Something that really annoys me, when you hear the media talking about clubs in the Premiership or us, they talk like it was the whole fans base that had the view that Curbs had taken us as far as he could.
Yep get to the magic 40 points and (in the spirit of our east end manager) fade and die. People will always have a constructive criticism (ie moan)...in the rosy days it was that a certain Bulgarian was rubbish or our Jensen was being played out of position or Curbs was losing interest or the loss of our yellow away strip or whatever. To paraphrase a prime minister - we never had it so good.
I'm still here and I wanted Curbs gone. The man, became to egotistic, look at the way he deliberately threw away the Middlesboro cup, game to show the board that he was the man in charge ! His time was up. The fact he,s unemployed as a manager shows you that.
I Always think the media done our fans a disservice all those years ago. I remember reading how we got above our station etc... many fans wanted more than mid table, and how we all wanted shot of Curbs. It's all totally fabricated and to this day I speak to fans of bigger clubs who always assume the above is true.
Funny that, I remember at OT when thousands held up the 'thanks Curbs' cards. Not to mention the only time all 3 sides of the valley stood in unison to sing his name when he left.
Of course people miss it, I was one of those that found it a little boring, just surviving, and yes I was crying out for a little ambition from the club, we all want progression don't we? But in reality we are a small/medium sized club that had a flirt with the big boys for a while & enjoyed ourselves,most of the time, and with a little ambition we might do again.
I moaned because I could see we could progress. like with anything, humanity wants to better itself. above our station is bollox. we teach kids they can do anything no matter what their background is.
with the right investment we could better ourselves. Instead a load of dross was left by curbs and we didn't sort out a manger till Murray decided he wanted to get one over the orange one and we hire that knome Dowie. money was spent on not necessary quality or fit players. and the rest is history.
As many have mentioned, and back to the point @Brendan_O_Connell makes, I genuinely don't know any fans who moaned we were mid table every year, media nonsense that.
I think a lot of the media perception was based on some of the calls to the appalling Alan Green on 606. Without trying to sound like our beloved CEO, I think those people were in the minority whatever the papers say.
OK, there was an element of repetition each season, but most people knew that without a Abramovich style injection of cash we had hit the glass ceiling. My main grouse at the time was that I wished we had made more effort in the cups (the 5th round home defeat to Leicester still rankles) but like most people I didn't take mid-table in the Premier league for granted.
I'm still here and I wanted Curbs gone. The man, became to egotistic, look at the way he deliberately threw away the Middlesboro cup, game to show the board that he was the man in charge ! His time was up. The fact he,s unemployed as a manager shows you that.
I have never heard this suggested, really? I always thought that game was doomed from the moment someone devised Operation Riverside.
I wasn't 'moaning', but the magic had definitely waned - and i'd been going all through the terrible years of the 70s and 80s. It was becoming a grind, just get to 40 points somehow, plus the games against the big teams were becoming very predictable - Curbs would often opt for damage limitation at 1 or 2-0.
Yes you could say i'd love to have those days back, but no more so (in terms of match enjoyment) than the period 92-96, when we were very much a Div 2 club but there was great spirit around the place, or even 75-78 when Killer, Paddy & Flanagan were great to watch. I can be content with a competitive Div 2 team playing good football, proper cup runs etc, of course you'd rather the same in the Prem, all things being equal...
Most of the moaning was the style of football that was being played towards the end of Curbishley's reign. long balls/defensive football , important creative players were being sold off as well, it didn't make good viewing.
You can see It in the premiership now, West Brom, Stoke in the past and others moaning about their style of football like we did, difference is those teams hired decent managers, we hired a clown.
I'm still here and I wanted Curbs gone. The man, became to egotistic, look at the way he deliberately threw away the Middlesboro cup, game to show the board that he was the man in charge ! His time was up. The fact he,s unemployed as a manager shows you that.
Don't know about the Boro game, but the reason he's unemployed IMHO is because he sued West Ham for a few million and won. I think Curbs may be persona non grata to most football clubs.
The most annoying thing about PL relegation, a lot more far-reaching and affecting then anything else is......
