Awful, just awful. I'm returning for the Pompey match. The attendance will be roughly the same as 25 years ago.
Pompey will bring 3,000 up. Meire’s best gift to fans on the 25th anniversary will be to waddle onto the pitch and publicly announce her resignation
This is what happens when a footbal Club's reason to exist is taken away. We might not have been one of the biggest or most glamorous clubs in history, but we have had our days. Eighty years ago Charlton was one of the elite Clubs for a decade, and we have punched above our weight in the First Division a number of times since then. And why? For what? For the pride of our fans and our town. For the betterment of our community. Even though I was away from SE7 during our Premiership years I was proud of our Club and what it was achieving. For a few years the whole footballing world knew our name. And during the decade of slow decline that followed I never doubted that we could regain our place in the top league one day. We still had our pride even in the difficult times. But in January 2014 over a Century of independence and striving for our own better future was brought to an end. Charlton Athletic became a training facility for the squad players of Standard Liege, and the oddities from other Clubs in Roland Duchatelet's experimental pan-European football gestalt. Even though that experiment has fallen apart, CAFC still only exists to service the wider range of RD's other business interests, and as a toy for his ambitious but hopelessly inept young protege. This Club has no identity anymore and no purpose. We all know it here, they all know it on twitter and the rest of the online community. They know it on Charlton Life and they even know it on ITTV. That's why interest is down 80%. People are so tired of the whole tawdry shambles.
On Saturday I took a friend with a progressive degenerative illness to Palace. As Palace scored a stoppage time winner right in front of us, I checked that we were losing 2-0 to Scunny. Some of our fans think that this is not a bad result. I realised then that we are not even rivals any more, so low are our expectations. It really is grim.
Don't know, I got in as a "personal assistant". I must admit that the stewards there were very considerate and helpful, the only plus.
They are little better than morons at Charlton this season - because of the £175 cheap STs they have been aggressively double searching fans entering the North to ensure they don’t go “upstairs” ....3 searches in some cases. Yet another poisonous and needless gesture which adds to the Duchatelet “customer experience”
If the regime would prefer not to see protests re-erupt inside the Valley they had better not introduce goal music. If they do I will lose it.
The Palace fans don't feel that way they like it. They clap along with it. Can you imagine a more nauseating sight than a whole stadium of Palace fans clapping along to goal music? However, I admit to feeling a bit uneasy at the crowd noise played over the PA before the start of Charlton games. Maybe the SMT thinks it hides the fact that the stadium is 75% empty. If so it sums up exactly what is wrong with our ownership.
This 'crowd noise' FHB, is it part of that muted collage soundtrack they play, when you can occasionally catch old snippets of commentary from Charlton wins of long ago? A kind of background audio version of the video compilation they used to put on the big screen? I rarely get to my seat until about 5 minutes before kick-off; often I arrive just as the teams are coming out of the tunnel. Playing some old soundtrack of Charlton goals from yesteryear would not bother me unduly if I was around early enough to hear it. But piped background crowd noise just played to create some 'atmosphere' is pretty sad if that's what they are doing. Goal music is the line however which must never be crossed. It is an imported gimmick of the naffest possible kind. The first time I ever heard it (away at Carrow Road) I laughed out loud. How any fan can join in with it as part of celebrating a goal is utterly beyond my understanding. Celebrating a goal is the greatest instant rush a fan gets during a game. A few seconds of pure joy and triumph. A roar of pride and defiance. Sing along with a jingle? I would rather cut my own nuts off.
We don’t need crowd noise at the Valley, we have Brian Cole. Did anyone else catch his latest “Cole-ism” at the Truro game ? Referring to them as Truro Town this prompted great hilarity & incredulity in the Truro end....Charlton regulars could have pointed out that the Piemeister does this on a regular basis.
First time round I liked Cole, but jumping in when BDL did the honourable thing was bollox. He's just a figure of fun as he waddles round.
Think BDL enjoyed the thought of becoming some sort of martyr than it being an honourable declension. Just my opinion.
It didn't take him long to seize the megaphone, so you're probably right. But...still glad he did it, and sorry Cole jumped in like he did.
It will stick long in my memory the day we all gathered outside the Lib for the final protest, and Lockwood [I ignore this "BDL" bollox] grabbed the megaphone and lectured & patronised protesters with "lets keep it clean. no swearing" etc. A Jonny -cum -lately and Weapon Grade tit, who decided to quit the sinking ship only after Meire reduced his match day fee from £25 to a tenner. Lockwood has skulked off to Ebbfleet to scream down their mic now - it is clear from his Twitter he really fancies himself, as Super says, as some sort of martyr, destined to return
We (Charlton fans) are a strange lot to be sure, but I can't ever imagine us clapping along to goal music.
