20 years; 20 Players: No.4 Mark Kinsella
To commemorate 20 years of the existence of this Blog I’m selecting 20 Players and 20 Places that mean the most to me. No order or ranking.
My next in line for my 20 Players is Mark Kinsella.
Mark Kinsella symbolised a Charlton team that gave us so much pride and countless memories in the late 90’s and at the turn of this century.
I feel his name still symbolizes the kind of all round midfield dynamo that we all pine for. Even today I hear young Addicks’ fans say ‘what we need is a Kinsella type of midfielder.’
The club almost lost out on the signing of Kinsella as Gillingham offered him a better deal and more importantly they had the full transfer fee upfront.
Yet, the Irishman had trained with Curbs pre-season and wanted to move to SE7. He finally joined in September 1996 and Mark made an instant impact and just got better and better hardly ever missing a game.
Kins famously lifted the Play-Off trophy at the old Wembley Stadium in that unforgettable game, dispatching a penalty in the shoot-out too. Then he drove us to the title two years later when we won promotion back to the big time.
The Irishman had a huge heart, was a lion in the tackle, read the game so well, and moved from box to box with ease, yet his biggest attribute for me was his leadership.
The humble Dubliner played for his country 48 times, but eventually was replaced in our midfield by Claus Jensen and an emerging Scott Parker. He was sold to Aston Villa, and still went on to play another couple of seasons in the Premier League.
Appearances 215, Goals 23 (2006 – 2002)
What a player he was for us! Once he arrived, it did almost beggar belief that we nearly let him slip through our fingers(I think he signed for £150,000, which was a bargain!). He was the heartbeat of that team, and went about his business with a grit and determination that was infectious to his team-mates and fans alike. The opening day 4-0 win against Man City is one I’ll never forget. He scored a goal, won a penalty and if I remember rightly, gave Nicky Weaver a torrid afternoon all round!
Yes, Kinsella is absolutely deserving of being a CAFC legend!
He fought so hard for the club in every minute of every game, that’s not to detract from his level of skill. When you get both together….what a player. Best block tackle of any player for Charlton I’ve seen, like hitting a brick wall.
I still don’t know how AC had the guts to tell him that he was 2nd choice to Scott Parker. It was the right call but “Et tu Brute”
(And a great international career! )
Kinsella trained with us preseason and looked good but for some reason we let him go back to Colchester, and compounded the error by recruiting O’Connell, I think from Barnsley, who proved mediocre. A week or two into the season one of our other midfielders got injured, and Kinsella was finally recruited. But for the injury we have could have lost him as other clubs were interested.
Now. Brendan O’Connell. One who won’t be making my top 20 😀
I think what happened was that we had a deal agreed with Colchester. From memory we were going to pay the transfer fee in two instalments however at the last minute Colchester changed it to try and wring more money out of us, again I think…they wanted 100% of the transfer fee up front. Consequently Curbs, who hated being messed about with in negotiations, ended the loan/trial and sent Kins back to Colchester. They then tried to sell him to Gillingham who had a bid accepted, Kins though wanted to sign for Charlton and contacted Curbs and the rest is history.
Another Kins story is that he was offered school boy terms at Manchester United, Colchester had offered him a trial and told him if they signed for them he’d go straight onto a first team contract. Obviously he chose the latter – probably wisely as he’d have languished in Man U’s squad for several years while at CU he got first team game time.
All true SP.
We were skint but we’d just sold Lee Bowyer to Leeds prompting Colchester to change the deal to money up front. Curbs wouldn’t play ball but he and Kins worked it out.
The story goes that Fergie actually visited Kinsella at his home in Dublin. He has his parents chose CU.