...having to do a few more button presses to get to Charlton in FIFA nowadays. FIFA 07 was the end of a glorious era of top-level football game Charlton menu selections.
I wasn't bored of mid table finishes either but as far as we had come as a club there was certainly more that could have been done as a club.
For us to be finishing mid table every year yes we were punching above our weight at the time no doubt but it was there for the foundations to be built upon and really have ourselves a cemented place in the Premier League. All we had to do was to stay up for one more season as I still argue the season we were relegated was the toughest year ever in the Premier League when you consider the likes of Portsmouth and Aston Villa were showing great ambition then yet where are they now? Liverpool had recently been taken over and were no longer good for 4 points a season either while the three teams who came up weren't walkovers as in previous seasons.
I honestly believe if we had got it right that season, given Curbs one more year and everything he wanted and even finished 17th we could still have been there now with The Valley completed holding 40,000 with a real chance to grow an established fanbase and no more 'little old Charlton' tag. We had already been established for 6 consecutive seasons the chance was there for us to take it on. Sadly we all know what happened and we blew that chance and now we find Palace in our place instead 10 years on with the same ambitions.
Can we still reach that level? Potentially yes as the TV money is far greater than it was 10 years ago and no doubt will be far greater in 10 years time but we need to first get ourselves back up there which as it stands is going to be difficult enough let alone re-establish ourselves in the Premier League. Even more galling is right now big clubs like Aston Villa, Sunderland and Newcastle are going nowhere and have been in a reverse trend for years now allowing clubs like Palace to come up and establish themselves in the meantime.
Had we established ourselves and expanded the ground to 40,000 we'd be in a far better position to compete with West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium and whatever happens at Palace within the next 3 years or so.
I think a lot of the media perception was based on some of the calls to the appalling Alan Green on 606. Without trying to sound like our beloved CEO, I think those people were in the minority whatever the papers say.
OK, there was an element of repetition each season, but most people knew that without a Abramovich style injection of cash we had hit the glass ceiling. My main grouse at the time was that I wished we had made more effort in the cups (the 5th round home defeat to Leicester still rankles) but like most people I didn't take mid-table in the Premier league for granted.
Absolutely this.
We were never going to stay in the premier league forever. But in the time since we got into the premier league the following teams (off the top of my head) have been in a couple final or won a trophy:-
Wigan Southampton Millwall West Ham Fulham Swansea Middlesbrough Bolton Cardiff Portsmouth Stoke Aston Villa Sunderland Birmingham Bradford
Personally I can't recall moaning about being in the Premier League whatever our position, we were playing the best clubs in the land and sometimes upsetting the form books. We had a great set up with stable management and a good coaching team. A lot of the people phoning into the radio shows were either deliberate spoilers or hadn't experienced standing on the East terrace in the winter time watching us play in the lower leagues.
Most of the moaning was the style of football that was being played towards the end of Curbishley's reign. long balls/defensive football , important creative players were being sold off as well, it didn't make good viewing.
You can see It in the premiership now, West Brom, Stoke in the past and others moaning about their style of football like we did, difference is those teams hired decent managers, we hired a clown.
Remind me who he let go from our defense that wasn't past it or injury prone. (I.E the players we buy now)
I think a lot of the media perception was based on some of the calls to the appalling Alan Green on 606. Without trying to sound like our beloved CEO, I think those people were in the minority whatever the papers say.
OK, there was an element of repetition each season, but most people knew that without a Abramovich style injection of cash we had hit the glass ceiling. My main grouse at the time was that I wished we had made more effort in the cups (the 5th round home defeat to Leicester still rankles) but like most people I didn't take mid-table in the Premier league for granted.
Such is the media's thirst for a story, it wouldn't even surprise me if callers on 606 were asked what point they wanted to make. If it was pro curbs, they were ignored as though it's a non story.
Like most on here, it really grates on me when someone asks me who I support and when I answer, the first thing they say is "oh I bet you wish you'd never complained about Curbishley now don't you!"
Comments
Everyone else was grateful for it.
