With KR stating that the fans have got their Charlton back there has been a lively discussing on this forum with regard to that one remark, this got me wondering what is "My Charlton"
Like many on here I have supported the team for over 50 years and like some have for the past couple of years been boycotting the Valley due to actions of the owner and his acolytes. So what is My Charlton.
As a lad on the East Terrace it was the team on the pitch, I knew the manager's name but rarely heard him speak and I knew that the owner was a guy called Glikstein, there was very little media coverage except match reports in the local and occasionally national papers and that was it. Under various managers this continued until the club got into financial difficulties, Hulyer and then Sunley took over and all of a sudden the club was to move to SP. At this time there was more publicity about the club and the advent of fanzines which gave us fans more information about the club and My Charlton became the team and the Valley. Once at SP the Back to the Valley campaign gathered pace and that became part of My Charlton. The club eventually returned to the Valley and under Murray and Curbishley My Charlton remained the team and the Valley and so it stayed. Murray sold out to the spivs and by this time social media had arrived and we fans were far more knowledgeable about the club but My Charlton still remained the same.
All this changed with the arrival of the Belgians, I'm not worried about an absentee owner, there are others in the Football League, but the way the club was managed by KM and some of her ideas and utterances made me focus more on how the club was run rather than just what was happening on the pitch and My Charlton then encompassed the owner as well as the team and the Valley. I guess this was because My Charlton had always been recognised as a well run club with a good stadium and a team that did OK but now was a laughing stock of English football.
We have had numerous coaches/managers in this period but at last we seem to have one that understands My Charlton as it used to be and I'm willing to give him a chance, that doesn't mean that my views on the owner have changed but it does mean that I will support this over voluble scouser and hope that the owner will do likewise in the hope that with footballing success he will sell the club.
In 2017 My Charlton is once again the team and the Valley, I won't ignore the past mistakes of the owner and I will join the protests but first and foremost I'll support the team as we might, just might be on the way our of this mess.
What is Your Charlton?
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Comments
That means owners manager supporters and everyone connected to the club.
As things stand we have a regime who are clearly despised by the majority of supporters.
We have a manager that a section of supporters do not like, and we have a very divided fanbase.
Until these issues are resolved we cannot claim to truly have our Charlton back
We are currently in the 3rd not-my-charlton age.
I would define a not-my-Charlton period as one where there is mass supporter (and sometimes staff) unrest, and dissatisfaction with the clubs league position, as well as the owners, I think both needing to occurr at the same time for an official not-my-Charlton dark-ages era to be declared.
The oldies on here can update with other dark-ages that occurred pre-1992.
Whatever the case, I was brought up on a diet of well intentioned second best, watched by a small band of supporters who genuinely cared about their local team regardless of the large scale tribalism that surrounded us. The football wasn't often great but I still have vivid memories of my heros. Eddie Morrison, Davie Provan, Gordon Smith, Jim Stewart, Georgie Maxwell (scorer of the sweetest 25 yard volley I've ever seen), some of whom went on to bigger and better things. Rugby Park was a dump, but it was home.
The other element of local history that is relevant, is that in those days, because of our location in the hills on the west coast, we could pick up Ulster Television, so I was able to watch The Big Match with Brian Moore on a Sunday. In those days, the staple diet for the main game was either West Ham or Fulham (in the Best and Moore era). But Charlton featured occasionally. So I developed a soft spot for London teams.
After university I moved to London in 86. In search of a team to support I spent the mornings reading the paper to find out which game I fancied and then popped along to pay my fiver to stand on the terraces at whatever game took my fancy. Innocent days indeed! I never really developed an attachment to any team in particular but by this point Charlton had been chucked out of the Valley and I sympathetically recalled those images on Ulster TV of Alan Simonsson and Derek Hales. My "big break" came in 88 when I moved to Dartford and my next door neighbour was an Addick fanatic (he still sits near me in the West Upper). He took me to my first game against Bolton in 92 I think it was. We had to walk across the foundations of the east stand to get to the Jimmy seed where we sat. Charlton won 3-0 despite being played offf the park with fatty Garland scoring a 30 yard screamer at the coveted end.
I'd love to say I was hooked, but actually it was a slow burner. I went to a few games over the next year or two but came slowly to realise that this was the football I wanted to watch. Not the big corporate faceless premier league stuff (things were heading that way by this stage), and I began to feel very similarly to how I had done about Killie all those years before.
