So, we are in a right mess....was there a particular game that started us on a slippery slope to this point? What game, if the result was different, could have changed the course of the clubs history for the better, like a snowball effect?
My entrant is going all the way back to operation riverside, or even the original tie at the Valley..
Win either of those, make the semi final and gives curbs belief the club can go a bit further under him, or better still win the semi final, as finalists against Liverpool qualifying for the uefa cup, may have convinced curbs to stay an extra year, we avoid Dowie as he goes up north somewhere else after leaving palace, we get the extra premier league money and some uefa cup level players and appoint someone far better.
2
Comments
It’s been disaster after disaster ( Despite a play off win ) ever since then.
Sir Chris was toast once Dushitelet took over(remember the look on Powell's face at the press conference with Uncle and squirrel face?).
He only stayed because we were in the cup.
Peeters was ALWAYS going to be taking over.
I don't dispute he was never going to stay beyond that season however had we kept the momentum we had and him until the summer, well. That January was the peak of the mountain for us. We did ok but the following season relegating Palace was the high point, then we had a season where Darren Bent made a colossal difference especially in tight games, a good FA cup run that I still maintain had we played Ambrose behind Bent instead of Bent and Bartlett as a 2 in the quarter final we would have gone on to win the whole thing that year. West Ham wouldn't have beaten us and we had Liverpool number. The season after was an unmitigated mess. Smashing West Ham gave me hope but the abject failure to capitalise on that win, Benty being injured and some horrible luck we were done and thus beginning our spiral
The third point where our demise could be charted was Pardew losing the plot. This can happen to decent managers who are in a situation where they just can't see how to fix it. But if the manager doesn't know what to do, you are only going one way. Pardew showed later that if he is backed he could do a half decent job but he was in a death spiral with us.
The next point on the chart was in Powell's second season in the Championship. He needed backing to continue a rise and had the rug pulled from underneath him. When you look at a chart of things that have gone wrong, you have to look at Powell's impact as a point where things started going right. But ownership again scuppered that.
Linked to Powell's exit, we had an owner who had no idea and indeed had a stupid plan that was never going to work. But he also had an ego so large that he would never accept it. The club was being weakened throughout Duchatelet's ownership. Despite this, we had another positive point when Bowyer took over. This was followed by a negative when he wasn't backed after gaining promotion and indeed saw the club sold to crooks.
Then we had yet another clueless owner in Sandgaard who totally messed up any positives we had in terms of players and this was the start of goals being taken out of the side. A problem we are still suffering from. Since then, there have been no green shoots despite new owners. And like everything, if all the points you can chart, bar a couple, are negatives, you slip into a demise which becomes increasingly harder to get out of.
It is easy to point the finger at managers, but it is owner after owner that is to blame for what we have become. And in all honesty, our current SMT looks like it is full of bullshitting ineptness. When I heard Rodwell go on about 8+8+8 my bullshit meter was going off the scale. It is depressing.
I had taken voluntary refunds from bank and had gone island hopping in Thailand for a month. My first full day in Samui was us beating West Ham 4-0 and watched game in a bar and spent half the match on phone to my mates who were at the game.
Charlton 4 Chelsea 2 Boxing Day 2003.
We were in a top 4 Champions League place & Chelsea were not, but close.
Chelsea came in for Scott Parker, who at the time I felt was playing like having 2 players.
Parker wanted to go and had a clause in his contract that he could go if a good offer came in from a top 4 club.
Although Chelsea were one of the big 4, they weren’t in the top 4 so Charlton refused.
Parker turned up at training, but refused to kick a ball.
He was dropped, eventually sold and we never achieved those dizzy heights again (certainly not mid season).
Our downfall, similar I might add to United was failing to prepare for Curbs departure.
We were going well in Championship with Bob Peeters as manager and just had a good away win at Reading. Millwall at home, a win and we were in a play off position.
Win that game and the whole Roland era may have been completely different. After that game we went 12 games out to the end Feb 2015 till we next won a game. Peeters might not have lost his job. We would have killed the Millwall curse which has now run another 5 games and 10 years, there would have been a massive and much needed feel good feeling around The Valley and the momentum may have kept us in the play off places. The whole protest years and seperation of club and assets may never have happened
Thanks George.
The first game that we didn't have Curbs in the dugout.
“The revenue from the championship doesn’t increase in line with costs” or words of that nature. Also he was playing hardball over Bowyer’s contract.
That was when the iron was finally hot, he could’ve been a little less risk averse and pumped money in to go for back to back promotions. We had quality players, we had momentum, we had a manager who loved the place and knew what he was doing, we finally had a happy fan base, season ticket numbers were up.