I'm still here and I wanted Curbs gone. The man, became to egotistic, look at the way he deliberately threw away the Middlesboro cup, game to show the board that he was the man in charge ! His time was up. The fact he,s unemployed as a manager shows you that.
I remember reading how we got above our station etc... many fans wanted more than mid table, and how we all wanted shot of Curbs. It's all totally fabricated and to this day I speak to fans of bigger clubs who always assume the above is true.
Funny that, I remember at OT when thousands held up the 'thanks Curbs' cards.
Not to mention the only time all 3 sides of the valley stood in unison to sing his name when he left.
But in reality we are a small/medium sized club that had a flirt with the big boys for a while & enjoyed ourselves,most of the time, and with a little ambition we might do again.
with the right investment we could better ourselves. Instead a load of dross was left by curbs and we didn't sort out a manger till Murray decided he wanted to get one over the orange one and we hire that knome Dowie. money was spent on not necessary quality or fit players. and the rest is history.
OK, there was an element of repetition each season, but most people knew that without a Abramovich style injection of cash we had hit the glass ceiling. My main grouse at the time was that I wished we had made more effort in the cups (the 5th round home defeat to Leicester still rankles) but like most people I didn't take mid-table in the Premier league for granted.
Yes you could say i'd love to have those days back, but no more so (in terms of match enjoyment) than the period 92-96, when we were very much a Div 2 club but there was great spirit around the place, or even 75-78 when Killer, Paddy & Flanagan were great to watch. I can be content with a competitive Div 2 team playing good football, proper cup runs etc, of course you'd rather the same in the Prem, all things being equal...
You can see It in the premiership now, West Brom, Stoke in the past and others moaning about their style of football like we did, difference is those teams hired decent managers, we hired a clown.
...having to do a few more button presses to get to Charlton in FIFA nowadays. FIFA 07 was the end of a glorious era of top-level football game Charlton menu selections.
For us to be finishing mid table every year yes we were punching above our weight at the time no doubt but it was there for the foundations to be built upon and really have ourselves a cemented place in the Premier League. All we had to do was to stay up for one more season as I still argue the season we were relegated was the toughest year ever in the Premier League when you consider the likes of Portsmouth and Aston Villa were showing great ambition then yet where are they now? Liverpool had recently been taken over and were no longer good for 4 points a season either while the three teams who came up weren't walkovers as in previous seasons.
I honestly believe if we had got it right that season, given Curbs one more year and everything he wanted and even finished 17th we could still have been there now with The Valley completed holding 40,000 with a real chance to grow an established fanbase and no more 'little old Charlton' tag. We had already been established for 6 consecutive seasons the chance was there for us to take it on. Sadly we all know what happened and we blew that chance and now we find Palace in our place instead 10 years on with the same ambitions.
Can we still reach that level? Potentially yes as the TV money is far greater than it was 10 years ago and no doubt will be far greater in 10 years time but we need to first get ourselves back up there which as it stands is going to be difficult enough let alone re-establish ourselves in the Premier League. Even more galling is right now big clubs like Aston Villa, Sunderland and Newcastle are going nowhere and have been in a reverse trend for years now allowing clubs like Palace to come up and establish themselves in the meantime.
Had we established ourselves and expanded the ground to 40,000 we'd be in a far better position to compete with West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium and whatever happens at Palace within the next 3 years or so.
Appointing backroom staff and a general manager before a head coach had been appointed was madness.
We were never going to stay in the premier league forever. But in the time since we got into the premier league the following teams (off the top of my head) have been in a couple final or won a trophy:-
Wigan
Southampton
Millwall
West Ham
Fulham
Swansea
Middlesbrough
Bolton
Cardiff
Portsmouth
Stoke
Aston Villa
Sunderland
Birmingham
Bradford
We should be on that list.
A lot of the people phoning into the radio shows were either deliberate spoilers or hadn't experienced standing on the East terrace in the winter time watching us play in the lower leagues.
Like most on here, it really grates on me when someone asks me who I support and when I answer, the first thing they say is "oh I bet you wish you'd never complained about Curbishley now don't you!"