If it helps Smudge - could i suggest moving abroad.
You'll soon miss Saturday afternoon's at the Valley, but you will feel an incredible air of superiority to the plastics following the big 4 that you will encounter everywhere, but you will lose patience explaining that yes there are leagues below the Premier League.
You'll festoon your vehicle with Charlton merchandise & look at the bemusement on locals faces as they walk past your car, which is proudly proclaiming Addick from every space.
You'll groan a deep sigh when you pull into the local supermarket car park one day & see a car plastered in Millwall paraphernalia (Mr. G. Peacocks mate it turns out).
You'll thank your lucky stars you are not an ice hockey fan with their punishing 82 (eighty two) game regular season( before the play-offs) - now following that is in my book, a real chore - it is relentless.
You'll wonder how any fans pre-game ritual involves eaither (a) eating 20kg of burnt nachos at a crappy sports theme bar while drinking watered down piss or (b) barbecuing & eating half a cow in the stadium parking lot - give me a proper pub, a pie, a pint & a bit of banter with Razil any day
You'll be slaveishly tuning in for live radio coverage (and cursing that it's friggin' Emma again) - or watching crappy internet streams on a screen the size of a postage stamp. At ridiculous times.
You won't recognise any of the players anymore - apart from Elliott ( that shirt helps).
When making conversation with work colleagues or customers you'll have to really think - because (a). they won't have an opinion/clue about last nights Man Utd game & (b). you didn't realise last night was the grand final of the CFL/NHL/NFL/MLB/MLS/CLS/MHL/ALS/PLB/WTF etc etc etc
You'll meet another newly arrived English guy at your "soccer club", decent fellow seems to know what he's talking about - who do you support mate? Palace! Arggghhh!!
You'll try to take an interest in your local league, but soon realise you'd probably be better off watching the hockey.
You try to get into the hockey, but the commercial breaks every 5 minutes kill any interest you have in it before it even has a chance.
and then......
You'll thank your lucky stars that there is a little place called Charlton Life that you can go to on the internet & read about the stuff that really matters, from people who genuinely know & follow the one true beautiful game (no matter how much the powers that be are trying to feck it up).
I've thought some more about this since my first post and I think the direct answer for me is if (when) we leave The Valley.
My beloved late father and grandparents took me there and I in my turn took my younger brother and later, after the return, my children as already mentioned above.
I have a lot of memories bound up in that ground and my emotional ties are as much to the ground as the Club.
A lot of very good posts...I think we are living through dark times at the moment....its not just the Valley, its not just Charlton, its not just football and its not just having a young family.....
I think a lot of us are just plain fed up. I felt fed up with Charlton in particular back in 1979, I became a part timer for three/four years, picking and choosing games and yes it coincided with me starting a family. I came back with a vengeance in 1984, the winding up of something I loved dearly, galvanised me even more, and not even the thought of playing our home games at Scumhurst would stop me from going home and away until a vein popped in 1995 and I went part time again for 2 years....97 until 2003 was a rollercoaster for me, but by the time I went to Oz, I was fast falling out of love with the glitzy Premier league and the primma donnas who came with it....2005 and living alone in a foreign country, my lover came to save me via Foxtel....the one thing that had been an absolute constant in my life could be viewed every week on TV...and I reached out to find like minded people and it gave birth to Addicks Downunder, something which is close to my heart.....not because of the football these days, but it brought like minded strangers together who had the Addicks coursing through their veins even though they were many miles away from the Valley.
Its not unthinkable to give it a rest mate, it wont make you a lesser fan, it wont make you unfaithful. What it may well do is actually strengthen that bond...they say a rest is as good as a change....and why not?
My level of expectations have now dropped to the point where if I dont expect anything, then an unexpected win is a bonus...last night was a prime example....I shrugged as the Mrs asked me what the score was, "we lost again" I said......she just looked at me and smiled...."you will still go next game" she said. My expression prompted "wont you? I shrugged again, but I'll be there if only to see the dawning of a new era.
A wag once said to me "If things dont change, they will just stay the same" Lets hope there is a refreshing new wind of change sweeping down towards SE7 because the time for change is well overdue.
Keep the faith, but dont ever be afraid to take a rest...might do you some good...it did for me.
the writer is simply growing up and growing older ,you are merely entering a different phase of you relationship with CAFC but your love will never die writes a supporter since the mid 60s
What used to make us different to the other 91 is the spirit that grew from the back to the valley days,curbs and the management benefited from that ,the new management will hopefully reinstil that bond with club,players,supporters and community...a kind of back to basics... and we will rise again ,we will for sure
lets not worry about the yob element it will soon go away as there is too much good amongst our support but we do need to get behind our team on matchdays cmon you reds
wait till the kids can get a word out one of the first you'll be teaching them is curbishley "charlton"
my eldest nearly 5 wants to go to the games , he's only been to 2 so far, even though when there he is pretty bored and wants to leave (so do i!)
no matter where i am when charlton are playing ( a lot more now than when i was without family) i need to know the score as and when it happens .... a true addicktion , waiting for that text message of disappointment !
as a miserable negative c**t and a firm hater of people , reading some of the ridiculous views of our fans on this forum winds me up no end but i will always read it just to get a feel for what our other goony fans think and as NLA says everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how cranky it is
it's in your blood and there isn't anything you can do about it !
I couldn't agree more with you AFKA. I think your views reflect those of many a Charlton fan. It's a horrible co-incidence that you should post this thread today as I have decided that I'm not going to Tottenham. I'm not going to Tottenham simply because I just can't face it.
I guess that this is my breaking point, a couple of seasons ago I wouldn't have thought twice about going to support my team play against a more successful and bigger club, memories of the Chelsea Carling cup game are now becoming lost in the fog of relentless disappointment.
Many of my friends and family who used to go to the games home and away now don't bother anymore while my support for my club has grown stronger during our recent demise. Charlton now means something different to me that it did 10, 15 or 20 years ago, my relationship has become more ritualistic, it's like going to church even though you don't particularly want to, don't believe in it anymore and you know what's going to happen at the end.
