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Allan Simonsen

edited September 2011 in General Charlton
As a Charlton fan, I've probably overlooked the fact that we once signed the European Footballer of the Year... 

1) On Google Images, you have to go to page 11 before you get a picture of Simonsen at Charlton:

image

 - is that Peter Crouch when he had long hair?


Anyway, what was the general perception of him at the time? Is he the best to ever play for us? Have any of our players compared since then? (thinking Di Canio for skill?)

What did he say about Charlton when he was here/when he left?

Did he care that his being at Charlton nearly ruined us (or was there more to it than that)?

 I know more about Firmani, Hales and Summers than I do about the former Euro POTY, is this wrong, and should his short Charlton career be highlighted more?

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Comments

  • Genious in a Reds shirt. However great others may be, they are mere peretenders to the throne. In comparison, it's a bit like having a number one hit that will forever be your high point, and you always dream that it may be equaled or bettered, but deep down know it is never going to happen.
  • I think he's about 2 feet shorter than Crouch.
  • He was superb...shame it was for such a short length of time...on a different planet to the rest of the squad. Seemed to be the oppo V Simmo!
  • edited September 2011
    I'll never forget the excitement caused by Simonsen's signing.  I'd been going to Charlton for about two years but had just started getting my mates at school in Dartford to come along.  His first appearance was in a reserve match and I think we had a gate of about 4,000 which wasn't far off what we sometimes got for some League matches at that time.  It was all slightly unreal but was part of the roller coaster of supporting Charlton at that time.  I think the Manager at that time Ken Craggs couldn't believe it was true that we'd signed him either.  Apparently Simonsen had developed a soft spot for Charlton when he was growing up in Denmark and Mark Hulyer the Chairman had convinced him we were going onto bigger and better things rather than the bankruptcy that actually followed.  I can still picture that fantastic goal he scored against Boro (I think) who had Malcom Allison as manager and Kevin Beattie at centre half.  I think because he only played 15 or 16 games its almost like it was all a dream but a bloody good one at that!
  • Lucky enough to have seen him pay for us. Thing was he was so much better than those around him .He was two moves ahead of his own players. I think the rumour was he was paid in cash by Mike Huleyer (sic) and almost got off the team bus  once as he was owed so much, he was paid there and then on the coach the money being handed over in a plastic bag !
  • I was at the reserve game where he made his debut - came on for the second half & kicking towards the covered end he made an instant impact.....wont ever forget the 1-2 he played with Killer which led to an ewffort just clearing the bar - if it had gone in it would have been goal of the season !!

    I'm really p*****d that I missed the win over Chelski where he scored twice - but did see the 'Boro & Newcastle games and Simmo was something else. As said on previous posts, he was 2 passes ahead of the rest of the team & I'm just glad I was old enough to see him play for us.

    LEGEND

     

     

  • Went to Blackburn or somewhere up North to see him play for us and he missed a sitter.
    Can't remember too much about it.
  • Think I saw all the home games and he was excellent, the comment that he was one or two passes ahead of the rest of the team is true.  He has been back to the Valley as a former player a few times I think?  Shame he could not stay and the money really wasn't there to pay him and bring the players needed to play with him.  But the bankruptcy started a new period for the club leading to Division 1 for the first time in 28(?) years and leaving the Valley both of which in retrospect from now made us a much stronger club.
  • If you work on modern day equivalents (a player who won it 6 years before joining, or coming third in the year he left), then it's like us now snapping up either Ronaldinho (winner in 2005) or Xavi (3rd place in 2010).
  •   I can still picture that fantastic goal he scored against Boro (I think) who had Malcom Allison as manager and Kevin Beattie at centre half.  I think because he only played 15 or 16 games its almost like it was all a dream but a bloody good one at that!




    I remember that we signed him & it was weeks before he actually made his 1st team debut. I remember he was rumoured to be playing away to chelski I think it was & his name was in the programme but he didn't play & one of the weekend footie programmes taking the piss & saying the programme will become a collectors item.

    Made his debut the following week against boro & a larger than usual crowd turned up (but not that big) & boro strolled into a 3=0 lead. 2nd half we did make a comeback & Simo scored our first (I think) from a free kick, alas it took a huge deflection before finding the back of the goal so it wasn't that one that was the fantastic goal Bartram unless the angle you were at made it look better than it was. We managed another but 2-3 was how it ended.

    Sure he played against ipswich in the FA Cup at the Valley when they were one of the top teams in the country & for about half an hour Simo ran them ragged as we went 2-0 up, unfortunately they gradually came back into it & scored 3 times to edge a great game.

    Favourite memory tho was against chelski at the Valley 5-2 Simo got 2 that day & his second he seemed to skip around 4/5 challenges before sliding it under their goalies body.Absolutely brilliant.....shame we didn't have video technology in those days ;-( 

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  • I'll never forget the excitement caused by Simonsen's signing.  I'd been going to Charlton for about two years but had just started getting my mates at school in Dartford to come along.  His first appearance was in a reserve match and I think we had a gate of about 4,000 which wasn't far off what we sometimes got for some League matches at that time.  It was all slightly unreal but was part of the roller coaster of supporting Charlton at that time.  

