Thanks for everything Chris. If £30million quid falls into my lap you'll be back in the dugout. Failing that, I hope that I get to meet you one day, shake your hand and say thankyou for the vast, vast amount of joy you have given me over the last 16 years.
Thanks Chris. As someone who had my doubts at times over the last two seasons I appreciate you were often working in extremely trying circumstances. Hopefully you can land a plum job and go on to great success without having to deal with the bollocks that has been happening down here over the past couple of years.
Thanks for the memories, you'll always be loved at the Valley.
Thank you Chrissy Powell for getting us out of League One and making us proud of our Charlton again. All the best for the future and I will closely follow any club you move on to, unless its ever Palace, Millwall or West Ham of course (we all have limits :-) )
There's a lot I would like to say about the previous and existing 'owners' of CAFC but I will stick to the theme of this thread. I absolutely love Chris Powell and what he has achieved as manager of Charlton and believe he will go on to better things (with QPR?). My fondest memory is of the 5th May 2012 (my 60th birthday) with all my family when Hartlepool fans turned out dressed as smurfs and we picked up the League One Champions trophy with 101 points having been top nearly all season except for a period in the early part of the season. My sincere thanks to both Chris and also Alex Dyer for all that they did for the club and all the best to you for the future!
Thank you for getting us back halfway to where we need to be. Carlisle is still the best day of my son's life. Your sense of passion for our club will always be remembered and you proved nice guys can be good managers. 101 points with a smaller budget than our competitors was a great achievement, but 9th last year with the resources you had was probably even better. Never though that in my mid 50s I would be failing to hold back tears over a football manager leaving. #fifthcoming?
Thank-you Chris Powell, as a player and as a manager you gave your best. I remember being so proud of you when you won your England caps. True Charlton legend
So frustrating! Genuinely think with a good pitch and a bit of cash you'd have got top 10 again. And could push on next season. Also think you could've brought us back up again next season if the dreaded R happened.
You are an inspiration, both in terms of football and generally. What a role model for young lads.
As with all United States Charlton. Supporters I wish to extend my deep gratitude for all the fun and enjoyment I have witnessed since you took the helm at the valley .You will do well wherever you go maybe here!!!. My hometown of Indianapolis is starting a new team this year come. On over Chris!!.
Thanks Chris, you rekindled a love affair which was beginning to stagnate - a dirty weekend in amongst a marriage of mediocrity...
Without even mentioning your playing career, your managerial career so far has been nothing short of fantastic. Being named "Manager of the Month" multiple times, re-introducing "The Valley of Fear" amongst visitors, crusading across the country earning a record number of victories, building a team essentially from scratch and earning over 100 points in the process: all in your first full year as a manager.
Unfortunately it appears you were merely teased with the opportunity of truly showing what you're capable of - and the joyous times soon dried up, especially for yourself. It would take some seriously distorted viewing not to realise the strains and pressures that have inevitably befallen the more recent months. Yet it would take complete and utter blindness to attempt to lay any of the blame for these circumstances upon you.
Yet despite that you managed to hold yourself in a very charismatic and respectable manner - a truly admirable trait that's been visible throughout your whole tenure here, and arguably your whole career. Without meaning to mar the sentiments of this message, but even with regards to your biggest critics - there's one topic that's never debated; and that's the decency and loyalty that you seem to exude.
Undeniably it's been a painful set of circumstances that led to this situation; the hope and wonder of a takeover - the teasing suggestion that things may just be getting better. Not just for yourself, but for us fans too - for we could picture a future with a legend as a manager, and a manager with real backing. We were excited.
Unfortunately today that excitement was truly shattered and destroyed, and as a result SE7 lost not only a gentleman and a legend, but also some of it's magic.
However, thanks for all the wonderful times of the past 3 years. I'll never forget hearing your interview after winning promotion from League One; I think that proved beyond a shadow of the doubt just how committed to the cause you were. (Not that proof was required, I doubt many people were uncertain - and if they were then they should simply have remembered your middle name!) Nor will I forget the tunnel jumps, visiting Birmingham for our first Championship game of your reign, or the hours spent chanting your name from the stands - through both the good and, more recently, the bad.