I dunno. I'm just generally frustrated at the moment. I used to enjoy going to a game because it was always an escape, a kind of parallel life I could move over to on a Saturday afternoon that provided an escape to the working week. Now, supporting my team seems like a job in itself.
I still cling to the hope that one day, at some point in the future my devotion will be somehow rewarded, we might win something someday.
Ten years ago this week we scored three goals at the Valley against Man U.
But it wasn't just about the goals and getting a point from the best team in the land. It was about the guts and the spirit and the never-say-die attitude and a manager and players who commanded respect.
That's what has been lost (''the soul, heart and bo**ocks of the club'', I think AFKA said). And we are reminded of it every time we see the current lot play.
That surely has a lot to do with the malaise, which many of us share with AFKA. If the spirit and the guts and the respect were still there, you wouldn't mind what division we were in, because our heads would be held high.
Read Curbs book again. Many on here reckoned it was ''boring''. But you're so wrong. It's a brilliant book because it explains exactly why Charlton was/is a ''special'' club.
Curbs had been through it all with Charlton , the dark days at Selhurst etc. And he made sure everybody who joined the club knew about the history that made our club 'special' - remember the story of him giving Di Canio the video and saying 'watch this before you decide whether to sign or not' ?
That's what we've lost. We don't want to live in the past. But there's a lot in the old cliche about not being able to know where you're going unless you know where you've come from. How many currently involved with the club have any idea that Charlton is a 'special' club, let alone the story of what makes us 'special'?
Where is your Charlton 'Breaking Point'? Good question AFKA.
I've had a couple over the years, particularly when Andy Nelson lost the dressing room in 1979/80.
The spirit drained out of the team, and it seemed like they simply gave up.
We lost game after successive game, rooted to the bottom of the table.
There was nothing to watch, and I missed the last dozen games of the season as it seemed more sensible to earn 'time and threequarters rest day working' and save up for a deposit on a house.
The Sell-out days didn't faze me - and whatever the limitations of Lennie's team punching above its weight, I was still living the dream of watching my beloved Charlton unbelievably playing in the top tier....... and occasionally winning at grounds like Old Trafford, etc.
Even the Dowie/Pardew downward spiral had an occasional bright day, whether winning at home to a tough Bolton or the slaughter of West Ham. Parky's tenure, much the same with some decent unbeaten runs included.
But what will break me if anything is the now all too frequently wretched atmosphere at The Valley. It has become often a truly soulless place to watch football, oppressed and suffocated by negativity.
It's apparent the players don't relish playing there, and it's much more fun in the Liberal Club before the match. Would I want to take my girlfriend to see a match there? God, no ....... I'd be too embarrassed by a non-performing team and a vindictive and sniping crowd who seem to get their pleasure by a torrent of abuse at individual players.
Strangely I look forward to away games.
Whatever the result or even the team performance, there's a different spirit among most of our crowd, especially away from London. These are what to me seems like real football days, win or lose, a damned good day out!
That surely has a lot to do with the malaise, which many of us share with AFKA. If the spirit and the guts and the respect were still there, you wouldn't mind what division we were in, because our heads would be held high.
Great post AFKA. I've been following Charlton regularly since 1968. I followed us throughout the Sellout years and just loved getting back to the Valley. I used to love the atmosphere at the game on a Saturday, and even more so under floodlights. Now though it is becoming a bit of a chore. I hate the constant moaning that goes on around me in C block and I hate the over-reaction on here everytime we fail to win 8-0.
Anyway, after 42 years I'm finally going to knock it on the head next year: I've accepted a job in Dubai that starts on February 1st. When I was first offered the job in the summer I had great doubts about leaving the UK; leaving my old mum and leaving Charlton behind appeared very difficult to do. I'm now very glad that I'm going. I'll still miss my mum of course but I won't miss Charlton games anything like as much as I thought I would. I'll follow us on here and I hope that my passion returns in the desert heat.
Fell in love with CAFC by accident, ironically it was during the time at Selhurst. I began stewarding for them and fell head over heels......its all a bit sad really. Had 2 sons, the first had more sense and saw the light and raely attends but the 14yo is a ST holder with me and despite being shaky with his commitment in the Championship is now completely CAFC daft. Is there a breaking point? I dont know really. Our support has changed quite dramatically as we plunge down the divisions. Charlton were always known to have such well behaved support-I do not know if that is as true now as it was. I cant understand the boo boys it just seems daft-and the abuse aimed at Parky on Sunday was a complete digrace. Did anyone else see Elliot having it out with some CAFC supporters in the first half v Walsall? As for the coin incident.........Sometimes I leave the Valley like I did on Sunday and ask myself why but then rushed around yesterday to see the Game last night went to bed disillusioned and bitter re CAFC then got up this morning and got Spurs tickets. Perhaps I need analysis-perhaps we all do.......:-)
Felt like that for a good few years now AFKA. Its not about the footie any more to me its about meeting mates . I look forward to seeing the old faces(not sure they feel the same way about me!!)its also about loyalty to something that is difficult to discribe and dosnt exist in todays World--maybe it never did.
Football and footballers in general is total shit these days. Look at FIFA. Look at the scum bag players on £260,000 a week or the nobodies on £30,000 a week. They dont give a shit and to be honest i HATE them with a passion for the parasitic scum that are helping ruining the game i once loved.
Only this week a guy at work asked me about the picture of the Valley from the Legends calander(the one of the clean up) it always goes where i work,he was takingthe piss---but i told him about it and pointed to the spot where i stood with my late father 40 years ago--------------------when will it end ? well i went over to games at Shitout Park but if we left The Valley then its all over for me.
I will still go, but now only if mates are going there are far to many memories and ghosts about to be siting there on me own, thats not FUN and surely thats-the thing its just not FUN anymore !
