The publication was a good read chaps and I was particularly interested in the interview with Martin Simons. The painful bit was the reference to Parker.
We have had some terrible lows at our club; ones that leave you down for a long time and for me this was one of them.
When Ranieri said that he wanted to sign good young english players in the week prior to the Chelsea game, I had a terrible sense of foreboding.
Come 26th Dec 2003, after watching Parker dismantle the Chelsea midfield that feeling was even more prevalent. In fact my wife said to me why have you got the hump and I told her that I thought we were about to lose our best player.
I clung to the hope that Parker could be persuaded to stay five more months with the promise that he could leave at the end. Well, we know how that ended.
My son who was fourteen at the time was gutted to the point of tears and do you know I felt that it was me that had let him down.
Well the rest is history I suppose. He probably is coming to the end of his Premiership career; therefore, he will either retire or step down a level. He will probably end up at Palace or Millwall just to wind us up even more.
I know the subject of Parker has been covered so many times; however, I felt compelled to put my own feelings on record after being prompted by the article.Cheers.
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I took some photos in his 'bar' that he has, and the CAFC mementos are all around, I think he was quite hurt when the club went into that terrible decline a few years ago.
I guess seeing something that you helped build, and achieve, going into 'freefall' must have been heartbreaking, it was for me, and the financial loss?
I think I would have been quite bitter, but none of that from Martin who was very philosophical.
The Parker affair was pivotal to me, we never reached that height again, people may say we were punching above our weight, but we played decent football, and had some players that i was quite proud of. Parker at the time was one that I was proud of. I have had this conversation before, good luck to the young footballer, trying to make a decent living, but in the end as I have stated the 'Nirvana' he thought was around the corner did not work out did it? He could have stayed a few more months, and leaved with the dignity, and probably a bigger paypacket if that is what you are only concerned with. Frankly, the bloke was never going to have to starve was he?. I have little time for footballers megabuck's 'rights' .. too many people doing a hard day's work, scrapping a living for me?. But that is another story.......
I worry that a change in the ownership of the club may be 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'. I hope that this isn't the case. Time will tell. Clearly, it would be no small undertaking for the supporters to take on a part-ownership of the club, but whilst such a thing is unlikely in the short-term, we can in the months ahead cajole, organise and collectivise. A proactive and positive step has already been taken in the formation of the Supporters' Trust.
So maybe in the future the Trust will be able to make a contribution to the running of the club - distributing flyers for the Wigan game might be the start of something which might lead to more meaningful supporter participation?
All I know is that the next eight months are going to be crucial to the future of CAFC
1) In benign private ownership....preferably with Charlton fans on the Board of Directors
OR
2) A supporter-owned Mutual....with real ale on the bar.