I finally took the plunge in 95 when I was trying to do to my own young sons what my father had done to me. Sadly, their attraction was but a fleeting dalliance, but I've been going ever since. Why Charlton? Well it just feels "normal". Proper football played by players I can identify with and the comfort of home that is the Valley. And for the majority of my time, it has felt like a family business. Maybe not always very professionally run, but always with feeling and with the right values.
I got the tail end of the premiership years. We struggled, but always took pride in the fact that we were the model family club. Even after we got relegated and splashed the cash on Dowie and Pardew, we did it with a kind of well meaning innocence. 11-12 was just heaven. A group of players that I'd recognise in the street and a manager who, whilst not perfect, really got what Charlton meant and was one of us.
That's "my Charlton" folks. Sorry to be so indulgent.
By the time the current regime took over I was falling out of love with football bigstyle. The money, the influx of overseas prima donnas, the influence of the premier league etc. Roland's plans to grow his own and to hell with the agents all seemed like the next natural chapter in the story of my club. It took about six months before I realised he was bonkers and for his odious sidekick to piss me off.
I gave up my season ticket last year. It was an easy decision. Quite simply, it had stopped being "my Charlton". And the football was shite. I took the customers choice.
But I went on Saturday, and I have to say I enjoyed it. It was a small acorn, but something feels a little different. I want my Charlton back. I live in a little more hope than I had a few months ago.
I've been going since just before we left the Valley. I was always there at Selhurst in front of 4000 fans, at Upton Park, there when we returned to the Valley and still going. There have been many highs and lows on my Charlton journey. I do believe we are unique as a club (maybe all fans think the same of their respective clubs - maybe that's what makes football such an incredible sport).
For me the most important aspect of "Charlton" is the 11 blokes on the pitch. I don't expect to see brilliance - just good honest hard working players that look like they want to play for my team. In that respect we are going in the right direction. There can't be a single fan that went last weekend and came away thinking "meh - same shit different year". It was poles apart from the last few season's drivel. That performance gives us belief that we might actually have what it takes to achieve something this season so in that respect - maybe we are starting to get our Charlton back.
So what is it that makes Charlton what it is/was?
A fabulous youth setup - we have always brought youngsters through and that shows no sign of abating. In fact the quality of players coming through is improving. So we are selling them - we always have done in the past. It's nothing new.
Players that want to wear the shirt and pull together - we appear to have got that at the moment -too early to say for certain but looking promising.
Fans who stand together through adversity - Saturday was a step in the right direction. Best atmosphere for ages and a performance that matched.
A passionate manager that fans warm to - we loved (from my lifetime) Lennie, Curbs, Powell, Riga to an extent - aside from that there have been a number that haven't cut the mustard Peeters, Luzon, Pards, Dowie, Slade. With the exception of Powell none of those managers though have been particularly great with the press and fans in equal measure. Powell's relationship with the club is special so Robinson is unlikely to ever ready those dizzying heights but in terms of media engagement and talking up our players KR is actually very good indeed. Some fans think he talks too much but nobody could argue he is passionate about his job. He is proud of his job and he wants to succeed at it and that's really endearing to me, and many others. I suspect he'll always be a marmite character but that's life.
Ownership and the senior management team is still the most divisive issue but that has often been the case in the past. If anything the instability at that level is very "Charlton". Nobody knows what the future holds in this regard and there isn't a huge amount we can do to influence that so no point in going in to it in too much detail. Whoever comes in is going to have a rocky ride because it's unlikely a mysterious benefactor will emerge who happens to be a fan, have squillions to chuck at the club and who doesn't have a ground-breaking agenda.
Whilst he hasn't been here long there are numerous signs KR is improving certain aspects (on the pitch) and the club is still doing some things very well (the yoof) so maybe we are slowly starting to get something that resembles "our Charlton."
Time will tell I suppose but i'm keeping everything crossed!
LLL&BH
In a way it's little to do with football but a lot to do with comradeship, with people I otherwise have little or nothing in common.
I'll know when it's back, but it ain't yet.
I am particularly pleased that Lancs took the time to expand on the comments he briefly made on the original thread on the subject as, following my subsequent post, we seemed to be at odds.
I just want to reiterate that my love for our club has never wavered.
And that love encompasses our team , without a shadow of doubt.