As AFKA knows I have twins myself, and can fully understand the 'fatigue' that he has. Just wait till they play football mate, you will spend Saturday morning training,Saturday watching the matches, Satuday night getting ready for the Bexley league or some such. Sunday morning playing, Sunday afternoon in the pub with the parents!, wedged inbeetween MOTD and sky, all ready for work on a Monday!
Combined with trying to earn a crust it really is not easy! and for a man who is not used to 'regimes' I had a few 'moments'.
In the end it is about choice, and the issue with Charlton is that you do not really have a choice!. It is in my blood I am afraid, I just have to control it.
You really do need to have an outlet mate, besides Charlton and the kids, for me it is music, photography and being on the internet!. Things will settle down with the twins, and I am sure you will rekindle your 'enjoyment' of Charlton!
Just give me championship football and a decent cup run ever 10 years!.
Well done for being so honest, I think most of us are being 'tested at present'
I've twice reached that breaking point in my 30 years of support. Can still remember the first time. Standing on the open terrace at Chelsea around 1988 or 1989. Think we were beaten 3-0. Just turned to my mate and said this isn't fun anymore. He agreed with me and we missed the next game at Selhurst - no idea who it was. We were soon back though.
The most recent time was during the Championship relegation season. The Watford home tipped me over the edge and I wasn't even there!. I was ill and watching SSN. When the Watford winner went in I shrugged and decided I wasn't going again that season. Lasted about 2 weeks.
The orginal post in this thread for me, is more of a realisation that there are other things in life. Kids do that to you. I've only got one, but would rather spend a Saturday doing something with her as oppose to traipsing all over the country, hence my 4-5 away days a season policy.
Agree it has been utter cack at home this season and the most boring set of games you could imagine but you just hope that something will change. A freak result at Spurs would help restore the faith.
In the meantime, re-introduce terracing, use a Mitre Multiplex ball instead of a beach ball, ditch the bollocky continental goal nets for the traditional style, chuck a bit of mud onto the pitch, allow the odd severe challenge from behind, ban snoods/gloves/flying helmets and make all the players wear black boots. In an instant the game will be better!
[cite]Posted By: incorruptible addick[/cite]But it wasn't just about the goals and getting a point from the best team in the land. It was about the guts and the spirit and the never-say-die attitude and a manager and players who commanded respect.
That's what has been lost (''the soul, heart and bo**ocks of the club'', I think AFKA said). And we are reminded of it every time we see the current lot play.
That surely has a lot to do with the malaise, which many of us share with AFKA. If the spirit and the guts and the respect were still there, you wouldn't mind what division we were in, because our heads would be held high.
To an extent but I'd argue generally the current team have put in the effort. It's just the expectations are different now. When our players put in effort but don't create many chances in a game or concede through a lack of concentration, it's not good enough. When people talk about wanting players to show passion on the pitch, they so often mean both effort AND results (depending on expectation)
In 98/99 for example we expected to be fighting relegation and be thrashed by the better teams occasionally. Now we expect to challenge for promotion with very few slip ups against smaller clubs. When we don't get a result against one of them, there's a lot of negativity until we have a few good results.
The current team have shown effort/guts/pride/whatever you want to call it (not saying every game, obviously wasn't like that v Walsall) this season. We've scored late goals. Even against Brighton we got plenty of crosses in. Certain players have tried and tried but still made basic mistakes.
I suppose what we really want are reliable players that get the most out of their ability. Players like Robinson, Powell, Stuart, Rufus, Kiely etc were exactly that. Curbs had plenty of players like that. We have more players like that than we have had for a few years, Dailly the best example. Someone like Martin probably tries just as hard, but so often what he does try doesn't come to anything. That's not him lacking spirit and guts, he's a skilful player who doesn't know when and how to use his ability, how often have people said "worked very hard, but lacked a football brain/decision making was poor"?
Maybe AFKA, since you have just had kids, your priorities have changed and it has put everything into a different perspective?
At the end of the day, we all love Charlton, but we love our nearest and dearest more. That's just the way it is and it's not like it is a conflict of interests or anything!
For us older fans, it certainly is a shock to the system to see the players representing our club turning in such insipid displays, when our USP was the fact that we had a heart bigger than SE7 and players that reflected the passion and pride of a club that refused to die. As a result, supporting Charlton was often emotional, never boring and we were frequently pleasantly surprised and treated to magic moments when we could all have burst with pride.
Fast forward a few years and we have a team of apparent bottlers who can play so badly that people will get terminally sick of watching the dire fare that they serve up - it's only natural; and it is logical to simply not want to inflict that kind of pain on yourself! Sometimes, going to watch Charlton feels like paying someone to kick you in the nuts...
Hopefully there will be better times ahead. No, surely there will be better times ahead - as fans we are all still suffering the massive collective hangover of having it all and then pissing it up the wall, which means that as a club we reek of failure, lost opportunities, anger at those who have taken the money and ran and sheer incredulity at how quickly everything went from being so rosy to falling apart in the most humiliating fashion. We have certainly all experienced a very harsh lesson in humility these past few years, that's for sure. But, there is still something intangible that makes Charlton special, and in time our wounds will heal and the positivity and pride will return and we will all be smiling again. I really believe that. Well, you've got to, haven't you!
Great post - never really had a breaking point as such what with everything the club has been through - but as far as getting hacked off with the management or the players this season is concerned it wont be because we limped out the JPT, lost to Walsall or if we lose at Spurs. It will be if the dream of promotion starts to fade into an abyss of below par performances..............but I will get over it cos thats what football fans do !
So far this season iv seen the best and worst that Charlton can offer on the pitch. On one hand the great performances at Peterborough and Swindon - on the other the abysmal defeat against Walsall.
I know Charlton are more than capable of promotion, but I also know they are equally as capable of throwing it away. If we use the last 2 games as the kick up the arse that most teams need at some point and learn from the mistakes then we can achieve promotion !
For me it's about personal circumstances, CAFC and football generally.
On the one hand, I agree with those who have said how important kids are in giving you new priorities/perspective. I know people who have given up entirely to raise a family only to return once the kids reach a certain age.
