Blaming Dowie

Chirpy Red

I find all this blaming Dowie stuff rather pathetic. OK so he spent the money, OK they were HIS players. So why wasn't he given time to work with them? You can't have it all ways Mr Murray.
The playing side of the Club has been in decline for a number of years now while off the field matters seem to have gone from strength to strength. Maybe the club have taken their eye off the ball - literally - over the past few years.
Maybe we have been too keen to be all things to all men rather than concentrating on Saturdays at 3pm? (And that is just a figure of speech sadly)

PalaceHater

The actual standard of the players he got (apart from Reid and Carson) has been laughable. The footballing ability and attitude of them has been embarassing. That is a fact. Surely with god knows how many games they have played, the new players, should have found some sort of form consistently. Had another manager had that much money I very much doubt we would have a team that showed so little ability and passion. Diawarra, Faye and Traore are laughable and thats a fact.

Chirpy Red

But he must have seen something. He wasn't given the chance to work with them. Maybe they are mercenaries, if so, they probably can't be bothered to work for someone who, they may have heard , was involved in getting rid of the bloke who signed them.

LenGlover

We had our previous manager for 15 years and the overwhelming majority of players he brought in were successful for a sustained period even if not their whole time at the club.

Richard Murray, like the rest of us, is adjusting to the gaping chasm left by the departure of Curbs. Managers of clubs like Spuds, Newcastle and Man City regularly spend millions on complete dross. This season is the first (and hopefully last) time it has happened here and I think Murray is genuinely shocked that there is b***er all to show for his £12 million and expressed that shock in the interview.

My view is that the failure of most of Dowie's buys illustrates yet again what a great manager Curbishley was. Diawara cost £3.7 million. Curbishley's purchases of £3million or more were Jensen, Johannson, Euell and Young. All of those did a good job for us over a number of seasons.

As I've said many times about Curbs you never know how good something is until it's gone.

pickwick

It also doesn't help that the team is chopped and changed every week, how many times have we had the same 11 starting in the same formation every week? 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, etc. The consistency of the playing staff has mostly been down to injuries, the consistency of tactics has not. Choose something stick to it. It might help.

Chirpy Red

So you are a Curbs is God man!
Couldn't agree less. Of course he did a good job for a number of years, but he was part of a team of people that built something very special at Charlton, and that includes a lot of the fans.
IMO without a doubt he went stale. He said it as much himself. The last 3/4 season have not been fun. I reckon I could only pick out a dozen games max that I have enjoyed in that period. I'm not talking results, I'm talking matches.
He obviously had a problem with motivation. To fall away once after reaching relative safety is excusable, twice is worrying but for it to happen 4 times is appalling.
People have to realise he has gone. He was always going to go sooner or later. Scott Parker has gone too. Neither will be coming back.
This stupid expression "Be careful what you wish for" has been banded about over the last few months. I wanted Curbs to go. I didn't wish for this mess. I wished for Pardew as our manager. We got Dowie. He impressed me immensely. I believe he was beginning to get things going. I know for a fact he had ALL the players respect.
I'd still like Pardew but it appears outside matters will affect him getting a high profile job for a while.
The board have done wonders for the club, but they have made some errors recently. It seems pride is getting in the way of them rectifying matters.
I have nothing against Reed but he is so out of his depth he'd need a submarine to save him

StanmoreAddick

[cite]Posted By: pickwick[/cite] Choose something stick to it. It might help.

Possibly Pickwick- but if the results don't happen, as they haven't then he would be vilified for not trying to adapt.

I'm not sicking up for Reed here- I just feel, with this, he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

Only results and points will count for anything now.

LenGlover

[cite]Posted By: DJ Davey Dave[/cite]So you are a Curbs is God man!
Couldn't agree less. Of course he did a good job for a number of years, but he was part of a team of people that built something very special at Charlton, and that includes a lot of the fans.
IMO without a doubt he went stale. He said it as much himself. The last 3/4 season have not been fun. I reckon I could only pick out a dozen games max that I have enjoyed in that period. I'm not talking results, I'm talking matches.
He obviously had a problem with motivation. To fall away once after reaching relative safety is excusable, twice is worrying but for it to happen 4 times is appalling.
People have to realise he has gone. He was always going to go sooner or later. Scott Parker has gone too. Neither will be coming back.
This stupid expression "Be careful what you wish for" has been banded about over the last few months. I wanted Curbs to go. I didn't wish for this mess. I wished for Pardew as our manager. We got Dowie. He impressed me immensely. I believe he was beginning to get things going. I know for a fact he had ALL the players respect.
I'd still like Pardew but it appears outside matters will affect him getting a high profile job for a while.
The board have done wonders for the club, but they have made some errors recently. It seems pride is getting in the way of them rectifying matters.
I have nothing against Reed but he is so out of his depth he'd need a submarine to save him

I'm not a Curbs is God man however I do think that he was a far better manager than many seem prepared to acknowledge and because of that is a hard act for ANYBODY (not just Dowie or Reed) to follow. There simply are not many people of Curbs' calibre out there.

In short it is not that Dowie and Reed are bad but rather that Curbs was exceptionally good.

You don't appreciate what you've got until it's gone.

StanmoreAddick

[cite]Posted By: DJ Davey Dave[/cite] I'd still like Pardew but it appears outside matters will affect him getting a high profile job for a while.

Being careful, care to put any "meat on this bone"?

buckshee

have to say that faye was excellent when Dowie was in charge and once Diawara got back in the side apart from the wigan game he too was looking good under Dowie

pickwick

Curbs had time to f*** up and grow at our place and a lot of managers never get that chance, he improved through his time with us and although the last couple of years have ben a bit rubbish I think no one could say that he is not at least #2 in the CAFC managers hall of fame, as it were.

Dowie has had what 3/4 years as a manager, he is taking the normal route a few clubs before he gets it 100% right. Furguson must have done 10 years plus before Man Utd, Arsene was hardly a new boy and Mourinho may have only been at Porto for a few years but there is always an exception.

Most of these guys get a chance somewhere move on, etc...So it was always going to be dificult to follow Curbs.

It has in fact it has just been impossible and that maybe the boards fault, I have now lost the thread with this post and am going to end it................

paulbaconsarnie

[cite]Posted By: LenGlover[/cite]We had our previous manager for 15 years and the overwhelming majority of players he brought in were successful for a sustained period even if not their whole time at the club.

curbishley is undoubtedly very talented at spotting players (usually from lower leagues) that would fit in with his thinking.
he wanted players that were hungry or had something to prove. kinsella, mendonca, hunt, robinson, powell, stuart, jones, euell, jensen, jj etc all fitted in when the system was geared to get/keep us up.
expectations then grew and some of that was his doing. he talked about europe, he talked about not wanting to be known as 'little old charlton', he said there was no reason we should not win a cup competition and started suggesting his players deserve international call ups (he even said jerome thomas could solve englands left midfield problem.
1 thing i distinctly remember was when he announced that he was no longer going to show potetial new signings the battle for and building up of the valley film, he wanted to 'look to the future, not the past'.
it is with this expectation/goal, call it what you like, that i think he changed his way of thinking.
he started buying players to try to take us to that next level, and he didn't/couldn't do it. players such as murphy, smertin, jeffers all came in and for what ever reasons didn't do it. he started to fall out with players like parker, euell, konchesky, murphy, jeffers etc which (imo) brings into question, his ability to man-manage bigger stars.
also remember that traore, faye & jimmy flloyd lazyc**t were all curbs targets previously, and rommedahl is 6 months from completing a 3 year deal and is yet to score at the valley.

after saying all that, i hope it does not come accross that i am anti curbs because i'm not.