I am eternally grateful to Alan Curbishley, for his efforts in enabling me to watch my beloved Charlton play top flight football at The Valley, and to Richard Murray for his support of Alan Curbishley throughout most of his (Alan's) tenure.
I do not think that I will be lucky enough to live to see Charlton in the top flight again.
If i'm honest I'm not that fussed about being cannon fodder in the Prem again, I would like us to be a good quality Championship side, but I wont lose sleep not being in the Circus that is the Prem, I would like the club to have the money that comes with it though!!
In all honesty, although I naturally want to see my club competing at the highest level, I really don't miss all the crap that goes with the Prem. I guess I'd like them to get back because it would mean they had been very successful along the way (hopefully not just through buying their way in) and would represent a hard-won prize in itself, but after being treated to the best part of a decade at the top table it no longer holds the dreamy mystique that it once did as a place I'd thought we could never reach. If we do get there again I hope it's under RM or someone with similar Charlton credentials and integrity and a manager with similar values to Parky, but its greed-driven short-sightedness has a way of destroying people and clubs like that.
That is a very ' Dylanesk' Henry...... To refer to the second verse just before this he wrote....
Yes, an how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just dosen't see? Perhaps his Bobness is a Charlton fan,?....... now there is a weathly benefactor that could save us, and write us a decent song as well?
Still, always been that way as a Charlton supporter, we have never taken the easy road....... still, as another Bob stated........“Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold...”
What is this obsession with the Premier League, it really is uncompetitive & ultimately has landed us in the current trouble we are in. Personally I'll be happy as soon as we return to the Championship which I think will be withing the next two years. Historically we are a Tier Two Club, that is where we belong.
Must admit I agree with all of the above comments about winning and a realistic level of being in the Championship and I thoroughly enjoyed last season - nothing beats getting home on a Saturday afternoon having seen 2-3 goals and a win! Reality though is different. The club will not be able to continue with 16,000 people in the seats (maybe that will be a good week?) in a 27,000 seater stadium and all the other overheads that go with running a reasonable sized club. To survive financially we must be in the Championship as a minimum and ideally the Premier (even though I think we will always be cannon fodder). Those clubs that yo-yo up to the Premiership back to Championship, etc. must be hard to watch from a fans perspective - but should be in a much better state financially.
To that end my (optimistic) prediction will be that we should be able to get to the Championship for next season, then 2-3 years in the Championship (I would guess a minimum of 2 years without further investment) before hitting the Premier - so that means 2013 or 2014/2015 ...
[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]What is this obsession with the Premier League, it really is uncompetitive & ultimately has landed us in the current trouble we are in. Personally I'll be happy as soon as we return to the Championship which I think will be withing the next two years. Historically we are a Tier Two Club, that is where we belong.
I'm not obseesed with it. Was just musing on it, and wondering when the directors might get their loans repaid ;-)
If we're in the premiership the quality of charlton player and football will be so much better .....
Last season league one would have been similar to the premiership competitive wise in that the top lot were much stronger than the rest of the league but because we were involved in our league it clearly must be more exciting
I think the ideal scenario is doing it the west brom way up down up down , so continued excitement with promotion and relegation battles with some decent footballers and (hopefully) not risking too much dough in the process
Chuck in a decent cup run cos we'll have players better than the current crop and that would suit me fine
I also posted this on another thread a while back this morning, in response to Oohaah's post about our young players...... my summing up of where I feel we are now:
[cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]And we're lucky enough to keep the real pony ones cos they can all (try and) play for us atm in this dogshite league
It's not where I want to be, but you can only make the best of a situation ...... but confess I'm quite enjoying this dogshite league! It's full of endeavour and passion, some decent skills too - it feels like proper football, if you know what I mean.
It's a strange feeling being considered a 'massive' club, instead of "plucky little Charlton" in a Prem League full of posturing and posing, and the superficial gloss of the media circus.
But that feeling of mine would soon change if we ended up entrenched in the Third Division like Leyton Orient, with no hope or ambition other than survival.