But there is something about Charlton as well. Everything from 92 to 98 felt like progress. It was exciting. Everything since has felt like a stutter and then a retreat. It always felt to me like it was only a matter of time before we fell out of the premiership and the tension that created detracted from the enjoyment in a way that has never returned. The various kicks we've taken to the nuts since then obviously haven't helped either.
Still, we are at about par in the wider arc of things - a bit lower than our normal league position, a little poorer perhaps but with a better ground and new owners coming in who (presumably) will relieve the immediate financial crisis. So I don't think it is just about Charlton. I think the whole game is a load of bollox these days to be honest. Too much about money and stars. And the fans are complicit in that. Even on here it's clear from the the number of tedious posts and threads about takeovers that money, feeling vicariously rich though your football team, is almost as important as the sense of community/belonging/friendship identified in several of the above posts. How do you then persuade your kids to follow Charlton rather than the 'considerably richer than thou' likes of Chelsea and Arsenal?
Hard to see how, when or if things will change. I will get another season ticket next year, and for the foreseeable future, for family reasons. But I don't blame anyone who opts instead to do something more productive with their Saturdays.
A heartfelt sentiment that I have heard from quite a few people. This is a feeling that is clearly around a lot. Life sometimes gets in the way of supporting Charlton, it has happened to me on a good few occasions, even this season where I had to abandon my season ticket because of family circumstances. But today I got the half season ticket, and I'll explain why I'm really pleased I have. Me, I like watching football. It started for me just before the '66 World Cup, really took off from '68 when I saw my first Charlton game against Oxford, and it has never really stopped being a game that I love watching. Now I can take or leave quite a lot of Prem football and the Champions League. These "big occasion" games are overexposed and occur so often that they have ceased to have any real meaning for me. It is easy to be accused of not having ambition for your team if you do not vehemently want your club to be at that level, but the reality is that football overdriven by wealth and greed is a pretty ugly spectacle, that in my view does a glorious uplifting game little justice. The greatest moments in football for me are not trophies effectively bought by wealthy club owners, it is the sometimes small but real triumphs in watching a team built on something much greater than money - belief, passion skill and sometimes simply love of the game. It was there in abundance at Charlton, a truly romantic notion of a football club, brought back from the brink with supporters to die for, able to take on the big wealthy boys and sometimes beat them at their own game with a bit of South London swagger thrown in for good measure. And look where we are now, the last few seasons it has gone tits up, and there is a loss of unity and direction. It has been a couple of harsh seasons. The truly loyal fans of this club probably deserved better. But no matter. It's done. I watched us last night on the telly and I realised I had adjusted my expectations. It wasn't as good as the football we watched a few seasons back because I was watching the team I support in the 3rd tier of English football. We have no "right" to be anywhere other than where the quality of our football places us. What I'm trying to say albeit rather badly maybe, is that once I sort of accepted that, I felt I could move forward again and get enjoyment from it. We are not what we were. We have to start again. And as for all the tossers the twats the coin throwing idiots, I am not going to let them spoil my afternoons watching Charlton. It is not their club, it is the likes of yours Afka and countless other dedicated fans, don't yield it to them, you were the ones who made it great, claim it back.
I haven't lived in the UK since 1995 and am now as far away as it is possible to be, but essentially I feel the same about Charlton now as I did back in 68/69 when I first started going.
However, what I've lost lately, and not just because of the distance, is a real connection with the players.
As a kid, you look up to the players, and dream about being one of them, one day. As you get older, you admire their skill, their professionalism, their commitment to the club.
These things are lacking at the moment.
Very few players these days have any commitment to the club whatsoever, and it shows. There are very few good passages of play, or bits of pure skill being demonstrated by CAFC right now. Professionalism is only worthy if it brings a result (ie promotion)
So I'm still in love with Charlton, but it's a bit of an empty shell.
[cite]Posted By: Killarahales[/cite]What a great thread, thanks everybody.
I haven't lived in the UK since 1995 and am now as far away as it is possible to be, but essentially I feel the same about Charlton now as I did back in 68/69 when I first started going.
However, what I've lost lately, and not just because of the distance, is a real connection with the players.
As a kid, you look up to the players, and dream about being one of them, one day.
As you get older, you admire their skill, their professionalism, their commitment to the club.
These things are lacking at the moment.
Very few players these days have any commitment to the club whatsoever, and it shows.
There are very few good passages of play, or bits of pure skill being demonstrated by CAFC right now.
Professionalism is only worthy if it brings a result (ie promotion)
So I'm still in love with Charlton, but it's a bit of an empty shell.
I read all the posts on this very good thread and decided what I was going to add and in the very last post, Killarahales, you wrote exactly what I was going to.
It is very difficult to identify with the players, most of whom I wouldn't recognise if they checked into my guesthouse.
Going to watch Charlton is one of the major things I miss about England and although I go back every year, it's generally during the summer so I rarely see a game and I hate listening on the radio so I don't subscribe to Charlton Player and usually wait to get the results the next day, oddly enough with the heart thumping in anticipation, though disappointment has been quite common over the past five years and I soon forget.
I don't know how I would feel if I still lived in England and had the opportunity to go to games regularly. would I still have a season ticket, would I still go to the occasional away game, nearly always making a weekend away of it; I was never one just for going to a game then going back home the same day, or would I be feeling a bit fed up with the whole Charlton Athletic scene?
I had a big break in the 1970s, hardly going to a game. Ironically after the "last" game at The Valley, I regained my interest and became a season ticket holder at Selhurst. I'm sure the best days for me were those early days back at The Valley with little or no expectation apart from being mid-table second division. Perhaps I wouldn't like us being the favourites in most games.
Following a smaller team like Charlton when in a place like Thailand is great, despite the lack of TV coverage. The enthusiasm and affection are still there. I'm sure like myself and Killarahales, many other overseas Addicks feel the same.
