Just a quickie to say that Curbs was at his brilliant best last night - despite a few neanderthals in the crowd.
Said some very interesting things about leaving Charlton (Sidwell & Bullard) and a great insight into the turmoil at wet spam when he got there.
And he gave his time for zilch, to raise dosh for chariddeee - good ol Curbs.
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Why, have you got dinner ready for him?
Why, have you got dinner ready for him?[/quote]
Lol. I'll serve him humble pie and chips on behalf of all the Charlton fan's that wanted him out.
1. highlight of his career was wembley final biggest diapointmnet was having to walk from west ham
2. was sounded out about the palace job in the summer and laughed - as if to say there are some things that are too ridiculous.
3. actually seemed to have more respect for scumwall but mixed comments about them ( there was some comment about bottles being thrown in the directors box when he was a guest there but my mind had wandered so not sure what this was about)
4. Really thought he had the villa job lined up - still expects to get a prem job and expects opportunities in next couple of months ( was offered a couple last year from relegated teams ? guess portsmouth/hull
5. most signifiacant buy was mendonca. Mentioned that when he brought him and Matty Holmes in it was first year that teh squad had been strengthened in the summer and marked a turning point. Other people he mentioned as influntial buys were Gary Nelson and Steve Gatting in the early days and Kinsella and keily got Big mentions. Eddie Youds also significant. Colin Walsh got a mention here a s being influential and " in later times "Scott Parker"
6. Never met Parky but did say he took over at the most difficult time after previous mangers had left the cupboard bare.
7. Made the comment that one of the problems was that the Board hadn't had to make a decision for ........ years and after it left wasn't used to it. This was a more of a factual comment than a dig at Murray.
8. On his leaving he said he had already decided to leave after one more year and wouldn't sign the 3 year contract that Murray wanted him to sign. He seemed disapointed at not being able to finish his contract but Murray was worried that signing new players would be difficult if he wasn't going to be around. He said there was someone sorting out players/transfers ( i think this Mills from my memory) and was trying to line up Bullard and Sidwell. Bullard was about to sign for Fulham before the season finished but we thought that we could be in for £2 million. Murray apparently wanted to wait saying that there would be better deals in the summer adding that the alternative was to sell luke Young to West Ham who had offered £4m. Curbs said this finally made his mind up (although it did seem fairly certain anyway- so please dont start using this as the reason!).
9. Couldn't understand Capello's tactics in world cup and that his distance from players was too great and the strict regime all contributed to our poor performance in the world Cup. Didn't think the next England manager would be English.
he also answered some questions on west ham and some other general questions and probably some other things I can't remember
A very entertaining evening. They raffled a signed Charlton shirt which pleasingly went for more than the West Ham one while nobody bit for Robert green shirt!
He said RM asked him to sign a 3 year contract, but Curbs only really wanted to sign for 1 year - and then see how things were going.
RM was worried that decent players would not come to us on 3 year deals if Curbs was not guaranteed to be there for all 3 years.
As the last 6 games of the season approached, we were offerred Bullard for £2m from Wigan and Sidwell for £2m from Reading, who would come to us for the new pre-season. Curbs asked RM for the £4m and he said Curbs would have to sell Luke Young to WHU (they had already offerred £4m in private).
Curbs said he didn't want to sell LY, and RM said he wanted to wait until the Summer and see what the transfer market was looking like.
Curbs said he then got the feeling that he wasn't wanted. RM went on to gave Dowie £14m to spend in the Summer
Best case scenario - we would have had more Curbs, managing a Prem side with Bullard and Sidwell in it, making us a regular top ten Prem side every season.
Worst case scenario - buy a paper and look at the tables
As for the WHU situation, he said that he had 4 players ask to leave in the first week he got there (he named some of them), but the Konch was not one of them.
That's what pisses me off more than anything about the debacle of the last few seasons.
From my recollection, we were lined up to get Bullard and then Fulham come in and offered him wages well in advance of what we could have offered (about £35k a week i seem to remember)
Palace were after Curbs LOL!
I had always understood it that Curbishley wanted to see out his contract however, I wonder whether he might have changed his mind if Murrey have promissed him the money that he then gave to Dowie.
It wasn't a big gap of time where he thought that Charlton was a "very exciting place to be at", too not wanting to lengthen his contract...
I wasn't surprised for his quick turnaround then... Whenever he looked like having a real team, it always looked like it would be plucked off by the vultures, and then his "A list" of transfer targets would soon turn into a "C list".... I think this is the main reason he had had enough...
as said earlier where he had lined up the bullard,sidwell and cahill deals,it must have appeared to him that muz just didn't trust him and it must have been a shock for sir alan to have seen dowie and pardew let loose with so much money that he didn't get to see.
Sir Alex Ferguson said that a few years back now, then won the league and got the 'bug' back and didnt then want to leave. Who knows, if he did get that one more year with Sidwell, Bullard and a possible top 8 finish then maybe he could have been convinced???
Who knows, we never ever will.
yeah i heard he'd lined up cahill but murray tried to play hardball and cahill slipped off to everton ..........................
I have a very good memory,(mainly when it's about Charlton) and I remember at the time he wasn't exactly flavour of the month with fans on the forums... Just goes to show how managers can be thought of badly one moment, and then there's a turnaround of feeling ...
Bollocks. Only Palace had an offer accepted that I know of.