Varney on Curbs

Chatting with Curbs: a photo from a card Alan sent me when I was in hospital for the first time ever

Richard Cawley's interviews with Peter Varney about key figures at Charlton have been fascinating and the latest is about Curbs himself.   Print volumes are out of date but it would have been great to have all the interviews brought together in one place.

Here are a few key excerpts from the interview which is available on the South London Press Charlton Substack page.

'He had an unbelievable work ethic. He treated the club’s money as his money. I can think of ones who followed him that didn’t view it that way and had the mentality of ‘just get me another player’.  Why was he like that? Well, he is an east London boy. I think his upbringing was always about hard work.   The cornerstone of Curbs’ success was hard work and being good tactically, in terms of how he would set the side up.

Without demeaning anything Jimmy Seed did - you can take teams to promotion, through the leagues and cup success - but the game in those days was nothing like when Charlton were in the Premier League. 

We had fairly settled sides. The game was so fast. We had come up from a division, in those days, where a club didn’t have the same fitness levels as a team like Arsenal. But Curbs got Charlton’s team to compete.

For me it was always Alan that was our best-ever manager. That’s why when Thomas Sandgaard became the new owner of Charlton, I said I found it difficult to comprehend why he hadn’t been acknowledged in some way. Voice of The Valley editor Rick Everitt helped me get the message out there in February 2021, calling for Curbs to be recognised.

There probably were disagreements, but not over what you probably would think it would be about. It would be operational issues because I’d like to think, if you were talking to him, that I never expressed opinions on players or anything like that. 

You’ve got to remember that Charlton had 17 directors. What tended to happen, and it’s not a criticism of them, is that when a manager came to a meeting and, let’s say, you have lost a game, people would go: ‘Do we practise corners?’ This happened.

Alan wanted to see out the final year of his contract but he felt there were clauses in his terms that were prohibitive to being able to go and test himself in the Champions League. I won’t give you the figures, but it was a financial penalty, so if Liverpool wanted him as their manager they had to pay Charlton ‘x’ million. That was considered to be a block on testing himself at the very top level of the game.'

A memory of my own

The European Commission rang me up one day (obviously this was before Brexit) and said that they hadn't got anyone to head up a mission to an environmental conference in Kunming in south-west China and would I step in?

One thing I learnt from that visit is never underestimate the Chinese.   My minder in Beijing was a very smart young woman from the Department of Party History who accompanied me to all the sights.   I did manage to break away once and use a smattering of Mandarin to get a cab to an alley where I knew I could buy wall hangings with US dollars.

In Kunming the local television wanted to interview me about air pollution and my minder from the EU office in Beijing gave me the go ahead.  I was then confronted with statistics about air pollution in Greenwich.

The Chinese knew that I was interested in football and took me to look at training facilities used by the national team of which I was critical.  Probably coincidence, but I wss watching national television one evening and there was a feature on how Curbs and Keith Peacock worked together.   I might add that these days China National Radio calls me 'Whine' Grant.

The club was interested in the possibility of a tour in China and/or Japan, but Curbs wasn't keen.  I was asked to have a quiet word to brief him about the two countries.  I knew it was hopeless when he mentioned that the 'Emoress of China' had just had a baby.  He was a football genius (and he had his finances looked after very well), but currentt affairs was not his suit.

Latest Championship club to risk points deduction

Sheffield United could face a 12 points deduction from the EFL because of court cases: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2026/09/legal-worries-at-blades.html

Euell starts with an away point

Interim Preston North End first team coach Jason Euell secured a 2-2 draw at the Super Hoops on Saturday.   His side was 2-0 ahead at the break.   Despite some tough talk by him to the team at half time, 10-man QPR improved in the second half and scored a last minute equaliser.

Reflecting on his personal pride in the experience of managing PNE after the 2-2 draw at QPR, the 49-year old said: “I enjoyed it. It's something that I'm familiar with, yes, at different levels and at different stakes, but I've done enough games as an assistant, first and coach, to get to know what it's like and the touchline."

“I enjoyed every minute of it, every moment. Sometimes it's that stepping back, giving yourself a little bit of a breather and thinking space to go again, but it's just wanting to focus on the players and give them as much support as I can.”

He admitted it had been a tough week for people at the club with change coming so soon in a season, but says it has been business as usual for most, and it will be until a new manager comes in.

