OK, I have nicked the title of the new film on Churchill's (and this country's) darkest days in 1940 - so, of all the downs in our history what do you consider the 'worst of times' (Dickens this time!); our relegation from the First Division in the fifties and the failure to make it straight back; when we were first relegated down to the old Third Division for the first time; the leaving of the Valley or the last three years or any other?
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The good times will come again.
The death of Albert Gliksten, altered the club for the worse more than any other event.
Leaving The Valley was a very bad moment, but one we recovered from.
(For me it is the Selhurst years, as although I was going, I asked myself why, because the identity, the connection with "home", had gone. Fortunately VOTV appeared just in time)
Managers come and go
Owners come and go eventually.
But the valley is what holds us all together
So for me the sellhurst years were our darkest hour's
Within 6 months of being at Selhurst we were in the top flight & playing Liverpool at home - something I'd only dreamed of when I started supporting Charlton in the late 70's when we were playing in front of 4k crowds & Liverpool we kings of Europe.
It can't get much darker when we are happy to scrape a 1-0 win against a poor side in the 3rd tier of Englsh football, having spent an entire half camped in our own half & knowing that we will have to play the same players, with the same tactics for the rest of the season.
Selhurst Park was a major part of my footballing childhood and defined football for me aged 5-12 years. It doesn’t get darker than that.
Certain events could have led to the end of the club. As others have mentioned the High Court cases and the move to Selhurst. To these could be added the proposed move to Milton Keynes, and the possible effect of defeat in either the game at Stamford Bridge or at St Andrews in the 80's. But we survived these events and came back stronger.
Albert Gliksten's death led the club into a decline from which we have never overcome nor are ever likely too. AG got an excellent manager and backed him. Had AG lived or been replaced by someone like him, the combination of huge crowds (only really rivalled by a few clubs in London and perhaps Manchester), good ownership and good management could have seen Charlton now as one of the elite, with trophies and European glory to match.
I guess the thing is, it was a slow decline then, wasn't it? i wonder whether the fans in the 50s felt that those were hours as dark as some of the more recent ones, and which seasons in particular. If only my Dad was around to ask...
A very interesting take, though.
I guess in 1984 I somehow just thought something would get sorted out. I had no reason to think that, nor any inside track (although my brother was mates with Mike Norris's son, maybe i heard some positive noises). I can remember where I was, when the news was coming through. Just don't remember thinking that it really could be gone.
Albert died early 50's
Doubt it would seem as dark then, after all we were a top flight side, but in terms of consequences....
My darkest hours are right now. This multi millionaire Belgium bastard has ripped the heart and soul out of this Club. And he doesn't give a shit.
40 years a season ticket holder, yet for the past two seasons, I've been to The Valley five times. Mainly to protest. I'll never, ever forgive him.
Still the darkest hours are always the last before the dawn.
Whoever you are, please hurry up and buy the Club.
Jimmy Seed's book implied that Albert was more of a football enthusiast than Stanley so when he died the incentive to seriously invest in the team died with him.
Stanley died in 1962 and Michael took over as chairman at the ripe old age of 23!
Hardly surprising he made mistakes when you consider his inexperience.
So no 'name' players could be bought, and there was the famous refusal to develop the stadium without a guarantee of top flight football for three seasons- which JS couldn't, or wouldn't give. Had he given that guarantee, or had they invested anyway, who knows where we'd be now.
As documented in detail in his book, he spent just £55,000 on players in his 23 years at the club, but brought in £177,000, and the income from the gates increased enormously as crowds were from a few thousand the the increasingly large crowds of the late thirties onwards. As Seed said, we could have been the Arsenal of SE London with proper investment. I suspect the Glikstens more than covered their losses over the years.
But conversely it was also the making of the club. No need to recount why here.
We're in a dark time, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Someone close it up when he's taken his last train back to Belgium...
And to think only 7,000 turned up to the dawn of the new era (v Grimsby).