We won 6 of our first 8 games or something that season playing some superb, superb football, and made a cup quarter-final took 5,500 to a replay at mboro and had a genuine chance of winning the trophy. We also had two players on standby for the England world cup squad.
This year we have done the double over Exeter and Chesterfield and been number 3 in south london. I've enjoyed the season but it is functional (i.e. gaining promotion) - this league is sh*t you can hardly boast to your mates about spunking it. I'd take 05/06
We won 6 of our first 8 games or something that season playing some superb, superb football, and made a cup quarter-final took 5,500 to a replay at mboro and had a genuine chance of winning the trophy. We also had two players on standby for the England world cup squad.
This year we have done the double over Exeter and Chesterfield and been number 3 in south london. I've enjoyed the season but it is functional (i.e. gaining promotion) - this league is sh*t you can hardly boast to your mates about spunking it. I'd take 05/06
I felt it was functional in 06, as we willed our way to the 40 point mark, in the same way that more than half of the clubs in the prem have done so ever since. The function in the Prem for all but a few is survival driven by fear?
No, obviously. How many supporters of clubs that are floating around in what was our position in the league - say Fulham - would say that they would really enjoy a three year stint in league one culminating in a nice winning season. How many of those that said yes on here would have swapped the Prem for the third division. BWP is great, but he's not Darren Bent. This season has been fantastic, but the whole point of climbing a ladder is to get to the top.
No, obviously. How many supporters of clubs that are floating around in what was our position in the league - say Fulham - would say that they would really enjoy a three year stint in league one culminating in a nice winning season. How many of those that said yes on here would have swapped the Prem for the third division. BWP is great, but he's not Darren Bent. This season has been fantastic, but the whole point of climbing a ladder is to get to the top.
I think some people would agree, except it is absolutely impossible to get to the top, so why not just be happy wherever you are on the ladder?
It's crazy that some people would prefer finishing mid table to lifting silverware.
In that case we may as well deliberately play poorly next year and get relagated next year just so we can win the 3rd division title again and repeat this ad infinitum mate ;-)
No Charlton supporter can be accused of being a plastic or a glory hunter and as I said before I hate a lot about Premiership football but surely competing to be the best of the best is what the whole league structure is about unless you just go for the social side of things?
Dont get me wrong this has been one of the best seasons i can remember but I would swap it for a repat of our 98 playoff final resulting in promotion to the top flight in a heartbeat.
Look at what Fulham achieved ie European cup final and beating Juve on the way. They probably at first thought they missed stomping the lower leagues like they did but i doubt many of them would now.
I want us to be the club having 3rd division clubs rocking up for a cup day at a packed valley again with the possiblity of a "giant" killing like we did at Craven Cottage (as much as i enjoyed that day).
I remember Kevin Phillips saying he always prefers a promotion season in the Champ than one struggling to survive in the Prem.
I know we didn't struggle to survive in the season in question but some of the games post Christmas were abject to say the least. And I don't think I have ever been so let down and peed off by a Charlton side than I was in the home 1/4 v Boro. They bottled it completely.
I think the other difference is that the Premier League almost forces all clubs to keep borrowing to stay up. What this means is that it is not realistically possible to stay there forever and once you pass the point of no return you have no choice than to stay up. I know that is a silly comment, but it means that relegation is catastrophic. By 2006 we had passed that point of no return which was why the football had to be so dire to keep us up. The inevitable relegation caused the collapse that sees us where we are now.
This is the other con of that season. It was obvious to many that we had passed the peak of the curve and that we were hanging on to our Premier League status by our finger tips. The Cup run that season masked the fact that our time in the elite was coming to an end, and that it quite possible that our return would take many years. That meant that the rubbish we were having to watch was, quite possibly, as good as it was going to get for many for the rest of their lives. My Dad (who is now 70) thought, until recently, that he would never see us in the top flight again.
Of course it is. Players and a manager who care. Curbs had lost interest, shut up shop, and was thinking about the England Job, while a decent squad who wanted to kick on were completely frustrated (hence Murphy and Smertin leaving, the latter citing lack of ambition). The games for the rest of the season were utterly dire - a dreadful run. I still believe if Palace had won the last match of the season, different decisions would have been made, and things would have turned out better for us instead of the years of hell we've endured up to recently.
As to now, it's so nice to have everyone buzzing again, a bit of hope, feelgood feeling, a BOND between the players and fans (not had for years - certainly not in the last two prem seasons) and hopefully only one step away from the top flight next season!
I'm certainly enjoying this season a lot more because of the frequency of the wins.
But the hope that we *might* win a game was thrilling in the Premier League. Now, the expectation is that we will win and anything less is frustrating. Although I wouldn't say I felt that way at the beginning of the season, but just when I realised that our team this season has great spirit.
Also feel like I'd more than likely go and talk to one of our players if I saw them in a local shop. Would NEVER have felt like that when we were in the Premier League as I never thought that they would be interested. I actually feel like our players like to chat to the fans. (they may not, i just get the impression they are just normal!)
