How does this compare with 1972, 1980 or 2009?

simonmatthews

Strictly for those old enough to remember........how do we rate our chances and team now compared to 1971/72, 1979/80 and 2008/2009?

My view, for what its worth:

1971-72 - Decent team, good players, in mid table until the final third when our form collapsed completely, especially given most of our fixtures were ok at that point. Verdict: self inflicted relegation

1979-80 - Weak team, small number of good players by many now forgotten or not up to scratch. Never looked like staying up all season. Final third was a disaster. Verdict: an accident waiting to happen, particularly as we'd diced with relegation two previous years. (And - we mucked about with two different managers that year)

2008-09 - Still had the nucleus of a good team right down to the end (Holland, Ambrose, Todorov, Zheng-Zhi, Shelvey, Burton, Fortune, Weaver, Elliott) though blighted with injuries. Form in final third was actually quite good, even against leading sides....had it been replicated over all 46 games we could have stayed up. Verdict: self inflicted relegation.

So where do we stand in 2015-16?

shirty5

Self inflicted relegation down to the owner, CEO and Murray.

DOUCHER

if the whole squad was fit and organised we have half a chance but the likes of johnson and williams aren't helping - we need 3 match ready solid championship players right through the spine of the team

cafcbart92

We knew we were dead and buried months before we were actually relegated in 08-09. That was easier to take - we saw it coming and we didn't have a pot to piss in.

This season is so much worse, purely because the situation we are in now was totally avoidable and thousands saw it coming. Thousands except the 3 people making the decisions of course.

Oakster

I was certainly critical of Parky & his succession to AP - mostly because he was tainted by association with the by then odious Pardew, but my god a Parky team did not lie down & die like they do under these clowns.

mogodonman

The worry this time is off field chaos allied to a team in meltdown, even assuming they were good enough which is dubious. Injury excuse keeps being trotted out but every side has injury issues. And is the scale of ours a sign of poor morale?

bolloxbolder

Going forward, its the length of some of the players contracts which worry me. Clearing out the foreign mercenaries will hold up any forward progress.

alan dugdale

We came straight back up in 1981 with virtually the same players.
In 08-09 I don't remember us getting many spankings. Not compared with this seasons thrashings.

drewman

Too young to remember the first two but this is far worse than 08-09.

stonemuse

Nucleus still better then the previous two ...we can still stay up

se9addick

Belg inflicted relegation

Dave2l

Where incredibly lucky to not be 5 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

_MrDick

This is the worse period in all of my 51 years of watching Charlton. We'll be relegated this year and next unless our owner takes his head out of the sand.

vff

This is worse than 08/09 - Charlton had run out of money and were looking for new owners. Charlton managed to beat Palace to end the 17 match not winning run. Charlton were down, but Parkinson was attempting to reconstruct the squad with limited players, but they battled on. It was a limited but coherent team.

The current team is unbalanced and the positional weaknesses ignored. The ill judged Duchatelet strategy is worse to see because it is so poorly executed and unnecessary.

The rubbish and appallingly executed strategy is likely to be repeated in league one with similar results. Charlton will be lucky not to tumble further. Duchatelet is a real thick headed malignancy in the club. Charlton supporters have got to get Duchatelet to understand that this experiment has failed and he needs to sell up and move on.

thickandthin63

My worse experience in 63 years,I saw us lose 11-1 at Villa 1959,5-0 home to Rotherham in front of 3500 in the pissing rain,saw us nearly go out of business,witnessed our beloved Valley taken from us,I have never felt as low as this

5_12_2004at1752

This is the worst team I've seen in my forty six years of watching us. Yes, we have all the issues regarding Duchalet, Meire et al but we are now at the stage when the players are not trying. That, to me is not acceptable. I can't see how we can avoid the drop this season and we need a complete overview of the squad to give us a chance of a reasonable 2016/2017 campaign.

HantsAddick

Sadly old enough to remember all three, but this feels so much worse. I know we've had lots of injuries and a tiny squad does not help that, but why are there so many? Has it been down to bad coaching, or just very unlucky? When getting loans to replace injured players, it's no use to bring in ones that are not match fit themselves. We don't have the luxury of giving them game time.

HardyAddick

Seen all 3 of those seasons. On paper I think we have a better squad this season but they don't seem to bond. Not sure why. In those previous 3 seasons, the players were from memory all British who pulled together but we're not quite good enough.

Rob

I do remember all 3 but certainly not the details of 72 and 80. All I can say is, back then (including 09) we still had our Charlton (at least it felt like it). The difference now is, we don't.

cafcfan

A relegated team is a relegated team. To drag out the old cliché, the table doesn't lie.

The difference this time, even compared with the latter example, is all the stuff being promulgated about everything - and it is pretty much everything - happening (or not happening) away from the pitch.

In that regard, we are so much better and more quickly informed thanks to the interweb and the links it provides to blogs, journalists articles, rumours, etc. What was going on back in the 1970s remains a mystery in many respects.

