I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person but there is nothing anyone can either do or say to persuade me that Scott Parker isn't a complete c**t
We were fourth. We were breaking the mould. Curbs said we could have made top 5, but I think he's being modest. Fourth was not out of the equation. It felt, at the time, like the big clubs didn't like that, and removing the heart of our time slapped us back down.
Roman doesn't care enough about football for that to have been remotely a motivation, but the way we smashed them, then lost our best player to them only for him to sit on the sidelines, really made it feel that way.
Oh I think that was the motivation. Classic Russian gangster tactic, some pesky upstart invades your patch, so a bomb goes off under a car. Equivalent of that, I would say, and the fact he hardly played fro them is testimony to that.
They did exactly the same thing with SWP and Man Citeh. Buying him was meant to derail Citeh, as much as anything else. And, for a lot more money
I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person but there is nothing anyone can either do or say to persuade me that Scott Parker isn't a complete c**t
The thing is , if we ever got in a similar position again , would history repeat itself , or would we learn from the mistakes made in the past , i fear not, money talks , the ideal would have been to have an already made Scott Parker waiting in the wings , rather than being left in the lurch, 10 million seems a steal with the riches on offer now.
Curnishley said: ‘Definitely the Parker deal, because we were fourth in the Premier League, we beat Chelsea 4-1 at The Valley and the next week Chelsea made a bid for him and it was impossible to keep him.
When I interviewed Martin Simons which you can read in the last trust news he talks about the Parker deal, or what was his refusal to play. Parker had no agreement to talk to another club, above us, which is what I had heard from 'rumour' In fact he walked out of the training ground 'refusing to play', according to Martin.
And Parker claims he had a verbal agreement with Murray, who knows. Its water under the bridge, we failed to use the money well, even the following summer and eventually sunk
Was that when Murray thought Cahill would never leave London and fucked up the negotiations or when Arsenal nicked Flamini from us?
I got the impression that Cahill was given the ultimatum to get the hell out of London!
As for Parker, we should have refused to sell and he would have come crawling back eventually. Had he gone the following summer I could have accepted that, but he screwed us and himself - no doubt he would have been in the England squad had he carried on his form with us - by throwing his toys out of the pram. Cracking player, a little short in the intelligence department.
I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person but there is nothing anyone can either do or say to persuade me that Scott Parker isn't a complete c**t
I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person but there is nothing anyone can either do or say to persuade me that Scott Parker isn't a complete c**t
No beef from me with Parker. If a club does not want a player they more him on, its in their interest and they are quite happy to shaft the player. So Parker shafted us, "Do unto others before they do unto you, especially if it makes you sack loads richer!". To call him a C.... after all this time is juts sad.
im sorry, people saying this was the decline of cafc is not true, it was a hurdle and we didn't jump it. the decline was clearly when dowie came in. dowie did the damage. I don't have any regrets because we were starting to lose our identity and proper club identity by then. yeah league one wasn't great but this is what we get for spending beyond our means and abandoning our steady improvement. it is fully our fault. it wasn't like parker held a gun to curbs head (atleast i dont think he did). We made a decision to sell him. i know parker was being a bit of a deuce bit we still decided to sell him did we not. definately him going the reason we declined
This is rather off-topic but it does relate to Curbs. A few weeks ago I met the father of a lad who was a member of the youth team when Glyn Snodin was coach. Snodin told the lad he would be offered a contract, but Curbs then declined to do so, a less than edifying communication breakdown.
The man I met said that Curbs never attended any youth games and didn't even know the players, while Snodin played as many old lags as possible in the reserve team at the expense of the young lads, in the hope that their experience would win them the title.
The lad was released and went on to gain a scholarship at an American university and make a successful career in soccer there.
This is rather off-topic but it does relate to Curbs. A few weeks ago I met the father of a lad who was a member of the youth team when Glyn Snodin was coach. Snodin told the lad he would be offered a contract, but Curbs then declined to do so, a less than edifying communication breakdown.
The man I met said that Curbs never attended any youth games and didn't even know the players, while Snodin played as many old lags as possible in the reserve team at the expense of the young lads, in the hope that their experience would win them the title.
The lad was released and went on to gain a scholarship at an American university and make a successful career in soccer there.
I was doing a gap year at the time and worked in Bluewater. Parker came in about 10 days before he left and I remember saying please don't leave will you. He replied that I needn't worry! 10 days later someone came out on the shop floor and smugly announced the news to me. I genuinely changed that day because I realised that, as many have said, that we will always be a selling club (we were 5th for God's sake and still sold him) and to always think pessimistically with regards to my beloved CAFC.