I sincerely hope you can take your (youthful, but very promising) career in management, as well as the talents which you've obviously got, and use them to be successful wherever you may go. Perhaps one day we'll meet again at SE7, I just hope your sitting rightfully in the familiar dugout.
Today was the day for me when my disillusion with my club and modern football was confirmed. Your stewardship of the club in the last three years was genuinely a time when we all felt we 'had our Charlton back' and you provided moral purpose and leadership in stark contrast to the self aggrandising arrogance and charlatanism of previous managers. Sadly I fear we will hearken back to these years as halcyon days as we embark on our pan-European project.
I was fortunate to meet you as a guest of your friend Colin from your Southend days at the Stevenage game a couple of seasons ago and you were an epitome of charm and as countless others have said a real gentleman. You even introduced me to your family! They always say never meet your heroes as you will be invariably be disappointed. You proved that adage wrong. I can think of no greater role model for not just our younger players but for young people in general. Living in the Southend area the stories of your kind deeds and time given to people are legion and you are just as much a hero to the Blues as you are to us. Not just because you were a damn fine footballer but because you embodied the very best of human nature.
As a club we will never challenge for the Champions League and realistically the limit of our ambition is to get promotion to the 'best league in the world' and avoid relegation. I would rather we had the reputation for doing things the Charlton way and we represented through sentiment, intention and action the values of respect, decency and loyalty. For three years you represented these values and we had a manager of which we could all be proud. To quote Danny Blanchflower "the great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game us about doing things in style..." Your dignity, passion and decency embody leading with style and I am so very grateful for the moral leadership you provided, unlike others, to keep the club going in the last two years. I was proud that you were our public face and whilst you were here I always felt reassured that we would be OK in the end. Having you as a manager made me feel proud to be a Charlton supporter.
You do not need luck for the future - you are far too good a manager to need that! Who else could have matched your achievements with such obvious financial constraints? The previous and current regimes did not deserve you Chris and I wish you every success for the future. You provided my happiest footballing memories and today my club betrayed the values I thought made us special - now it appears we are like every other short-termist and unrealistic club. I thought we were in our own small way 'more than a club' and there was no one better to represent us than yourself. Today our club lost something special.
Thank you for everything, you deserved so much better and will be forever a legend and future England manager.
SCP - for me that's how I shall ALWAYS refer to you.
I still cannot really believe that you are no longer a part of our beloved Club. It will take some time to sink in to my old head, I'm afraid but all day I have buried it in the proverbial sand...
Most of what I want to say has already been stated so eloquently by others as this is the first opportunity I have had to post my thoughts.
When Parky departed, I was asked if I'd like to transfer the sponsorship of his Training Shirt to you ....is the Pope Catholic, I asked ? So, as well as admiring you as a player & a gentleman from afar, I was fortunate to be sitting with you at the Sponsors' dinner & chatting as though we were old friends ! An honour indeed for me and my guest & to listen to the easy way you chatted to the lovely guys from Regular Cleaning on our table...and I was able to do this again & again !! I shall treasure your signed tops & will happily boast to owning them when you are England Manager!
Then of course, my involvement with the POTY dinners and more recently, the Pierre Bolangi Memorial Garden has meant that our paths have crossed more than once but every time you made a point of coming to say hello & have a chat. I know that young Pierre meant a lot to you and I promise that Richard & myself will do our best to make his Memorial Garden a place you would be proud of. It's the very least we can do and in our hearts it will be as much for you as your young protege.
There have been few people in my life thus far that I have admired & respected & as I have you. My eldest grandson, Billy was over the moon at meeting you at SL recently and can't stop talking about how you took him to meet Chris Solly, his favourite player. If Billy and my younger grandson, Louis grow up to be half the man you are, then I shall be a very happy "Mrs Sponsor ". As a role model, you are, as I've said many a time " Simply the Best" .
I wish you all the luck in the world, dear Chris, you so deserve it. The hand that was dealt to you at Charlton was, on the whole. a cruel one and whilst you gave your all to your masters, in the end it wasn't enough....but there are many other owners out there who will gladly give you the time & resources to show that you can achieve something very special. And we here will say "If only...."
I hope that you will take some time out to recover your spirits and spend more time with your beloved family - we have been concerned of late that the stress of the job here was starting to take it's toll . A new challenge will be on the horizon soon enough & you will gladly face it with the bravery & endeavour that is second nature to you - how can you not succeed ?
