Sat with JBG at the awards do last night, GlassHalfFull and I quizzed him about his knowledge of the club. Turns out he knew very little of our recent history, as we explained why Airman and Murray appeared to be in a heated debate, what the Valley party was, showed him pictures of the dilapidated ground and how the club came home. He even asked us when we had been in the Premier League (although this might have been polite conversation).
I was surprised by all this. I'd perhaps naively assumed players learnt about their new clubs when they joined. I know it's a thing they did at Bournemouth, instilling a sense of where the club came from in the new signings. I wondered if JBG was an exception, or if indeed it's something others think important?
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Boring, mid table and Premiership but not bad....
It's a shame that the players aren't told any more about our history but to be fair I don't expect our manager knows ( or really cares) about what happened 30, 20 or even 10 years ago. It's all about the now.
History is for us, the fans.
PDC and his Latin temperament was always going to fall for the romance of that video.
It would probably have negligible affect on someone with JBG's temperament. He is likely interested in the future (including his own), rather than something that happened before he was born.
I'm glad he didn't win player of the year now and hope he goes to Hull!!! (:
But then again, we haven't been there for a few years now; and I suppose I wouldn't necessarily expect that someone from another country would see a name like (e.g.) Birmingham or Reading and say "Oh, I know them, they used to be in the Premier League!"
I gave JBG a copy of Battle for the Valley that just happened to be on the table, and he was genuinely interested.
I'd met Marko Dmitrovic at the sponsors' dinner, and I handed him his BftV last night - again, intrigued to know more about our club. He also agreed that, subject to commitments, he would join us for England vs Switzerland in September because he would love to see Wembley.
Both players were great. I'm very proud they're ours.
Would be happy to do the same with the first team squad.
Thanks, NLA - very emotional evening, and I'm still absolutely overwhelmed thinking about it.
Club loyalty dissapered when Matt Le Tissier hung up his boots.
That's the mission statement of the Charlton Athletic Museum.
Note the word "volunteer". We don't get any money from the Football Club.
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Giggs and Scholes spring immediately to mind.