"The place is in turmoil with the fans". For fucks sake Alan, no it isn't. The place is in turmoil with the owners.
The fans have protested a bit, delayed a few matches by a few minutes each, successfully highlighting just how bad things are. They have done nothing to damage the club, in fact results seem a little better when there have been protests.
In contrast, the owners have, sold our best youngsters, created a climate of managerial instability, lied to and disrespected fans, mismanaged the non-footballing side of the club, replaced the ticket office with an NHS call centre, presided over a relegation and an unprecedented fall in attendances, racked up a massive debt which they have the bare-arsed cheek to call a 'loan'.
"The place is in turmoil with the fans". For fucks sake Alan, no it isn't. The place is in turmoil with the owners.
The fans have protested a bit, delayed a few matches by a few minutes each, successfully highlighting just how bad things are. They have done nothing to damage the club, in fact results seem a little better when there have been protests.
In contrast, the owners have, sold our best youngsters, created a climate of managerial instability, lied to and disrespected fans, mismanaged the non-footballing side of the club, replaced the ticket office with an NHS call centre, presided over a relegation and an unprecedented fall in attendances, racked up a massive debt which they have the bare-arsed cheek to call a 'loan'.
It is their turmoil, not ours!
With respect Sig, I wonder if you have interpreted the words in the way AC meant them to come across. To me the place is in turmoil with the fans, not because of the fans. Subtle difference.
What was fantastic about Curbishley in my opinion was that he knew the qualities of his players and consequently when he could improve the side. I think you can look at every season up to the point when we were the 4th best team in the country in December 2004 and say that he improved us every season. It takes a few seasons, but when that happens you are going to be successful above tactics or anything else. The issue is that when you get to be as good a side as we were - I mean Parker at his very best, Jensen who was a fantastic midfielder, Di Canio and I could go on..... there is only one way to go. He plugged holes with Murphy, Bent etc... but we stopped getting better. Not his fault, an issue for any club punching well above its weight.
I'd love to see him back - not as a manager- but guiding a manager as a director of football. Make it the most important job and use the enthusiasm of a younger man to apply the same recipe for success.
I may well have Peter. I think my post is probably a reaction to a deeper frustration that I feel: I don't believe Curbs really understands the full picture, yet he is paid handsomely to sit on a sofa pontificating about the club.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from the man, but there are few other people who have the opportunity to highlight what's going on like he has. But there's always this feeling when he talks that it's just about results and first team management. He mentions again later in the interview, "the problems with the ownership and the fans is another thing". So, in Alan's world the fans and the owners are all lumped in together and the players are portrayed as the victims; "it must be difficult playing that atmosphere".
Of course, I expect him to take a manager-centric view of things; that is his experience of the world. But I feel let down that someone who invested countless hours building the success of the club doesn't a) show a little more concern for what's happening and b) doesn't do a little more research to investigate what's really going on before publicly airing his views likening fans with the regime who are killing this club.
Curbs' perception of what's gone on at The Valley since his day has always been a bit skewed, understandably perhaps as his involvement/engagement is nil. If you want some perspective on his affection for the club read his autobiography, written after he bailed. His grasp was, for me, very clearly illustrated by the interview he gave, on the pitch when Chris Powell's team had just won the 3rd division. Asked for his comment on SCP & the team's achievement he gave all the credit to "the owners", never mentioned the on pitch contribution at all. Slater and Jimenez's use of The Mystery Backer's money that season must not be ignored but attributing the divisional win simply to finance is piffle. Charlton also had the perfect contrast season when Dowie et al blew the biggest ever budget on dross, clearly having a (relatively) expensively assembled squad is no guarantee of success on the pitch. Parkie got a squad to the playoffs without a single incoming transfer costing a fee. Martin Allen's views on that Ch5 program were much better informed - and I've no particular respect for him or the brand of loyalty he has practised over the years.
I may well have Peter. I think my post is probably a reaction to a deeper frustration that I feel: I don't believe Curbs really understands the full picture, yet he is paid handsomely to sit on a sofa pontificating about the club.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from the man, but there are few other people who have the opportunity to highlight what's going on like he has. But there's always this feeling when he talks that it's just about results and first team management. He mentions again later in the interview, "the problems with the ownership and the fans is another thing". So, in Alan's world the fans and the owners are all lumped in together and the players are portrayed as the victims; "it must be difficult playing that atmosphere".