Got my first season ticket when we were at Selhurst and had one pretty much every year until last season. I decided against one as I wasn't happy that the club stuck with Parky despite his dismal attempt at keeping us up. At least that was the reason I gave to myself and to anyone who asked. If I'm honest now though, it goes a lot further back than that to the Premier years and the feeling that no matter how well we did, the game was always stacked against us since the Champions League money turned it into a closed shop. Before that of course the Premier League had already ensured that a similar gulf existed between the top tier and below. We were lucky enough to be able to bridge that gap but it ever widens. In the Prem, the Osei Sankofa red card at Highbury and the FA's refusal to overturn it when it was blatantly a wrong decision still irks me along with the suggestion that it was all just part of a test case in the Sheff U vs. West Ham relegation fiasco. Then there was the business with Englands disallowed goal in the WC and the stubborn refusal to allow goal-line tech, and now the FIFA corruption with the 2018 World Cup. The sport of football is just so, so corrupt and I've certainly fell out of love with it. I still go to the odd game of course but even when we win I just don't get the same buzz from it as I used to. What was once a passion is now just an 'interest'. I keep hoping I will fall back in love with football but I think the sport as a whole will have to be run in a far more sporting manner before that ever happens.
i think if there is a breaking point for me,then it would have to be something ridiculous like a change of name and moving to a different part of the country.but i don't think that's going to happen any time soon. so if i didn't recognise my club anymore, then what's the point?
everyone gets older and world weary and at times i really hate charlton, but i'll never stop loving it.
Been tested many a time, was there at the 1-7 at Luton for example, I know there is a breaking point out there somewhere, but it hasn't yet happened. My attitude is that you have to experience the (many) lows to legitimately glory in the (few) highs. I have stupidly had a season ticket every year since 1971, and for many years before that, its a bit like breathing I suppose.
Life changes as you get older, but then again so does the football experience.
They talk about the days that players used to get the tram with the fans to games. Only a while back you had Johnny Robisnon, Garry Nelson and Stevie Brown driving up from Brighton in an old banger.
I remember Trevor Booker at Welling used to ride his bike to games.
Now we have Jay Bothroyd getting out of a Baby Bently in Wardour Street, Leroy Lita turning up for his first game in a hummer!!! If they were any good then so be it.
We had years of knowing our team, all under Curbs. He took us on a journey we couldnt have dreamt about, then the roof fell in. I for one still can't work out why there was no contingencey for when Curbs called it a day. We should have had Day and Peacock for a season and they would have brought someone else in or kept the status quo.
We can remember how shite Phil Chappel was, but he was paid 50p and he was our shite. It's now Phil Chappel doing the scouting for players like Simon Francis, and Alan McCormack and inded Paul Benson. I would like to go on record to say if I was chief scout we would have better players on less money. FACT.
Life moves on times change ... sometimes not for the best ...
But me, I have reached that time, when I just can't relate to what they are dishing up. It's whack it football, and that I am sorry to say is that.
Comments
You'll soon miss Saturday afternoon's at the Valley, but you will feel an incredible air of superiority to the plastics following the big 4 that you will encounter everywhere, but you will lose patience explaining that yes there are leagues below the Premier League.
You'll festoon your vehicle with Charlton merchandise & look at the bemusement on locals faces as they walk past your car, which is proudly proclaiming Addick from every space.
You'll groan a deep sigh when you pull into the local supermarket car park one day & see a car plastered in Millwall paraphernalia (Mr. G. Peacocks mate it turns out).
You'll thank your lucky stars you are not an ice hockey fan with their punishing 82 (eighty two) game regular season( before the play-offs) - now following that is in my book, a real chore - it is relentless.
You'll wonder how any fans pre-game ritual involves eaither (a) eating 20kg of burnt nachos at a crappy sports theme bar while drinking watered down piss or (b) barbecuing & eating half a cow in the stadium parking lot - give me a proper pub, a pie, a pint & a bit of banter with Razil any day
You'll be slaveishly tuning in for live radio coverage (and cursing that it's friggin' Emma again) - or watching crappy internet streams on a screen the size of a postage stamp. At ridiculous times.
You won't recognise any of the players anymore - apart from Elliott ( that shirt helps).
When making conversation with work colleagues or customers you'll have to really think - because (a). they won't have an opinion/clue about last nights Man Utd game & (b). you didn't realise last night was the grand final of the CFL/NHL/NFL/MLB/MLS/CLS/MHL/ALS/PLB/WTF etc etc etc
You'll meet another newly arrived English guy at your "soccer club", decent fellow seems to know what he's talking about - who do you support mate? Palace! Arggghhh!!
You'll try to take an interest in your local league, but soon realise you'd probably be better off watching the hockey.
You try to get into the hockey, but the commercial breaks every 5 minutes kill any interest you have in it before it even has a chance.
and then......
You'll thank your lucky stars that there is a little place called Charlton Life that you can go to on the internet & read about the stuff that really matters, from people who genuinely know & follow the one true beautiful game (no matter how much the powers that be are trying to feck it up).
My beloved late father and grandparents took me there and I in my turn took my younger brother and later, after the return, my children as already mentioned above.
I have a lot of memories bound up in that ground and my emotional ties are as much to the ground as the Club.
I think a lot of us are just plain fed up. I felt fed up with Charlton in particular back in 1979, I became a part timer for three/four years, picking and choosing games and yes it coincided with me starting a family. I came back with a vengeance in 1984, the winding up of something I loved dearly, galvanised me even more, and not even the thought of playing our home games at Scumhurst would stop me from going home and away until a vein popped in 1995 and I went part time again for 2 years....97 until 2003 was a rollercoaster for me, but by the time I went to Oz, I was fast falling out of love with the glitzy Premier league and the primma donnas who came with it....2005 and living alone in a foreign country, my lover came to save me via Foxtel....the one thing that had been an absolute constant in my life could be viewed every week on TV...and I reached out to find like minded people and it gave birth to Addicks Downunder, something which is close to my heart.....not because of the football these days, but it brought like minded strangers together who had the Addicks coursing through their veins even though they were many miles away from the Valley.