On a side note, wasn't this the year Mourinho was asked if he was worried about us after we'd won our first 5 and he said something like charlton would end up much lower down and he wasn't concerned in the slightest.
On a side note, wasn't this the year Mourinho was asked if he was worried about us after we'd won our first 5 and he said something like charlton would end up much lower down and he wasn't concerned in the slightest.
Just to add a further comment about the Parker scenario...... He was being highly considered by Erickson at the time for the England team. But according to MS he had to play' regular football' Going to Chelsea may well have been a high profile move, but he was not going to get regular football in the team ,and then he had an injury. So perhaps some justice was done, as a pay back. I really admired Parker before all of this, a young talented footballer, who was 'one of ours'. He told me on the one occassion that I met him that he played for Long lane as a kid, one of my sons old local teams, and stayed at our football presentation evening at the valley for 2 hours and was great to all the kids, with his father who came along. I was proved wrong, the guy did not have to leave the way he did, he had plenty of time on his side, and if Chelsea did not sign him, some other team would have at the end of the season if he felt his future was not at CAFC. I thought he was better than that, and frankly was wrongly 'advised' I tend to think.
Just to add a further comment about the Parker scenario...... He was being highly considered by Erickson at the time for the England team. But according to MS he had to play' regular football' Going to Chelsea may well have been a high profile move, but he was not going to get regular football in the team ,and then he had an injury. So perhaps some justice was done, as a pay back. I really admired Parker before all of this, a young talented footballer, who was 'one of ours'. He told me on the one occassion that I met him that he played for Long lane as a kid, one of my sons old local teams, and stayed at our football presentation evening at the valley for 2 hours and was great to all the kids, with his father who came along. I was proved wrong, the guy did not have to leave the way he did, he had plenty of time on his side, and if Chelsea did not sign him, some other team would have at the end of the season if he felt his future was not at CAFC. I thought he was better than that, and frankly was wrongly 'advised' I tend to think.
Or in the next game he may have broken his leg and never played again and he had no time on his side!
It may have been done badly, but in some ways I can understand why he wanted to move to Chelsea. If things had worked out differently, he could have been a Chelsea legend, instead of say Lampard.
I did think the club wasn't very proactive though, not buying a decent replacement in the window maybe cost us a place in Europe.
Well i dunno, guys, while I chuckled at Dave Mehmet's post this afternoon; Parker was 23 at the time. How mature were you at 23? I made a worse "transfer' decision when I was 25.
Fact is, if Abramovic hadn;t arrived Parker would have stayed. More than that, English clubs were trying to settle down with their wages that season. Abramovic arrived and twisted it all upwards again.Nobody else was in for Parker because they didnt have the money to tempt us. So my venom is reserved for Abramovic, and the pathetic British politicians and officials who let him in without so much as a second glance, when loads of decent Russians who wanted to escape the madness he helped create, were denied visas.
I don't know what the Russian for **** is, but he is one of the biggest, and he shafted us.
Just to add a further comment about the Parker scenario...... He was being highly considered by Erickson at the time for the England team. But according to MS he had to play' regular football' Going to Chelsea may well have been a high profile move, but he was not going to get regular football in the team ,and then he had an injury. So perhaps some justice was done, as a pay back. I really admired Parker before all of this, a young talented footballer, who was 'one of ours'. He told me on the one occassion that I met him that he played for Long lane as a kid, one of my sons old local teams, and stayed at our football presentation evening at the valley for 2 hours and was great to all the kids, with his father who came along. I was proved wrong, the guy did not have to leave the way he did, he had plenty of time on his side, and if Chelsea did not sign him, some other team would have at the end of the season if he felt his future was not at CAFC. I thought he was better than that, and frankly was wrongly 'advised' I tend to think.
Good point.
My feeling is that he probably thought or was advised that he would get the chance to play regularly.And even if not as regularly as at Charlton,playing at a club like Chelski would give him a bigger possibility to get noticed by the England manager and play for England.Look what he said on leaving West Ham for Spurs http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2035615/Scott-Parker-says-West-Ham-wrecked-England-Euro-2012-hopes.html 'To get into the squad for the Euros would be massive for me and my career. I want to do everything I possibly can to get into that squad really.' And the West Ham fan's comment at the bottom of the page sounds really familiar doesn't it?
I still remember how angry I was when Sven Goran Eriksson picked Walcott over Darren Bent for the World Cup in 2006.Maybe it just shows you that no matter how great you're,you'll never get a chance as long as you're not playing for the big clubs,especially when the national team is managed by stupid old-fashioned conservative people like Ericksson.
