Came across this article today. Absolutely fascinating to see how we were talked about in the 30s in terms of our status and the football we played.
“This Charlton – they play in England yesterday, they travelled all night, yet today they come out and, what you say, seat upon us,” he said. “Are they iron men?”
The equivalent of Man City playing in the Premier League on a Saturday, then traveling overnight to play France on the Sunday, but also remember in the 30s the players were less fit, probably lived on a diet of pies and cigarettes, and the only way to France would have been a train down to Dover and a ferry over!
Came across this article today. Absolutely fascinating to see how we were talked about in the 30s in terms of our status and the football we played.
“This Charlton – they play in England yesterday, they travelled all night, yet today they come out and, what you say, seat upon us,” he said. “Are they iron men?”
I can only assume that the 'seat' was really 'shit' but badly pronounced.
These vowel sounds are the two most confused for French speakers.
It is often pronounced 'sheet' so if the 'h' was lightly pronounced it could be heard as 'seat.'
It is a little surprising that none of the English media asked for clarification rather than write 'seat.'
(this may not be true, and yes we wrung two FA Cup finals out of what we had left over...but I can't help but feel that with the momentum generated in the 1930s we'd have become something close to the Liverpool of our era)
(this may not be true, and yes we wrung two FA Cup finals out of what we had left over...but I can't help but feel that with the momentum generated in the 1930s we'd have become something close to the Liverpool of our era)
(this may not be true, and yes we wrung two FA Cup finals out of what we had left over...but I can't help but feel that with the momentum generated in the 1930s we'd have become something close to the Liverpool of our era)
There is a strong case to be made in terms of the team and the attendances. The opportunity was still there post-war for us to be right up there at the time when the the clubs that became what we think of in the modern era as "big" clubs were not yet set in stone. The missing ingredient was significant investment in the stadium infrastructure and the squad. The Gliksteins no doubt did what they thought was the right thing, continue to underwrite the club without any risky speculative spending.
It is also quite possible that we might have won the league and/or FA Cup on one or multiple occasions between 1939-45 but then as the team aged just copied the same history from 1945 onwards.
(this may not be true, and yes we wrung two FA Cup finals out of what we had left over...but I can't help but feel that with the momentum generated in the 1930s we'd have become something close to the Liverpool of our era)
Isnt that the story of Charlton? Huge crowds and potential built up in the 20s-30s that were never capitalised on and ultimately faded. And again in the late 90s-mid 00s, sell out crowds and a premier league spell completely undone by bad decisions and even worse owners.
At least we had an FA cup to show for it in our first golden era.
Never go back you tell me, it's the worst thing you can do But I must go there till I find out where it is I'm going to Oh what happened to you? Whatever happened to me? What became of the people we used to be? Tomorrow's almost over, today went by so fast It's the only thing to look forward to, the past
Charlton did win trophies after the war and challenged for the league title.
It could be argued that we were never going to realise the potential we had without the owners investing in the Valley especially in more seats and floodlights.
But post-war building materials were nearly all being used on housing.
When Albert Gliksten, who was seen as more committed of the two brothers, dies in 1951 the focus from then on was even more on breaking even hence money from the sales of players like Firmani (a British record at the time) not being re-invested in either the squad or the ground.
But going further back the lack of a major investor in 1921 when we joined the league left us with a sub-standard ground unable to capitalise on any success we did have, like the cup run in 1922/23.
And while the Glikstens do fund the club and get us, JS helped too!, into the top division in the 1930s they declined Seed's request to build more seats unless he could promise we'd stay in the top flight, something he couldn't/didn't do.
Again in 1969 we nearly make the top flight and are seeing crowds on over 30k (average 18K) but just miss out. Again, the money and ambition isn't there to build on that.
And then when we do have a good team again in the 1980s were not playing in SE7 so we don't rebuild the fan base or earn the income in the way we could have with four years in the top flight at the Valley.
