Dan's thead on why you go to football set me thinking.
I've renewed my season tickets but I cannot recall a year when I've been less enthusiastic and interested.
As a cricket fan football and rugby do take a back seat over the summer for me but even so I normally take in at least one pre season friendly and look forward to the first match.
It's not happening this year and I don't know why.
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the club have sold your enthusiasm on one of them e-bay auctions.
Ups and Downs, In sickness and in Health, isn't that what we all signed up for in the first place ? We would have all chosen another club to follow if we didn't ?
I don't believe our starting 11 for the Swansea game will be noticeably weaker than the various 11 we put out last season. There is an argument if Hudson and Shelvey start well, and one of Gray and Varney hit the net that the spine of the side is considerably stronger than last season.
I can fully understand why people are more cautious in their stance of how we will do this season, but it is impossible to predict how we will fare compared to everyone else. Last season we had a team that underperformed compared to expectations and ability. There is just a chance the opposite may happen this year, and i'm not going to be stupid enough to write it off before it starts.
Len, I understand a lot of what you are feeling. Football - and Charlton - is not as big a part of my life as it was 20-30 years ago. There's also a deep sadness within me at how suddenly and rapidly we have slipped away after the Premiership years and all that the club had worked so hard to build up in that time. There are loads of reasons for that - more to do with the state of football than anything directly under Charlton's control, but it does make it hard to be ever optimistic about the future. I'm so glad I went to the Coventry match, as that reminded me about a lot of the good reasons - especially seeing Shelvey make his debut, and the much better atmosphere at the ground that day. There's a lot in what Adam says about getting used to this division again and remembering the good old times we had there. I wouldn't advise 'Things can only get better' as an anthem, though, as it didn't exactly turn out that way at Old Trafford that day, did it??!
I posted on here about my season ticket dilemma, and the replies gave me lots of food for thoguht and quickly got me to realise that renewing was the only option. I hope you get some replies on this thread which help you in the same way.
i'm sure, like me, you knew we were in trouble when sir alan left but you probably didn't expect our demise to be so rapid.
the king is dead , long live the king
You have to remember that we look at things differently than we would 10 years ago, largely through the internet. We are completely ingrained in the club as we think / debate it almost 24 / 7. It means your emotions are likely to be more intense, in either direction.
Adam, if I remember rightly we sang that song at half-time when the score was still 0-0 and Schmeichel had just been sent off for felling Kim Grant. We genuinely thought we would win it! Then they (Mark Hughes?) scored straight after the restart - oh well, never mind...and yes, we did celebrate Leaburn's goal wildly. It was a great day out, but was also the end of our season - we were in with a chance of promotion, then fell to bits after that match - even Gary Nelson describes that as the turning point in his book. Funny to look back on now, but not so funny at the time!
Then it's all part of the great unknown, unfolding drama of football, as Henry says on the other thread...
I remember the disappointment when Gliksten ordered the sale of the likes of Hinton, Bailey, Bonds, Glover and later Hales and Flanagan.
Richard Murray and Martin Simons came on the scene and if we sold a player it was for a good reason eg to finance the ground development, unlike under Gliksten. The sale of Parker was a disappointment but in reality what club could have stood up to Roman Moneybags? Nobody so, even though Martin Simons said on the radio Parker wasn't going, I lay no blame at the Club's door for that.
I understand financial reality but in purely footballing terms I'm getting an awful sense of deja vous and if I'm right it's tragic because we came so far and so nearly established ourselves as a top level club.
I'll still go - rather like Leroy says you go because it's there but, despite my age, I've always previously had that "little boy enthusiasm" when it comes to Charlton and I don't like not having it.
If I can't get to sleep at night, worrying about the kids or the state of my finances or I've just had one of those days, my mind wanders towards into Addick fantasyland. You know when you were a lad, maybe even in your twenties there was that fantasy of walking out on the pitch in the Red and White kit with the crowd roaring your name. I was a centre back (oh if I was just a few years younger, several inches thinner......) and that was my dream. As I got older the dream changed to managing the Addicks. Now I'm even past that but my dream has evolved into spending my fantasy millions on buying the club and leading it back to the promised land where we will knock Manure, Chelski, The Arse and The Scousers out the way as Captain Hudson lifts the Premier League Trophy. Don't you still have similar dreams? Once I get those thoughts into my mind, I thank everyone at Charlton during my lifetime for illuminating it a little and helping to make the days just a little less humdrum.