Tomorrow night will see the start of a new era for our Club & who knows where it will lead. One thing I am sure of though is that the absence of you and your smile will render The Valley a lesser place without one of it's favourite sons. You are already sorely missed.
Take care & please don't forget to water those rhodedendrons !
You are a good man, Chris Powell. And you did a great job even as the ground was being cut from beneath your feet. Keep us in your heart and come back one day -- to bosses who deserve you.
Chris, Thank you. You are a true Legend, both as a player and a manger. Nobody has made me prouder to be a Charlton fan in the recent years than you. You deserve better than this board will give you and I have no doubt you will find it very soon elsewhere. I hope one day when Roland has gone you may grace the grass of our touch line at the Valley again.
You are a man amongst men and for that reason you will succeed wherever you go. It's just a shame it won't be with us. Thanks for the good times both as player and manager. Good luck mate.
Chris you will always be a hero to all charlton fans, did a great job on a low budget, no one expected anymore. Heart on sleeve and lips on badge is all any of us want from a player or manager and you epitomised that. Please do us fans one simple favour... When duchatelet gets bored of messing with our club and we finally get our charlton back, come and be a part of it once more either as manager or chairman or both. Until then Chris good luck with any job you get hopefully one where the fans appreciate you as much as we do here.
Sir Chris Powell , thank you for so many special moments, I remember driving up to Villa Park just for you and welling up , like I'm doing now, at the sight of a Charlton player playing for England , miracles do happen . All the words have been said elsewhere but winning with you as manager was more special than with any of the managers I've seen us win with in my 37 years of following Charlton , your joy was our joy So many occasions your emotion brought me to tears (I'm a soppy git) and our last home game with you embracing the other Charlton Powell legend at the end got me going again. Yours is the name my young sons sing , you're the man who helped start their love affair with Charlton , for which I'll be eternally grateful for . It's a shame you turned up when the weirdos were in town owning us but I'm sure you'll go on to bigger and better things with owners who have a bit more foresight. Thanks for everything , we're not worthy x
Chris, those who were here at the time may remember that I had my reservations about your appointment. I was concerned that it wasn't the right time for you or the club, particularly given the emphasis on immediate promotion and I feared it'd ruin your rapport with the fans if it all went pear-shaped. That said, I'd rather be happy than right, and could not have been more ecstatic when having had the opportunity to build your own squad, you lead the club to romp to the League 1 Championship with ease.
No matter how good a manager you are, you do need luck, and you really haven't had it this season. I really hope that you get the good fortune you deserve with your next appointment, and get to show the football world what you can do with the right backing. (Please, just not at Millwall or Palace, I think our heads would explode trying to hold two utterly contradictory opinions at once).
You've always been a fantastic ambassador for the club, both as a player and a manager, and your personal integrity and dignity have shone through this season's upheaval. The fact that you clearly loved the highs and felt the lows as much as we did, just added to the appeal. You may be a bit embarrassed now at the swinging on the crossbar thing, but I'm sure every Charlton fan grinned as broadly as you did when they saw it. You've given us some great memorable moments, and I hope at some stage you'll be able to share some more with us.
Thanks Chris. Unfortunately you were in the wrong place at the wrong time to manage Charlton. Thanks for the L1 Championship season and for the exciting 9th place finish last year. Also, thanks for getting us to within a hairsbreadth of our first semi final for 67 years.
I wish you all the best in the future. Some club will be lucky to have you as a Manager and Ambassador but more than anything as the great man that you truly are.
Comments
I'm not gay but if I was...
Thanks for the memories, you'll always be loved at the Valley.
You are a shining light, in a dimly lit world and I don't know how you coped, with what you have had to put up with in the last 18 months.
You are and always have been the better man, than the successive boards you have had to tolerate.
You have become a victim of both boards, underhand and intolerable treatment.
I spoke to you on Thursday night after the VIP meeting and told you that the fans would greatly respect, whatever decision you made.
Unfortunately, the present board does not want a manager, but a puppet, to do as instructed.
You have far too much integrity, to take part and the fact that you didn't only makes you a greater man in my eyes.
I wish you and your family continued success and happiness and only wish that the world was full of Chris Powell's.
