This is normally the time of year when I can switch over to Aussie Rules and cricket to take my mind off how crap the football is (last year's play-offs were a small oasis in a desert of extreme mediocrity), on and off the pitch.
The AFL played one round (and that behind closed doors, which didn't feel right) before the season was suspended for a minimum of three months and cricket may well be off the table all summer.
It's all rather grim at the moment and there's nothing to distract you from the overwhelming grimness of it all.
Who knows when football/sport will restart? Who knows if the Charlton Athletic Football Club will be part of it when it does begin again?
I am completed zoned out by football in general. That said I do miss going to the games with my boys - that’s “our time”. But that is more to do with seeing them rather than what happens on the pitch. I don’t really look at the Bonkers thread - I couldn’t tell you what stage we are at, I do obviously care, but for me it’s firmly parked. The shambles it has become and crooked people involved make me sick - I wish they would all just piss off back to the sewer they came from, not going to waste my time reading about it.
i don’t really care if the season starts up again or is null and void.
I think the ownership fiasco played its part on me kind of blotting football out, although this time of year I get really into hopefully producing a spectacular garden.
After a lifetime of living in or around cities this year was the year for a complete change of pace. We found a beautiful house to buy in the Cotswolds. The only drawback from my perspective was that I would probably only make the effort to go to a handful of home games. Unfortunately we were just about to exchange contracts last week when the lockdown was announced and the sellers want to put a pause on things. If and when we are able to reactivate the purchase, I won't have any regrets about missing Charlton - whether they continue to exist or not.
These continual sideshows around ownership year after year are becoming wearisome. Sport for me is about escapism - the play off final at Wembley, England's victory in the cricket world cup etc. Charlton just doesn't provide me with enough of that and there are plenty more other important things to worry about besides the endless stream of chancers that seem to get attracted to football club ownership.
I was thinking about this yesterday. I can't be bothered with the shenanigans thread, to be honest. At first, I thought it was connected to being weary of the whole thing. I found it easy to get angry with the RD situation and felt part of the whole thing, but I feel like an observer with the current shenanigans. It's a kind of "it's not really happening to my club" situation.
I think you've hit the nail on the head, @AFKABartram, it seems far less important than what is going on at the moment. I came to this conclusion last night when I half-heartedly read the bite-sized shenanigans thread. There are a lot of real people and businesses around the world that are going to suffer badly as well as, of course, many casualties and losses within families/friends. And, in some ways, what's worse, no one knows how bad it is going to be yet. It all feels very uncomfortable.
I sincerely hope the season is abandoned - not because it saves Charlton, but because it really doesn't seem that important. As ever, CL is a great refuge and a great community.
It's a bit like the start of the close season when we know there's no footie for 2 months. We're all ready for the break and have lost interest. It's even worse atm, because I doubt few of us expect the season to start in 2 months and could be 5,6 or even 12 months away.
My only interest is in the ownership of the club and not getting taken to the cleaners (although we already have).
Just can’t get my head around being interested at the moment.
For example, Im 1.2k posts behind the bonkers thread, 400 behind the season ending early etc.
Not or sure whether it’s work or the virus backdrop, but since this has all escalated and knowing there’s no football in the next few months, I’ve temporarily lost all interest to even bother reading about it.
am I alone in this or have others been experiencing the same?
Yeh. Just lost interest altogether. On the other hand I loved the 98 play off live stream. If the club could do one of those every Saturday it would be great. Could you imagine us all getting together on line to watch a live replay one per week of all the great games ever captured on tv? Mind you I don't know what we'd do in May.
Hard to keep a track of the shot that surrounds our club and with all the other bad current news it seems less relevant but keep reminding myself that Covid will pass and we can't allow those currently in charge to make Charlton pass as well somewhat under the radar.
