Charlton Atheltic are on the long road back from a meltdown sparked by the departure of Alan Curbishley. The club has a takeover looming, and hasn’t responded well to change in the recent past.

Overview

Charlton Athletic have always struck me as a classic case of being careful what you wish for.

It wasn’t so very long ago that they were a Premier League mainstay, with a young Scott Parker rampaging around the place and an attractive brand of football that made them a favoured pick in the ‘second team’ category. They had players like Matt Holland, Claus Jensen and Jonatan Johansson — they were decent to watch, and inoffensive. Proper old-style Monday Night Football fodder that the Ipswich, Arsenal, QPR and even West Ham fans on my corridor at university would gather round and half-heartedly support for want of something better to do with our time.

The Addicks finished seventh in the Premier League in 2003/04, eleventh the year after and thirteenth in 2005/06. And then it started. The Saturday evening radio phone ins started to receive calls from the footballing experts of South London proclaiming that Alan Curbishley had “taken the club as far as he can” and perhaps it was time for a change.

It’s a favourite staple of the radio phone-in that one, to be rolled out when essentially there’s nothing specific to criticise. How much further exactly can anybody take Charlton than the middle of the Premier League? Charlton were punching above their weight in the top division, prone to falling away at the end of seasons once survival was assured but never in any great relegation trouble. Curbishley had indeed taken them as far as he could, but that was as far as anybody could take them, and a good deal further than almost anybody else could have managed short of a Sheikh turning up with bottomless pit of cash for Charlton Athletic to dig around in for a bit.

His departure at the end of the 2005/06 season brought about a free fall from which the club has yet to fully recover. It’s unlikely that Charlton will be able to get back to the point where they’re capable of finishing seventh in the Premier League again in the short, medium or potentially long term.

After 15 years with the same manager they rattled through four in as many years. Iain Dowie, controversially picked off from near neighbours Crystal Palace to replace Curbishley, brought in seven new players, at great expense by the club’s previous standards, and made the team considerably worse: Amdy Faye, Djimi Traore and Souleymane Diawara set them back the best part of £10m. He was followed by Les Reed who himself only lasted six weeks and then Alan Pardew, who couldn’t stave off relegation. Pardew went 18 months later as the team struggled in the lower division and was replaced by Phil Parkinson who relegated them again. The question now was how far they could go the other way as freefall set in.

A boardroom takeover in 2010 by businessmen Michael Slater and Tony Jiminez arrested the decline — although that didn’t look like it would be the case when they replaced Parkinson with the club’s former left back Chris Powell and he immediately went on an 11 match losing run in League One. Slater and Jiminez aimed to reduce the debt — which they’ve done, from £7m to £4m — and restore the club to the Championship — which they succeeded in doing at the end of the 2011/12 season. Powell totally reshaped the squad, bringing in 19 new players in the summer of 2011, and guided his side to the League One title with 101 points. Last season they finished ninth, with a fine late run of form taking them to just three points shy of the play off places.

That made them an outside bet of many to stage a run on the top six this term, but it hasn’t quite worked out like that and they currently languish in nineteenth with just three league wins to their name — only one at home. As an outsider looking in it’s sort of got that ‘taken us as far as they can’ look all over again and indeed Jiminez and Slater are now actively looking to sell the club. An unnamed British property company has apparently concluded due diligence ahead of a multi-million pound takeover but after a period of stability that has halted what looked at one point like terminal decline, those old adages about grass on the other side of the fence, and devils you’re already familiar with, comes to mind once again.

Interview

Our thanks to Charlton fan David Bonney for his time and input on the Addicks this week…

How did you think Charlton would do this season back in the summer, and how would you assess the season so far?

DB: We had a great finish to last season winning five and drawing three of the last eight which propelled us to the brink of making the playoffs (we finished three points short in the end) but I don’t think anyone was under any illusions - to have a good chance of challenging for a playoff place this season would have required more investment in the team than occurred. So, in reality, midtable obscurity for this season was the expectation. Our squad is pretty light in certain areas and we’ve had to rely on youngsters to fill the gaps - most notably Jordan Cousins who has come in and impressed in the midfield holding role. Things didn’t start well this season but have picked up of late, if you disregard our last outing against Leeds where despite being the better team we managed to let Ross McCormack score four goals, we had been unbeaten in five and hadn’t conceded a goal in four consecutive games.

