Ex-Sunderland striker Charlie Wyke has shared a bizarre anecdote about the time that former head coach Lee Johnson hid in a kit skip prior to a League One match.
The 32-year-old is currently on the books at Carlisle United, but enjoyed a fruitful stint at the Stadium of Light between 2018 and 2021, scoring 42 times in 114 outings. His most productive stint came during Johnson’s tenure, however, with the centre forward finishing the 2020/21 campaign with 25 goals in 43 League One appearances.
And in an interview with the WTF Sunderland podcast, Wyke opened up on what it was like to play under Johnson, as well as the unorthodox nature of the 43-year-old’s management style.
What has Charlie Wyke said about Lee Johnson?
Reflecting on his time on Wearside, Wyke said: “Lee Johnson came in and he just let me do what I wanted, basically. He was good to me. I liked him as a man. His training was good. It was a lot of attacking-based training, a lot of finishing. Lee Johnson helped me massively, yeah.
“I’ve got some funny stories about Lee, like what’s happened in dressing rooms. For me, I’m not too serious, I like a bit of crack. I loved his banter sometimes. He was just a good fella. Obviously, when you’re scoring goals and you’re playing well and you’re playing every minute of every game, you’re going to like the manager anyway. There was just something about him that I really liked…”
Addressing one incident in particular, Wyke continued: “I’m not sure what game… It was a big game coming towards the end of the season. We always used to bounce the ball about the dressing room and catch it. If the gaffer walked in when you had the ball in your hand, you had to pay a £20 fine.
“Normally, the manager walks in. We’d been bouncing it for like half an hour. We’re thinking, ‘Where’s the gaffer? He’s just f****** it off, we’re not doing a team talk before the game’. We haven’t realised there’s a kit skip in the middle of the dressing room. It’d been there for the whole time.
“We were bouncing this ball about, and in the end, we were like, ‘Stop bouncing this ball, lads. The gaffer’s coming in’. As we’ve said that, he’s popped out of the skip, the little kit skip, like, ‘Alright, lads!’. You just never, ever expect to see your manager jump out of the kit skip. I remember before the game, I had tears in my eyes. I was going into the game and I was still crying my eyes out because I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.”
