Luke Warm

Many summers ago I headed from Helsinki in my favourite country of Finland on a flight to Oulu in the country's north.    I was going there to catch up with Charlton's Nordic tour (we drew 2-2 with Oulu).  The local youngsters were thrilled to see Finnish international JJ and be handed free Charlton merchandise.

There were quite a few Charlton fans there already, although I was probably one of the few with a smattering of Finnish.  All the talk was about new signing from Spurs Luke Young.   Asked about him, many fans inevitably responded 'I'm Luke Warm about him'.

Richard Cawley has carried out a fascinating in depth interview with Luke Young.  One thing that comes across is his respect for Curbs   The manager set up a meeting with Young at his brother's home in Little Venice to persuade him to join the Addicks.

Young admitted to Cawley that he failed to make a positive first impression.  “I was a little bit off the pace, if I’m honest,” said Young.

"People forget that, at 22, I had never been a regular playing 30-odd games in a season. So I was still learning my trade, from a first-team point of view. To play week in and week out, you have to learn how to deal with the ups and downs, to be resilient. Charlton was my first year doing that.

There were games where I played not so great and ones where I did well. But Curbs kept me in - no matter what. I think he knew the player I could perhaps become and he was patient with me. He gave me the games I needed.”

One of my memories of him is scoring against Liverpool in a 2-0 home victory.  A disgruntled Liverpool fan said afterwards at the station, 'I was so looking forward to this evening.'

I was interested to learn that Young has a Substack page based on his years at Charlton and I must try and find time to read it.  Unfortunately or not, I am getting more work at the moment that I can readily handle.