to get all self-righteous and put the boot in.
Where are the Charlton fans who wanted Alan Curbishley out now? By John Cross
What an appalling situation at Charlton.
They look doomed, cut adrift at the foot of the Championship and a world away from the team that would always challenge for Europe under Alan Curbishley.
But I also remember going to the Valley and hearing the moans and groans from fans who would be claiming it was time for Curbs to go and take his boring football with him because the club needed to go forward.
Well, look at them now.
I bet those same supporters wouldn't dare admit to saying what they used to say three or four years ago.
Shame on you.
Yawn, over to you Len, oohaah......
0
Comments
Programmes like 606 and 505 (or whatever the Talksport phone in is called) were full of Charlton fans moaning about Curbishley at that time. Now it maybe that the media deliberately slanted the calls to push their own agenda, I was moved to phone once or twice in response to put the pro Curbs view and was not chosen.
That could be because I come across as an illierate cretin who does not deserve to be heard on National radio or alternatively the programmes were only interested in peddling one viewpoint. You decide.
However whatever the answer the public face of Charlton fans in the media was invariably anti Curbs for two or three years at least before he eventually departed and that is a fact even if that fact is unpalatable to some now.
I forgot all of those signs that were held up at Old Trafford said "Get Out Curbs" instead of "Thank you Curbs", I also forgot the rubbish reception Curbs got at The Valley against Blackburn. If only people spontaneously stood up and started singing "Stand up for Alan Curbishley" rather than "F*ck off Alan Curbishley".
It was a minority of fans who held the view that he had to go, yes many would say the football was boring but no one would have been disgruntled if he had signed a new five year deal. But he didnt.
The rest is history.
spot on len.doesn't need anymore added to that.
Curbs was a hero and for the vast majority of his tenure fantastic. However, in the last three years he was undoubtedly losing the plot. Movements in the transfer market, the annual post xmas slump, the players we got rid of (not the ones who wanted to go) etc.
The mistakes that have led to where we are now are well documented, 3 years on its unlikely Curbs would still be here and crap position or not I take a rather perverse pleasure in turning up to games that matter rather than the watching paint dry of lower mid-table premiership mediocrity (probably more a critisism of the premiership than us).
I fully expected to get slated for this but its how I feel - I want passion, I want excitment, I don't want to defend a one goal lead for 89 minutes. The writing was on the wall when we started one up front against West Brom when they were crap and still beat us 4-1 and we're at home.
So yes, the Curbs days were great (apart from the last 3) and I never expected we'd fall as far as we have but beware hindsight and rose tinted glasses.
We've survived div.3 before and we will again
We then played with 10 men on a hot sunny day and got punished by Earnshaw when we ran out of gas.
Things were going very stale, we took a gamble and it didnt pay off. Could have quite easily spent that much on players and things could have turned out very differently.
He didn't want to sign the contract extension he was offered which is fair enough. He'd given us great service over the years but maybe, having missed out on the England job, felt he need to move on. He looked knackered when he left and almost a different person after his break.
The only debate really is should we have kept him for that last year of his contract when it could have been a problem signing players who knew he was going or did we do the right thing in ending it there and then.
There was a vocal minority who did want him to go - of which I was not one - but as said the banners, the chants etc were all pro-Curbishley.
The thing is Len, yes that maybe true if you take them as typical Charlton fans, my view is these people weren't typical. There were people moaning about Curbs but such is the nature of these phone ins who decided to broadcast strident views to "liven up the debate". I rang up on a few occasions to put a counter view but couldn't get on.
It's rather like the plonker who phoned up Talksh*t on Saturday and blamed everything on the board. Yes thats a view that some take, including on here. Is it a majority view, I very much doubt it (see seperate thread)? The bloke phoned in in response to Stan Nasal Spray's, provocative opening remarks about "whys it all gone wrong down at the Valley?" Well f*ck me rigid, the first caller was this bloke. Later on somebody called in to rubbish what he said but the impact call was the first one.
But Dowie used £13 mill to add to that squad, so if Curbs had been there to use that money would he have used it to improve the squad. My view for what its worth,is that Curbs needed to move on, he would have moved on at some stage, the board then made some horrendous errors of judgement each time compounding the previous error (Les Reed),we the fans agreed with some of these errors (Pardew) some we did not... but it is the errors that put us here, not curbs departure and the lack of a succession plan.
lets deal in facts and no what might haves and the only facts are that he consistently delivered prem football.
As you say old ground but once again Curbs would have strengtened over the summer had he stayed just as Dowie supposedly did.
It is therefore unfair to try and smear Curbishley for the sins of Dowie and Pardew.
The question nobody will ever be able to answer is would Curbs have been given £12 million like Dowie was?
Talkspurt do this all the time. I was laughing at ladykiller Stan the other day trying to goad Arsenal fans into saying Wenger should go. Not one did but he kept on going on about all the anger from Arsenal fans in every link. When they continued to not bite he started talking about callers who hadn't wanted to come on air who had demanded Wenger leave. To be fair it's my fault for listening to a show made by idiots for idiots. They will lie and sensationalise in the knowledge that most listners lack the smarts to interpret it.