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.

Not really shipshape and Bristol fashion

This international break has dragged on in my estimation, but it gives me a chance to look at Saturday's opponents Bristol City.   Ahead of the game, they have just announced the appointment of a new set piece coach which gives some indication of their intentions.

First, a disclosure.  I am a client of Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown and Steve Lansdown has been the benefactor of Bristol City.   I have been with them since the 1980s, and they have been superb, but that doesn't alter my view of Bristol City.

There has been a bit of edge between Charlton and the 'Robins' in the past   I seem to remember it kicking off in Bristol back in the day.  In his excellent book about life at Charlton, Gary Nelson recalls he went down to Charlton Station to catch the train after the game and there was a knot of Bristol supporters on the platform who recognised him and were rather menacing.

Bristol is one of the largest provincial cities in the UK, but Bristol City have never been in the Premier League.  They were in the old top flight between 1976 and 1980.   Apart from 2013-15 when they were relegated to League One, they have been ever presents in the Championship.

Why haven't they done better?   Like many clubs in the second tier they have suffered from having to compete with clubs receiving parachute payments: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/search?q=Bristol+City

According to the FLP, the latest deal the Premier League is offering the EFL is to cut parachute payments by five per cent over three years which is just a nominal amount (even allowing for the eroding effects of inflation).   The distortion of competition will continue.

Bristol is also egg chasing territory.  Indeed, Lansdown has built up a whole sports club on the Barcelona model which includes rugby union and basketball (Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers).

Bristol is also a rather unusual city in some ways.  Apart from Brighton, it is the only city that has a Green MP.  The city was clearly implicated in the slave trade, but I'm not sure that throwing a statue of one of the guilty men into the harbour expunged the memory.   What I am saying is that it may have fewer potential football supporters than many cities.   Some residents may disapprove of competitive sports.

There is also the presence of another club.   A number of provincial cities sustain two clubs, although arguably Sheffield might have a more secure place in the top flight if it had just one club, but Blades and Owls would never accept a merger.   The Bristol case is more like Nottingham: one leading club and a secondary one,

My view of the Gasheads is that they are real nut jobs.  When I was at uni, there was a Bristol Rovers supporter who drove around in a Triumph Spitfire bought by his indulgent parents.  My pal Annie used to shout 'Micky Mouse' at him when he got out of his car.  He didn't like this coming from a cool rock chick who was the guild of students social secretary and booked all the bands.

As far as I was concerned, he thought I was one sandwich short of a picnic as a Charlton supporter.   He was simply patronising when his wealthy and super cool girl friend bought me an expensive suede jacket for my birthday.   Let's call her 'Annabel'.

We all went our different ways, Annabel having returned Micky's engagement ring.  I encountered him in Canberra when the federal government appointed him to a job I thought I could have done better.  He made a complete Horlicks of it and returned to the UK.

Shortly after my first wife passed away in 2014, 'Annabel' suddenly appeared in my in box.  I had kept tabs on her very successful career and by this time she was a dame commander and an adviser to the late Queen.   She had kept everything I had written to her back then and wanted to return it to me and meet up in Exeter.

Meanwhile, Micky was living nearby and offered to drive me to a midweek match between Rovers and Charlton.  I knew that he was in touch with a mutual friend who was also in contact with Annabel and indeed had phoned me to warn me against meeting her.   What happened afterwards would be a good subject for a novel, but I decided that I didn't want to be questioned all the way to Bristol and back about what I was up to or what I had been up to in 1971.   As it happened, Charlton beat Rovers 5-1 and Micky said that he would have left me in Bristol which I am sure was no idle threat.

Annabel and I did eventually met in 2016 and I decided that enough time has passed to invite both her and Micky to my 70th birthday party.  Old Gasheads never forget and there was a confrontation.

Sadly, Annabel developed terminal cancer and I used to go and visit at her home elsewhere in the UK. When we had dinner for the last time were both hugging and in tears.  As the taxi driver drove me away to the station, he asked, 'What's the story with her?'

Okonkwo's brother joins my non-league team

Brian Okonkwo, the younger brother of Addicks keeper Arthur, has joined my non-league team (Leamington) from West Bromwich Albion.

In Saturrday's 4-0 win over Hitchin he made two outstanding saves from open play and then saved a  penalty. 

Bindon scores in Japan

Tyler Bindon's good form with New Zealand continued as the on-loan Charlton Athletic defender helped his country reach the final of Kirin Cup in Yokohama.

Having scored in a 3-0 friendly win over China on Sunday, the 21-year-old fired home the first penalty as the All Whites beat Panama 5-3 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw.

New Zealand will face the winners of the tie between Japan and Ecuador in the final on Monday, 5 October.

Bindon joined the Addicks on a season-long loan from Nottingham Forest in August and has made five appearances for the club.

Nigels lose their ultras

Before Palace’s opening home game of the season with Manchester City, the Holmesdale Front released a statement announcing they were “choosing to stop all organised activity as the HF inside the stadium” and cited “never-ending problems with the club up to the present day” among various reasons for the decision.

One of their concerns, relayed in a statement before February’s Conference League first knockout round home leg against Zrinjski Mostar, is a perception that the “club is determined to keep trying to force an American-style ‘experience’ on us”.