The penultimate season was our most depressing in the Premiership even worse than the relegation seasons, It completely fizzled out after the cup win against Chelsea in October.
I doubt there's anyone who's not enjoying this season more.
This.
That was the last season I had a season ticket. I had got to a point where going to games had become a chore and I wasn't going because I wanted to, I was only going because I had already paid for it.
Now, I've got the buzz again and I actually look forward to going to games. We've got our Chrarlton back!
I prefer this season, for a lot of the reasons already posted, mainly the ones about feeling close to the players/club, and feeling like they appreciate us more, most of the Prem players probably didn't give a rats arse about the supporters.
We were a decent Premier League side and for 6 of the 7 seasons we were very comfortable and never looked in danger of going down, if things had taken a different path the words Charlton and Relegation would rarely if at all been mentioned in the same breath. We are easily as big a club as the all those obvious Premier League sides (insert names here) so we should have no sense of inferiority should we ever get back. This season is great because of the togetherness and the spirit we have seen and that it is also the first point in being able to say that after all the turmoil of recent years "we are back" This season will hopefully go down as a great promotion year but ultimately I see it as a stepping stone to better things and in that it's a great first step. I would love to see this club back in the top flight again and make no apologies for that and it would be nice to do it and keep our soul, it has worked for Norwich et al, it can for us too. In short the answer is No, but I am enjoying this season immensely.COYR!
This is a good season because it feels as if we are on the way up rather than on a slide to nowhere.
Nothing beats seeing your team at the highest level though and hopefully, IF (and it's a big IF), we do get there then we, Club and fans, will learn from past mistakes and appreciate it to the full.
As the question refers to the Penultimate Premiership season the answer is No. However this season is definately better than the last Premiership season, so many awful moments that season, including anything that involved Jimmy-Floyd, and the debacle FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest (3rd tier club at the time) where the chant of "we want our Charlton back" was heard for the first time.
Comments
This year we have done the double over Exeter and Chesterfield and been number 3 in south london. I've enjoyed the season but it is functional (i.e. gaining promotion) - this league is sh*t you can hardly boast to your mates about spunking it. I'd take 05/06
No Charlton supporter can be accused of being a plastic or a glory hunter and as I said before I hate a lot about Premiership football but surely competing to be the best of the best is what the whole league structure is about unless you just go for the social side of things?
Dont get me wrong this has been one of the best seasons i can remember but I would swap it for a repat of our 98 playoff final resulting in promotion to the top flight in a heartbeat.
Look at what Fulham achieved ie European cup final and beating Juve on the way. They probably at first thought they missed stomping the lower leagues like they did but i doubt many of them would now.
I want us to be the club having 3rd division clubs rocking up for a cup day at a packed valley again with the possiblity of a "giant" killing like we did at Craven Cottage (as much as i enjoyed that day).
I remember Kevin Phillips saying he always prefers a promotion season in the Champ than one struggling to survive in the Prem.
I know we didn't struggle to survive in the season in question but some of the games post Christmas were abject to say the least. And I don't think I have ever been so let down and peed off by a Charlton side than I was in the home 1/4 v Boro. They bottled it completely.
This is the other con of that season. It was obvious to many that we had passed the peak of the curve and that we were hanging on to our Premier League status by our finger tips. The Cup run that season masked the fact that our time in the elite was coming to an end, and that it quite possible that our return would take many years. That meant that the rubbish we were having to watch was, quite possibly, as good as it was going to get for many for the rest of their lives. My Dad (who is now 70) thought, until recently, that he would never see us in the top flight again.
As to now, it's so nice to have everyone buzzing again, a bit of hope, feelgood feeling, a BOND between the players and fans (not had for years - certainly not in the last two prem seasons) and hopefully only one step away from the top flight next season!
But the hope that we *might* win a game was thrilling in the Premier League. Now, the expectation is that we will win and anything less is frustrating. Although I wouldn't say I felt that way at the beginning of the season, but just when I realised that our team this season has great spirit.
Also feel like I'd more than likely go and talk to one of our players if I saw them in a local shop. Would NEVER have felt like that when we were in the Premier League as I never thought that they would be interested. I actually feel like our players like to chat to the fans. (they may not, i just get the impression they are just normal!)
i can't be bothered (well you tricked me !)
That was the last season I had a season ticket. I had got to a point where going to games had become a chore and I wasn't going because I wanted to, I was only going because I had already paid for it.
Now, I've got the buzz again and I actually look forward to going to games. We've got our Chrarlton back!
This season is great because of the togetherness and the spirit we have seen and that it is also the first point in being able to say that after all the turmoil of recent years "we are back" This season will hopefully go down as a great promotion year but ultimately I see it as a stepping stone to better things and in that it's a great first step. I would love to see this club back in the top flight again and make no apologies for that and it would be nice to do it and keep our soul, it has worked for Norwich et al, it can for us too.
In short the answer is No, but I am enjoying this season immensely.COYR!
Nothing beats seeing your team at the highest level though and hopefully, IF (and it's a big IF), we do get there then we, Club and fans, will learn from past mistakes and appreciate it to the full.