So come on mate, it ain't so depressing when you take everything together. I'm looking forward to the season, to seeing Hudson play, to see Jonjo blossom, to seeing Thomas finally fulfil his potential, to see Varney and Grey become the greatest partnership since Killer and Flash (hopefully without the teeth knocked out). Shake off these clouds of grey, and lets get fully behind the lads. COME ON YOU REDS!!!!
Bing Deirdre Addick
http://kingshilladdick.blogspot.com/2008/07/turn-back-clock.html
Thanks for all the replies they have helped me articulate how I'm thinking.
Maybe the next CharltonLife football match should be the Pessimists v the Optimists. Only trouble is, I have the feeling our average age is a bit higher than theirs! Though thinking about it, Oggy maybe balances that out a bit - sorry Ogs ;-)
While I was supposed to be working from home today, I was visited by a really good friend of mine since the 1980's.
His girlfriend had committed suicide last week and he was trying so hard to deal with it.
He made the point that he was trying to look forward to tomorrow because it gave him hope, rather than the bleakness of today.
Let's put things in perspective: this football club that we are so emotional about is always going to have fluctuating fortunes, the pendulum swings one way and then back again. And many of us have been around long enough to know that it always will.
So the last 2 seasons have ended in crushing disappointment. Again it's disappointing that we appear to have to sell our best players/saleable assets in order to keep some grey faced, grey suited banker satisfied in the gray days of his stultifyingly boring 9-5 job. But that's where we're at.
But it doesn't have to stay that way and, life teaches you that it won't. All things pass - the good times and the bad times.
What exactly is our problem?
We go to a football match on a Saturday afternoon for a variety of reasons.
But mostly we go to meet our mates, enjoy ourselves, let off steam and hopefully come home afterwards with that muzzy warm feeling of seeing us win, 3 points in the bag or at least a lionhearted commitment.
And why should watching Charlton in the Championship this season be any different?
Because the only constant in life is change - and our pendulum will swing again.
Live, Love, Laugh and be Happy.....
Things do turn round in life and CAFC . I never thought i would see us at Wembley, beat Moan Uts,the Goonershit,Liverpool. Never thought i would see a CAFc player wear the 3 lions shirt. Dear God though the 25 years of shit we had to go through to get there. The 3,000 in the pooring rain at the Valley against Halifax. 6,000 being an ok gate. No home. players being sold in fire sales (very good players).The pi55 take none stop from all the other fans.
CAFC is a release from the real World of Gas prices, and mortgages, and family fueds, work,decorating. I just dont want another 25 years in the gloom before we get up to the light again.
I remember when we got relegated under Curbs , the week before my wife left me. On the Monday after we got relegated i went to work(feeling awful no sleep etc) ,i got in the lift and its one of the speaking lifts its says " going down". I thought now that is really taking the piss ! funny thing is it made me laugh. One year latter we were champs and me and my were together again.Things do turn round.
I always believe you have to endure the downs to truly enjoy the ups. I remember when Wycombe done us in the Cup, pretty bad night all in all, but it stuck with me how brilliant their fans were, they didn't stop singing from start to finish and went absolutely bonkers at the end, I remember thinking god it would be good to feel some of that again.
I don't know know if we will go up but I suppose I have blind faith we will, but even so I am looking forward to a cracking season where I believe we will be more competitive and maybe we'll feel a bit more affinity to some of our players.
oi !! Not all bankers are a) grey faced b) great suited (I'm currently in white Ben Sherman polo and Olive green slacks) c) have grey days. It's a fact though that that we all have stultifyingly boring 9-5 jobs !!
BTW, your'e right. Football pales into insignificance when compared to other things, like you friend's girlfriend's suicide. I keep telling Golfie to chill and just be thankful that he has a good life, a nice wife and 3 adorable kids but it doesn't seem to make any difference !!
But there is always another viewpoint ...
challenge
Curbs performed wonders by buying average players and getting them to play above themselves and gelling them into a decent team. It was amazing in 92/3 when he got the team to the top of tier 2. When I look at the team sheet of the play off team, many of the players were very average but the spine of Rufus, Kinsella and mendonca saw us through.
So can Hudson, Shelvey and Gray get us off to a flier and raise all our spirits?