However, in my "world", that love has been tempered over the past few seasons for various reasons....In essence, the number & in some cases, dubious suitability of players swelling the squad made it increasingly difficult to feel affinity with them ; ditto the number of managers brought in seemingly willy nilly ( apart from Jose Riga ) with their questionable pedigree & tactics - both inevitably leading to needless and very damaging relegation for our club.
No prizes for guessing the common denominator here , or indeed, the catalyst .....
THIS is why I stand by my pronouncement that MY Charlton has not yet returned.
And, to declare once again, that this won't be the case until those purporting to run our club have gone.......
......because regardless of their attempts to remedy a plethora of mistakes & seemingly to have turned over a new leaf, I refuse to believe that this about turn is for the good of the club and its faithful supporters.
It's well documented that Roland & Katrien care little, if at all for those who support our club or for its proud history & regardless of any patronising words that might be uttered courtesy of the eye wateringly expensive PR company now on board, this will never change.
Together with poor performances on the pitch, as a result of inept recruitment & lack of expertise from our Belgian "master", THIS is the reason that thousands of loyal supporters have done the unthinkable - abandoned their club, tragically, some permanently and it may take more than a change of ownership to tempt them back to their home in SE7.
This regime has damaged our club beyond belief.
Although an English manager & mainly British players/those with experience here, have now been recruited, I don't believe that its purely for the benefit of us, the fans, because we are merely customers that can take or leave the product. As others have stated time & time again, a billionaire cares little for the meagre income from ticket sales.
We remain Roland's plaything but now he has other plans for our club - maybe to offload it sometime soon, should someone be willing to meet his terms. And hence, why he now looks for a team that will produce results which, oddly is something the fans want too ! Now that's a surprise.
So, my conclusion is that all the time our football club is owned by this egomaniac, it will solely be for his ends , with any success only relevant if it suits his purpose and with us, dear friends, merely pawns in his game.
THIS is why I shall refuse to acknowledge that our Charlton IS back until he is gone and sanity, mutual respect & honest stewardship of this famous football club returns.
Get the fans to argue and divide over the merits or otherwise of Robinson.
That keeps them from protesting about us ie RD and KM.
Robinson a product of the problem, he's not the problem.
My Charlton will never be lost, and the passion we show against Two Sheds and his sidekick shows why we will never lose our Charlton - as long as we never stop caring.
Soon after RD & KM moved in, I have felt like a visitor. How did that happen? The killing off the Powell era was executed like the wilful destruction that might be carried out by bunch of drunken teenage vandals. It didn't make sense. I wouldn't claim to have the abilities to run a football club, but nearly everyone realised that they couldn't do a worse job than KM & the SMT if they had been in charge. And, then, there was the self-justification, lying and blame which, for me, are three of the worst traits that can be shown.
They, the SMT, might be learning. They've appointed KR, who, if nothing else, seems to be determined to get things done in a way that works. He is not SCP and will never be as likeable, but maybe the SMT has either struck lucky this time or reflected on the catalogue of appalling management and their behaviour and woken up.
There's still a long way to go for me. I'm delighted that KR seems to have formed a group that shows spirit. That was something that we were able to enjoy (and perhaps not appreciate fully) for many years under Curbs and Powell. However, KM & the SMT have a long way to go to get back to par. We are two games in and we have beaten two clubs that we shouldn't be playing against. I'm delighted about the two wins but there is still a lot of football to play and a lot of decisions to make before any judgement can be made about the SMT and whether I have got 'My Charlton' back.
It was the club that led to me growing up as a Millwall fan.
It's got a lot to answer for!
All that I have ever wanted is a team that battles and does it's best. My first game was circa 1959. Every time I visit the Valley or Sparrows Lane I feel like I'm at home.........comfortable and a feeling of pride. These feelings remain with me now, and are virtually irrespective of results or League position. I really feel like a shareholder/owner of my Club.
Virtually every owner over the years has been moaned about, but rarely prevented me from supporting the team on the pitch whenever I can. I live with the fact that we have almost always been a selling Club, like 90% of Clubs in the FL - it has never altered my feelings for the Club - in fact I'm extremely proud of the players we have produced and try to follow them.
The fans of CAFC are second to none. When you look at our history, especially with the 'Back to the Valley' movement, we have lots to be proud of.
In the pubs and at football training us Charlton fans often had different opinions on players/manager/owners, but we respected each other's opinions and still followed the team on the pitch.
I'm a Charlton fan, always have been, always will be.
Only Charlton could treat its greatest ever manager that way and lead to his family supporting the lowest form of life team .