May 21
Scott Minto said on social media today that former Charlton physio Jimmy Hendry had passed away. The Scot was popular at The Valley and joined at the time Lennie Lawrence was made manager in 1987.
Jimmy played in Scotland for Queens Park, moved south to study physiotherapy and then worked for Chelsea before moving to The Valley.
Please click for moreI wonder if I am the only person still watching Nathan Jones’ press conferences. Don’t worry you aren’t missing much, they are still very much sound bite rinse and repeat’s.
Front footed, aggressive, best pressers in the league, injured players are less injured than they were last week and my favourite, we need to be the best version of ourselves.
Please click for moreIn no order I am listing 20 Players that have left an enduring impression on me in my almost half a century of being an Addick.
20 Players to commemorate me writing this Blog for 20 years and at no. 16 is Darren Bent.
Please click for moreThe club has given supporters an update on what to expect from CATV next season. This follows the news of the new Sky Sports EFL deal.
As expected we won’t have the weekly pre and post match show, but there will be a monthly show with Minto, Curbs & Brownie.
Please click for moreOne of the many things Thomas Sandgaard has done right is doff his cap to the club’s history, and Friday’s annoucement that in August they are to commemorate the 30 years since Alan Curbishley first became manager of the club by renaming the East Stand after him, is a wonderful acknowledgement to one of Charlton’s greats.
I love that Alan Curbishley still calls Robert Lee ‘Robert.’ Over the years I have spent a fair bit of time with Rob(ert), I am good friends with his brother and absolutely everyone calls him Rob, accept Curbs and Addicks’ fans of a certain generation.
The turnstile operator, the 17-year old on the back of the programme, the lost contact lense, that was always Robert, but not to anyone else including his Dad who was born in Woolwich.
No one can defend that I’m afraid. It was demoralizing, despairing and repetitive.
Great start, took the lead, hit the bar a few times, goal disallowed but then the blasted rules f-d us over as they also allow the opposing the team to attack.
And sadly that was that. Their striker wanted the header more than our defence, then their bloke was allowed to walk unabated 10 yards and scored a worldly/ deflection/ lucky goal (*delete as appropriate) and we never in a million years looked like scoring again.
It was all going so well. The next game then in our mini-season.
The Coronavirus lockdown has changed so many things that became a normal part of our day, week and year. It has changed habits that were second nature to us unimaginably. Question is how does this new normal impact our regular humdrum go around with our friends from SE16?
Great to read about a planned Curbs v Gritty match to celebrate 25 years back at The Valley and to importantly raise funds for the Charlton Athletic Community Trust.
The two sides captained by Steve and Alan and managed by Addicks’ legend Keith Peacock and Addicks’ fan Dave Berry will take place at The Valley on Sunday, September 17th, the day after Gills away. (more)
Would you hire a new employee without speaking to him?
“Charlton Athletic’s new striker Billy Clarke revealed he never met Karl Robinson prior to signing for the club – only having the briefest of chats (on the phone).” More
Just seems a little odd to me. No conversation on a vision, goals, objectives or what KR would demand of Clarke and the other way around.
Lawrie Wilson has joined Millwall’s relegation rivals’ Rotherham on loan until the end of the season and sadly I expect that will be the last we see of the former academy player, re-signed by Chris Powell almost 3 years ago.
Wilson is out of contract at the end of the season and has been a peripheral figure for the Addicks this season, although he has featured in 27 games, but mostly in bit parts. Early in the season 17-year old Joe Gomez was preferred at right back to Wilson, when Solly was rested and Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson has made the right side of midfield his own.
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“He’s met the players, he’s had some chats and they are well aware of how he wants to play as well, so we tried that in the first-half.” – Damian Matthew
So Guy Luzon has his work permit, and the Israeli officially becomes the Addicks 24th manager in it’s colourful history.
At the end of the day he will get my support, because wanting the team to be successful is the only way I know. Life and in particular being a Charlton fan is complicated and draining enough without wishing ill of something that has been part of me for 40 years.
When football fans set off for games it is not to support the owner, or the CEO, it is to support a collection of footballers wearing a shirt, representing a club in a community that they have an emotional connection with, and that will be no different on Saturday.
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I was quite expecting no further comment from the club yesterday, until late in the day Katrien Meire did follow up with comments on cafc.co.uk.
Meire said that the decision was only taken after the game on Saturday, which seems both unlikely and a little too impetuous. I don’t believe her, nor does Bob, especially knowing of recent informed reports from the Israeli media about Guy Luzon, and the fact that Karel Faraeye was at the Cardiff game, but after her comments in the programme on Saturday, I expect Roland Duchâtelet allowed her, a lawyer, to choose her own words.
It doesn’t matter now, what does is who is appointed next as the 4th manager/head coach in 10 months.
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I hope Bob Peeters is showing a little more variation in his training techniques than he is in his post-match conferences. Sadly since the Duchâtelet era began we rarely hear from our head coaches other than a few sentences post-game, which is not helpful in building rapport with supporters.
The last few weeks Peeters’ has bemoaned tiredness, other teams being better headers of the ball, injuries, young guns, a lack of physicality, set pieces, Tal Ben Haim and the size of the squad. It’s getting a little tiresome.
I took to Bob early because he came across as passionate and honest, and had an endearing amalgam of naivety and ambitious. This is a massive test for Bob, both in managing and getting the best out of his players and how he gets the best out of those that employ him.
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So because of a Champions League match taking place in Piraeus between Olympiacos and Manchester United, Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday have to play their FA Cup game on a Monday night. And because the allotted amount of live televised games for the 5th Round has been met, the game at Hillsborough won’t be on the telly either. And all those parents desperately trying to keep their kids occupied in bad weather during half-term would now have to take them out of school to watch, what is to many, the biggest game of the season. And the bloody Barnsley game is off, when I planned to be in town. And I can’t get to Sheffield because I have to work on the Monday, any other day I would’ve been scurrying up the M1.
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After Mick McCarthy was unveiled as the new Ipswich manager this morning, it got me wondering if Curbs will ever manage a football club again. Curbs is linked to almost every job going and must hold some sort of record. It is said that he has some very narrow parameters for jobs that he would take, selfishly perhaps, but he doesn’t need the money nor obviously the challenge.
Without even working his stock must have reduced since he left West Ham in 2008, although his record stands up against most and certainly McCarthy’s. Ipswich would have been a perfect job for Curbs. Good infrastructure and history with supportive and hands off owners plus just a drive up the A12 in his Merc.
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“The former Charlton and West Ham boss is believed to have dropped out because he and chairman Steve Morgan did not share the same vision for the club.” More.
One has to ask if Curbs will ever work again. As far as I can make out this is the closest he has come to a top flight job since he left West Ham in 2008. In fact I would go as far to say, does Curbs have the fire left in his belly to want to work in 24-hour-a-day under the microscope management job?
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Sarasota, Florida
