The following is a report of how Charlton fared over the next 4 years. It is, of course, fiction.
It couldn't possibly come true, could it? Or after recent events, could it?
2013/14
The closure of the transfer window saw Chris Powell left with a bitterly divided squad. The sale of Ben Alnwick particularly annoyed a number of players after his recent fine form; whilst the treatment accorded to Yann Kermorgant left the entire squad in no doubt that their futures were no longer going to be safeguarded at the club. The new players who came into the squad, whilst being welcomed, found it hard both to settle into a new country and team – something not helped by the inability of many of the new arrivals to speak English.
It therefore came as no surprise when the new look team slid from crisis to crisis. Existing players whose contracts were due to expire lost heart and interest, whilst the new players were slow to settle and sadly, often looked completely out of their depth. 7 consecutive defeats, compounded by a 5-0 thrashing at Sheff Wed in the FA Cup, saw Charlton sink to the bottom of the table by mid-March.
The situation was not improved by news that Chris Solly had had to retire at the age of 23 because of the injuries to his knees. But if that was a shock, the impromptu press conference called by a tearful Chris Powell on 31 March was a bombshell. At that conference, Chris Powell announced his resignation, claiming that although he loved the club, he was in an untenable situation with players being bought and sold over his head.
Within hours, it was announced that Julien Le Nobody was to be the next Head Coach, raising suspicions he had long been lined up to take over the role. He was a man that no-one, even seasoned watchers of European football, had ever heard of. A trawl of the internet subsequently revealed his only management experience was as a youth coach at Standard Liege a few years earlier.
At his press conference, Le Nobody stressed what an honour it was to be appointed and said how he would work tirelessly to take Charlton back to the Premier League. However, under his leadership Charlton remained stuck at the bottom of the league for the rest of the season, with relegation being mathematically confirmed at the Brighton away game. (A game in which Dale Stephens scored the only goal with a stunning 30 yard volley).
2014/15
The close season at the Valley was not a happy place.
As expected, most of the players whose contracts were up left the club. Michael Morrison moved to Celtic, Ben Hamer to Sunderland, Dorian Dervite to Brentford, Cedric Evina to Orient and Danny Green returned to Dagenham & Redbridge. The contracts of Johnnie Jackson and Andy Hughes were not renewed and both retired. Neither was offered a coaching position at the club.
Then came the bombshell news that Jordan Cousins was to sign for Arsenal for £1m. Rhoys Wiggins’ departure to Crystal Palace for £500k swiftly followed. The new 4 and a half year contract he had signed back in January at least ensured Charlton received a fee for his departure, slightly softening the blow of his leaving for the deadly enemy.
The decision by the club to raise Season Ticket prices by 20 per cent, despite relegation, had already badly affected the sale of season tickets. (It was claimed football at the Valley had been too cheap for too long). With the news of the departure of Cousins and Wiggins, sales dried up almost completely and fewer than 5,000 season tickets were sold – the lowest number for over 20 years.
Reinforcements for the departing players were signed but these came exclusively from the stable of clubs owned by Roland Duchatelet. Most were young but promising players but few had any experience of playing in England. The team that kicked off the 2014/15 season consisted of 5 players from RD’s sides and 4 players who had come through the youth team (Pope, Poyet, Gomez and, Lennon). Lawrie Wilson and Simon Church made up the numbers.
The team actually made a promising start to the Division 1 campaign, playing some neat, tidy attacking football. But the rest of the league soon got to grips with the Charlton youngsters and the bigger, stronger players that most other teams possessed soon began to bulldoze their way to victory. By late autumn, the team had slipped into the bottom four. Attendances, which had been on a steady decline, began to drop alarmingly and the 1-0 defeat at home to Bradford in December – in which Phil Parkinson refused to celebrate the winning goal – brought things to a head.
The next edition of Voice of the Valley called for a boycott of the forthcoming home game against Oxford to protest at the way the club was being run – a call that they had made some 30 years earlier. This was immediately denounced by the club’s most loyal fans on Charlton Life who said in no small measure that this was not the time for a boycott. Passions between the 2 groups threatened to get out of control and the sight of die-hard Charlton fans nearly coming to blows upset many.
As it happened, the boycott took place and was remarkably successful. The club announced a gate of 5,135 but most supporters thought that actual numbers inside the ground barely numbered a thousand. Oxford supporters, to their credit, joined in the boycott, with the exception of Jethro Harbinger who had seen every one of Oxford’s games live ever since they joined the league in 1962. He apologised but said he just had to be there. Our own Seb Lewis was said to be a broken man when told he was still about 1,000 games behind Harbinger’s total of watching consecutive games.