As for football more widely I listened to Simon Jordan today for about the first time ever as he talked about Newcastle furloughing non playing staff so a) they end up with a pay cut and b) the Government picks up their wages whilst Newcastle continue to pay their players an average of £70K pw. Football is screwed and morally bankrupt and I am fed up of the greedy tosspot players who want to appeal to the masses when there is a sponsorship/social media pay day but carry on collecting their big bucks at a time like this and continually get access to Covid tests whilst NHS workers are isolating without tests.
One of the other reasons is I fear getting severely wound up with the goings on at the club and know that there is very little that us or anyone else can really do about it under the current circumstances.
For all the bullshit of the last 6 years of Rolarse and his gang of idiots I was hoping for some mediocrity to be honest!
Absolutely sick of hearing more bollocks from Nimer and Southall about he did this, she did that. Nimer needs to show with the money but he seems intent on being as much if a problem as Southall and none of us have the energy for that at the moment.
Football isn't going to be back any time in the foreseeable future, I'm more focused on my family and friends. All of us have bigger fish to fry
The only Charlton involvement is tragically losing Seb and the thoughts for his family. Football in general though is not in the top 100 things for me right now
Just can’t get my head around being interested at the moment.
For example, Im 1.2k posts behind the bonkers thread, 400 behind the season ending early etc.
Not or sure whether it’s work or the virus backdrop, but since this has all escalated and knowing there’s no football in the next few months, I’ve temporarily lost all interest to even bother reading about it.
am I alone in this or have others been experiencing the same?
In defense of the nutters on the bonkers thread, I think it helps us take our minds off the increasing unreal scenes right outside our front doors. At the same time I've rediscovered the joy of sitting down and listening to a whole album on vinyl when the kids are in bed (i.e. in the morning). Luckily enough I bought a new amp & speakers, as well as a few new albums, back in February. But yes, still finding the machinations of this new ownership fiasco hard to ignore. CL is a great community resource at times like this (when were the ever like this?!), particularly for those in isolation with no family around them, I'm sure.
Im the same as Afka. Mate texted me this morning and I said due to the unprofessional behaviour behind all this Ive just lost interest. However its not just this, Ive deleted the BBC news app.....Im sick and tired or reading about this poxy virus. Avoiding the news too, especially here as its not news its all done in the style of Infotainment and full of tired cliches.
I don't think I have got my head round that my life will never be the same as it was a month ago.
I am not missing sport in the slightest. I am actually enjoying all the social media coverage of historical sporting events. Great goals, classic matches, world cup finals, heroic victories and the such like. But they are five minute highlights at most.
I used to really think that the glory in sport mattered. 3 or 4 once in a generation sporting events happened last summer, I soaked it in, celebrated like a mad man and commiserated like a broke man.
Now I just don't think it matters at all. Not just sport in general, Charlton as well. I don't think I'll ever love either like I did. They all just seem so unimportant now.
I’m hoping that once we are through all of this and allowed back into normal society, that this has been a big reset button on human life, hygiene, compassion and true priorities in life, family & health The rest of it, football included, can get ta f*** right now
Organized sport is manufactured excitement. Ordinary people watching (hopefully) gifted people doing useless, often ridiculous, things. In normal times, much of life can be pretty dull. Sport is important because it provides entertainment and excitement. It provides both routine and a break from routine. It provides social opportunities and, for many, some of the most exhilarating moments of their week - even their life. In times of struggle, stress or grief, the glitter is lost. Whilst sport can be a welcome distraction in bad times, it will lose its relevance when life gets too tough. The complete futility of scoring a goal, taking a wicket or being ever so slightly quicker at something or another becomes glaringly apparent. Sadly, there are bigger things to worry about at the moment.
