At the end of last season, despite relegation there was a tremendous atmosphere, and contentment amongst the faithful.
A large proportion were excited about the prospects of a season in The Championship. As its got nearer, it appears to me a lot of this feel good factor has drained away a little. The season is now upon us and it doesn't appear at least that many people are chomping at the bit....
Have i read the mood wrong ?
If i haven't, what's brought about the change ? Disappointed with the signings, disappointed so many have left ? Slow- burning realisation we are now very much 2nd tier ?
Would be interested to read people's views.
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Maybe my expectations are not as high as certain people (i.e. in terms of signings etc) but i still believe we will be competitive and be up there challenging for the championship. The other teams in the league are not better than us in terms of players and/or depth of squad so we should be confident.
APRAWA
Whatever division i will be there and passionate.
I was sitting in the car the other day listening to the radio talking about your fulhams, blackburns, and other prem tosh, and suddenly it hit me, we are a whole division below them and couldn't compete against them in the transfer market, etc..
I'm looking forward to this season more than I have any since about our second in the last stint in the Prem.
Signings - well we all knew that we wouldn't attract the so called big names - but I think Pards has done relatively well with the signings so far - but hey only time will tell. But I trust Pards!
And if last years press coverage was bad - jeez this years is totally non existent. Sky must be over the moon that we got relegated as they now don't "have" to mention us.
Mx
lol, too true
Most if not all of us on Charlton Life will (and have) continue to go regardless of the level the Club is playing at. I'm not sure we represent the whole support though. This season the support will hold up partly because of the free season ticket offer. However if we miss out I think the core support could almost halve overnight. If that happens there will be immense financial pressures and we live in a more hardheaded, ruthless business world than we did back in 1984.
It is not beyond the realms in the not too distant future that The Valley could be sold off for development given the desire of the government to concrete over the whole of the South East. It would be a prime brownfield site.
I realise that this post makes OOH AH Mortimer sound like Bonnie Langford or some other insufferably cheery person, but I genuinely fear the worst could happen if we don't get back to the Premiership in the next year or two.
The only thing that MIGHT save us is something that we didn't have in the eighties to any great extent namely the community work. Would the government or Greenwich Council want to be held accountable for destroying that?
...going to put some Dido on the radio now.
Can't wait, we're going to have a lot of fun, and Premier League (can't call it the Premiership anymore) next season
I'm excited but the fact that no one is discussing it, almost means it's crept up on me
i'm sure i'll be back in the mood once i start recognising our players and we're winning games (and the oak is open again).
So don't expect to start with 18 points from the first 6 games.
But Pards has already said he's going to go for it - and I'm feeling we're going to have some tremendous highs and a few lows - like last time in this league: winning away at Huddersfield when they were top and unbeaten in 10, and losing at home to Swindon after 12 wins on the trot and they were rock bottom and almost gone.
We might just have to put up with second place and a Wembley Cup Final..........
;-)
Saturday is probably coming 2 or 3 weeks early for me. I dont think I will even bother with Stoke.
I think my season starts at Palace.
Whatever happens on the pitch, going to the Valley for me will have changed.
Lets just hope the boys do their best to cheer me up.
x
We'll have promotion in the bag by then. Locked on. FACT!
Lots of new players to get behind, who I hope will wear our shirt with pride and give it their all (which will be refreshing!). Particularly can't wait to see (a) Moutouakil, Semedo and Varney in the Red and White.
Can't wait to see a fair few teams that I've not seen in the 20+ years I've followed Charlton (Scunthorpe being one of them) and a real sense of looking at that fixture list and truly believing that we have a chance of picking up a point or 3 points in every game on that list, which is great.
I liken the way I am feeling to the way Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool or Spurs fans will be feeling this pre-season. A very good squad for the division we're in, proven quality at this level at the back, in midfield and in attack and now just a question of whether we have the desire, fight, bottle and tactical awareness to get us to the summit.
ALAN PARDEW'S RED & WHITE ARMY!
You're right, we've got a whole bunch of youngsters itching to put on that red shirt.
And that includes not so young Eye Well Loo Mo - who's already said he can't believe he's playing for Charlton.
We're the 'Massives' of the CCC. ;-)
will miss seeing the likes of ronaldo, rooney etc (anyone who says they won't miss that needs to think which non cafc players they are looking forward to seeing this season).
positive about pardew as manager.
undecided about all new signings as haven't seen them yet.
to be honest i'm a bit worried at the possiblity of the squad not gelling quick enough to mount a challenge.
i'm edging towards the oohaah/len side of the fence.
sorry wss. it's a gut feeling i have that i hope doesn't materialise.
go ahead and put your barbed wire up. i would love to be wrong and would gladly dig a tunnel under the fence and come crawling back (with free season ticket).
Not neccesarily optimistic but I am quite excited by some of the signings and I dont think we realise how good some of our average premiership players and going to suddenly appear at this level. You watch Bent, Reid and Ambrose run this league... well maybe ambrose and reid anyway!
Can't wait for Saturday!