I think the current plight began with Pardew in one sentence at a hotel in Maidstone saying 'we will play our way back up if we go down' then in the next breath saying the second tier of English football was a 'tough physical pounding whereby you had to earn your right to play football'. How many tough hard bastards have we on our books? No didn't think so!
I liked Pardew and thought he would keep us up and we had got the man to take us forward but when I saw how limp the midfield was and still is I am gobsmacked I fell for his shit!
That doesn't mean this season is over and we're down, just that I knew priorities and expectations had changed and it would be like that for some time to come.
It was after we lost to blackburn at home in the cup after being 2 up, i had to be dragged to my car by my missus from banging out a fecking div that was screaming thats why you should F off curbishley you dont know what youre doing.
it was the first time i had seen mr C hear for him self the poop being aimed at him from such short memoried idiots.
that night i knew the ride was coming to an end and that his time was up, i predicted relegation and not coming back up but not getting relegated again
When so called "fans" started to call for Curbishley's head. I started to wonder what had happened to such a special club that used to have supporters that were a class apart.
Blimey, there must be some very rich people on here judging by the all of the people who apparently "knew" we were going down at such an early stage. Surely they all went down the bookies and backed their judgement - seeing how they "knew" and all that.
- when curbs announced he was leaving spelt the end of an era
- the board's inability to find the right man to fill curbs shoes (and still happening to this day)
- during pre-season when we continued shipping out players but the transfer funds dried up - then again, the way pardew spunked the previous season's money, I wouldn't have trusted him with any more cash to spend (if we had any).....
despite these though, I was still optimistic that we'd push for the play-offs, however, that's been squeezed out of me by pretty much everything that's happened this season.
To be honest, and no one else seems able to admit it, the demise of the club coincided with the birth of this website, Everything was fine in the days of NettAddicks,
I think there are two parts to our demise. Going down from the Premiership was one of those things that realistically had to happen one day. When you are in a division of 20 teams of which 4 are never going to go down and another 4 are very unlikely to do down, you are left with 3 from 12. Clubs like Charlton and Reading will always slip down at some stage just as Hull City will do in the next year or so. I always felt that we were one off season or even unlucky season from dropping down to the Championship. We would have had more chance to stay there with Curbs as he could scrape together unexpected points and put out teams that would not give points away easily - at least, not until March.
The second part of our demise is the one where you fall through the trapdoor to the Championship and then have to survive that drop. On the surface, this is more surprising, but a look at recent league tables shows that the road ahead is bumpy for over half sides coming down from the Premiership. Again, we should not be surprised.
The turning point for me was when it became inevitable that we were going down from the Premiership saddled with overpaid players which would have no resale value. The Dowie spending spree caused this.We all hoped that the sale of Darren Bent would balance the books. And, I guess, when it became clear that Bent's sale was not enough, this was the beginning of the end.
The struggle will persist for at least 2-3 years until we find a cheap squad that is able to punch above its weight. If the attendances plummet, this will be longer still.
The club is still here, we have a team to support, ok we are not where we would like to be but then every team has its ups and downs thats what its all about.
Thats why i'm Charlton (and me dad made me) you just never know. I'm not despondent like the rest i think there is still a long way to go, and to single out one moment or person as a turning point is just bizarre. Was it one moment that took us to the dizzy heights of fourth i think not, it was a combination. what we need now is to start getting a new run of several moments together to start building again and to do this we need our foundations right and start having a steady ship. i think with parky we are probably looking with a slight tinge at the future.
I thought things started to go downhill after Christmas in Curbs' final season.
Once he had fallen out with Murphy he seemed to give up.
M Bent was a very lazy buy from Everton - the old Curbs would have hunted round for a hungry player with something to prove rather than signing a journeyman more interested in nightclubs than football.
I think after Christmas we won just four or five league games that year - always a good indicator of a team that will be relegation candidates the following season.
Watching Curbs' last home game against Blackburn was struck by how superior they were to us in terms of physical attributes and fitness as well as technique. The Prem. had changed and become a place for athletes who could play a bit of football but Curbs had failed to tune into this and left us with the likes of Bryan Hughes who had a reasonable left-foot but was in no sense of the word an athlete.
For me that was when it became clear - the golden years were about to come to an end.
I am with North London Addick on this one, the Blackburn game in the Carling Cup when we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, I said to my son at the time, we are in trouble, the players were cruising 2-0 whan Kuqi came on caused chaos and the players faces after said a lot to me and i recall lng people at the time we were in serious trouble, I sat behind the away dugout and after their first goal Hughes and Bowen knew they could win it.
The First in what have been a number of questionable Board decisions in recent seasons the appointment of Dowie, he could not of been anyone's first, second, sorry make that fifteenth choice, how bad a decsion that was, mind you how much damage has Pardew done since, his appointment cannot be too far behind.
[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]The First in what have been a number of questionable Board decisions in recent seasons the appointment of Dowie, he could not of been anyone's first, second, sorry make that fifteenth choice, how bad a decsion that was, mind you how much damage has Pardew done since, his appointment cannot be too far behind.