Its not unthinkable to give it a rest mate, it wont make you a lesser fan, it wont make you unfaithful. What it may well do is actually strengthen that bond...they say a rest is as good as a change....and why not?
My level of expectations have now dropped to the point where if I dont expect anything, then an unexpected win is a bonus...last night was a prime example....I shrugged as the Mrs asked me what the score was, "we lost again" I said......she just looked at me and smiled...."you will still go next game" she said. My expression prompted "wont you? I shrugged again, but I'll be there if only to see the dawning of a new era.
A wag once said to me "If things dont change, they will just stay the same" Lets hope there is a refreshing new wind of change sweeping down towards SE7 because the time for change is well overdue.
Keep the faith, but dont ever be afraid to take a rest...might do you some good...it did for me.
the writer is simply growing up and growing older ,you are merely entering a different phase of you relationship with CAFC but your love will never die writes a supporter since the mid 60s
What used to make us different to the other 91 is the spirit that grew from the back to the valley days,curbs and the management benefited from that ,the new management will hopefully reinstil that bond with club,players,supporters and community...a kind of back to basics... and we will rise again ,we will for sure
lets not worry about the yob element it will soon go away as there is too much good amongst our support but we do need to get behind our team on matchdays cmon you reds
my eldest nearly 5 wants to go to the games , he's only been to 2 so far, even though when there he is pretty bored and wants to leave (so do i!)
no matter where i am when charlton are playing ( a lot more now than when i was without family) i need to know the score as and when it happens .... a true addicktion , waiting for that text message of disappointment !
as a miserable negative c**t and a firm hater of people , reading some of the ridiculous views of our fans on this forum winds me up no end but i will always read it just to get a feel for what our other goony fans think and as NLA says everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how cranky it is
it's in your blood and there isn't anything you can do about it !
there is no breaking point, unfortunately!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
I guess that this is my breaking point, a couple of seasons ago I wouldn't have thought twice about going to support my team play against a more successful and bigger club, memories of the Chelsea Carling cup game are now becoming lost in the fog of relentless disappointment.
Many of my friends and family who used to go to the games home and away now don't bother anymore while my support for my club has grown stronger during our recent demise. Charlton now means something different to me that it did 10, 15 or 20 years ago, my relationship has become more ritualistic, it's like going to church even though you don't particularly want to, don't believe in it anymore and you know what's going to happen at the end.
I dunno. I'm just generally frustrated at the moment. I used to enjoy going to a game because it was always an escape, a kind of parallel life I could move over to on a Saturday afternoon that provided an escape to the working week. Now, supporting my team seems like a job in itself.
I still cling to the hope that one day, at some point in the future my devotion will be somehow rewarded, we might win something someday.
But it wasn't just about the goals and getting a point from the best team in the land. It was about the guts and the spirit and the never-say-die attitude and a manager and players who commanded respect.
That's what has been lost (''the soul, heart and bo**ocks of the club'', I think AFKA said). And we are reminded of it every time we see the current lot play.
That surely has a lot to do with the malaise, which many of us share with AFKA. If the spirit and the guts and the respect were still there, you wouldn't mind what division we were in, because our heads would be held high.
Read Curbs book again. Many on here reckoned it was ''boring''. But you're so wrong. It's a brilliant book because it explains exactly why Charlton was/is a ''special'' club.
Curbs had been through it all with Charlton , the dark days at Selhurst etc. And he made sure everybody who joined the club knew about the history that made our club 'special' - remember the story of him giving Di Canio the video and saying 'watch this before you decide whether to sign or not' ?
That's what we've lost. We don't want to live in the past. But there's a lot in the old cliche about not being able to know where you're going unless you know where you've come from. How many currently involved with the club have any idea that Charlton is a 'special' club, let alone the story of what makes us 'special'?
I've had a couple over the years, particularly when Andy Nelson lost the dressing room in 1979/80.
The spirit drained out of the team, and it seemed like they simply gave up.
We lost game after successive game, rooted to the bottom of the table.
There was nothing to watch, and I missed the last dozen games of the season as it seemed more sensible to earn 'time and threequarters rest day working' and save up for a deposit on a house.
The Sell-out days didn't faze me - and whatever the limitations of Lennie's team punching above its weight, I was still living the dream of watching my beloved Charlton unbelievably playing in the top tier....... and occasionally winning at grounds like Old Trafford, etc.
Even the Dowie/Pardew downward spiral had an occasional bright day, whether winning at home to a tough Bolton or the slaughter of West Ham. Parky's tenure, much the same with some decent unbeaten runs included.
But what will break me if anything is the now all too frequently wretched atmosphere at The Valley. It has become often a truly soulless place to watch football, oppressed and suffocated by negativity.
It's apparent the players don't relish playing there, and it's much more fun in the Liberal Club before the match. Would I want to take my girlfriend to see a match there? God, no ....... I'd be too embarrassed by a non-performing team and a vindictive and sniping crowd who seem to get their pleasure by a torrent of abuse at individual players.
Strangely I look forward to away games.
Whatever the result or even the team performance, there's a different spirit among most of our crowd, especially away from London. These are what to me seems like real football days, win or lose, a damned good day out!
It used to be like that at The Valley.
Anyway, after 42 years I'm finally going to knock it on the head next year: I've accepted a job in Dubai that starts on February 1st. When I was first offered the job in the summer I had great doubts about leaving the UK; leaving my old mum and leaving Charlton behind appeared very difficult to do. I'm now very glad that I'm going. I'll still miss my mum of course but I won't miss Charlton games anything like as much as I thought I would. I'll follow us on here and I hope that my passion returns in the desert heat.
Is there a breaking point? I dont know really. Our support has changed quite dramatically as we plunge down the divisions. Charlton were always known to have such well behaved support-I do not know if that is as true now as it was. I cant understand the boo boys it just seems daft-and the abuse aimed at Parky on Sunday was a complete digrace. Did anyone else see Elliot having it out with some CAFC supporters in the first half v Walsall? As for the coin incident.........Sometimes I leave the Valley like I did on Sunday and ask myself why but then rushed around yesterday to see the Game last night went to bed disillusioned and bitter re CAFC then got up this morning and got Spurs tickets.