By the way,anyone noticed that throughout Parker's career he's only been out of London (Newcastle) for two years?Maybe he saw the Chelski offer as a now-or-never opportunity (I hate to say this but they were and still are the biggest/richest club in London.) and simply jumped at it,totally disregarding whatever situation we were in at the moment.
Regarding Abramovitch, his activities didn't finish with Parker. In summer 2004 we almost signed Kezman as well as Rommedahl from PSV but RA stepped in at a late stage and stole him. Kezman would have been our new Hales, without the shadow of a doubt, but at Chelsea his career was merely a massive disappointment. Imo Kezman's loss was a crucial contribution to the slow collapse in our fortunes that then ensued.
This is rather off-topic but it does relate to Curbs. A few weeks ago I met the father of a lad who was a member of the youth team when Glyn Snodin was coach. Snodin told the lad he would be offered a contract, but Curbs then declined to do so, a less than edifying communication breakdown.
The man I met said that Curbs never attended any youth games and didn't even know the players, while Snodin played as many old lags as possible in the reserve team at the expense of the young lads, in the hope that their experience would win them the title.
The lad was released and went on to gain a scholarship at an American university and make a successful career in soccer there.
Adi?
The name of the youth player eludes me for the moment; he was in the same group as James Weston. The situation as described by his father put Curbs and the management of the youth set-up in a rather poor light, with Curbs' lack of interest resulting in a breakdown of communication with Glyn Snodin. Perhaps Curbs felt that his full attention was best directed at trying to keep the first team in the Premiership.
Comments
Anyway I've done this to death.
As for Parker, we should have refused to sell and he would have come crawling back eventually. Had he gone the following summer I could have accepted that, but he screwed us and himself - no doubt he would have been in the England squad had he carried on his form with us - by throwing his toys out of the pram. Cracking player, a little short in the intelligence department.
The man I met said that Curbs never attended any youth games and didn't even know the players, while Snodin played as many old lags as possible in the reserve team at the expense of the young lads, in the hope that their experience would win them the title.
The lad was released and went on to gain a scholarship at an American university and make a successful career in soccer there.
He was being highly considered by Erickson at the time for the England team. But according to MS he had to play' regular football'
Going to Chelsea may well have been a high profile move, but he was not going to get regular football in the team ,and then he had an injury.
So perhaps some justice was done, as a pay back. I really admired Parker before all of this, a young talented footballer, who was 'one of ours'.
He told me on the one occassion that I met him that he played for Long lane as a kid, one of my sons old local teams, and stayed at our football presentation evening at the valley for 2 hours and was great to all the kids, with his father who came along. I was proved wrong, the guy did not have to leave the way he did, he had plenty of time on his side, and if Chelsea did not sign him, some other team would have at the end of the season if he felt his future was not at CAFC. I thought he was better than that, and frankly was wrongly 'advised' I tend to think.
That said i remember the way we disposed off kinsella (and perhaps so did parker).
I did think the club wasn't very proactive though, not buying a decent replacement in the window maybe cost us a place in Europe.
Fact is, if Abramovic hadn;t arrived Parker would have stayed. More than that, English clubs were trying to settle down with their wages that season. Abramovic arrived and twisted it all upwards again.Nobody else was in for Parker because they didnt have the money to tempt us. So my venom is reserved for Abramovic, and the pathetic British politicians and officials who let him in without so much as a second glance, when loads of decent Russians who wanted to escape the madness he helped create, were denied visas.
I don't know what the Russian for **** is, but he is one of the biggest, and he shafted us.
I don't know what the Russian for **** is, but he is one of the biggest, and he shafted us.
Cuntski
My feeling is that he probably thought or was advised that he would get the chance to play regularly.And even if not as regularly as at Charlton,playing at a club like Chelski would give him a bigger possibility to get noticed by the England manager and play for England.Look what he said on leaving West Ham for Spurs http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2035615/Scott-Parker-says-West-Ham-wrecked-England-Euro-2012-hopes.html
'To get into the squad for the Euros would be massive for me and my career. I want to do everything I possibly can to get into that squad really.' And the West Ham fan's comment at the bottom of the page sounds really familiar doesn't it?
I still remember how angry I was when Sven Goran Eriksson picked Walcott over Darren Bent for the World Cup in 2006.Maybe it just shows you that no matter how great you're,you'll never get a chance as long as you're not playing for the big clubs,especially when the national team is managed by stupid old-fashioned conservative people like Ericksson.
By the way,anyone noticed that throughout Parker's career he's only been out of London (Newcastle) for two years?Maybe he saw the Chelski offer as a now-or-never opportunity (I hate to say this but they were and still are the biggest/richest club in London.) and simply jumped at it,totally disregarding whatever situation we were in at the moment.