West Ham the new Charlton?
I couldn't help noticing that with one difficult game left, our neighbours West Ham have 52 points and are sitting in 9th place, the exact same points and position that we held at the end of our first season back in the Premiership in 2000/01. And as if to rub salt into our wounds, they have reached a Cup final after beating four Premiership teams (more than we have beaten in over fifteen FA Cup seasons).West Ham are managed by Alan Pardew who in my view would almost certainly have been our manager if Curbs had stood down say two years ago, though now he is out of reach. That is unfair on Curbs of course, but it's hard not to reach the conclusion that the clubs are moving in different directions right now.
Although he seems generally disliked, David Pleat is a regular summariser here in the US and for me at least, speaks an awful lot of sense (and would be another interesting mentor should Charlton opt for the young manager route). He pointed out that the core of the current West Ham squad saw a move to West Ham, and more pertinently their recent promotion, as an opportunity to rejuvenate either flagging careers or careers previously spent at smaller clubs. When he then ran off a few names, you could see his point: Konchesky, Reo-Coker, Mullins, Harewood, Zamora, Etherington, Ashton, Collins, Gabbidon, Carroll etc..
And then I started thinking about 'Where do it go wrong for Curbs?' (enough material for another post of course), and I began to reel off our major signings after that fantastic 2003/04 season when we finished 7th......Murphy, Smertin, Ambrose, El Karkouri, Jeffers, Bent M, Bent D, Rommedahl etc.. And what did they all have in common with the exception of Darren Bent, other than having failed to live up to expectations? They all saw a move to Charlton as a step down not a step up. And if I had to pinpoint where it began to go wrong I don't think I would need to look much further.
Whoever the new manager is, he could do a lot worse than to go back-to-basics and return to the model of prior years that served us so well, namely signing hungry players with something to prove. (It's also notable that West Ham play some flowing football whilst ours has been the worst that I can recall but let's not run before we can walk.)
People worry about whether players from the Championship can make the step up to the Premiership, but whilst this is a valid concern for older players, in the case of younger players it is often merely an accident of birth which dictates which club they begin their career with. I have to question if the likes of Kevin Lisbie would have had Premiership 'careers' if they had happened to been born in Hull instead of Hackney.
posted by New York Addick @ 12:55 PM
6 comments
Spot on!I think it is imperative therefore that we appoint a manager that sees Charlton as a step up and not someone like Hoddle who in all honesty probably believes that we're not fit to clean his shoes.
Too simplistic a view. Charlton were playing some of the best football we have played in years at the beginning of THIS season with Murphy, Smertin, Ambrose, Rommedahl all playing vital parts in the squad. Alan Pardew was close to the sack last year and widely disliked by WH fans. Good luck to whoever gets the job, but it won't be as simple as you think.
Good argument NYA. My West Ham mates would have given me their pearly king jackets for Curbs 2 season ago and gladly swapped him for Curbs.
Dave makes a good point too re new manager and I wonder what would have happened if we had signed Dawson, Jagielka, Reid, Sidwell, Lita, Trundle (all players linked) instead of the Murphy, Smertin, El Kak, Ambrose's of this world??
Sorry Anonymous, I can't agree that we were playing some of the best football in years. We were good at Sunderland and 'Boro, were clinging on at WBA and Birmingham, and were cr*p for an hour at Pompey. After that slighly fortunate start, you could count on one hand the number of decent performances. In my view the 47 point total is very flattering and it looks like Curbs (and even Murray) knows it.
For Rommedahl it was a chance to play in the Premiership, for Ambrose to revive his career, for Bent M it was a sideways move, so I don't accept this step down argument. I would agree that a manager who has proved himself in the Championship, e.g., getting to the plays off, would be a good choice.
Wyn, if true then you have to question why none of the signings I listed were great successes (yet). From where I'm sat (admittedly a long way away) none of them seem to play with much desire, El K excepted which then tends to lead to Curbs not playing them very often eg. Ambrose, Rommedahl. This of course then goes full circle back to 'why did we sign them in the first place?'.
If you look at the players we have signed in recent years who formed the bedrock of our success and became Valley legends, many share the common thread of having seen Charlton as a step upwards.....Mendonca, Kinsella, Robinson, Kiely, Hunt.