This was before my time as an Addick and I am posting this because I am interested by the views of those who supported us during this time . In my view it seems to have some parallels to the current situation with Bows .
Firstly as a player Firmani was a bona fide Charlton legend. By comparison Bowyer was a promising youngster who was sold to the Premier League before he reached his full potential .
It seems in may ways Eddie was ahead of his time .Well before Arsene Wenger he seems to have brought some European style discipline into a reluctant English game Jack Burkett tells a story in his autobiographical book ‘ West Ham in the 60’s’ about Firmani not allowing alcohol on pre season trips when he ordered a lager in contrast to Ron Greenwood at West Ham . Jack describes this as the ‘regimented Italian way of doing things’.
Clearly this initially worked because the 1968/69 was the most successful season we had in over a decade and it is a team that many posters here remember with great affection .
The next season we didn’t kick on and nearly got relegated . One thing that doesn't make sense is striker Matt Tees being sold to Third Division Luton early on in the campaign and also the signing of Maurice Setters .
So what went wrong that Eddie that got sacked less than a season later from the iconic 68/69 team ?
Comments
Like Bowyer, Firmani was a comparative newcomer to management and probably lacked the necessary man management skills that are as important as a grip on tactics. Both possibly lack/lacked flexibility and were too dogmatic and 'I'm always right' in their approach.
It is interesting that history has proved Firmani right with a greater European influence eliminating the old drinking culture but Glikstein wasn't going to risk a relegation to back him.
So bringing it back to current day 16 points above the drop zone I think we should be safe this year.
The question is will Thomas back Lee going forward?
Firmani was a disciplinarian and he expected all out commitment. That can only work when the results are good - the players are up for it because they are getting satisfaction and consequent motivation from the buzz of winning.
If and when the results head south that expectation of giving all wears a bit thin and the tough love needs to be replaced with tactical nouse and man management skills. Firmani lacked both, and perhaps the same applies to Bowyer.
So yes......from that point of view he was, by British standards, way ahead of the times.
I think @bobmunro explains it well above in that while results are good the players accepted it.
This again probably has parallels with our situation today.
The question is do we stick or twist?
On the current situation 16 points clear is fine as long as we are picking up points - at the moment I can’t see where the next point is coming from.....
I don't think I have experienced such a quick 180 degree turn in fan opinion during my time supporting the club.
One mistake that Eddie certainly did make was to publicly lambast Alan Campbell after a heavy 4-1 home defeat against Hull City in early 1970. He more or less laid the entire blame for the defeat at the door of Campbell - our best payer, in my view - and I was shocked to read all about it on the back pages of the Sunday papers. I also thought it was grossly unfair, given the performance of the team as a whole. The rift it caused with the player was irreparable and Campbell left shortly afterwards for £70,000 to Birmingham City. He took most of our midfield creativity with him.
Managers have to be very clear about what they are trying to achieve by calling out players publicly. It's a gun you can generally only fire once in the direction of a particular player and the response you receive will depend very much upon the individual, so a degree of sensitivity and insight is required. If you keep doing it - as Bowyer has been doing - it just becomes noise, is interpreted as the manager trying to cover his own arse and usually alienates the dressing room.
Another mistake that Eddie Firmani made was, as @Richard J says, selling Matt Tees to Luton. Matt's 55 goals over the next three seasons (albeit at a lower level) suggest that he had plenty of football left in him. The replacements that we signed - Gordon Riddick from Gillingham for around £15,000 and Dickie Plumb from Yeovil for around £7,000 - simply weren't up to it.
I remember the 0-5 home defeat to Leicester, with poor old Mike Kenning at left back, which saw the end of Firmani and the appointment of Theo Foley for the last few games of the season. I think we were 0-4 down at half-time but I still hung around post-match to get the autographs of the players, including the entire Leicester team, save for one Peter Shilton. He had just been named in the provisional 28 man Mexico World Cup squad but refused to sign any autographs for the throng of kids waiting outside. I am not usually someone who bears a grudge but I was prepared to make an exception in his case.
We started well enough, with Ray Crawford scoring the winner after being a goal down at home to Preston.
Ticking along nicely for the next few games, I remember seeing us race into an early 2 goal lead at home to Sheff Utd one Tuesday night - they really couldn't live with us. But something was seriously amiss in that 2nd half as we limply let Sheff Utd fightback to level, before we somehow sneaked a third against the run of play. Sheff Utd then battered us but somehow our goalmouth led a charmed life and we escaped with a very fortunate 3-2 win.
I'd heard on the grapevine that Firmani had gone mental in that dressing room, humiliating certain players.
And the team were incensed at that. Was that the moment Firmani 'lost the dressing room' ....?
The next Saturday we were away at Swindon, hanging on for 0-0 at HT ........ but collapsed completely in the 2nd half as Swindon ran amok thumping us 5-0.
We never recovered. In freefall we plummeted down the table, Firmani eventually sacked - before scraping to relegation safety.
His record of 7 in 21 is respectable yet he is not remembered fondly .
The problem he has is that it looks like he’s made enemies amongst the players, and that rarely works out well for a manager.
Sad times.
Lee inherited a pretty decent team from Robinson, we were in effect joint-8th with a agame in hand. Yes we were underperforming, and we got the new manager bounce. But we limped into and out of the play-offs that year, two uninspiring defeats to Shrewsbury that we shouldn't forget. All forgotten of course as he & Gallen improved the team (Magennis->Taylor, Cullen & Bielik), KAG came back (but I credit Robinson with starting to get KAG's confidence back, as i did at the time), and you know the rest.
Through the 70s me & mates would often refer to 68-69 as "the good year" (with the emphasis on the singular), and it looks like Lee will be remembered in the same vein - one glorious season but the inability to make a difference when things go sour...