Absolutely fascinating! Never knew about this. Liked this bit: “The performance of the fascist salute put a crowd of some 40,000 people in bad humour, and there was much booing and cries of ‘Down with Italy,’ ‘Down with Mussolini,’ and the like. Rough play on the field then aggravated matters. Scuffles and exchanges of blows between players occurred to a running accompaniment of angry cries from the crowd.” Just as well they didn't kneel down...
Never go back you tell me, it's the worst thing you can do But I must go there till I find out where it is I'm going to Oh what happened to you? Whatever happened to me? What became of the people we used to be? Tomorrow's almost over, today went by so fast It's the only thing to look forward to, the past
Never go back you tell me, it's the worst thing you can do But I must go there till I find out where it is I'm going to Oh what happened to you? Whatever happened to me? What became of the people we used to be? Tomorrow's almost over, today went by so fast It's the only thing to look forward to, the past
One of the great theme tunes
Mike Hugg is such a great composer I think. He also composed the theme for that quintessential 60's film Up The Junction. The words are by Ian Le Frenais, (who co-wrote and conceived The Likely Lads) showing his Ray Davies influence, if I may be so bold Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads was a fantastic sitcom in it's day, one of my all time faves, but charmingly and colossally dated now (maybe a microcosm of prevailing attitudes of the day)
(this may not be true, and yes we wrung two FA Cup finals out of what we had left over...but I can't help but feel that with the momentum generated in the 1930s we'd have become something close to the Liverpool of our era)
I'm pretty sure Hitler only kicked off WWII to stop Charlton dominating English football.
Comments
The Bartram collection doesn't appear to have any photos from this trip.
We're going to look through the board minutes for mentions.
Came across this article today. Absolutely fascinating to see how we were talked about in the 30s in terms of our status and the football we played.
“This Charlton – they play in England yesterday, they travelled all night, yet today they come out and, what you say, seat upon us,” he said. “Are they iron men?”
These vowel sounds are the two most confused for French speakers.
It is often pronounced 'sheet' so if the 'h' was lightly pronounced it could be heard as 'seat.'
It is a little surprising that none of the English media asked for clarification rather than write 'seat.'
What might of been.
The opportunity was still there post-war for us to be right up there at the time when the the clubs that became what we think of in the modern era as "big" clubs were not yet set in stone.
The missing ingredient was significant investment in the stadium infrastructure and the squad.
The Gliksteins no doubt did what they thought was the right thing, continue to underwrite the club without any risky speculative spending.
At least we had an FA cup to show for it in our first golden era.
But I must go there till I find out where it is I'm going to
Oh what happened to you?
Whatever happened to me?
What became of the people we used to be?
Tomorrow's almost over, today went by so fast
It's the only thing to look forward to, the past
It could be argued that we were never going to realise the potential we had without the owners investing in the Valley especially in more seats and floodlights.
But post-war building materials were nearly all being used on housing.
When Albert Gliksten, who was seen as more committed of the two brothers, dies in 1951 the focus from then on was even more on breaking even hence money from the sales of players like Firmani (a British record at the time) not being re-invested in either the squad or the ground.
But going further back the lack of a major investor in 1921 when we joined the league left us with a sub-standard ground unable to capitalise on any success we did have, like the cup run in 1922/23.
And while the Glikstens do fund the club and get us, JS helped too!, into the top division in the 1930s they declined Seed's request to build more seats unless he could promise we'd stay in the top flight, something he couldn't/didn't do.
Again in 1969 we nearly make the top flight and are seeing crowds on over 30k (average 18K) but just miss out. Again, the money and ambition isn't there to build on that.
And then when we do have a good team again in the 1980s were not playing in SE7 so we don't rebuild the fan base or earn the income in the way we could have with four years in the top flight at the Valley.
And on that happy note have a good weekend
He also composed the theme for that quintessential 60's film Up The Junction.
The words are by Ian Le Frenais, (who co-wrote and conceived The Likely Lads) showing his Ray Davies influence, if I may be so bold
Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads was a fantastic sitcom in it's day, one of my all time faves, but charmingly and colossally dated now (maybe a microcosm of prevailing attitudes of the day)