Bill Shankly, The BBC with their twee middle class poems and an army of over exalted after dinner speakers would have it that sport is some allegory for life: Work hard, have a good plan, stay focused and you'll reap the rewards. Maybe, but then for most us ordinary folk, maybe not. The difference is that they are all riding a big sport gravy train that most of us never will. The really sad thing is that there are plenty out there who want to use sport as a gravy train of their own. They seek wealth and glory not through skill and dedication, but through association, trickery and in some cases outright criminality. Football, being the biggest sport, is a magnet for this sort of people and sadly Charlton Athletic seems to attract an endless stream of them. It is no wonder that people feel disenchanted.
Organized sport is manufactured excitement. Ordinary people watching (hopefully) gifted people doing useless, often ridiculous, things. In normal times, much of life can be pretty dull. Sport is important because it provides entertainment and excitement. It provides both routine and a break from routine. It provides social opportunities and, for many, some of the most exhilarating moments of their week - even their life. In times of struggle, stress or grief, the glitter is lost. Whilst sport can be a welcome distraction in bad times, it will lose its relevance when life gets too tough. The complete futility of scoring a goal, taking a wicket or being ever so slightly quicker at something or another becomes glaringly apparent. Sadly, there are bigger things to worry about at the moment.
Bill Shankly, The BBC with their twee middle class poems and an army of over exalted after dinner speakers would have it that sport is some allegory for life: Work hard, have a good plan, stay focused and you'll reap the rewards. Maybe, but then for most us ordinary folk, maybe not. The difference is that they are all riding a big sport gravy train that most of us never will. The really sad thing is that there are plenty out there who want to use sport as a gravy train of their own. They seek wealth and glory not through skill and dedication, but through association, trickery and on some cases outright criminality. Football, being the biggest sport, is a magnet for this sort of people and sadly Charlton Athletic seems to attract an endless stream of them. It is no wonder that people feel disenchanted.
Christ mate, thought I felt low enough- this post is close to tipping me over the edge. However all your comments are without fault and you just know when this awful thing is over (hopefully) within weeks the same greedy unscrupulous people will come out from under their rocks and will be back at the trough. Sadly mate, it's the way of the world. It's not confined to football. Big businesses will be anxious to claw back their losses and will be renegotiating and trading with China. Only one thing counts in this world and it's money, anyone who thinks differently is deluded.
I don't agree with the idea that the severity of the current events mean that when sport returns it will be meaningless. Of course sport isn't life and death BUT that moment of escapism is still glorious, whether you are a zero hours worker or a tycoon.
After all the biggest crowds at football matches were immediately after WWII, something far more horrendous, people needed that moment of collective excitement
There's certainly something grubby about the top echelons of professional sport I'd agree, and you'd hope that the events will change this. If a season gets abandoned, the whole business model of TV rights paying massively inflated salaries for players and hangers on, will be severely dented.
It's a great time to give stuff up. Haven't placed a bet in weeks. I miss football because it was so much part of my routine and I do feel a bit aimless at times when I would normally be watching it. It will be fascinating to see how we all react when it finally returns. I hear a lot of people are saying, 'The world will never be the same again'. I disagree. I think it will be exactly the same. History shows that we aren't great at learning the right lessons.
Reliving my yoof by watching reruns of The Sweeney and The Professionals and adding to those memories by dressing up as Reagan or Doyle by using my own wardrobe department, albeit I leave the top button undone on my 24” bottoms I can still slide into my 4” heeled platform boots.
I doubt we are all zoned out because we are all looking at CL, Twitter etc for scraps about the club but what we are is both fearful of whether there will be a Charlton Athletic football club after the dust has settled and too busy refocusing upon a new way of living, looking after family and ourselves and work (for those that still have it).
its important we don’t all entirely zone out on charlton though. When the dust does eventually settle, a lot of clubs including PL ones may well have folded. The structure of the football pyramid could potentially look a lot different and the clubs that form it may not necessarily be the obvious ones based on the one we are familiar with today. Whatever the original motive for investing in cafc was or wasn’t, encouraging a cash injection now could well pay significant dividends later.
