I recall posting a thread with this title when a few were calling for big Alan C's head while in the prem. I wonder if we are heading up the same old road. For some of us, the Valley is cafc, it is our soul, our roots, our memories, to be fair it's a dump, but it's our dump and we love it that way. Others believe that only through rebranding, fresh initiatives, major investment and a new ground would we ever shake of that little Ol' Charlton tag and go on to achieve our place at the major table of English Football. With a potential new owners taking over, they are possible thinking the later, the ground stinks of pee, bovril and is quite unfashionable. If they are serious about turning us around, that must include a new identity, possibly a new ground. Certainly a few new players. What we have at the moment is crap and not promotion contenders. We have the CAST who it seems are an unelected, unrepresentative splinter group of the supporters club who are now conducting or contacting the press and giving interviews over the possible move and have filed an application with the borough that potentially spoils any major investor in applying for ownership until the CAST can't convince local government or even themselves that the 8k they have raised from subscriptions is not enough to buy the football club. We have a manager that perhaps is still not experienced enough to manage a club like cafc. His has shown some potential but now looks very much out of his depth recently. This manager has the full support of CAST which perhaps conflicts with new investment. CAST hate the present owners because they won't them play in the boardroom. Are we really ready to be taken over? The conflicts in the club and in the stands will surely mean breaking a few eggs and pissing off a few people. But who?
Those problems you mention in the end of your post seem irrelevant to me, if something needs to be done for the survival/promotion of the club then surely the club must come first. I don't at all agree it has anything to do with CP though, has done a fine job with nothing at his disposal. Parky and Pardew both went on to further success after we gave up on them both. If we are fortunate enough to be considered by some major investors, I think everyone needs to grab it with both hands and accept a bit of change. I know I don't have the same upbringing in and around the Valley, but is it time for a new page ?
I disagree OZ the club is the fans and the Valley-for many, that is enough and all they want irrespective of progress and moving forward. The new page you talk about, is the revolution many fear, it could mean a new ground, a new name, pushing them further away from their club that they perceive they own. A new ground could mean losing 50% of our fan base. A new ground for some is a new identity. Reminds me of the mentality of Trigger in 'only fools and horses' "I have had this same broom for twenty years, man and boy" "Blimey Trig, twenty years?" "yeah, its had forty new brushes and seventeen new handles!!!"
I wonder what Coventry City fans think about leaving their spiritual home for a faceless, corporate arena on the edge of town. Perhaps the Gills or Orient will have us as tenants in the future...
I fear how badly a new ground and move to the penninsular would go down with a large number of fans, particularly those who worked so tirelessly to get us back to the valley. Typical is right, the place is a bit of a dump, but it is our dump. The only investment I wish to see any prospective new owners make is on the playing squad (and maybe on the pitch!). However, investment in the modern era often comes at a price. Look at Cardiff, their fans have in effect had to take on a whole new identity in the last two seasons, but would they be watching premier league football had the club not made such changes? As sad as it is, we do not live in a world where on the whole footballing success is organic any more. It is often (particularly for lower league clubs) a result of outside investment (ie Cardiff, Hull City (Tigers)) and if an investor is ploughing money into a club then why shouldnt it be run the way he sees fit? Of course there are exceptions such as Swansea but their rise up the ladder was years in the making and fans and owners alike on the whole are just not that patient any more. Typical rightly points out that we stand to lose supporters over this and I completely get what he is saying, however without investment I fear we will stagnate as a club. An ideal scenario for me would be money made available for a successful team to be assembled to play AT THE VALLEY, however from I read and hear I shouldnt hold my breath of that happening.
