As interim chair of CAS Trust I sometimes get asked to do the odd radio phone-in. I guess they think “we need a Charlton supporter” and hey presto I get the job, the bonus being we get to promote the Trust. Anyway on one occasion I recall there were two particular topics of discussion I had to cover (blag my way through) before I was allowed to give an update on what we were doing lately. The first was something about Peterborough’s ‘bombing’ fullbacks a la Barcelona (the presenters words not mine), and the second to do with Charlton and promotion in 2012-13. Well we all know how both of those ended this year don’t we..
Peterborough played nice football or tried to, but suffered the reality of Championship football. My point to the presenter was something like: that’s all nice (somewhat bemused by the Barcelona comparison) but what happens if/when the reality of finding yourselves at the bottom of the league bites? You have to change and start trying to grind out results – although to be fair to Peterborough the league remained very open until the last few weeks.
So then the conversation drifted back to Charlton, are we really ready for promotion if we managed it somehow this year, like Norwich and co? I think they expected me to say no, but I actually said why not? We weren’t ‘ready’ back in ’98 but it did us no harm, we put the money to good use, spent a year in the top league, kept that team together except for Mills, and ‘buried’ the Championship the following year. So who cares if you’re ready with the present day at £60-120 million!? The Championship play off final remains the biggest game in the world, it is simply enormous, and just gets bigger and bigger.
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If we were to get promoted we would not need to spend anywhere near as much - meaning more money for the squad and academy.
We certainly won't need anywhere near the amount spending on the ground. A lick of paint and some TLC for the East Stand toilets would be nice though!
When we won the play-offs it was seen as the £10m game - now it's £120m
I'm sure the re-development of Selhurst will happen gradually. And paying for that together with player purchases and increased wages will mean that there wont be much change out of the premiership money.
But (managed correctly, unlike the past) it gives us stability - something we've not really been used to.
In any case, we all know the ground is a dump and seriously needs work.
A special thanks to you lads who started the dismantling process back in Feb... ;>)