In the meantime, no one can take away from me the memories of our run in the Prem, especially beating all London rivals home & away. It's the same feeling I had watching Mark Stuart scoring our winner at Old Trafford and Jimmy Melrose getting that hat-trick at Selhurst beating would be champions Everton, in our first top flight season under Lennie.
Everything in football seems to happen in cycles, so there's every chance we'll get our day in the sun again - we just have to live long enough!
Meanwhile I'm happy that some of our youngsters get a chance, even if they're only Third Division standard - and I'll be rooting for them to do well. And once in a while we will unearth someone special!
Ken, I'm impressed that you know the work of the great Robert Nesta Marley but surely you would recognise those two quotes as being from the Gospels and from Proverbs.
I hate the premiership as it is but would still rather be there than anywhere else purely because otherwise what is the point of competing....you should compete in the hope that one day you will be the best in the country then Europe etc. Ok realistically that will only ever happen to a small percentage of clubs but it will be the clubs who from top to bottom have the mentality of striving to be the best each season whatever league they are in.
I also think (hope) that in 5 years top flight football in this country and europe could change and the gulf in the prem narrow. For example I can imagine that when Man utd lose ferguson, arsenal wenger they will not enjoy the success they have for a while. I also think that a lot of the bankrolling chairman will get bored after the novelty and kudos of owning a club has worn off and is outweighed by the fact that they get very little return for their substantial investments.
Ideally clubs would go back to being owned by wealthy fans of the club who whilst rich are not in the Zabeel leagues and therefore budgets for transfers and salaries would be reduced and the market would regulate itself and thus make it more competitive.
By the time we get going again, the Premier League may have split up or have taken over the Championship. The footballing world could be very different in five years time. There's a real danger the top two tiers will seperate from the others.
Contenders in a Premier League 2 within five years, perhaps?
There'll need to be a few changes, but I'd not say anything like "not in my lifetime". While the top half is becoming an increasingly closed shop it wouldn't be long ago (3 years back) that you'd really struggle to find anyone who could imagine us finishing below Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Hull, Burnley, Blackpool et al. 5 years back people would think you were mad for asking. But every dog has its day.
Football fans lack imagination, they think when things are going well that they'll never change, and when they're on the slide that they'll never improve. Blackpool have, with a couple of decent managerial appointments and a budget that would purchase you about one Luke Varney, gone from League One to the Prem in three seasons.
i can see us in a couple of years being in the championship, maybe pushing for a play-off place. but i echo what some have said, the premiership has lost some of it's appeal. without mega-rich owners it's a battle for mid-table. the rest, the smaller and newly promoted teams, are battling to stay in the league. with the odd exception, its very predictable. And even when a club punches above it’s weight, 9 times out of ten the following season they’ll struggle. the rest of the leagues are wide open and anyone got a chance to finish anywhere and that makes it so much more exciting. plus it's nice going into almost every game believing we can win... rather than looking at the fixture list and thinking 'got no chance there... we might get a point here...'
I think we could get back into it in 5 years time - after all you only have to look at some of the chuff that have graced the Prem with their presence in the last two/three seasons (Burnley, Hull, Blackpool etc) to see that the Championship is actually a pretty average league and not impossible to get out of
however, staying there and establishing ourselves as happened 2000-2006 would I think be impossible unless the proverbial billionaire bought us out - the Prem has changed so much in the four years since we were relegated that making a few astute signings for a million or so each and being able to compete enough to stay in the top league for a run of three, four or five seasons is now a very big ask
When I started supporting Charlton in the early 70's I never expected to see a Charlton team in the top flight, Lenny took us there, when we were relegated I thought I would never see hem in the top flight ever again and then Curbs took us up, so never say never and in this world of big money then that is all it needs.
Whether I would like to see us back in the Prem is another matter.
Somebody asked me recently who I thought would win the Premiership this year. I answered "I can tell you it won't be Stoke"! That, to me, sums up the problem with the Premiership - as had been said by several other posters above, it's predictable - there are the "big 4" or 6 or whatever and everyone else is just clinging on, trying to survive.
Despite that, I want to see Charlton playing at the highest level and that means the Premiership. I can't say I feel the same excitement when I hear of new signings these days as I did when it was people like Danny Murphy and Darren Ambrose we were signing.