Please take comfort from the fact that we know you were in the right and truly let down by successive employers.
You were too good a man for the successive boards, but perfect for Charlton fans.
You will always hold a place dear to me and I wish you nothing but the best for the future.
http://www.castrust.org/2014/03/chris-powell/
You are an inspiration, both in terms of football and generally. What a role model for young lads.
Aaarrrggghhh!
So very, very proud to have had you lead our football club.
I travelled to Liverpool for one of your few England games and remember feeling the pride of having you represent our football club.
Quite simply my all time CAFC hero.
Come back soon mate.
Without even mentioning your playing career, your managerial career so far has been nothing short of fantastic. Being named "Manager of the Month" multiple times, re-introducing "The Valley of Fear" amongst visitors, crusading across the country earning a record number of victories, building a team essentially from scratch and earning over 100 points in the process: all in your first full year as a manager.
Unfortunately it appears you were merely teased with the opportunity of truly showing what you're capable of - and the joyous times soon dried up, especially for yourself. It would take some seriously distorted viewing not to realise the strains and pressures that have inevitably befallen the more recent months. Yet it would take complete and utter blindness to attempt to lay any of the blame for these circumstances upon you.
Yet despite that you managed to hold yourself in a very charismatic and respectable manner - a truly admirable trait that's been visible throughout your whole tenure here, and arguably your whole career. Without meaning to mar the sentiments of this message, but even with regards to your biggest critics - there's one topic that's never debated; and that's the decency and loyalty that you seem to exude.
Undeniably it's been a painful set of circumstances that led to this situation; the hope and wonder of a takeover - the teasing suggestion that things may just be getting better. Not just for yourself, but for us fans too - for we could picture a future with a legend as a manager, and a manager with real backing. We were excited.
Unfortunately today that excitement was truly shattered and destroyed, and as a result SE7 lost not only a gentleman and a legend, but also some of it's magic.
However, thanks for all the wonderful times of the past 3 years. I'll never forget hearing your interview after winning promotion from League One; I think that proved beyond a shadow of the doubt just how committed to the cause you were. (Not that proof was required, I doubt many people were uncertain - and if they were then they should simply have remembered your middle name!) Nor will I forget the tunnel jumps, visiting Birmingham for our first Championship game of your reign, or the hours spent chanting your name from the stands - through both the good and, more recently, the bad.
I sincerely hope you can take your (youthful, but very promising) career in management, as well as the talents which you've obviously got, and use them to be successful wherever you may go. Perhaps one day we'll meet again at SE7, I just hope your sitting rightfully in the familiar dugout.
Today was the day for me when my disillusion with my club and modern football was confirmed. Your stewardship of the club in the last three years was genuinely a time when we all felt we 'had our Charlton back' and you provided moral purpose and leadership in stark contrast to the self aggrandising arrogance and charlatanism of previous managers. Sadly I fear we will hearken back to these years as halcyon days as we embark on our pan-European project.
I was fortunate to meet you as a guest of your friend Colin from your Southend days at the Stevenage game a couple of seasons ago and you were an epitome of charm and as countless others have said a real gentleman. You even introduced me to your family! They always say never meet your heroes as you will be invariably be disappointed. You proved that adage wrong. I can think of no greater role model for not just our younger players but for young people in general. Living in the Southend area the stories of your kind deeds and time given to people are legion and you are just as much a hero to the Blues as you are to us. Not just because you were a damn fine footballer but because you embodied the very best of human nature.
As a club we will never challenge for the Champions League and realistically the limit of our ambition is to get promotion to the 'best league in the world' and avoid relegation. I would rather we had the reputation for doing things the Charlton way and we represented through sentiment, intention and action the values of respect, decency and loyalty. For three years you represented these values and we had a manager of which we could all be proud. To quote Danny Blanchflower "the great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game us about doing things in style..." Your dignity, passion and decency embody leading with style and I am so very grateful for the moral leadership you provided, unlike others, to keep the club going in the last two years. I was proud that you were our public face and whilst you were here I always felt reassured that we would be OK in the end. Having you as a manager made me feel proud to be a Charlton supporter.