Posted this on another thread on March 10th before the world came to a standstill. My hopes that we would survive this crisis are diminishing.
I GIVE UP. Spiv's, wideboys and chancers, footballs got to many. To many taking a bung from football clubs. The bloke who sent Bolton to to administration allegedly took a hefty consultancy fee to run the club. Why would anyone with good intentions want to buy a football club. We were hanging on to the prospect of some bloke on the other side of the world buying us from a bloke with no interest in football, who purchased us from a couple of blokes who lost the backing of the main investor and ran out of money. We've seen it all and frankly i'm sick and tired of the stupid merry go round. Whose camp you are in matters little. From the Gliksten to the Syrian based in Dubai, I've seen them all. My neighbor who passed away some years ago said. "Being a football supporter is tantamount to masochism" He went on to say. "I've supported my team for over sixty years and fifty nine and a half years have been pure misery, I can barely remember the six months of glory".
We've seen some good days, but they are becoming too few. I suppose we will survive this crisis, no thanks to those who are supposed to be owning the club. I raise a glass to the next time the balloon goes pop, it won't be long.
I've become more and more disgusted with football over the past few years. The Premier League is a depressing circus of hype, cash splattered wide-boys and Carlos Kickaballs that I have no connection with. So many chancers, crooks and hangers-on infest the game. If Charlton wasn't such an ingrained habit, I may have given up on going to games a few years ago. Who knows if I'll go back after our house arrest has finished? Who knows if their will even be a Charlton to go back to? Back in the day I'd have been worried sick about losing my football team. Now, maybe it would just be a relief if it was all over and I didn't have to care any more.
Comments
The AFL played one round (and that behind closed doors, which didn't feel right) before the season was suspended for a minimum of three months and cricket may well be off the table all summer.
It's all rather grim at the moment and there's nothing to distract you from the overwhelming grimness of it all.
Who knows when football/sport will restart? Who knows if the Charlton Athletic Football Club will be part of it when it does begin again?
i don’t really care if the season starts up again or is null and void.
These continual sideshows around ownership year after year are becoming wearisome. Sport for me is about escapism - the play off final at Wembley, England's victory in the cricket world cup etc. Charlton just doesn't provide me with enough of that and there are plenty more other important things to worry about besides the endless stream of chancers that seem to get attracted to football club ownership.
I think you've hit the nail on the head, @AFKABartram, it seems far less important than what is going on at the moment. I came to this conclusion last night when I half-heartedly read the bite-sized shenanigans thread. There are a lot of real people and businesses around the world that are going to suffer badly as well as, of course, many casualties and losses within families/friends. And, in some ways, what's worse, no one knows how bad it is going to be yet. It all feels very uncomfortable.
I sincerely hope the season is abandoned - not because it saves Charlton, but because it really doesn't seem that important. As ever, CL is a great refuge and a great community.
Still a CL addict though.
We're all ready for the break and have lost interest.
It's even worse atm, because I doubt few of us expect the season to start in 2 months and could be 5,6 or even 12 months away.
My only interest is in the ownership of the club and not getting taken to the cleaners (although we already have).
As for football more widely I listened to Simon Jordan today for about the first time ever as he talked about Newcastle furloughing non playing staff so a) they end up with a pay cut and b) the Government picks up their wages whilst Newcastle continue to pay their players an average of £70K pw. Football is screwed and morally bankrupt and I am fed up of the greedy tosspot players who want to appeal to the masses when there is a sponsorship/social media pay day but carry on collecting their big bucks at a time like this and continually get access to Covid tests whilst NHS workers are isolating without tests.
One of the other reasons is I fear getting severely wound up with the goings on at the club and know that there is very little that us or anyone else can really do about it under the current circumstances.
Absolutely sick of hearing more bollocks from Nimer and Southall about he did this, she did that. Nimer needs to show with the money but he seems intent on being as much if a problem as Southall and none of us have the energy for that at the moment.