I've probably got about another 20 years in me (if I'm lucky) and I have to say I'm not convinced we'll reach the top again before I check out.
Comments
better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all !
I do not think that I will be lucky enough to live to see Charlton in the top flight again.
I really enjoyed last year... best season in ages...
and this season has started really well as well...
I like us to win... I like us scoring goals, and winning...
The future's not ours to see
Que sera sera
To refer to the second verse just before this he wrote....
Yes, an how many times can a man turn his head
and pretend that he just dosen't see?
Perhaps his Bobness is a Charlton fan,?.......
now there is a weathly benefactor that could save us, and write us a decent song as well?
Still, always been that way as a Charlton supporter, we have never taken the easy road.......
still, as another Bob stated........“Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold...”
To that end my (optimistic) prediction will be that we should be able to get to the Championship for next season, then 2-3 years in the Championship (I would guess a minimum of 2 years without further investment) before hitting the Premier - so that means 2013 or 2014/2015 ...
I'm not obseesed with it. Was just musing on it, and wondering when the directors might get their loans repaid ;-)
Last season league one would have been similar to the premiership competitive wise in that the top lot were much stronger than the rest of the league but because we were involved in our league it clearly must be more exciting
I think the ideal scenario is doing it the west brom way up down up down , so continued excitement with promotion and relegation battles with some decent footballers and (hopefully) not risking too much dough in the process
Chuck in a decent cup run cos we'll have players better than the current crop and that would suit me fine
It's not where I want to be, but you can only make the best of a situation ...... but confess I'm quite enjoying this dogshite league! It's full of endeavour and passion, some decent skills too - it feels like proper football, if you know what I mean.
It's a strange feeling being considered a 'massive' club, instead of "plucky little Charlton" in a Prem League full of posturing and posing, and the superficial gloss of the media circus.
But that feeling of mine would soon change if we ended up entrenched in the Third Division like Leyton Orient, with no hope or ambition other than survival.
In the meantime, no one can take away from me the memories of our run in the Prem, especially beating all London rivals home & away. It's the same feeling I had watching Mark Stuart scoring our winner at Old Trafford and Jimmy Melrose getting that hat-trick at Selhurst beating would be champions Everton, in our first top flight season under Lennie.
Everything in football seems to happen in cycles, so there's every chance we'll get our day in the sun again - we just have to live long enough!
Meanwhile I'm happy that some of our youngsters get a chance, even if they're only Third Division standard - and I'll be rooting for them to do well. And once in a while we will unearth someone special!
I also think (hope) that in 5 years top flight football in this country and europe could change and the gulf in the prem narrow. For example I can imagine that when Man utd lose ferguson, arsenal wenger they will not enjoy the success they have for a while. I also think that a lot of the bankrolling chairman will get bored after the novelty and kudos of owning a club has worn off and is outweighed by the fact that they get very little return for their substantial investments.
Ideally clubs would go back to being owned by wealthy fans of the club who whilst rich are not in the Zabeel leagues and therefore budgets for transfers and salaries would be reduced and the market would regulate itself and thus make it more competitive.
Contenders in a Premier League 2 within five years, perhaps?
Football fans lack imagination, they think when things are going well that they'll never change, and when they're on the slide that they'll never improve. Blackpool have, with a couple of decent managerial appointments and a budget that would purchase you about one Luke Varney, gone from League One to the Prem in three seasons.
however, staying there and establishing ourselves as happened 2000-2006 would I think be impossible unless the proverbial billionaire bought us out - the Prem has changed so much in the four years since we were relegated that making a few astute signings for a million or so each and being able to compete enough to stay in the top league for a run of three, four or five seasons is now a very big ask
Whether I would like to see us back in the Prem is another matter.
Despite that, I want to see Charlton playing at the highest level and that means the Premiership. I can't say I feel the same excitement when I hear of new signings these days as I did when it was people like Danny Murphy and Darren Ambrose we were signing.
I've probably got about another 20 years in me (if I'm lucky) and I have to say I'm not convinced we'll reach the top again before I check out.