2015/16
The decision by the club to once again raise the price of Season Tickets was met with complete disbelief. Fewer than a thousand were sold as even life-long fans started to turn their backs on the club. The announcement by the club in July that Gomez, Poyet and Lennon were being transferred to Standard Liege – no fee was involved as in return Charlton would receive three players, two of whom were goalkeepers, from Standard Liege – had many of those who had bought a Season Ticket clamouring for a refund.
And then a week before the start of the season came the bombshell news that in order to save costs, the East, The Upper West and The Upper North stands were to be closed. Home fans would be seated only in the Lower West and Lower North Stands. This announcement was accompanied by a statement from the club that in order” to safeguard the future of the club” – by not imposing the crippling costs of maintaining the closed stands on the club – ownership of the Valley was to be transferred to a new company owned by the Board.
The two stands that were open to the home fans had little problems accommodating the number of fans attending games in Charlton’s first ever season in the bottom division. Gates seldom exceeded 5,000 and for a Tuesday night game against Accrington Stanley attracted only 2.500.
Events on the pitch did little to attract spectators back. Another season of struggle followed, not helped by the fact those loanees who did shine – and there were a few – were immediately recalled by their parent clubs and replaced with another batch of new loanees. Charlton struggled to stay out of the bottom two all season and eventually needed a point from their final game to avoid the ignominy of going out of the league.
Amazingly, the last game was at Carlisle – the scene of so many great moments in Charlton’s recent history. The call went out from Charlton Life for all Charlton supporters to make the trip to cheer the team on and amazingly, nearly 5,000 made the 600 mile round trip. 2 special trains, 2 flights and over 100 coaches were booked to transport spectators. It was widely recognised as one of the finest travelling support that the club had ever put together as every Charlton “face” from the last 30 years showed up for the trip. But it was all to no avail – two late goals from Simon Church, now wearing the blue of Carlisle, condemned Charlton to relegation from the Football League. Julien Le Nobody said it was sad how the last two years had gone but he remained convinced that the club’s strategy would pay dividends in the long-term.
The football world looked on in total amazement.
2016/17
A week before the Conference season was due to start, the club announced the news “that with immediate effect, and with great regret, it was no longer viable to play at the Valley. The costs of maintaining the ground to meet current safety standards were now too great to continue paying and the club would have to move.”
The club stressed it recognised how unpopular the move to a ground outside its catchment area had been previously and so this time, it would ensure fans were inconvenienced as little as possible. Therefore, it had entered into a 5 year agreement with Dartford FC for the club to play its home games there in future.
Negotiations for the move had been made in total secrecy and now the move had been agreed, it was simply presented to the fans as a fait accompli. The Charlton Trust led the opposition to the move but they were simply dismissed as trouble-makers by the Board. The Voice of the Valley bought out a special edition and called on all spectators to get behind a campaign it was to launch to get the club returned to its natural home. However, and in honesty, most supporters were now in a total sense of shock by how far, and quickly, the club had fallen and the campaign did not really get off the ground.
On the pitch, Charlton quickly established themselves in the upper reaches of the Conference but support had now dwindled to little more than 1,500 at each home game. Indeed, it was noted young football fans were once again starting to support other clubs in the area and it was particularly hurtful to see the Gillingham and Crystal Palace Express Services picking up fans from outside Charlton station on match days.
It was in September that word leaked out that planning permission for housing at the Valley had been applied for by the company now owning the Valley freehold and that subject to planning permission being agreed, the site would be sold to a large housing company for £50 million. After a hard fought campaign, planning permission was given by Greenwich Council in March. The Trust immediately invoked their ACV agreement and was given 28 days to buy the ground. A frenetic appeal was launched to raise the money but no large donor came forward and in April, the Trust admitted that they were not in a position to go ahead with the purchase. Final planning permission followed shortly thereafter and the ground was duly sold in May.
It was then that the final bombshell was dropped by the club. It announced that as support for the club had dropped off dramatically, the cost of running the club was now unsustainable. It had, therefore, decided to merge the club with Dartford FC. The new club would be known as Dartford Athletic. Charlton would finish the season playing under their own name and the merged club would be in place by the start of the new season. Urgent negotiations would now take place with the Football authorities to ensure the new merged side could play in the Conference Premier League.
Days later RD announced he would be standing down as Chairman. He said it had been a pleasure to serve as Chairman of the Club and he hoped it would not be long before it regained its rightful place in the football world. Julien Le Nobody, who by this time was under Police guard, also announced his resignation but said that he hoped fans, would agree he had left the club in a far better position than it had been in when he was appointed.
2017/18
And it is here that the history of this great club of ours ends. Or perhaps not, as fans, under the leadership of Airman Brown announced the formation of a new team, AFC Charlton. Trials for players were to be held on Blackheath in the summer and it was hoped that Keith Peacock would help with the running of the club until a full time manager could be recruited. In the meantime, a home for the new club was actively being sought. Morden Wharf on the Greenwich peninsula had been suggested ……….
0
Comments