Dowie's appointment was definitely a 'knee jerk reaction' to get one over Tangoman, and left a lot of us with big questions at the time.
Pardew's appointment seemd like the best thing possible when it happened - I remember being elated. It's hard to be too critical of that actual decision as others have said - the issues lay more in the balance of power from that time on between the board and Pards - it's clear he had them over a barrel and just had to stamp his pretty little feet to get his own way and take us headlong into the abyss we now find ourselves in. If I saw him in the street, I'd find it hard not to resort to violence, and I'm not like that. On the other hand, if I saw Richard Murray, I'd still want to give hima big hug, as I know he cares and hurts as much as the rest of us.
[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]The First in what have been a number of questionable Board decisions in recent seasons the appointment of Dowie, he could not of been anyone's first, second, sorry make that fifteenth choice, how bad a decsion that was, mind you how much damage has Pardew done since, his appointment cannot be too far behind.
Dowie's appointment was definitely a 'knee jerk reaction' to get one over Tangoman, and left a lot of us with big questions at the time.
I'm not convinced that Dowie's appointment was a knee jerk reaction because at the end of season Bromley supporters club meeting attended by Richard Murray, he alluded to the problems Dowie was having with Jordan and that he (Dowie) MAY be available at some point in the future. Then low and behold, a couple of month's later he becomes our manager. Coincidence or what? I personally believe Dowie was on RM's 'shortlist' because the deal was done and dusted in record time. On the strength of what RM said at that meeting, I took a punt and put money on Dowie being our next manager (this was while he was still at Palace) and made a fair few bob.
For me the Board never really learnt from the Dowie spending debacle. Firstly we gave him more money to spend (11m) than we had ever given Curbs and that seemed bizarre. Then we let him sign average players on large wages and sanctioned that. Then it all went 'tits'. Instead of learning from that we then let Pards spend another 6m, 4m on two 'promising but unproven at Championship level strikers, and also hand out ridiculous contracts to the likes of Christiansen and god knows who else. ALL that money has followed the previous 11m down the pan. All I can say is thank God we had Darren Bent because without that 12m we'd be well and truely fecked, if we are not already. We were once the model Club, the Club other promoted Clubs aspired to be, the Club with the ultimate blueprint. Not now. You have to appreciate what RM, MS and RA did initially - a fantastic job in saving us, getting us back to The Valley against all the odds and creating a fantastic stadium. Paramount in all this was PV, steering our ship safely through the shark infested waters. Unfortunatley that bon homie has all but eroded over the last 18 months. Many fans now mistrust the Board and at best you can say they appear to have been financially naive. Whatever, they have let us down over the last 18 months. In all this I believe PV saw the writing on the wall and was unhappy with what was happening and decided that enough was enough. That was the beginning of the end.
Don't see how people can say Dowie's appointment was when they knew the writing was on the wall. It might look like that was the turning point now, but we're talking about how we felt at the time not with the benefit of hindsight. Yes , Dowie was a catastrophe. But didn't we all think at Xmas 2006 that Pardew was going to keep us up and we'd put the Dowie thing behind us as just a blip, an aberration in our on-going role as a 'model club'? I freely confess that's what I thought...at the time.
There is absolutely no doubting in my mind that the thought that Jordan would do his pieces once he found out we had got Dowie, played some part in us choosing him.
It might not have been the main factor, but i'm convinced it played some part of the attraction.
[cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]There is absolutely no doubting in my mind that the thought that Jordan would do his pieces once he found out we had got Dowie, played some part in us choosing him.
It might not have been the main factor, but i'm convinced it played some part of the attraction.
I think RM admitted as much in the court case, didn't he?
Well done for your wee bet, VM - at least someone got something positive out of the Dowie debacle...
Thought about this last night, i think it was when the board did not give Alan the One year deal he wanted, that would have kept us that season and made sure the mega TV money that came in that year went to the club, then in that summer if they promised alan half or Two Thirds of that i think they could have managed to make him stay or failing that have 30m plus in the bank to make sure they got a Top Top manager, by being stubbon and wanting him to sign another 7 year deal they did not prepare for him saying no and goodbye..
If someone as lightweight as Jensen decided to leave us was a sign and then to replace him with someone like Hughes was a huge backwards step whilst in the Prem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PragueAddick CommentTime11 hours ago quote# 42 Agree with Frank Gallagher and JohnnyH2; I knew Richard Murray a bit and was absolutely sure that he'd have prepared for the day Curbs left.
In management speak they say "we failed to manage change effectively"
Bill Shankly always said "Never get rid of anyone unless you have a replacement lined up"
It's scandalous that we got shot of Curbs and had no replacement. The way we WERE run you'd have thought there was a structure strong enough to promote from within. . . . .
Pardew apparently was forced to sell Reid and we bring in an unfit/hopeless Lee Cook!
Comments
I liked Pardew and thought he would keep us up and we had got the man to take us forward but when I saw how limp the midfield was and still is I am gobsmacked I fell for his shit!