The boycott, though, had no effect whatsoever on the way the club was run. The few remaining players from Chris Powell’s time in charge – Lawrie Wilson, Simon Church and Callum Harriott – all left the club in the January transfer window and were replaced by yet more recruits from Standard Liege’s reserve team.
Julien Le Nobody, by now even more unpopular than Ian Dowie and Alan Pardew combined, continued to maintain that the club was going in the right direction.
But events on the field showed the exact opposite and the club managed to beat its record for the number of consecutive defeats. Attendances were now in complete free-fall, with barely more than 4 or 5,000 home fans being in actual attendance (as opposed to the 10,000 figure still being quoted in the press). As for away support, only 37 fans attended a Tuesday night trip to Rotherham.
A second successive relegation was duly confirmed in April with a defeat at local rivals, Gillingham. Charlton fans left the ground with the gloating chorus of “We’ll never play you again” ringing in their ears.
TO BE CONTINUED
1
Comments
You left out the bit about the billionaire takeover bid than came to nothing.
Anyone can see that we need to score more goals, so we have got two new strikers both of whom are reputedly prolific scorers, and who may turn out to be fantastic acquisitions. Sure we all love Yann but his record shows he would never be able to get the goals we need to stay up. Maybe these guys have no experience of English football, but also our opponents have no experience of playing against them. That's an experience opposing defenders may not enjoy!
And true we may be a bit short handed in MF. It seems we made a serious attempt to sign Gradel which unfortunately didn't come off. There is still the possibilty that a MF could come in when the loan window opens.
Your prophecy may come true, but equally the changes might reverse our fortunes, keep us in the FLC and set us up for a realistic promotion push next term. Until I see real evidence to the contrary, I'll be optimistic and expect the latter scenario. In fact, I'm excited about seeing these new guys playing for us.
Something had to be done. Something was done, and for now, that's good enough for me.
It's a slur on all the players you have mentioned, the gaffer and our new owner.
OK - you could say it's a tongue in cheek piece but there are some serious dark thoughts in that head of yours.
If you are truly a Charlton fan, I find it difficult to imagine how you could conjure up a scenario which predicts the downfall of our great Club in such a calculated manner. Do you really believe that there aren't enough people, some with a degree of wealth & influence, who would stand by to see the demise of CAFC ? You may question why such supporters failed to come forward when our Club was put up for sale last year but I'm of the opinion that the time wasn't right, nor the circumstances but that doesn't mean that there are others waiting to see how RD's tenure unfolds. I may be wide of the mark of course, but then it's more likely that you are .....
RD is a highly successful business man. Why would he add a Championship Club to his "portfolio" , fail to see that his methods were unsuccessful & sit by to watch it fall down the leagues ? Not only would this be suicidal in terms of his financial prowess but also highly damaging to his credentials & ego....hence my original charge that you are being totally disrespectful to a man who has possibly saved this Club from the clutches of Administration.
Of course, I see where you are coming from in painting this "worst scenario" picture - a doom & gloom merchant of the first order. But perhaps you should have stopped to think how damaging your words could be and most of all, how unnecessary.
Whether others agree with me or not, I really don't care. Maybe I am the ultimate optimist . Maybe I wear rose coloured specs.
What I do know is that until proved otherwise, I shall continue to believe that RD & "his people" are honourable , with the best of intentions of running our Club in a successful manner- both for themselves and for us, the supporters. And that, should the worst happen & his plans not bear fruit, then he would pass on the baton to A N Other with regret but his head held high.
Maybe we should all revisit this thread in 12 months time. Meanwhile, I shall support MY Club and all concerned in its fight to flourish , in any way I can. And I know there are many others who feel the same.
But there's a final point to consider.
The spirit of The Valley Party didn't wither & die when the return was achieved in 1992, it merely lies dormant .....in case it is needed again in the future. It may be that CASTrust has taken over that mantle and together with the Fans' Forum, have established good lines of communication between Club and supporters to ensure that our voices are heard in both good & not so good times for Charlton. With that rapport, comes mutual respect & 100% commitment to make our Club the best it can possibly be both on & off the pitch. So, until proved otherwise I shall continue to believe we are in safe hands....rendering your words to be scare mongering pure & simple.
Something in this time of transition that really has no place.
Keep the faith !
Ok, I am an optimist and believe he could be taking us in the right direction, and your post is tongue-in-cheek ...but I don't see why you thought it was necessary.
I think you should stop airing such absurd positivity!