Former Cardiff City player Charlie Oatway is working alongside Gus Poyet and Carlos Tevez at the heart of Chinese Super League football.
Oatway is on manager Poyet’s coaching staff at Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, who have signed 33-year-old former Manchester United and Manchester City striker Tevez.
Former Brighton and Sunderland manager Poyet replaced Spaniard Gregorio Manzano after club bosses were far from satisfied with the forth-placed finish last season.
Poyet, 49, was sacked by struggling La Liga outfit Real Betis after 11 games in charge and made the move to China where Super League fixtures start next month.
Londoner Oatway is a close friend of Poyet and the pair worked together at Brighton, Sunderland, AEK Athens and Real Betis. He has the role of analysis coach at Shanghai.
Ramires, Oscar, Alex Teixeira and Tevez are among the big money players now preparing the Chinese season to start and more could follow. The CSL transfer window is still open and some clubs are still keen to add top quality players.
Cardiff signed Oatway from non-League Yeading in 1994 and he says: “They were my first pro club, taking me when I was 20-years-old.”
He later played for Brighton and linked with another former Bluebird, Richard Carpenter, in central midfield. Brighton were promoted three times in four seasons.
Oatway is a huge Queens Park Rangers fan and that is illustrated by his full name, which is: Anthony Phillips David Terry, Frank, Donald, Stanley, Gerry, Gordon, Steve James Oatway.
Anthony had no obvious connection to Rangers, but the other names related to former players – Phillip (Parkes), David (Clement), Terry (Venables), Frank (McLintock), Donald (Givens), Gerry (Francis), Gordon (Jago, manager), Steve (Burtenshaw, coach), James (Gregory, chairman).
“I don’t even know who half of those old players are,” said Oatway. “Some are from the 1972-73 team who finished Division Two runners-up.
“It began when somebody bet dad he wouldn’t name his new son after the QPR team.
“We used to live next door to Loftus Road and climb over the wall at the back of our garden to get in for nothing.”