It's only very recently I've fully realised just how deep in the doo doo we are. I had reservations when PV went, I was concerned when the fans' director role was abolished, the firesale over the summer gave some clues, and I tried not to fear the worst when Zabeel pulled out.
But looking back on it, there was one small moment before all that when I thought all might not be rosy. It goes right back to that fantastic day of the CharltonLife match at The Valley - still right up there as one of the best days of my life. But there was a throwaway joky comment by the director doing the auction (those of you there know who it was) about how much Pardew had just got them to pay for Luke Varney. I'm not having a dig at the director - it just jarred at the time I guess because it already suggested that the directors didn't entirely trust the manager's business sense, but were giving him the leeway anyway. That was in May 2007. I now, sadly, understand more why it stuck in my mind.
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I was not reassured by the (frankly to be expected) "personal reasons" spin although other threads suggest that I got the right answer for the wrong reasons in that PV had no connection with player contracts. I guess I just assumed that would be part of the CEO's brief at a football club.
honestly, it made me realise that my Club would only ever 'punch above our weight'
we are now left with the results of 'punching above our weight'............chucking money we didn't really have at trying to 'get up to the next level'
& are now being labelled with club's like Leeds, Sheff Weds blah blah blah blah
be careful what you wish for..................'we want our Charlton back' i hear people cry................well, looks like you'll soon get it............the 'just before we went to Selhurst Park' one :-(
CAFC for life.................just not sure I'm Football for life though :-(
When Andy Reid came in and I realised that was it for our midfield signings (Faye being the holding player - for 2M smackers) - I thought 'we could go down here'. Honestly.
When we lost away at Sheffield United a few months later, under Les Reed if I recall, I knew the good days were on their way out. We'd never have lost that crucial match under Curbs....
Where we are now is, possibly/hopefully, the end of that bumpy road.
This season it was QPR away - we so needed a win in Parky's first game.
Wimpy burgers to Peters Pies...
Surely this was the point when we knew it would never be the same again...
Last season: when Reid was sold. You don't sell your best player when you hope to get promoted.
This season: when Derby equalised with the last kick of the game. A win then and we might have grown in confidence as a team.
And Andrew Mills
You see guys, I'd seen it happen to us before...and not just the once...we NEVER learn...we NEVER learn!
As it stands the writing is just becoming clearer and clearer with every game. No win in 16. Bottom of the table. And although the word is banded around a lot, i do think it will take a complete miracle for us to put the run together required to stay up. We haven't shown the ability to win a game so where we are going to get the ability to win them back-to-back and put a run together... I don't know. But with every match it's becoming more and more certain that it's never going to happen.
Hello league one.
I knew the premiership years and the good times were over when Les Reed became manager.
I realised we were truly in the shit after some of the performances at the start of the season.
No matter how bad it gets I've got a load of DVDs and VHSs to remind me of the good times!
Parker being sold >> Andrew Mills >> Buying too many players at start of last season >> Reidy going >> Peter Varney leaving
But reading the rest of the above, clearly many on here have been far more aware of what has been going on for'far longer than me.
In terms of happenings off the pitch and in the boardroom, I never even thought about it until a few short months ago. I lapped up all the 'model club' spin about how wise and prudent and sensible we were, like a little purring pussy cat.
Sure, when Curbs went, I wondered what life would be like without him. But I just assumed it would be OK because people who knew far more about it than me said we were a 'model club'.
It all went a bit wrong with Dowie and Les Reed. But then it seemed like we had an extra present on Xmas eve with the appointment of Alan Scott Pardew. He used to play for us, just like Curbs had done. He was a 'proper' manager and despite his Palace connections, he was 'proper' Charlton. And, after all, we were a 'model club'.
Yes, we were relegated from the Prem and I was disaapointed. But we had put up a decent enough fight and I thought we would come straight back up. Why? Because we were Charlton, we still had real money to spend on players and everybody said we remained a 'model club'.
Half way through the 2007-8 season, it all seemed to be going well enough. We were fifth, I think, going into the new year. Play-off place assured at the very least, but with our squad and our resources and being such a 'model club', I still believed we would go up automatically.
And then the horror begins. My first moment of realisation that perhaps we weren't quite such a 'model club' after all was the sale of Andy Reid and the non-recruitment of an adequate replacement. Lack of ambition? Lack of money? Lack of common sense? The alarm bells started ringing that something was lacking.
Then all the crap loans started and I remember seeing Halford playing an absolute stinker at the Valley. I can't even remember who it was against but I vividly recall turning to my son Adam and saying, "Do you know, I don't think Pardew has got a bloody clue what he's doing''.
By the end of the season, I knew he had to be sacked. He wasn't and since then it's been downhill all the way - and I expected little else while he was in charge. Zabeel seemed too good to be true, so I didn't get over-excited when they hovered into view or when they disappeared again like a desert mirage.
More significant for me was when Pardew finally went. What a relief! It seemed the board had finally grasped the nettle at last. But instead we seemed oddly content to drft along in limbo without a manager. What was going on ? It seemed like complacency. But why would the people who run the club be complacent when there was so much to lose? That's when it dawned that it wasn't just Pardew who had lost the plot but the board,too.
They told us Parky would be judged on results and then rewarded him with the job for failing to wn a single game in eight. Around the same time, whispers started emerging about various aspects of our catastrophic mismanagement off the field , capped by the most grotesque of them all - Mick Collins' revelations last weekend about the Christensen situation.
I think that story has totemistic importance and it was possibly as late as last Sunday for me that the penny finally,finally dropped and I realised that not only are we f***ed at every single level but that we are locked in some Kafkaesque nightmare from which there doésn't seem to be any escape.
So all you clever people who saw it coming, why didn't you tell me? I did not see it . Like a total sucker, I believed all the spin about us being a 'model club' well into 2008. After reading what some of you have said above, I now feel naive and stupid. More than that, I feel rather guilty for not having asked the right questions a damn sight earlier.
Dowie- I hate you now, I always will and when you're dead I'll hate you still (thank you ,the Stranglers and your track I HATE YOU!)
went from New Cross end to Deptford . woke up with paint everywhere.
I dont say that because it was Curbs last game - oh no. I thought he should have left years ago.
Was the board that prepared for the departure of Curbs? Like I said he should have left ages ago. Were the board experienced enough to employ a decent replacement and be shrewd in the transfer market to bolster our squad?
Parker started it off but that game in May 2006 started off a series of ugly events.
3 managers in a season, all that money wasted on players........
Oh well - I will still support them as long as I'm around
when you appointed Dowie, 90% of football fans thought you'd done well - everyone else (including palace fans) knew you were screwed
in terms of executive level decision making and sound business acumen, your board has spent every minte since may 2006 making Simon Jordan look like Bill Gates