player who played many times for the Sweden men's national football team, Swedish national team. A Striker (association f ...

and struck the winning goal from 25 yards. During his first few months at Hibs, many called for his inclusion in the Scotland squad, though this did not materialise. Despite a good start to the league campaign, Hibs' form soon faltered and they ended up being relegated at the end of the season. By this stage Alex McLeish had already replaced Jim Duffy as manager at Hibernian, and had dropped Charnley from the side.

Back to Thistle

His final season as a player was with Partick Thistle in the

2002–03 Scottish Premier League The 2002–03 Scottish Premier League (known as the 2002–03 Bank of Scotland Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the fifth season of the Scottish Premier League (SPL), the top level of football in Scotland. It began on 3 August 2002 and ...

season. Chic was approaching the age of 40, and made just two more appearances for Thistle after their promotion. His final match was perhaps fittingly against Hibernian at

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-largest ...

. He came on as a substitute in a 3–2 victory for Thistle.

Coaching career

The next season ( 2003–04) he was appointed coach at Thistle under manager Gerry Collins, but when Collins was sacked by the Thistle board he resigned in protest at their decision. Chic returned to Firhill during the 2006/2007 pre-season for ex-teammate Kenny Arthur's testimonial match versus a Celtic XI. With the game in injury time and Thistle losing 2–1, Chic rifled home a 25-yard strike to draw level. Charnley was appointed assistant manager of Clyde in February 2011 by Jim Duffy.

Honours

; St Mirren *

Renfrewshire Cup The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest team ...

: 1982–83 ; Partick Thistle *

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

: 1988–89Cup joy night for Thistle
Glasgow Herald, 16 May 1989, via Partick Thistle History Archive ; Portadown *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

: 1998–99

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charnley, Chic 1963 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Scottish expatriate men's footballers St Mirren F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players Clydebank F.C. (1965) players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Dumbarton F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Portadown F.C. players Kirkintilloch Rob Roy F.C. players Rutherglen Glencairn F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players English Football League players NIFL Premiership players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Cork City F.C. players League of Ireland players Clyde F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football midfielders Scottish Junior Football Association players Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland Ettan Fotboll players People from Possilpark