...changed this Club for the worse.
Patience and continuity were the hallmarks of CAFC and its fans bought into that philosophy because of the unique history of the Club.
From a time when board was prudent with its money (and the transfer dealings were, as a result of enforced selectivity by the manager, by and large successful) and the fans were realistic about the Club's ability to compete, after 8 seasons with the Premiershits:
a) seemingly out of panic, Richard Murray, of all people, bought into the "spending = success" myth (with the predictable but thankfully not terminal results) and
b) seemingly a number of fans have decided that failure to achieve an instant return to the PL = abject failure and that Pards is an idiot.
I am not defending his transfer dealings (there have been some very poor ones) or disregarding some pretty dismal performances but let's regain some perspective folks....and some patience.
Instant promotion was never going to be a piece of cake for a Club that was relegated with a PL wage structure and a significant transfer overspend. Indeed there are cases of back-to-back relegations.
Any team promoted from the CCC this year will be hammered in the PL next year and I for one would rather see us rebuild with more solid foundations than we currently have. Pards' lack of funds in the summer means that he (or his successor if Pards does not fancy the challenge of a tigher budget) will have to be far more astute with a much smaller squad next year. He will have to give the best youngsters (and there are some decent ones) a proper chance. When we make our enxt assault on the PL it has to be with a squad of Charlton-type players (not one cobbled together with castoffs and loanees) and with a Charlton-type spirit. It may take a few years and we will have to function without parachute payments but that doesn't seem to be a bar to success in this league.
Pards and his coaches are not the problem. We are not certain to do any better with others. Its the impatience (from top to bottom) that is killing us and, if we are not careful, it will kill the spirit of this Club.
See you next season.
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Comments
I have been following this club for 35 years and certainly do not expect Premiership football as a right. I expect that you and many others on here didn't go today and if so then your ramblings are not worth a jot. I suggest you start going to games, home & away, fair weather and foul, weekends and midweek for a few seasons before starting to pass comment,
Today's performance was dire - as has most of the season. My mate who is one of the most placid people there is summed it up today by asking when this season have we actually put in a performance of note. The best we could come up with was:
First half v Ipswich at home
Both Palace games
Stoke at home
Southampton away
Bristol City away
Norwich at home
The rest has been a complete washout. For a team that needed to win today to keep up any hope of making the top 6 we were awful. 2 shots in 90 mins....... yes, just 2 - and only 1 of those was actually on target. Therefore the best we could of hoped for was a 1 goal. Seeing as QPR managed that in the first 15 mins doesn't really help. Until we get a complete sea-change of ideas of how to play this game then we will be going nowhere. It doesn';t matter if Pardew is in charge, Les Reed, Dowie , Curbs or a wet fish. 4 different managers in 3 years has shown that they are all as inept as each other.
Oh - and someone behind me today wants big Sam Alladyce.........heavens forbid.
If you really think this is the worst you've see over the last 35 years then you've a rather short memory.
Losing heavily at home, not winning a single away game and losing 6-0 to Wrexham in the FA cup during the relegation season 79-80.....
Alan Mullery's squad two years later......
Even Lennie Lawrence's early teams put in some fairly ordinary performances befor the move to Sellout.
I think what Peanuts was trying to say is that, as a club (I'm including everyone here), this season we've suffered from high expectations. We (the fans) though it'd be a breeze to bounce back. The board probably thought the same thing.
It hasn't happened. We've got to live with that.
It's what the club does from here that is the important thing. I personally would be concerned if we were to try and 'buy' our way back into the premiership. We've seen the consequeces of trying that and failing elsewhere.
I was at the game yesterday, I too though it was an abysmal performance. I also think like a lot of others there seems to be a lack of motivation both on and off the pitch. We've needed a leader on the park this year and, although he tries to do it, Matty Holland dosen't inspire the team. On the bench there also seems to be a lack of fire. When Gareth Ainsworth came of yesterday he spent most of the rest of the game on the edge of the technical area geeing the team on. I don't see this happening with us.
You say it doesn't matter who's in charge, I agree, and I also agree that there need to be a change, either in the current leadership or in their performance. I'm willing to give Pardew time to improve things, 4 managers in 3 years hasn't helped and some stability is needed.
The knee jerk reaction is always to sack the manager. If this happens we may well end up with Alladyce or, even worse, George Graham or Glen Hoddle!
Just remeber that the last ten years have been 'the good times'. Cherish them.
I'll be back next year. Charlton is in my blood. I'll be Charlton 'til I die.
Right, rant over. I'm off for lunch and a beer.
Peanuts/Alex, I love you both.
Blimey Golf, how many years do we have to do this before we're allowed an opinion?
Fuck me. It's ridiculously sweeping generalisations such as this that really do make this board unbearable at times. "I've been going for X years, everyone else is a johnny come lately and my opinion is all that matters". Buffoon!!!
Your views are your views but knowing Peanuts a little I can vouch for him as a "real" fan. You may not agree with what he says - I don't always - but his views are considered and worthy of other's consideration.
Both Palace games
Stoke at home
Southampton away
Bristol City away
Norwich at home
There was also Plymouth away...
Don't disagree with what you are saying Large but Peanuts wasn't saying, as I read it, that we should accept the current situation rather that the years in the premiership has distorted our expectations.
Thats how I read it too....
"Push on to the next level" anyone?!
I don’t dispute that Pards screwed things up royally this year but I think one of the problems was that the board made life too easy for him. Maybe they were impatient to make amends for their own mistakes last year and, aiming for instant remedy, gave him, more or less, what he wanted. The result: too big a squad with too little quality and a certain complacency about our prospects. No wonder he still doesn’t know the best 11; nobody does.
Of course, Pards himself carries the blame for that. He put the squad together. But he’s still a comparatively young manager and is certainly not the idiot that some think he is. He says he knows where he went wrong and he had better do because, for sure, he has to make a better fist of it next year. In any event, we have had too many management changes in the past 2 years to ditch him right now. Give him the chance to learn from his mistakes, assuming he is prepared to live with fewer resources.
In summary think the adage "less is more" applies very well to CAFC at the moment. I genuinely think we can see much better performances and get better results with a smaller squad, fewer cast-offs and the best youngsters given more of a chance. That's a scenario I am actually looking forward to next season (certainly more so than 8 months of misery in the PL).
Now I really am off for my hols.
Go Cardinals!!
In the cold light of day we haven't been good enough and our arrogance, the fans myself included, has shone like a beacon. We have and had no right to promotion but listenng to us you'd think we were.
I myself have been giving it the large at work all season on how we'll get there in the end.
I'm beginnging to waiver on pardew , think NSS has a direct link to me through his puter and is hypnotising me, because he does talk shit. He should just come out and say "I GOT IT WRONG" and we'll all admire him more for that.
If within the next two seasons we get promoted to the PL with a team capable of holding its own, then that would be a success.
Some opinions are wrong (not mine of course) but if we cant all have an opinion we may as well go and live with Mugabe or in Red China.
This has never happened before, we 've never been the top spenders or had these big crowds in the second tier.
When we were getting 5-6k and spending diddly squat i didn't expect us to be pulling up trees pushing for promotion.
This season has been the most disappointing season since 1980 and relegation to the 3rd tier because we have become a bigger club (and yes i am proud of the numbers we get at home but for how much longer!) and i for one have raised my expectations because of this and if in years to come our gates dwindle and our spending power decreases then i'm happy to plod along in mid table chumpionship living in hope for the next, lennie or curbs to arrive and transform us.
But don't expect every fan to pretend it's ok cos of what we've been thru b4 cos for where we are as a club in this moment of time this last season has been pitiful