Every now and then, an unfashionable team will pull off a miracle and make it to the Promised Land. They will probably be relegated in the first season, but they will have tens of millions in the bank and will be able to regroup and come back stronger - with astute management, of course. A sustained period in the top league is then possible and the club can enjoy its days in the limelight. But then a poor choice of new manager ensues and the club drops down the leagues and the crowds dwindle, and everyone is downbeat about the future. However, a promotion to the second tier brings about new-found optimism and the dreams come thick and fast. Dark days full of uncertainty are a given, but the fans still hope and pray that the earlier miracle can be achieved again. There is no rich owner at the helm, and there is no dustbowl of a stadium, but there are decent supporters and a bunch of players who give their all for the cause of the club - a club built on hope, dreams and no small amount of pride in past successes.
I tend to agree with Typical on this one. I think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves talking of moving from the Valley. We haven't got new owners yet and another party are interested in us. The Valley is the home of Charlton Athletic and I would like it to stay that way. When I first came to the Valley in 1961/2 I was fascinated by the rickety West stand the vast crumbling East Terrace and the Covered end. The smell of Old Holborn and occasionally weed, roasted peanuts and the half times being put up on the hoardings. The run down wooden hut, the rivers of pee in the wholly inadequate toilets. All this made me fall in love with Charlton, also the unfashionable nature of the Club added to the belonging. Leaving the Valley in the way we did to ground share with Palace was my lowest point in my fifty two years of watching Charlton. I can see that moving from the Valley to a brand spanking new Stadium on the Peninsula might be the way forward but I think it will rip the heart and soul out of the Club.
Before you over leverage the Club again to build a 40,000 stadium, make sure you have a decent team to put in it. Then make sure you have a business plan that ensures that when the team hits hard times, as it will, you keep a % of the plastics not enticed by paying £35 to watch Exeter City on a Tuesday night. The Valley is our home and I would hesitate for an eternity before ever accepting us leaving it.
The Valley is part of the package for me. And for those who think its a dump, just visit a few other grounds and you'll realise how lucky we are. Never say never to change - its the only certainty for want of a better cliche, but I'd move from the Valley with a tear in either eye and a very heavy heart. In truth, I'd probably quietly stop bothering.
I fell in love with the Valley the first time I went there in 1975, because the atmosphere there was just like the atmosphere at Rugby Park.
Too right, Jimbo. The sight of The Valley under the floodlights is simply glorious. After every match, win lose or draw, I always stop at the top of the steps and look back for a minute or two. When I think of the most magical places on earth - Wayland's Smithy, Battle Abbey, Dunstanburgh Castle, Rouen Cathedral, Willy Lott's Cottage - the home of Charlton Athletic is right up there at the top. Football grounds always captivate me, though. Whether Roots Hall or Palmerston, the sight of floodlights leaves me all a flutter inside.
Agree Bill. I've only been in the "new" Rugby Park three times and its not my cup of cocoa. Not helped of course by the fact that its generally only about one sixth full at any given point!
Was quite keen on the move to the peninsula before I read Ponders comparison to Coventry who were,I suspect ,excited about a move to the new ground[rico arena?].Now they are in the brown stuff.So its a choice between stagnation where we are or triumph/disaster on the peninsular.
It is an awful demise, CA. I feel so sorry for the Coventry fans, who have always been a decent bunch in my opinion. There was very little wrong with Highfield Road. Unfortunately ambition and big ideas do not fill empty seats. I have sent you a PM, by the way.
I have two happy memories of Highfield Road, which I recall being a very long walk from Coventry train station. First, a brilliant goal by Jim Melrose in a 3-2 defeat up there around 1986. Second, Bob Bolder breaking his finger at Highfield, around 1990, and good old Gritty putting the gloves on and going in goal ! He loved it !, and also became the only Charlton player to represent the club in all 11 positions.
Great stuff, Vol. You are right about the trek to the ground. I'd love to see Gritty back at the club in an ambassadorial role. I remember writing to him when I was about 9 or 10, and he sent me a match programme covered in autographs. I still have it somewhere. But Paul Miller's was on a postcard advertisement for Paul Miller Sportswear Ltd.