That doesn't mean this season is over and we're down, just that I knew priorities and expectations had changed and it would be like that for some time to come.
it was the first time i had seen mr C hear for him self the poop being aimed at him from such short memoried idiots.
that night i knew the ride was coming to an end and that his time was up, i predicted relegation and not coming back up but not getting relegated again
They got what they wanted and here we are.
Off the field - Peter Varney leaving and not starting work at a bigger club or other job.
- the board's inability to find the right man to fill curbs shoes (and still happening to this day)
- during pre-season when we continued shipping out players but the transfer funds dried up - then again, the way pardew spunked the previous season's money, I wouldn't have trusted him with any more cash to spend (if we had any).....
despite these though, I was still optimistic that we'd push for the play-offs, however, that's been squeezed out of me by pretty much everything that's happened this season.
In management speak they say "we failed to manage change effectively"
The second part of our demise is the one where you fall through the trapdoor to the Championship and then have to survive that drop. On the surface, this is more surprising, but a look at recent league tables shows that the road ahead is bumpy for over half sides coming down from the Premiership. Again, we should not be surprised.
The turning point for me was when it became inevitable that we were going down from the Premiership saddled with overpaid players which would have no resale value. The Dowie spending spree caused this.We all hoped that the sale of Darren Bent would balance the books. And, I guess, when it became clear that Bent's sale was not enough, this was the beginning of the end.
The struggle will persist for at least 2-3 years until we find a cheap squad that is able to punch above its weight. If the attendances plummet, this will be longer still.
The club is still here, we have a team to support, ok we are not where we would like to be but then every team has its ups and downs thats what its all about.
Thats why i'm Charlton (and me dad made me) you just never know.
I'm not despondent like the rest i think there is still a long way to go, and to single out one moment or person as a turning point is just bizarre. Was it one moment that took us to the dizzy heights of fourth i think not, it was a combination. what we need now is to start getting a new run of several moments together to start building again and to do this we need our foundations right and start having a steady ship. i think with parky we are probably looking with a slight tinge at the future.
but to single out one moment rubbish
COYR
Once he had fallen out with Murphy he seemed to give up.
M Bent was a very lazy buy from Everton - the old Curbs would have hunted round for a hungry player with something to prove rather than signing a journeyman more interested in nightclubs than football.
I think after Christmas we won just four or five league games that year - always a good indicator of a team that will be relegation candidates the following season.
Watching Curbs' last home game against Blackburn was struck by how superior they were to us in terms of physical attributes and fitness as well as technique.
The Prem. had changed and become a place for athletes who could play a bit of football but Curbs had failed to tune into this and left us with the likes of Bryan Hughes who had a reasonable left-foot but was in no sense of the word an athlete.
For me that was when it became clear - the golden years were about to come to an end.
Dowie's appointment was definitely a 'knee jerk reaction' to get one over Tangoman, and left a lot of us with big questions at the time.
Pardew's appointment seemd like the best thing possible when it happened - I remember being elated. It's hard to be too critical of that actual decision as others have said - the issues lay more in the balance of power from that time on between the board and Pards - it's clear he had them over a barrel and just had to stamp his pretty little feet to get his own way and take us headlong into the abyss we now find ourselves in. If I saw him in the street, I'd find it hard not to resort to violence, and I'm not like that. On the other hand, if I saw Richard Murray, I'd still want to give hima big hug, as I know he cares and hurts as much as the rest of us.
I'm not convinced that Dowie's appointment was a knee jerk reaction because at the end of season Bromley supporters club meeting attended by Richard Murray, he alluded to the problems Dowie was having with Jordan and that he (Dowie) MAY be available at some point in the future. Then low and behold, a couple of month's later he becomes our manager. Coincidence or what? I personally believe Dowie was on RM's 'shortlist' because the deal was done and dusted in record time. On the strength of what RM said at that meeting, I took a punt and put money on Dowie being our next manager (this was while he was still at Palace) and made a fair few bob.
It might not have been the main factor, but i'm convinced it played some part of the attraction.
I think RM admitted as much in the court case, didn't he?
Well done for your wee bet, VM - at least someone got something positive out of the Dowie debacle...
Eh? Do you mean the FAC QF v Boro. How did Uncle Les do that?
Who beat them in the end?
and
we replaced him with Bryan Hughes
I said at the time its downhill from that moment.
If someone as lightweight as Jensen decided to leave us was a sign and then to replace him with someone like Hughes was a huge backwards step whilst in the Prem.
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PragueAddick CommentTime11 hours ago quote# 42
Agree with Frank Gallagher and JohnnyH2; I knew Richard Murray a bit and was absolutely sure that he'd have prepared for the day Curbs left.
In management speak they say "we failed to manage change effectively"
Bill Shankly always said "Never get rid of anyone unless you have a replacement lined up"
It's scandalous that we got shot of Curbs and had no replacement. The way we WERE run you'd have thought there was a structure strong enough to promote from within. . . . .
Pardew apparently was forced to sell Reid and we bring in an unfit/hopeless Lee Cook!
People got very lazy.