Charlton Athletic; The Great Pretenders
Posted by Jasper Reed in A-League, Charlton | 15 April 2006
I hope the readers and writers of RLN will allow me to digress for a moment and talk about my team, Charlton. Without a Boro or Charlton page to currently comment on, I feel I must use my page to say something about the cup quarterfinal.
I was a regular at Selhurst, Upton Park and The Valley before moving to Australia, and I have continued to follow Charlton closely. I’ve watched as we have settled into the Premier League, and marveled how every promoted club considers Charlton the gauge against which to measure themselves.
Well, don’t.
Measure yourselves against Bolton, Wigan or West Ham - teams that manage to attract AND keep star players. Teams that actually show signs of ambition and progress. Teams that have decent cup runs once in a while and, just lately, teams that score goals. Football fans do not want mid table (i.e. financial) stability. We want good football....cup runs…..progress...success and, yes, we can take a little failure to make the good times taste better.
This season, we had our hopes raised of a first cup semi final in over 50 years. It’s a sad fact that every other London club, bar Brentford and Orient, has got at least this far since 1975. I got up at 4.30am to see them turn in a weak, spineless, naive performance that was a total embarrassment. Charlton played like a lower league team and, looking at the team sheet, I realized that is because they are.
So, can we please stop talking about how well Curbishley has done to keep little old Charlton in the Premier League? Can we instead focus on how we look less solid this year than we have in any of the last 10 years, despite signing 8 players in the summer; how we have sold creative, combative players like Danny Murphy, Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky to local rivals and replaced them with Matt Holland, Brian Hughes and an ancient Chris Powell; and how the club is a stagnant, mid table bore fest that is a relegation waiting to happen.
Most of all, can we please stop talking about Curbishley for England manager. The doyen of young English managers has shown himself once again to be paranoid, self important and lacking in ambition. The reason he wont go to a bigger club is because he knows his emperors new clothes will be well and truly exposed. He clearly cant handle any player he considers more talented than himself (rumour has it that Bent and Young are off in the summer), cant compete for signatures with the likes of West Ham (we missed out on signing Dean Ashton twice) yet is happy to take the credit for our supposed stability and financial frugality. He moans about other clubs 'unsettling' his players when what he really means is other clubs are looking to improve.....not stay the same. Mid table stabilty is only a stopping point to try, at least try, to become better and maybe nick a point off United and Arsenal. Yet Curbishley and his directors continue to play the 'poor' Charlton card time and again.
Maybe if the rest of football saw things from a Charlton fans perspective, we may again find the heart of a great football club beating inside the turgid little plc.
Cheers.
Comments
AS A CHARLTON SUPPORT FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS I AGREE WITH EVERY WORD YOU HAVE WRITTEN AND HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FROM THE START OF THIS SEASON.CURBISHLEY HAS TAKEN US AS FAR AS HE AND FATBOY DAY CAN TAKE US BRING IN SOME PASSION I.E MARTIN ALLEN!!!!!
Cheers, Trevor. Passion....aggression, that is exactly what Im talking about. Curbs must be regretting not going to the Hammers when he had the chance, I dont think it will come around again. Martin Allen would be a good choice, but I fear that if Curbs left we would get Peacock or Dowie.
JR
I'm a long time Charlton fan also out in Oz at the moment, and I've got one thing to say to you: Get Real.
There are 2 ways to become a big club, or a club big enough to push onto the higher echelons of the Premiership: 1)have a large support base (West Ham), 2)have a rich benefactor (Wigan). As for the other club you mentioned, Bolton, they'd be screwed if Allardyce left, probably more screwed than if Curbs left us. Obviously you're aware of the generation of fans we missed out on during the years of wandering, but the club is doing the right thing now by investing in soccer schools and partnerships worldwide, combined with massive community influence and innovative schemes like the valley express. In 5-10 years they could start to reap the benefits, but until then we just lack the clout to push on.
Don't get me wrong, I also get frustrated with Curbs' and the board's continual excuses, but what annoys me more is when people like you launch into a scathing, one-sided attack on the club, who have done far more good than bad over the last 15 years.
Martin
Martin, thanks for your comments, but I think it demonstrates the kind of backward thinking and apathy that leads to end of season slumps, 'happy to avoid relegation' and pathetic cup runs. I agree that the club is unrecognisable from even 1992, and that a sugar daddy makes life a lot easier in the Premier League. But if that is the case what difference is 5 or 10 years of the Valley Express going to make? Right now we are selling out The Valley for 90% of home games, and getting more money than all bar the top 6 or 7 clubs (without the huge overheads, lest we are playing our players too much), and yet the current manager and directors obviously still think of us as a selling club...they have done great things in the past but perhaps they should consider selling the entire club if they cant see the way forward?
Finally, if you dont agree with my comparisons (Bolton, Wigan, West Ham) here are 3 more that I could compare us to: QPR, Coventry and Southampton. All 3 were happy to save their pennies, 'consolidate' in mid table, and sell players to rivals safe in the knowledge that they were too good to go down............at least they all managed a cup final!
JR
Well said.You reflect how everyone I speak too feels.Our club is littered with players that couldn`t give a monkeys and are only here to take the cash,mostly under false pretences.The problem though is at the top.Not just AC who is way past his sell by date here,but also murray and the gang,who are clearly unable,or unwilling to make any investment in the club,even though we are talking wealthy men.Thats fine,so instead sell out to others who would want to take the club forward,instead of backwards as of now.Its clear they dont want to do this because it would kill their own golden goose,so instead our club stagnates,and is on its way back down again.
Thanks for your comments. The perception at board level clearly filters down, hence the end of season slump that we all enjoy as soon as we reach 'safety'......The other thing that really grates is the board not learning from mistakes; we are double crossed by Chelsea over Carlton Cole, we go back for Smertin and, low and behold, the same thing happens!
JR
Absoulutly spot on. How Curbs can be mentioned as an England manager mystifies me. Clearly there is an ego problem with the so called star players.
Furthermore his failure to replace Murphy needs to be questioned. Just as with Scott Parker two years before he failed to bring in a replacement for the heart of the team. The season still had four months to go so why wait until the summer.
Curbs has been found out. He has probably found his level and the football world know this. A bigger club would not accept this.
Thanks for your comments, Bob.
JR
If you were genuinely a fan when we were at Selhurst I really can't believe you want to bring an end to what have been hugely successful years for Charlton. Sure, we all want to see Curbs get the extra bit of success with Charlton, but loosing big name players is more to do with the size of the club than the manager and without a wealthy backer we can only grow so fast. You're going to miss him when he's gone and know that you were wrong.
Thanks for commenting. I certainly dont want to go back. Times have changed, and I want to move forward.......things have gone stale, and I think its time for a change, or we will be heading south sooner rather than later.
JR