Cardinal Sin

Definitely the worst period in our history. The lack of hands-on direction, the incompetent Arrogant, a succession of under-qualified managers, poor network players, reliance on inexperienced youngsters, insulting our history and supporter base. No wonder the side have no confidence and are taking a regular hammering. We have been firm favourites for the drop since October and we will go down as Champions unless Bolton get a points deduction. The squad has been put on laughably long contracts and that will be an issue for the next two seasons. I seriously believe we could flirt with League Two before we do so with the Championship again. Unforgivable. Duchatelet, Meire and Murray have this on their hands.

Hastingsaddick

Dave2l said:

Where incredibly lucky to not be 5 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Dave2l said:

Where incredibly lucky to not be 5 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Very true and that is about the only thing that gives me any hope at all....what a fool I was predicting we would finish in the same position as last year...12th.

RedChaser

Apart from a few seasons we had been a team flirting with the wrong end of the second division from the sixties onwards and I think us older fans had become almost resigned to the relegations of the seventies. Since the eighties and our three spells in the top flight however expectations have been higher our dramatic fall to the third tier more recently was hard to stomach. The last fall from grace was in no small part down to the four changes of manager post Curbs, ring any bells?

We are not down yet but I must admit everything about our current situation is dire right throughout the club from the top down and I fear the worst. I certainly can't remember two previous back to back pastings that I have witnessed in the last week. Too many youngsters thrown in at the deep end, a lot of imports not up to the demands of the Championship, loan players who don't have the love for the badge and no team spirit. This, all with memories of that successful record breaking L1 promotion and the fantastic team spirit in that squad. still fresh in the memory makes it all the more hard to take what is going on. So this feels the worst of the lot right now for me.

The squad was never strong enough from the start of the season and we have just wasted 11? weeks since Luzon was sacked so I'm afraid miracles are now needed. The bookies had us as relegation favourites and I've never seen too many of them with holes in their shoes!

mid_life_crisis

For me it feels far worse than those other periods, because there is no hope for the future with these people in charge.
Relegation always hurts, but by August I'd normally be looking forward again rather than dwelling on the past.
This time will be different. There will be no sense of anticipation, no spring in my step walking down Floyd Road. The Charlton we know has been 75% killed off already, by then it will be on life-support.

ForeverAddickted

5_12_2004at1752 said:

This is the worst team I've seen in my forty six years of watching us. Yes, we have all the issues regarding Duchalet, Meire et al but we are now at the stage when the players are not trying. That, to me is not acceptable. I can't see how we can avoid the drop this season and we need a complete overview of the squad to give us a chance of a reasonable 2016/2017 campaign.

Agreed... Mostly everyone on here knows how much I defend the players and stick by them but to lose 5-0 / 6-0 must go deeper than the Board and the Management team, for some of the goals, a few players would get back and then stand off the opposition player inviting them to shoot...

Of course they're going to take the opportunity when its given to them, might not go in every time but you give them enough chances (like what we've been doing), they'll eventually take them.

Actually have to give credit to Hull on Saturday... After Real Madrid broke the gentlemans agreement and beat someone 9-2 I thought we could go down the same route, watch their player celebrate when it went 6-0 on Saturday, he's almost apologetic to Charlton for scoring!!

hoof_it_up_to_benty

Worse than 2008/9 - this season is just plain embarrassing and the squad don't seem united.

se9addick

thickandthin63 said:

My worse experience in 63 years,I saw us lose 11-1 at Villa 1959,5-0 home to Rotherham in front of 3500 in the pissing rain,saw us nearly go out of business,witnessed our beloved Valley taken from us,I have never felt as low as this

11-1, bloody hell !

DPFC

I remember all those years .
We were never this bad.

My granson told me yesterday not to renew his season as he lis not comming to the valley again he cant stand the p*** taking anymore and is going to watch bromley with his mates

newyorkaddick

Maybe too early to tell with 19 games remaining, but there's one thing I can state with some confidence - if we stay up, it won't be on goal difference.

Pedro45

Some may not agree with me, but this is not at all like any of those three relegation seasons. To me, it's more like one of the years we actually got out of it - we do still have time to save ourselves!

72/3 - We were awful in the last third of the season. Many of the decent players were gone or going. No good youngsters coming through. It took three years to recover.
79/80 - Off field troubles compromised the team a lot; Nelson and Bailey were at loggerheads. Nelson lost the dressing room. We did have a couple of decent youngsters (Walsh and Smith) and some old heads (Hales, Powell, Aizlewood, etc), but were tailed off most of the season and always going down. We bounced back with similar players the next season.
08/9 - We had a good set of players but no direction. Once Pardew lost interest (as there was no money left) and we couldn't afford another manager it took too long to turn things around. Even the following year, with Shelvey and Bailey, we should have gone back up.

This year, with investment, our squad should be good enough to stay up, provided they have the spirit and fight required. Do they have that though?

BR7_addick

Scarily close to the 08/09 team, leaking goals like it was going out of fashion, had a team that looks okay on paper but never does the business, and a squad load of players that don't care.