Of course, I expect him to take a manager-centric view of things; that is his experience of the world. But I feel let down that someone who invested countless hours building the success of the club doesn't a) show a little more concern for what's happening and b) doesn't do a little more research to investigate what's really going on before publicly airing his views likening fans with the regime who are killing this club.
Danny Murphy gave the regime and Meire a bit of a hard time in the TalkSport interview and then threw it all away at the end when asked by Jim White what would improve matters and he replied with the stock comment 'Results' suggesting that at heart he still didn't get exactly what is going on at this Club.
In fact, does it all boil down to the fact that those who come from the 'profession' are always going to see things differently from the fans who have an emotional attachment to the Club? Of the professionals possibly Chris Powell was the closest to that rare amalgam of player/fan and one suspects that JJ has something of that in him. There will of course be others one can name.
But one person I am sure of who views any emotional attachment to the Club as some kind of weird affliction is Meire. It's exactly why she couldn't understand why 'fans don't see themselves as customers'.
So, what are we meant to be? 'Professional' supporters in a sense - just turning up for the matchday experience and then walking away from The Valley after the match to forget about Charlton until the next game?
Like Stig, just deep frustration that we have had to live with this situation for years with no suggestion that the Regime have really learned what it is to be a fan of this Club and instead treat fans with disdain or in Meire's case declare war on them.
Comments
The fans have protested a bit, delayed a few matches by a few minutes each, successfully highlighting just how bad things are. They have done nothing to damage the club, in fact results seem a little better when there have been protests.
In contrast, the owners have, sold our best youngsters, created a climate of managerial instability, lied to and disrespected fans, mismanaged the non-footballing side of the club, replaced the ticket office with an NHS call centre, presided over a relegation and an unprecedented fall in attendances, racked up a massive debt which they have the bare-arsed cheek to call a 'loan'.
It is their turmoil, not ours!
Have a good day.
I'd love to see him back - not as a manager- but guiding a manager as a director of football. Make it the most important job and use the enthusiasm of a younger man to apply the same recipe for success.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from the man, but there are few other people who have the opportunity to highlight what's going on like he has. But there's always this feeling when he talks that it's just about results and first team management. He mentions again later in the interview, "the problems with the ownership and the fans is another thing". So, in Alan's world the fans and the owners are all lumped in together and the players are portrayed as the victims; "it must be difficult playing that atmosphere".
Of course, I expect him to take a manager-centric view of things; that is his experience of the world. But I feel let down that someone who invested countless hours building the success of the club doesn't a) show a little more concern for what's happening and b) doesn't do a little more research to investigate what's really going on before publicly airing his views likening fans with the regime who are killing this club.
If you want some perspective on his affection for the club read his autobiography, written after he bailed.
His grasp was, for me, very clearly illustrated by the interview he gave, on the pitch when Chris Powell's team had just won the 3rd division. Asked for his comment on SCP & the team's achievement he gave all the credit to "the owners", never mentioned the on pitch contribution at all. Slater and Jimenez's use of The Mystery Backer's money that season must not be ignored but attributing the divisional win simply to finance is piffle. Charlton also had the perfect contrast season when Dowie et al blew the biggest ever budget on dross, clearly having a (relatively) expensively assembled squad is no guarantee of success on the pitch. Parkie got a squad to the playoffs without a single incoming transfer costing a fee.
Martin Allen's views on that Ch5 program were much better informed - and I've no particular respect for him or the brand of loyalty he has practised over the years.
In fact, does it all boil down to the fact that those who come from the 'profession' are always going to see things differently from the fans who have an emotional attachment to the Club? Of the professionals possibly Chris Powell was the closest to that rare amalgam of player/fan and one suspects that JJ has something of that in him. There will of course be others one can name.
But one person I am sure of who views any emotional attachment to the Club as some kind of weird affliction is Meire. It's exactly why she couldn't understand why 'fans don't see themselves as customers'.
So, what are we meant to be? 'Professional' supporters in a sense - just turning up for the matchday experience and then walking away from The Valley after the match to forget about Charlton until the next game?
Like Stig, just deep frustration that we have had to live with this situation for years with no suggestion that the Regime have really learned what it is to be a fan of this Club and instead treat fans with disdain or in Meire's case declare war on them.