Depressing
Is it possibly the worst ever time to be a Charlton supporter?
Taking Charlton in isolation. Depressing with a forecast of further stormy times ahead.
But let’s look around us. Crystal Palace tomorrow play in a repeat of the 1990 FA Cup Final. The face-painted Palace ultra’s will stain Wembley again for the second time in a matter of weeks. That Charlton butcher Pardew played in the 1990 Final, in fact it was two games as United won in a Wembley replay. Mark Bright, John Salako and one for the older statto’s, David Madden also played in both games.
Palace at Wembley in the Cup Final. At least here I can bury my head in the sand. Depressing. As is the amount of money they are banking as they move to a different stratosphere to us financially. But we live in hope that Super Alan Pardew will f**k it up again.
Despite some close calls, when we have always appeared to be so far away from Cup success, Palace and Millwall are still unable to have FA Cup winners on their list of honours. We proudly do, and we have to hope that Man United can turn it on tomorrow, and we get to see Louis Van Gaal climb those steps and not the smug Pardew.
Since we were last there Millwall have been to Wembley 6 (six) times, including the upcoming Play-Off Final later this month. What a waste. Mind you if Meire and Duchatelet want a role model of someone we should aspire to, then they should look no further than our neighbours. Neil Harris has been their Chris Powell, and despite a slow start, they stuck with him, and gave him time to build a hungry, young side who know what it means to play for the club. By all accounts Harris is a stickler on personalities as well.
I am actually okay with Millwall going up. Firstly because it means we won’t have to face them next season, and secondly because their eminence will always have a shelf life to it.
Remember those tussles with the Massives? For a decade Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday have pretty much followed each other around. There has been some rousing games, big passionate crowds and Wednesday even called us their rivals. Well no longer, at least since both clubs got taken over by rich foreign investors. If Wednesday beat Hull in The Championship Play-Off then for the first time since 2005, Charlton and Wednesday will be separated by two divisions. In those days it was the Addicks looking down.
I don’t know, watching Sheffield Wednesday move in the polar direction to us is just another reminder of how far Duchatelet and Meire have dismantled our club. Not just the team, but the whole fabric of the alliance that was built. I see that at Wednesday with Carlos Carvalhal and what they have built. Everything we built has been bulldozed down.
Katrien Meire said she was unfazed by West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium. In October she said: “We have values that are not found in another London club – we have a family club image with a big history where people can come for an easy, affordable day out.”
“The fans feel part of the club. The players are accessible, the manager is accessible and you’re very close to the core of the club.”
Think we’ll leave that there.
West Ham have sold 52,000 season tickets for their freebie Olympic Stadium. We have sold 3,000. How did we get to this point when we are at our lowest of ebbs, crowds dwindling and West Ham have everything in front of them. Some would call it luck, although the tax player might not, but some would say it is ambition. But when you have no ambition at all, you get to where Duchatelet and Meire have taken us.
At least Gillingham didn’t go up. I couldn’t have bared that.
Not a happy time to be a Charlton supporter in more ways than one.
Chicago Addick 
I’m not surprised the season ticket fiasco sales are at their lowest sinse I cant remember when, and its only reflecting the general feelings of the overall state our killers have left the club in. With figures that low and there is no guarantee that support will come on the day of home games, we might as well ground share with Welling Utd.
While other clubs are enjoying good returns is season tickets sales with West Ham probably taking some of our supporters ‘Thanks Roland & Miere for your understanding in how a club should be opporated’ we have lost most of our hard core support that has taken decades to build.
I cannot speak for times beyond the early times of The Addicks, but I certainly have an opinion of my own from over 50 years a supporter of this once fine family club. The clock has been turned back many decades. The Valley is no stranger to poor attendances, we only have to cast our minds back a period in the 70s when the club support went down drastically. Yet we bounced back with some of our finest hours in the history of the club.
Can we get those times back? I personally fear not. One thing I know for sure is, our supporters are a fickle lot and have not a lot of patients when things are not going well. So, the low turnout of season tickets has spoken volumes and surely will have damaging recoil unless there is a genuine turn of events by those who have dug us into this hole.
I love this club and to turn my back on it will hurt. To stick it out to see what will unfold this coming season seems what many have not done, will probably feel like hanging on straws, when the feeling of sinking has already started. I want to feel positive, but there has been nothing happened to make jump for joy and say, we are on the right track, nothing.
For me it’s the powerlessness that I find hard to live with. I’ve so far resisted the urge to renew my season ticket. The hope is that the lack of sales will send a clear message but I fear that the empty stadium will send us further down the path toward obscurity. After all we went thru that thought is just heartbreaking.
KM and RD just don’t seem to know that their business model is floored. Until they realise that they are doing it wrong they will not alter course. Denial and distortion is the most popular of human defences. Change is not possible until that fact is accepted. I’m not holding my breath.
CA – excellent summary of where we find ourselves in relative terms. Having shipped out twelve playing staff this week, we now have to watch as the better contracted players are picked-up one-by-one. Names to haunt us in the future too, as a reminder of the shambolic mismanagement of our club between 2014 and 2016 (so far). Tony Watt, Morgan Fox, Chris Solly, Jordan Cousins, JB Gudmundson, Ademola Lookman, Igor Vetokele, Kashi, Bauer, Tex?
At the very least, the club should be aiming to hang onto the better players. A core of Pope, Tex, Diarra, Kashi, Cousins, JBG, Lookman would give us something to build on to be competitive next season. If those players all depart, and with no sign of a decent manager coming in any time soon, you have to fear for what next season will bring. A first ever relegation to the 4th tier can’t be ruled out. Thanks Roland.
Diarra may stay. Bauer and Kashi simply because they have spent so much time out injured may (big may) stay at least until the next window and weigh up their options.
Thought Pope would definitely be around. Not so sure now. Think they will attempt to cash him in and Phillips and Dmitrov will battle it out. Worrying really….
Another reason to hope Millwall get promoted: Roland doesn’t deserve the revenue that this fixture generates.