Charlie Oatway: ‘I had to be open when I signed my contracts – look, I can’t write’

“I get sworn at less by the kids than I used to by Gus [Poyet], especially if I gave the ball back to the opposition too quickly,” Charlie Oatway says, breaking into laughter as he compares life on the touchline with working to support young people struggling with education as a family liaison officer at the Russell Martin Foundation (RMF). Oatway first worked alongside Poyet as a coach at Brighton, for whom he also played, and followed him to Sunderland, Spain and Shanghai but these days his focus is on changing lives in Sussex, by returning to his roots and using his challenging childhood as a powerful tool to which others can relate.

He recalls his parents, Doreen and Tony, being thrown to the floor by police and their house, on the White City estate in London’s Shepherd’s Bush, being ransacked. His dad leaned on the Kray twins when on the run after a robbery and hid in a flat above a tailors in east London before being sent to prison. His uncles and cousins have also spent years behind bars and Oatway spent two months in Pentonville prison for GBH, while on the books at Cardiff City. “I’d only just started to get to know Terry Yorath, who had just replaced Eddie May as manager. On a Saturday a couple of hours before kick-off I said to him: ‘I’ve got to go to court on Monday.’ He said: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, get back as soon as you can for training on Tuesday.’ Bang, I go to prison.”

Sitting beside Oatway is Alan Sanders, the chief executive of the RMF. Oatway sought Sanders’ help at the age of 30, when he was captain of Brighton, to enrol on an adult literacy course to help with reading and writing. Oatway, who is dyslexic and says his spelling is nonexistent, did not attend school from the age of 14 and given