Just seen the picture on BBC with Ryan Giggs and Van Gaal looking absolutely miserable with the headline £100 million plus needed to get title......Do we really want to be part of that scene? So what are we hoping to achieve over the next few years? Priced out of season tickets, prima donna, often over hyped players, who can't get a game for Monaco, games kicking off all hours over the weekend. I'm pretty sure that the Delort saga is a very minor example of what we could have fallen for .......on the basis of a few videos and some dodgy agents. I am really wondering whether life gets much better in the Premiership. Didn't some of us get a bit so/so after our few years of Premiership life?
For me I don't want to lose what the Valley and Charlton do for me at the moment and generally over the many years of supporting them. In that vein I look forward to the trip down to Bournemouth in a way that in a few years time I doubt I would be tempted by the same to Old Trafford/Etihad etc........
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Charlton Athletic 5 Man Utd 3
or even
Everton 2 Charlton Athletic 3
There are many things wrong with the premier league but I would rather deal with those on the inside than have to stand outside with our nose pressed against the window watching other teams no bigger than us enjoy the money and occasional success
People have been saying that the Prem will collapse and that Sky et al will take their money away but for over 20 years it has continued to get richer and stronger and Sky and now BT throw more money at it. I don't see it going away anytime soon so IMHO we either get there or let those clubs that do mover further and further away from us.
That's not to say I don't want to get promoted - I'd rather be in the Prem than the Championship without a doubt. But once the novelty of visiting Old Trafford and the Emirates wears off, it's difficult to get too enthusiastic about another season of battling relegation or maybe trying to finish 9th if we're having a really good season. Look at Southampton - doing absolutely superbly, playing good football, producing young talent. Nothing to show for it though, they have already reached the ceiling.
Money has absolutely ruined football.
But no-one can say it's not also endlessly fascinating in the Premiership.
Ten years ago today, we were tenth in the Premier League; a point behind Manchester United, a point ahead of Manchester City and Liverpool. The following Monday, we beat Blackburn, live on Sky at The Valley. No-one in that crowd - absolutely no-one - looked at that match, which was the most important football match in the world that day, and thought, "wouldn't it be better if we were playing in the Championship instead?"
The other downside is when a club rises and bigger clubs pick off top players and even the coach...
But the quality of the football in a packed house makes it all worthwhile.
It will be exciting this season to get a sniff of the play-offs or we may fade but, as per another thread, our squad is getting younger and is the youngest in the Championship. As long as the right deals are done in the next two windows it seems likely that wherever we finish this season will be bettered in 2015-16.
Our academy was never that great at premier league level but there is a clear plan to improve on that. And this will make CAFC even less dependent on agents and 30 something "stars" looking for a pay day.
We don't know if Peeters, Vetokele, Buyens etc will make the whole journey with us but it is very clear to me that the club is going in the right direction...win,lose or draw vs Boro and Norwich, every game and player is surely being analysed to see what it takes to get us to the next level.
Cant see why you wouldnt want it to be honest.
but how could you possibly forget Tottenham Hotspur 0 Charlton Athletic 1 as a result predicated on the same line of reasoning applied to this weekend's PL results?.
quite how much Spurs have spunked away on crap signings and endless managerial changes over the years since they played in black and white tv footage relative to what they have won is absolutely diabolical .
not as appalling however as having to constantly year after year indulge their delusional fans' laughable big club utter bollox mentality .
that is as symptomatic of what a comedy PL football is as the results that you refer to .
I can see it both ways. When we got those massive wins in the Prem against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal & Liverpool etc, you were buzzing. However, I also remember going up to Newcastle away, I think it was when Shearer got his record breaking goal of some sort and we lost 3-0. I remember thinking on the way up that, we're not going to get anything here, they are a better team, our form wasn't great. The early buzz of playing in the Prem had worn off etc.
There was also a period where any away game in the north west was a guaranteed defeat.
I would take promotion back up there in a heartbeat, as it means we would have a great season. I also think our absence has been long enough that there are new players you would love to see live etc.
But I can understand both camps' point of view in operating in a league where you compete, as opposed to making up the numbers in the Prem and vice versa.
I'm just grateful we're not making up the numbers in League One like we were the season Powell took over............
The way to make the FAPL more enjoyable is to abolish it as a separate entity, and return it to the service of English football generally. There will still be plenty of money to go round but it won't mean oblivion if we get relegated again, and we might eventually see a new crop of English players (some from Charlton) to rebuild pride in our national team.
It's all about self-protection, and there'll be no appetite to make any changes to improve it as a competition until and unless the TV money dries up.
It doesn't help when supporters of clubs like ours allow their offspring to follow the greedy Sky four ( and a half ).
Its the same when we are looking to sell talented players and people say things like "I'd bite their hands off for 3 million for this player".
It seems as though fans are just becoming interested in numbers, or are at least putting the perception across that they are.
I'd much rather see Charlton youth players and stalwarts in our side, with the same old Charlton values off the pitch (Football for a Fiver, family club, local tradition etc) than become a brand of the evermore cringeworthy Premier League which is starting to become a parody of itself.
Yes I would be over the moon to see us promoted, but I'm never going to be getting all jazzed up about balance sheets. I can do that at work ffs.
Having said all that I am not a huge fan of the premiership and the hype that goes with it - "Big Four" my arse!
Looking at the results of our last season in premier league we actually only lost two games by 3-0 (Liverpool and Man Utd) so we watched seventeen games where we didn't lose by that score.
The season before we didn't lose any home games 3/4 nil (though we did lose 5-2 to Man City).
So while we may not have enjoyed the end of our premier league journey we certainly weren't being beaten at home by these high scores people talk of.