Perhaps I need analysis-perhaps we all do.......:-)
Football and footballers in general is total shit these days. Look at FIFA. Look at the scum bag players on £260,000 a week or the nobodies on £30,000 a week. They dont give a shit and to be honest i HATE them with a passion for the parasitic scum that are helping ruining the game i once loved.
Only this week a guy at work asked me about the picture of the Valley from the Legends calander(the one of the clean up) it always goes where i work,he was takingthe piss---but i told him about it and pointed to the spot where i stood with my late father 40 years ago--------------------when will it end ? well i went over to games at Shitout Park but if we left The Valley then its all over for me.
I will still go, but now only if mates are going there are far to many memories and ghosts about to be siting there on me own, thats not FUN and surely thats-the thing its just not FUN anymore !
Just wait till they play football mate, you will spend Saturday morning training,Saturday watching the matches, Satuday night getting ready for the Bexley league or some such. Sunday morning playing, Sunday afternoon in the pub with the parents!, wedged inbeetween MOTD and sky, all ready for work on a Monday!
Combined with trying to earn a crust it really is not easy! and for a man who is not used to 'regimes' I had a few 'moments'.
In the end it is about choice, and the issue with Charlton is that you do not really have a choice!. It is in my blood I am afraid, I just have to control it.
You really do need to have an outlet mate, besides Charlton and the kids, for me it is music, photography and being on the internet!.
Things will settle down with the twins, and I am sure you will rekindle your 'enjoyment' of Charlton!
Just give me championship football and a decent cup run ever 10 years!.
Well done for being so honest, I think most of us are being 'tested at present'
The most recent time was during the Championship relegation season. The Watford home tipped me over the edge and I wasn't even there!. I was ill and watching SSN. When the Watford winner went in I shrugged and decided I wasn't going again that season. Lasted about 2 weeks.
The orginal post in this thread for me, is more of a realisation that there are other things in life. Kids do that to you. I've only got one, but would rather spend a Saturday doing something with her as oppose to traipsing all over the country, hence my 4-5 away days a season policy.
In the meantime, re-introduce terracing, use a Mitre Multiplex ball instead of a beach ball, ditch the bollocky continental goal nets for the traditional style, chuck a bit of mud onto the pitch, allow the odd severe challenge from behind, ban snoods/gloves/flying helmets and make all the players wear black boots. In an instant the game will be better!
No-one forces you to associate with a team. You do it for reasons that defy analysis and logical thought.
And, when you do, here is the first and most important thing to realise:
It's not about whether your team or Club is doing well, badly or indifferently.
It's about the hope. It's about the dream. It's about feeling that, one day, it will all come right.
And one day it will. Trust me. And don't you want to be part of it when it happens?
In 98/99 for example we expected to be fighting relegation and be thrashed by the better teams occasionally. Now we expect to challenge for promotion with very few slip ups against smaller clubs. When we don't get a result against one of them, there's a lot of negativity until we have a few good results.
The current team have shown effort/guts/pride/whatever you want to call it (not saying every game, obviously wasn't like that v Walsall) this season. We've scored late goals. Even against Brighton we got plenty of crosses in. Certain players have tried and tried but still made basic mistakes.
I suppose what we really want are reliable players that get the most out of their ability. Players like Robinson, Powell, Stuart, Rufus, Kiely etc were exactly that. Curbs had plenty of players like that. We have more players like that than we have had for a few years, Dailly the best example. Someone like Martin probably tries just as hard, but so often what he does try doesn't come to anything. That's not him lacking spirit and guts, he's a skilful player who doesn't know when and how to use his ability, how often have people said "worked very hard, but lacked a football brain/decision making was poor"?
Maybe AFKA, since you have just had kids, your priorities have changed and it has put everything into a different perspective?
At the end of the day, we all love Charlton, but we love our nearest and dearest more. That's just the way it is and it's not like it is a conflict of interests or anything!
For us older fans, it certainly is a shock to the system to see the players representing our club turning in such insipid displays, when our USP was the fact that we had a heart bigger than SE7 and players that reflected the passion and pride of a club that refused to die. As a result, supporting Charlton was often emotional, never boring and we were frequently pleasantly surprised and treated to magic moments when we could all have burst with pride.
Fast forward a few years and we have a team of apparent bottlers who can play so badly that people will get terminally sick of watching the dire fare that they serve up - it's only natural; and it is logical to simply not want to inflict that kind of pain on yourself! Sometimes, going to watch Charlton feels like paying someone to kick you in the nuts...
Hopefully there will be better times ahead. No, surely there will be better times ahead - as fans we are all still suffering the massive collective hangover of having it all and then pissing it up the wall, which means that as a club we reek of failure, lost opportunities, anger at those who have taken the money and ran and sheer incredulity at how quickly everything went from being so rosy to falling apart in the most humiliating fashion. We have certainly all experienced a very harsh lesson in humility these past few years, that's for sure. But, there is still something intangible that makes Charlton special, and in time our wounds will heal and the positivity and pride will return and we will all be smiling again. I really believe that. Well, you've got to, haven't you!
Keep smiling everyone....and keep believing....
So far this season iv seen the best and worst that Charlton can offer on the pitch. On one hand the great performances at Peterborough and Swindon - on the other the abysmal defeat against Walsall.
I know Charlton are more than capable of promotion, but I also know they are equally as capable of throwing it away. If we use the last 2 games as the kick up the arse that most teams need at some point and learn from the mistakes then we can achieve promotion !
On the one hand, I agree with those who have said how important kids are in giving you new priorities/perspective. I know people who have given up entirely to raise a family only to return once the kids reach a certain age.
But there is something about Charlton as well. Everything from 92 to 98 felt like progress. It was exciting. Everything since has felt like a stutter and then a retreat. It always felt to me like it was only a matter of time before we fell out of the premiership and the tension that created detracted from the enjoyment in a way that has never returned. The various kicks we've taken to the nuts since then obviously haven't helped either.