    Bartram don't know if you (or anyone else) can remember but somewhere in the back of my mind i have this thought that Simo was picked up from the airport & driven on the back of a motorbike straight to the Valley to play in that reserve game, anyone confirm or have I lost my marbles ? Mind you the size of him the bike rider could have put him in his pocket !
  • He was too good for the rest of the team at the time. The money would have been better spent increasing the overall strength - He was a class player but as people know- not long after we nearly didn't have a club to support. I find it hard to look back at that period with much relish.
  • He pretty much doubled the crowd for his first game v Boro (my first ever home game)....10,807 turned up. Boro p*ssed all over Charlton and were 3-0 up at half-time! A couple of goals in the last five mins made it quite a finish but we lost 3-2.

    He scored a couple of volleys against Leicester and a low shot from the edge of the box v Newcastle (on MOTD) and was heavily featured in the classic FA Cup game at home to Ipswich (still possibly the best game I've ever seen). But as others have said, the Chelsea home game was on another planet for the two goals in quick succession that he scored, just as Chelsea were coming back into the game. Think Ricky Villa v Man City in the FA Cup Final and you'll have an idea of what both goals were like. Pretty sure he even rounded the goalie (Steve Francis) for the first one.

    I know it was my first season so I was impressionable but for exciting games and drama,1982-83 is right up there. For those who can remember, I'm talking about Ipswich 2-3, Chelsea 5-2, Wolves 3-3 (3-0 down), Bolton 4-1 (1-0 down and 20 mins from relegation)...four absolute classic matches.....and I didn't see away to Sheff W 4-5 (3-0 up!!) or away to Burnley 1-7 (9 men!)

    For the younger element, if we could have had Simonsen in our Premier League team playing with the likes of Parker, Jensen and Di Canio we would probably have got into Europe. Easily the best attacking player I've seen play for the club.

    PS: The reserve game was v Swansea at The Valley and the attendance was an amazing 2,500. That would be the equivalent of about 7,000 now....half of our normal home gate.
  • Vision. He could see things only top-class players could envisage. Far too good for those he played with and against in his sixteen Charlton games.
  • I will never forget the Chelsea match, his second was simply great. I think " The Big Match" with Brian Moore showed up for the home game with Newcastle and where plugging the game as battle of the former European POTY. However Keegan never played, we won 1-0, not sure if Simo scored.
  • think we knocked /were let off by barca for £200k which was big big dough back then
  • think we knocked /were let off by barca for £200k which was big big dough back then
    Jesus really?! I hope that doesn't stand against us when our bid for messy comes in :-P
  • Remember when with us he played for Denmark at Wembley and a group of us out the covered end went along. Found this item
    below in an old Telegraph item. Sure they are wrong and he was either with us or just left when he played, or why would we
    have gone. Prior to him, our only other international for years had been Graham Moore (Wales).

    September 21,1983 - England 0 Denmark 1 at Wembley

    For the first, and to date only, occasion, Denmark triumphed over England. It came in a European Championship qualifier with
    Simonsen, who later featured for Charlton, scoring the game's only goal in the 36th minute. As a result, Denmark qualified
    for the finals, in France, and reached the semi-finals. Present coach Morton Olsen also played in that game.

  • I went to the Swansea game as a kid , can only vaguely remember him playing but he certainly created a buzz at the time . Also seem to  remember he did things that the other players ( CAFC ones ) could only just look on and admire rather than getting on the end of the cross/pass
  • He did score against Newcastle.  Was a short corner as i remember it and he cut into the edge of the box  with a low shot into the net at The Covered End.
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  • Simonsen was genius, I was lucky enough to see him play. Although that season we only just avoided relegation I think, when he had the ball he always did something with it
  • Saw him play for Barca and Charlton in the same calendar year :)

    He played a pass through for a goal in the game against Chelsea that was ridiculous - still one of the finest passes I've ever seen. Can't even remember who scored it but they almost fell over the ball.

    Absolute genius of a player - better than either of the Laudrups.
  • Just a point   to the "height-ists"    he was 5/4 and scored the winning goal at the European Cup final (the real thing not like now) with his head.
  •  

    @ralphmilne

    Simonsen played for us in 1982/83 so you are right he played for us just before that Wembley appearance .

    I don't think he won any caps whilst with us .However ,we don't need to go back to Graham Moore for our last international player , Leighton Phillips won the last two of his fifty eight Welsh caps as an Addick the previous season .

    By far the best player I have seen play for us . He was in a class of his own in the Chelsea game referred to above.

    I agree with the great man's namesake above about how he would have linked with Jensen , Parker and Di Canio but the team I would have loved to see him play in would have been Lennie's late Eighties battlers because he could have given them an extra dimension and established us in the top flight. 

  • Did anyone else think he looked like Robin Williams in Mork & Mindy???
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