as dour as some of the football had been in recent years, as a long time charlton fan i still got excited by the fact we were playing in the top flight of english football..... now curbs has gone i really can't see how we're gonna stay up or get back once relegated and to see sir alan at the ammers hurts even more
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I personally felt that he stayed a season too long and a change was needed for the sake of both parties.
I don't think that any comparisons can be drawn from how Curbs does at West Ham to what might have happened if he had stayed with us.
Your livin in a dream world if you think if curbs had stayed we'd have been ok! He needed a fresh challenge, we needed this, as complacency has clearly set in. Now in the championshit we can re invent ourselves and hopefully come straight back up, i do say hopefully!
We are charlton oooh aaahhh, just remember we are only charlton.
Agreed. Curbs was a far better manager than most people realised and was able to make what were (are) (with one or two exceptions) Championship players play at Premiership level for a sustained length of time.
People within the game appreciated that, even if a substantial minority of Charlton fans with media connections did not, hence Curbs making the England Manager shortlist from l'il old Charlton.
Curbs will go from strength to strength now with money to spend and good luck to him. He owes us nothing.
As for us I fear a decline similar to what took place after Jimmy Seed went. In a more ruthless, less community minded 21st Century that decline could be terminal.
The economics of a club with money are such that the odd dud can be purchased and forgotten about. Look at the millions spent by Spuds, Newcastle, Middlesborough and Man City et al. Marcus Bent was more or less the only totally bad buy Curbs made for serious money. Not bad in 15 years.
The players who are just aren't good enough are all his men - Kish, Holland, Hughes, M Bent, Ambrose, El K etc.
We have only won 8 Premiership games all year.
If the league started in Jan last season we would have been bottom come May.
Curbs knew the writing was on the wall and he got out with his reputation intact.
He's always been very media savvy and very conscious of his standing and reputation among those who know little about what actually happens at the Valley.
However I think Curbs left because he wanted a change and a new challenge, however he was made to leave a year early because the board insisted - don't forget that.
Honestly though, the real reason we are so poor despite spending so much is the failure to bring in the right players for the right positions.
In fairness to the Board, Curbs gave them no other option once he said publicly that he wouldn't be signing a new contract.
whilst i agree with what your sayin Raz, i will say that yes he was made to leave, but he knows Murray and charlton well, and he knew they would tell him to sign an extension or leave (if ya get me drift!)
Personally I think change was healthy and required.
I do think the board were wrong to sack Dowie when they did, on the surface anyway, we don't know what went on below the surface. I think he was about to turn it around.
So we're in trouble, we should all bite the bullet and take it like a man so to speak.
agree with all that i doo.
Curbs operated within the parameters of the budgets he was given. In Premiership Terms, although generous in Charlton terms, Curbs had comparitively little money to spend. He therefore was forced to get Championship standard players of good character, gamble on discarded youngsters from other clubs or pick up the odd foreign player who may have slipped under the radar of other clubs. He then had the ability to get these players to sustain a standard above their natural level. Not many managers have that ability which is why some of us were anxious to retain Curbs for as long as possible.
Look at some of our "favourites"
Jensen - Bolton
Parker - Home grown
Di Canio - In the autumn of his career
Darren Bent - Ipswich
Kiely - Bury
Rufus - Home grown
Young - Not rated at Spurs
Thomas - Not rated at Arsenal
Most of those players had their day, were never the most talented players anyway and were typical of the sort of players that we needed and could afford.
A good manager gets most things right and has to work under the system that he has - Curbs brought several good players through (Parker, Defoe, Bowyer, J Samuel Lloyd) but lost them because we couldn't compete. Got good performances/great seasons out of others (Jensen, Mendonca etc) but over-all did a fantastic job competing against teams with vastly better resources. I still feel that parting company was the right thing, maybe and likely we'd have a few more points on the table than we currently do, but not that many more.
I guess the lesson is spend big money on the key players - cenre forward, centre midfield, keeper, centre-backs and do your best with what's left and whoever is available to fill the other places in the team. Dowie/Reed and Curbs to the end of his tenure were hampered by not having a couple of good players coming through the youth team and a few bad selections - Romm just hasn't got it, neither has Marcus Bent, and repeating the Di Canio trick with JFH hasn't worked and a couple of other players - HH, Holland, Hughes look a bit past it.
It didn't matter when Curbs went, Charlton were always going to go to **** after he left. Same thing has happened to Man U. They go from Champions to 7th after Alex leaves.
Arsenal will have the same thing happen once Wenger leaves.
Also...wow I didn't realize this was from 06...
Curbs' staleness was midtable in the Premier League. Powell's is in the relegation zone with little hope of that changing.
Otherwise we'd still have Dowie.
Yes it was so good accumulating all the points needed to survive in the first half of the season and then essentially not playing the last half. Gave the fans sooooooooooooo much to cheer for.
If you are going to be so forthright in offering your opinion, at least don't hide behind some seemingly made up identity.