As a Charlton fan, I've probably overlooked the fact that we once signed the European Footballer of the Year...
1) On Google Images, you have to go to page 11 before you get a picture of Simonsen at Charlton:
- is that Peter Crouch when he had long hair?
Anyway, what was the general perception of him at the time? Is he the best to ever play for us? Have any of our players compared since then? (thinking Di Canio for skill?)
What did he say about Charlton when he was here/when he left?
Did he care that his being at Charlton nearly ruined us (or was there more to it than that)?
I know more about Firmani, Hales and Summers than I do about the former Euro POTY, is this wrong, and should his short Charlton career be highlighted more?
Comments
I was at the reserve game where he made his debut - came on for the second half & kicking towards the covered end he made an instant impact.....wont ever forget the 1-2 he played with Killer which led to an ewffort just clearing the bar - if it had gone in it would have been goal of the season !!
I'm really p*****d that I missed the win over Chelski where he scored twice - but did see the 'Boro & Newcastle games and Simmo was something else. As said on previous posts, he was 2 passes ahead of the rest of the team & I'm just glad I was old enough to see him play for us.
LEGEND
I remember that we signed him & it was weeks before he actually made his 1st team debut. I remember he was rumoured to be playing away to chelski I think it was & his name was in the programme but he didn't play & one of the weekend footie programmes taking the piss & saying the programme will become a collectors item.
Made his debut the following week against boro & a larger than usual crowd turned up (but not that big) & boro strolled into a 3=0 lead. 2nd half we did make a comeback & Simo scored our first (I think) from a free kick, alas it took a huge deflection before finding the back of the goal so it wasn't that one that was the fantastic goal Bartram unless the angle you were at made it look better than it was. We managed another but 2-3 was how it ended.
Sure he played against ipswich in the FA Cup at the Valley when they were one of the top teams in the country & for about half an hour Simo ran them ragged as we went 2-0 up, unfortunately they gradually came back into it & scored 3 times to edge a great game.
Favourite memory tho was against chelski at the Valley 5-2 Simo got 2 that day & his second he seemed to skip around 4/5 challenges before sliding it under their goalies body.Absolutely brilliant.....shame we didn't have video technology in those days ;-(
Bartram don't know if you (or anyone else) can remember but somewhere in the back of my mind i have this thought that Simo was picked up from the airport & driven on the back of a motorbike straight to the Valley to play in that reserve game, anyone confirm or have I lost my marbles ? Mind you the size of him the bike rider could have put him in his pocket !
He scored a couple of volleys against Leicester and a low shot from the edge of the box v Newcastle (on MOTD) and was heavily featured in the classic FA Cup game at home to Ipswich (still possibly the best game I've ever seen). But as others have said, the Chelsea home game was on another planet for the two goals in quick succession that he scored, just as Chelsea were coming back into the game. Think Ricky Villa v Man City in the FA Cup Final and you'll have an idea of what both goals were like. Pretty sure he even rounded the goalie (Steve Francis) for the first one.
I know it was my first season so I was impressionable but for exciting games and drama,1982-83 is right up there. For those who can remember, I'm talking about Ipswich 2-3, Chelsea 5-2, Wolves 3-3 (3-0 down), Bolton 4-1 (1-0 down and 20 mins from relegation)...four absolute classic matches.....and I didn't see away to Sheff W 4-5 (3-0 up!!) or away to Burnley 1-7 (9 men!)
For the younger element, if we could have had Simonsen in our Premier League team playing with the likes of Parker, Jensen and Di Canio we would probably have got into Europe. Easily the best attacking player I've seen play for the club.
PS: The reserve game was v Swansea at The Valley and the attendance was an amazing 2,500. That would be the equivalent of about 7,000 now....half of our normal home gate.
below in an old Telegraph item. Sure they are wrong and he was either with us or just left when he played, or why would we
have gone. Prior to him, our only other international for years had been Graham Moore (Wales).
September 21,1983 - England 0 Denmark 1 at Wembley
For the first, and to date only, occasion, Denmark triumphed over England. It came in a European Championship qualifier with
Simonsen, who later featured for Charlton, scoring the game's only goal in the 36th minute. As a result, Denmark qualified
for the finals, in France, and reached the semi-finals. Present coach Morton Olsen also played in that game.
He played a pass through for a goal in the game against Chelsea that was ridiculous - still one of the finest passes I've ever seen. Can't even remember who scored it but they almost fell over the ball.
Absolute genius of a player - better than either of the Laudrups.
@ralphmilne
Simonsen played for us in 1982/83 so you are right he played for us just before that Wembley appearance .
I don't think he won any caps whilst with us .However ,we don't need to go back to Graham Moore for our last international player , Leighton Phillips won the last two of his fifty eight Welsh caps as an Addick the previous season .
By far the best player I have seen play for us . He was in a class of his own in the Chelsea game referred to above.
I agree with the great man's namesake above about how he would have linked with Jensen , Parker and Di Canio but the team I would have loved to see him play in would have been Lennie's late Eighties battlers because he could have given them an extra dimension and established us in the top flight.