Chris Powell is a very popular figure at The Valley, and has a promotion on his CV already. Is there any suggestion of him being under pressure, from either the board or the fans, given the mediocre start to this season? What’s the general consensus on him?

DB: Chris Powell is a Charlton legend and one of football’s genuinely nice guys. The majority of fans are 100% behind him though there is vocal minority who will get on his back when things aren’t going so well, which occurred last season for instance before we went on the unbeaten run mentioned above. We’ve been much better away from home than at home under Powell’s tenure and he is very much a ‘clean sheet first’ manager which has resulted in some pretty poor home performances that some people aren’t happy about. As I say though, the majority of fans are behind him.

Who are the key men in the team, and who are the weak links?

DB: Powell will look to set the team up to be solid, disciplined in defence and work hard. Our biggest strength is that we’re very much a ‘team’ without any real superstars, the core having been together from the League One promotion season. Having said that, Johnny Jackson is captain and important for us due to his experience and the goals he gets from midfield and Yan Kermorgant is a talismanic French forward and also an important player for us - though he is just coming back from injury and so may not start. Weakness wise we have struggled to score goals and are light up front in numbers and quality which has been exacerbated by Kermorgant’s injury.

Where does the team need strengthening and is there any suggestion the money is there for that to happen in January?

DB: Our squad is light up front and the back due to injuries (Chris Solly our Player of the Year two seasons running is a long term injury for instance), we have no money though so I don’t expect any major signings. Powell has been talking about bringing in a couple more players before the loan window closes to plug the gaps in the squad.

What is the current boardroom and financial situation? What’s the relationship like between the supporters and board members?

DB: The financial situation is that we have no money and are a club that is counting every penny and cutting everything not essential at the moment to keep losses down. The board situation is a strange one as on the face of it they’ve done all that they promised when they came in: dragged us out of League One and had a fairly successful return the Championship last season.

There have been a few departures of long serving prominent club employees though which in turn has led to unsavoury legal wrangles and rumours that things aren’t going well behind the scenes leading to mistrust and criticism of the board from some of the supporter base. It’s no secret the current owners bought us to get us out League One and then look to sell on and we are reportedly about to be taken over by a “British property company” but we’ve had a number of near misses takeover wise in the last few years so I’m not holding my breath. On the pitch though as I say we can’t really have any complaints at the moment.

What are the realistic short, medium and long term aims for the club?

DB: Short term Championship stability and like most Championship clubs promotion to the top tier medium/long term. Who can say though? The Championship can be a strange league with a solid defence, a player or two who can make the difference in tight games and bit of luck you can go a long way in this league.

Which opposition team or player has impressed you so far this season?

DB: I don’t know about impressed but I’d like to give a special mention to the Doncaster Rover players and their valiant efforts with pitch fork and broom to try and convince the referee that the Valley pitch, which in places had become a paddling pool at the time due to rain, was still playable. They were 3-1 up when the game was eventually called off, although with a man sent off (adding insult to injury the only thing that counted in the game was the red card and subsequent ban) and it was nostalgic to see a team employ a sweeper system again.

Links >>> Official website >>> Forever Charlton blog >>> Nothing Else Matters log >>> Into the Valley message board >>> Charlton Life message board >>> Not606 Charlton forum >>> South London Press local paper

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Roller added 22:24 - Nov 22 I couldn't agree more about your take on Charlton and Curbishley Clive, this has given me great amusement over the years. Even better is the fact that Stoke may be following in their footsteps.
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TacticalR added 23:25 - Nov 22 It's funny how at a particular time a particular club becomes the role model for being 'well-run' and 'doing things in the right way'. Charlton used to be that club. However, the truth is that only the charmed circle of the top 6 or 7 clubs are immune from relegation and the organisational and financial chaos that can bring. Another problem is that Charlton's ground feels too large for the Championship. At 27,000 it's by no means the largest capacity in the division, but it can still feel quite empty because the ground is very spread out. It's the complete opposite of Loftus Road. There is also continuing uncertainty over finances. Chris Powell has been in the papers this week complaining about the lack of contracts for his staff and players, including captain Johnnie Jackson.

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