Still, we are at about par in the wider arc of things - a bit lower than our normal league position, a little poorer perhaps but with a better ground and new owners coming in who (presumably) will relieve the immediate financial crisis. So I don't think it is just about Charlton. I think the whole game is a load of bollox these days to be honest. Too much about money and stars. And the fans are complicit in that. Even on here it's clear from the the number of tedious posts and threads about takeovers that money, feeling vicariously rich though your football team, is almost as important as the sense of community/belonging/friendship identified in several of the above posts. How do you then persuade your kids to follow Charlton rather than the 'considerably richer than thou' likes of Chelsea and Arsenal?
Hard to see how, when or if things will change. I will get another season ticket next year, and for the foreseeable future, for family reasons. But I don't blame anyone who opts instead to do something more productive with their Saturdays.
Life sometimes gets in the way of supporting Charlton, it has happened to me on a good few occasions, even this season where I had to abandon my season ticket because of family circumstances. But today I got the half season ticket, and I'll explain why I'm really pleased I have.
Me, I like watching football.
It started for me just before the '66 World Cup, really took off from '68 when I saw my first Charlton game against Oxford, and it has never really stopped being a game that I love watching.
Now I can take or leave quite a lot of Prem football and the Champions League. These "big occasion" games are overexposed and occur so often that they have ceased to have any real meaning for me.
It is easy to be accused of not having ambition for your team if you do not vehemently want your club to be at that level, but the reality is that football overdriven by wealth and greed is a pretty ugly spectacle, that in my view does a glorious uplifting game little justice.
The greatest moments in football for me are not trophies effectively bought by wealthy club owners, it is the sometimes small but real triumphs in watching a team built on something much greater than money - belief, passion skill and sometimes simply love of the game.
It was there in abundance at Charlton, a truly romantic notion of a football club, brought back from the brink with supporters to die for, able to take on the big wealthy boys and sometimes beat them at their own game with a bit of South London swagger thrown in for good measure.
And look where we are now, the last few seasons it has gone tits up, and there is a loss of unity and direction. It has been a couple of harsh seasons. The truly loyal fans of this club probably deserved better. But no matter. It's done.
I watched us last night on the telly and I realised I had adjusted my expectations. It wasn't as good as the football we watched a few seasons back because I was watching the team I support in the 3rd tier of English football. We have no "right" to be anywhere other than where the quality of our football places us. What I'm trying to say albeit rather badly maybe, is that once I sort of accepted that, I felt I could move forward again and get enjoyment from it.
We are not what we were. We have to start again.
And as for all the tossers the twats the coin throwing idiots, I am not going to let them spoil my afternoons watching Charlton. It is not their club, it is the likes of yours Afka and countless other dedicated fans, don't yield it to them, you were the ones who made it great, claim it back.
I haven't lived in the UK since 1995 and am now as far away as it is possible to be, but essentially I feel the same about Charlton now as I did back in 68/69 when I first started going.
However, what I've lost lately, and not just because of the distance, is a real connection with the players.
As a kid, you look up to the players, and dream about being one of them, one day.
As you get older, you admire their skill, their professionalism, their commitment to the club.
These things are lacking at the moment.
Very few players these days have any commitment to the club whatsoever, and it shows.
There are very few good passages of play, or bits of pure skill being demonstrated by CAFC right now.
Professionalism is only worthy if it brings a result (ie promotion)
So I'm still in love with Charlton, but it's a bit of an empty shell.
I read all the posts on this very good thread and decided what I was going to add and in the very last post, Killarahales, you wrote exactly what I was going to.
It is very difficult to identify with the players, most of whom I wouldn't recognise if they checked into my guesthouse.
Going to watch Charlton is one of the major things I miss about England and although I go back every year, it's generally during the summer so I rarely see a game and I hate listening on the radio so I don't subscribe to Charlton Player and usually wait to get the results the next day, oddly enough with the heart thumping in anticipation, though disappointment has been quite common over the past five years and I soon forget.
I don't know how I would feel if I still lived in England and had the opportunity to go to games regularly. would I still have a season ticket, would I still go to the occasional away game, nearly always making a weekend away of it; I was never one just for going to a game then going back home the same day, or would I be feeling a bit fed up with the whole Charlton Athletic scene?
I had a big break in the 1970s, hardly going to a game. Ironically after the "last" game at The Valley, I regained my interest and became a season ticket holder at Selhurst. I'm sure the best days for me were those early days back at The Valley with little or no expectation apart from being mid-table second division. Perhaps I wouldn't like us being the favourites in most games.
Following a smaller team like Charlton when in a place like Thailand is great, despite the lack of TV coverage. The enthusiasm and affection are still there. I'm sure like myself and Killarahales, many other overseas Addicks feel the same.
everyone gets older and world weary and at times i really hate charlton, but i'll never stop loving it.
They talk about the days that players used to get the tram with the fans to games. Only a while back you had Johnny Robisnon, Garry Nelson and Stevie Brown driving up from Brighton in an old banger.
I remember Trevor Booker at Welling used to ride his bike to games.
Now we have Jay Bothroyd getting out of a Baby Bently in Wardour Street, Leroy Lita turning up for his first game in a hummer!!! If they were any good then so be it.
We had years of knowing our team, all under Curbs. He took us on a journey we couldnt have dreamt about, then the roof fell in. I for one still can't work out why there was no contingencey for when Curbs called it a day. We should have had Day and Peacock for a season and they would have brought someone else in or kept the status quo.
We can remember how shite Phil Chappel was, but he was paid 50p and he was our shite. It's now Phil Chappel doing the scouting for players like Simon Francis, and Alan McCormack and inded Paul Benson. I would like to go on record to say if I was chief scout we would have better players on less money. FACT.
Life moves on times change ... sometimes not for the best ...
But me, I have reached that time, when I just can't relate to what they are dishing up. It's whack it football, and that I am sorry to say is that.