Chairman Steve Parish says it is “disappointing” to lose the group from Selhurst but believes there is nothing more Palace could have done, and cites safety and regulatory requirements.

“We’ve embraced them from the day I arrived here, and we’ve used them in our marketing,” he told The New York Times. “I don’t really know what’s at the heart of it. I understand that it’s difficult and frustrating at times — look at Lech Poznan, when they let off all those fireworks (in the opening Europa League match of this season at Selhurst).

“It’s hard because of the rules and regulations we have and the safety group. I understand it (and) we’re a very heavily-regulated society, so it’s frustrating for them sometimes. I don’t think that we could facilitate them any more than we do whilst trying to keep them safe and trying to get within the regulations.”

“I don’t really deal with them. They’re ultras, that’s not really how they roll. They have a dialogue with the people at the club on an ongoing basis. I understand how they feel. There are people that are around football who don’t want that kind of support at football grounds.

“I’ve personally had big battles on their behalf. I’ve been told by ‘the authorities’ on multiple occasions that we should ban the whole group. There’s an element where football fans are pushing back on it, where they want to have a bit more freedom to express themselves, but everything’s banned in England. It’s a fair frustration.”

There has been criticism of what some perceive to be a more ‘manufactured’ atmosphere pre-game and after Palace goals which the HF appear to believe stifles the organic approach they have tried to facilitate. Parish, though, says the choice is not binary.

“You have to be realistic,” he says. “We are a global show. We are putting on a show, and not everybody wants the same things all the time. There’s room for both of those things, but I don’t know a stadium up and down the country that doesn’t do any of the things that we do, and they work really well.

“There is a bit of a frustration sometimes from the fan base that they all have to do what (the HF) want all the time. ‘We have to sing their songs and do what they want, when they want’. Families come and sit in other parts of the stand and stadium and they want to hear some good music. Fans can’t sing the whole time in the lead-up to a game. You can always find a good compromise, and I think we will. Something will come back, and we’ll make it work.

“We loved everything they did. We were hugely supportive, and in the face of some quite vehement opposition. They’ve been an important part of what we’ve done. Anybody that wants to do something similar, we’re trying to accommodate it as much as we can, but not everything stays the same all the time."

 

 

Shelvey sacrificed prom for football

Jonjo Shelvey recalls the start of his career with Charlton in an interesting in depth interview with Four Four Two.

The interviewer noted that he became Charlton's youngest player when he made his debut at 16.  How did he handle the pressure?   (Question from Sophie Scott from Greenwich)

Shelvey responded: 'I played in the game on the Saturday, we lost 3-0 away to Barnsley, then on the Monday I was walking around school very proud, giving it big licks!   Charlton had just been relegated a week beforehand, so they were giving youth a chance, and it was a great experience,   I wasn't overawed - I felt comfortable as I'd been training with the first team squad since I wss 14.'

'Funnily enough, after the game, I had to ask the manager Alan Pardew if I could still take a girl to that summer's school prom as I needed to let her know.  He just laughed and said, "Tell the girl you can't make it sadly as you'll be on Charlton's pre-season tour."'

Samuel Henderson from Erith asked. 'How did you fit into the dressing room at Charlton and how did the older professionals react to you?'

Shelvey replied: 'There were some good pros in there who treated me well - guys like Matt Holland, Ben Thatcher, Christian Dailly, and Chris Iwelumo.   I didn't drive at the time so some of them gave me lifts to training.  I was OK as I always had a lot of confidence.   In the dressing room, I remember Dean Burton saying to me, "Young lad, get up and make the teas."  I just shot straight back, "I'll make the teas when you're better than me."  He just laughed and said "Yeah, that's fair."  I played up front with Dean, so I could get away with it.'

Tyreece Campbell could be heading for PL

Last year he was the favourite scapegoat player of many Charlton fans, but this morning Jamaican international; Tyreece Campbell is the subject of a special feature in the Football League Paper.

The FLP's resident expert Guy Branston has selected Campbell as one of three EFL starlets with Premier League potential.   He stats: 'The kid reminds of the quality wingers we've seen step up from the Championship over the years like Wilfred Zaha.'

'He's rapid, he moves fantastically and he's as slick as anything.  He's already played over 150 games by the age of 22 and I think he's got much more development to come.  He's going to get better and  better.'

Anthony Hayes, who coached Campbell from the age of 13, commented: 'People ask me who's the best young player I've worked with and for many years now I've said the one with the highest potential is Tyreece.  I still think he's only beginning to scratch the surface.'

Steve Avory, who spotted Campbell playing for a Southwark club at the age of nine, commented: 'The thing that always excited me about Tyreece was his ability to manage the ball at close quarters.  He has that one-v-one ability to go past players at speed with the dribble and get into goal scoring positions as a result of it.  And he was always a consistent goal scorer right through the academy journey.'

The article states that Campbell operates as a modern-day inside forward, preparing to use his speed and dribbling ability to cut inside off the left wing and take shots with his right football rather than hit the byline and provide crosses.

'Versus other Championship wide players and attacking midfielders, Campbell ranks in the top six for non-penalty goals, the top four for shot accuracy and the top two for goals per shot,'

'He has the composure and quality to fashion goal scoring opportunities from even low value chances.  For a team like Charlton who rarely dominate possession and take relatively few shots, it is an invaluable quality.'