You do not need luck for the future - you are far too good a manager to need that! Who else could have matched your achievements with such obvious financial constraints? The previous and current regimes did not deserve you Chris and I wish you every success for the future. You provided my happiest footballing memories and today my club betrayed the values I thought made us special - now it appears we are like every other short-termist and unrealistic club. I thought we were in our own small way 'more than a club' and there was no one better to represent us than yourself. Today our club lost something special.
Thank you for everything, you deserved so much better and will be forever a legend and future England manager.
I still cannot really believe that you are no longer a part of our beloved Club. It will take some time to sink in to my old head, I'm afraid but all day I have buried it in the proverbial sand...
Most of what I want to say has already been stated so eloquently by others as this is the first opportunity I have had to post my thoughts.
When Parky departed, I was asked if I'd like to transfer the sponsorship of his Training Shirt to you ....is the Pope Catholic, I asked ? So, as well as admiring you as a player & a gentleman from afar, I was fortunate to be sitting with you at the Sponsors' dinner & chatting as though we were old friends ! An honour indeed for me and my guest & to listen to the easy way you chatted to the lovely guys from Regular Cleaning on our table...and I was able to do this again & again !! I shall treasure your signed tops & will happily boast to owning them when you are England Manager!
Then of course, my involvement with the POTY dinners and more recently, the Pierre Bolangi Memorial Garden has meant that our paths have crossed more than once but every time you made a point of coming to say hello & have a chat. I know that young Pierre meant a lot to you and I promise that Richard & myself will do our best to make his Memorial Garden a place you would be proud of. It's the very least we can do and in our hearts it will be as much for you as your young protege.
There have been few people in my life thus far that I have admired & respected & as I have you. My eldest grandson, Billy was over the moon at meeting you at SL recently and can't stop talking about how you took him to meet Chris Solly, his favourite player. If Billy and my younger grandson, Louis grow up to be half the man you are, then I shall be a very happy "Mrs Sponsor ". As a role model, you are, as I've said many a time " Simply the Best" .
I wish you all the luck in the world, dear Chris, you so deserve it. The hand that was dealt to you at Charlton was, on the whole. a cruel one and whilst you gave your all to your masters, in the end it wasn't enough....but there are many other owners out there who will gladly give you the time & resources to show that you can achieve something very special. And we here will say "If only...."
I hope that you will take some time out to recover your spirits and spend more time with your beloved family - we have been concerned of late that the stress of the job here was starting to take it's toll . A new challenge will be on the horizon soon enough & you will gladly face it with the bravery & endeavour that is second nature to you - how can you not succeed ?
Tomorrow night will see the start of a new era for our Club & who knows where it will lead. One thing I am sure of though is that the absence of you and your smile will render The Valley a lesser place without one of it's favourite sons. You are already sorely missed.
Take care & please don't forget to water those rhodedendrons !
Best love,
Jean
xx
All the words have been said elsewhere but winning with you as manager was more special than with any of the managers I've seen us win with in my 37 years of following Charlton , your joy was our joy
So many occasions your emotion brought me to tears (I'm a soppy git) and our last home game with you embracing the other Charlton Powell legend at the end got me going again.
Yours is the name my young sons sing , you're the man who helped start their love affair with Charlton , for which I'll be eternally grateful for .
It's a shame you turned up when the weirdos were in town owning us but I'm sure you'll go on to bigger and better things with owners who have a bit more foresight.
Thanks for everything , we're not worthy x
No matter how good a manager you are, you do need luck, and you really haven't had it this season. I really hope that you get the good fortune you deserve with your next appointment, and get to show the football world what you can do with the right backing. (Please, just not at Millwall or Palace, I think our heads would explode trying to hold two utterly contradictory opinions at once).
You've always been a fantastic ambassador for the club, both as a player and a manager, and your personal integrity and dignity have shone through this season's upheaval. The fact that you clearly loved the highs and felt the lows as much as we did, just added to the appeal. You may be a bit embarrassed now at the swinging on the crossbar thing, but I'm sure every Charlton fan grinned as broadly as you did when they saw it. You've given us some great memorable moments, and I hope at some stage you'll be able to share some more with us.
Absolutely gutted for you right now.
I wish you all the best in the future. Some club will be lucky to have you as a Manager and Ambassador but more than anything as the great man that you truly are.
Cheers, Rob