Great Expectations

On the All Quiet in the East Stand blog, I argued that Charlton's lousy away support might be linked to the team being 'sh*t' right now, and was rightly castigated for it. With hindsight I regret using that rather inelegant adjective, and clearly even if it were valid, it would only be in a relative not an absolute sense.

However, one of the arguments put forward against my overly critical assessment of the Arsenal defeat is what I term the 'nostalgia argument' and is on the lines of 'ten years ago, you'd have given your right arm to have the problems we have today.' This is true of course, but also irrelevant in my view.

Expectations are by necessity dynamic not static. It is absolutely correct that Curbs and the board should be wholeheartedly congratulated on exceeding the low expectations the fans had in the early-1990s, through a combination of good coaching, a sensible transfer policy, a progressive community-oriented outlook and the ongoing setting of realistic goals. However the 'issue' that I have right now is whether the club has inadvertently set its ongoing expectations 'too low' which in itself may have unintended consequences, some of which are already in evidence.

I have argued before that the club was fortunate to have been going through its rebuilding process in the mid-1990s at precisely the time when the creation of the Premier League was going to lead to a number of clubs over-leveraging and burning themselves out (Leeds are obviously the best example). This was a coincidence of course, but it meant that Charlton effectively leapfrogged a whole series of clubs in terms of ongoing prospects etc.. in a far shorter period of time than would previously have been possible. As it happens it is now in Leeds' hands whether they win automatic promotion back to the top flight, but even if they achieve it, they will look up to Charlton on their return, not the other way around. This is an incredible reversal in fortunes.

I have also pointed out on previous posts that Charlton are now the 10th longest-serving team in the current Premiership, again testament to the calm stewardship of Curbs and the board, but again it serves to remind us that far from running the risk of setting our expectations 'too high', we may be doing the precise opposite. Given the crucial importance of Sky money, statistics like these are far more important gauges of a club's standing in the game than how many fans we take to away games.

I understand the board's conservative standpoint, I just don't happen to agree with it. They are determined that should relegation occur, the club would not be wiped out financially, but instead be in a position to bounce straight back as they did in 1999/2000. However I fear that they could end up causing the very outcome that they are so keen to avoid. Clearly there is a fine balance here, but our form since September 2005 and even as far back as January 2005 has been relegation form or thereabouts. Indeed without the 'Darren Bent miracle', I believe we would be in the mire right now.

I fear that the Jeffers/Murphy signings in the summer of 2004 signalled the Board's intentions to 'step up to the next level', but that their unfortunate outcomes have grounded their expectations back down to earth. In my view, the lesson from the Jeffers/Murphy saga is not that the Board was wrong to try to sign players of their calibre, but that we should not throw out all the usual criteria for transfers that have previously worked so well (like checking out their character for a start).

If the right new manager could be found, I believe the club would benefit from a fresh influx of ideas. Given that the club has implied Curbs has a job for life, there surely has to be some risk (however small) that he could be sacked otherwise he will surely never truly be giving 100% to the role. Having said that, Curbs is working within the constraints that the Board has imposed upon him and I've come round to the view that the problem lies higher up for the timebeing.

The club can't just stand still, focus solely on balancing the books and hope that form will revert to trend. The traits that served the club so admirably after the dark years away from the Valley may no longer be serving us well now. To use an utterly inappropriate analogy, those traits that helped build the post-war Japanese economy from oblivion to world power, were the same that helped push them headlong into a decade of deflationary bust.

Things are not that bad of course, but those fans who are able to undertake a dispassionate assessment of the club sense a worrying downward trend, now being evidenced by lower crowds. Football is an unusual industry of course, fans can choose to consume more or less Charlton, but they are highly unlikely to move their consumption of football to another provider. Hence, when fans begin to vote with their feet, the club should sit up and take notice rather than send out desperate letters from the manager demanding our support.

I am not asking for too much from the club. I would like to see a more ambitious transfer policy, including a more enlightened approach to foreign players. I would like to see a total shake-up of the youth system (with heads rolling) that has failed the club for too long now. And I would like to see the team play with a little bit more panache, and a little bit less concern for what might go wrong if they do so. Football is ultimately an instinctive sport and all players need some freedom to express themselves (leaving a player or even two up for a corner might be a start).

I will be there on Thursday night all being well and am excited about the opportunity which the gods of the FA Cup draw have handed us. Should we be knocked out, it would easy for me to return home and write a vitriolic blog, but the result of one game is too random to be meaningful. Similarly should we win, it is important that those fans who are willing to be critical (and to be denounced for doing so) don't allow the prospect of a Cup semi-final to paper over the cracks in the club's current posturing.

My Dad always reminds me that the relationship one has with their football club is unique. You can have more than one wife, more than one child, more than one job, more than one house and more than one car, but you can never truly have more than one football club. It's for this reason that I occasionally get impetuous about it, but at the end of the day I really care and want to see the club fulfil its potential, instead of wallowing in nostalgia.