being a Charlton supporter is like being a Jehovah's Witness .... you tell everybody how great it is but they just think you are a w@nker and run away... When I go house to house, telling people of the advantages of being an Addick and trying to give them copies of 'Voice of the Valley' they just slam the door in my face and call the police
I agree, my Daughter was more interested on what was happening on her mobile. It was the year we beat Sunderland in the Play Off Final. She loved going to Wembley. It is something I will never forget. She also kept me in check. I remember being on my feet berating the Ref. She turned to me and said "sit down Dad you are embarrassing yourself". I sat down like a naughty Schoolboy.
none of us knows the future. Lee Bowyer is Charlton's manager right now and he has made a great start, creating confidence where there was none and getting a tune out of some players like Reeves and Ajose when many of us had as good as given up on them. I'll go so far as to say I was wrong to believe for most of this season that our squad was too weak or too shallow to challenge for promotion. Under LB we have one last chance this year to change our future for the better. The journey to the Championship via the play-offs could not be more difficult, and to complete it Charlton will almost certainly have to defeat one of the current top 3 teams over two legs, then win at Wembley. But if we do, another chapter in our history will be opening with memories that we can treasure all our lives. Not quite on the scale of that unbelievable drama at the old Wembley in 1998, but nevertheless something we can take real pride in. There have been so few of those moments for our declining number of younger fans to enjoy and be inspired by. If it is the decision of new owners to appoint Harry Kewell some time in the near future, or any other manager, then so be it. I was not happy at the time to see Phil Parkinson lose his job to Chris Powell, or Powell in his turn be replaced by Jose Riga. It's natural of course to feel for a manager who is replaced when you think is doing a decent job and deserves better. But if Harry Kewell becomes Charlton's next manager then I will support his efforts to do a good job, without reservation. The way I should have supported Jose Riga, Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon, Karel Fraeye, Russell Slade and Karl Robinson. Regardless of the circumstances of their appointments none of them set out to fail. None of them deserved my prejudice, my cynicism or my judgmental attitude.
Football is all about opinions, Lardi. I like to read what other fans think about events at Charlton, your opinion as much as anyone else's. And football fans have always been critical, long before the internet. Terracing banter was a bit wittier, but if a player wasn't trying he'd still get it from the fans. At the end of the day, what we say on here is totally irrelevant compared to whatever verdict the Upper north passes.
Indeed, and well said. I'm not saying that I should have sat in the lower West happy-clapping while we were being beaten 0-3 at home for the third weekend in a row, but I know that I never even gave those managers a chance. For weeks back in 2014 I was even annoyed that other fans would sing Jose Riga's name the first time round. And I'm not saying in any way that criticism of the Duchatelet era managers or coaches from any other Charlton fan is wrong. I can only speak for myself when I say I know why I was posting a lot of the things I posted - and my motives were not always balanced or objective. That's fair enough in a sense because I'm a fan of course, not an impartial observer. However, I took too much self-righteous pleasure and secret satisfaction sometimes in commenting on failures and setbacks. I became comfortable with the attitude that anything good or potentially good (like winning a game or a promising new player arriving) was of little or no value in the wider context of the ongoing protest against Duchatelet. I became too ready to dismiss anything positive I heard about Charlton as fake news or propaganda from the regime. Lee Bowyer's appointment as our latest manager may be an accident of circumstances, but it looks to me like potentially the best thing that has happened to our Club in at least the last three years. And for the first week or two I found myself waiting for him to fail so I could stick the boot in, rather than welcoming him into the job. Because of my political differences with the owner I turned my back as Bowyer and his players took to the pitch in SE7 to play and fight for the shirt. I believe I was wrong to do that, and I won't do it again.
Bowyer is the first decent appointment by Roland in 4 years (OK Riga was decent first time). All the other appointments were poor, and it has shown. If he'd made a decent appointment to start with, and let that manager bring in his own players CARD would never have existed.
Bowyer was accident rather than design. Duchatelet does not deserve credit for this, there was nobody else left in the building.