Football isn't going to be back any time in the foreseeable future, I'm more focused on my family and friends. All of us have bigger fish to fry
The only Charlton involvement is tragically losing Seb and the thoughts for his family. Football in general though is not in the top 100 things for me right now
Stay safe m8.
At the same time I've rediscovered the joy of sitting down and listening to a whole album on vinyl when the kids are in bed (i.e. in the morning). Luckily enough I bought a new amp & speakers, as well as a few new albums, back in February.
But yes, still finding the machinations of this new ownership fiasco hard to ignore.
CL is a great community resource at times like this (when were the ever like this?!), particularly for those in isolation with no family around them, I'm sure.
I am not missing sport in the slightest. I am actually enjoying all the social media coverage of historical sporting events. Great goals, classic matches, world cup finals, heroic victories and the such like. But they are five minute highlights at most.
I used to really think that the glory in sport mattered. 3 or 4 once in a generation sporting events happened last summer, I soaked it in, celebrated like a mad man and commiserated like a broke man.
Now I just don't think it matters at all. Not just sport in general, Charlton as well. I don't think I'll ever love either like I did. They all just seem so unimportant now.
The rest of it, football included, can get ta f*** right now
Bill Shankly, The BBC with their twee middle class poems and an army of over exalted after dinner speakers would have it that sport is some allegory for life: Work hard, have a good plan, stay focused and you'll reap the rewards. Maybe, but then for most us ordinary folk, maybe not. The difference is that they are all riding a big sport gravy train that most of us never will. The really sad thing is that there are plenty out there who want to use sport as a gravy train of their own. They seek wealth and glory not through skill and dedication, but through association, trickery and in some cases outright criminality. Football, being the biggest sport, is a magnet for this sort of people and sadly Charlton Athletic seems to attract an endless stream of them. It is no wonder that people feel disenchanted.
After all the biggest crowds at football matches were immediately after WWII, something far more horrendous, people needed that moment of collective excitement
There's certainly something grubby about the top echelons of professional sport I'd agree, and you'd hope that the events will change this. If a season gets abandoned, the whole business model of TV rights paying massively inflated salaries for players and hangers on, will be severely dented.
I miss football because it was so much part of my routine and I do feel a bit aimless at times when I would normally be watching it.
It will be fascinating to see how we all react when it finally returns. I hear a lot of people are saying, 'The world will never be the same again'. I disagree. I think it will be exactly the same. History shows that we aren't great at learning the right lessons.
its important we don’t all entirely zone out on charlton though. When the dust does eventually settle, a lot of clubs including PL ones may well have folded. The structure of the football pyramid could potentially look a lot different and the clubs that form it may not necessarily be the obvious ones based on the one we are familiar with today. Whatever the original motive for investing in cafc was or wasn’t, encouraging a cash injection now could well pay significant dividends later.
My hopes that we would survive this crisis are diminishing.
I GIVE UP.
Spiv's, wideboys and chancers, footballs got to many.
To many taking a bung from football clubs.
The bloke who sent Bolton to to administration allegedly took a hefty consultancy fee to run the club.
Why would anyone with good intentions want to buy a football club.
We were hanging on to the prospect of some bloke on the other side of the world buying us from a bloke with no interest in football, who purchased us from a couple of blokes who lost the backing of the main investor and ran out of money.
We've seen it all and frankly i'm sick and tired of the stupid merry go round.
Whose camp you are in matters little.
From the Gliksten to the Syrian based in Dubai, I've seen them all.
My neighbor who passed away some years ago said.
"Being a football supporter is tantamount to masochism"
He went on to say.
"I've supported my team for over sixty years and fifty nine and a half years have been pure misery, I can barely remember the six months of glory".
We've seen some good days, but they are becoming too few.
I suppose we will survive this crisis, no thanks to those who are supposed to be owning the club.
I raise a glass to the next time the balloon goes pop, it won't be long.