Charlton down to 9th. Jones: Rwy'n cymryd cyfrifoldeb llawn

Charlton fell outside the expanded play off places to ninth after Wolves beat West Brom 1-0 yesterday.  Fortunately, Norwich lost at home to Bolton.  The Addicks are three ways down the form table.

Nathan Jones branded the performance of his Charlton Athletic side as “inept” after a 3-1 loss at Cardiff City before he disappeared into the Welsh valleys.  Disappointing is an understatement,” he told Richard Cawley. “The positives were (Arthur) Okonkwo, (Miles) Leaburn and the three clear cut chances we had. Apart from that we were out-battled, out-passed and out-run for the majority of the game.”   (Some fans thought that Conor Coventry, who has been called up for Ireland, had a decent game.

“I just didn’t recognise some of the players out there. I take full responsibility, because I prepared the team. But stuff that we prepare and that we do on a regular basis, I didn’t see today.

“You can’t build a performance if you don’t work hard, if you don’t press, if you don’t get on second balls and you don’t do the basics well. When you do win the ball back, eventually, you just keep giving it away. Some of the times were unopposed and we didn’t show any quality. Those things mean you’re in for a tough afternoon.  Our intensity, work-rate and how we went about it was poor. And we’d had a good week of training.”

Charlton have missed Nathaniel Chalobah’s composure in the middle of the pitch. The summer signing, who has had a chequered injury record prior to signing a one-year contract in August, has missed the last five Championship matches.

Ouma, who is on a season-long loan from Sparta Prague, is struggling to show why he was coveted by the Addicks..

Campbell did not escape criticism despite once again showing a clinical touch when put through by Bindon.  The Jamaican international is joint third for goals in the Championship - on the same amount as West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and former Addicks loanee Lyndon Dykes.

“He has to learn the game,” said Jones. “There are times he has to affect the game without the ball. He affects it constantly with the ball - he is a runner, he got in a few times and took his goal really well.  But you have to affect it out of possession as well, be in good positions and that is what he has to learn.”

AI avatar Desmond from Deal commented: Jones has condemned himself out of his own mouth.   Top half of the table before the international break is not acceptable.  Now is the time for the board to show courage.’

 

 

Defeat in the Welsh capital sees Charlton slip down the table

Cardiff City secured their first league win back in the Championship, as Jack Moylan scored twice on the way to a 3-1 victory over Charlton Athletic.   The Addicks fell to 8^th in the table pending this afternoon’s results.   Richard Cawley commented that Charlton were clearly second best.

However, they are still ahead of Millwall.  After going 2-0 ahead at the Toolbox, an improved performance by West Ham in the second half saw them score two goals.  ‘Last Ditch’ Dykes had an opportunity to make it 3-2 at the death but sent the ball way over the goal.   The whole occasion was degraded by commentary from Ian Dowie, proving that there is life after football death.

The commentators in the preamble to the televised WSL match at The Valley noted that Charlton were a club and team used to adversity on and off the pitch.  And so it proved with the Addicks going down 1-4 to the well-funded London City Lionesses.   At least they scored their first WSL goal and it was a stunner from distance.

The attendance was sparse at The Valley and many Addicks departed at dawn to make the trek to Cardiff.  Fortunately, the national border is free of controls for now.

In the Welsh capital, the Bluebirds took the lead after eight minutes, as Alex Robertson found Yousef Salech on the edge of the Charlton box, and the Cardiff striker's deft touch played through Moylan, who in turn found the bottom corner.

The hosts had their second midway through the first half, when Moylan turned provider for Salech, who shrugged off Tyler Bindon before beating Okonkwo from close range.

Charlton found a route back into the game before the half-hour mark, as Bindon's through ball played in Tyreece Campbell, and the Jamaica international slid the ball under Nathan Trott to halve the deficit.

Cardiff almost had their third two minutes later in an increasingly end-to-end first half, but Moylan was denied a clean sight of goal by an excellent last-ditch block from Charlton skipper Lloyd Jones.

The Bluebirds should have restored their two-goal cushion on 38 minutes as Moylan's header at the back post was clawed off the line by Okonkwo, only for Joel Colwill to get the rebound all wrong and miss the target from six yards out.

And the visitors once again had Okonkwo to thank for keeping the score 2-1 with half-time approaching, as the on-loan Wrexham goalkeeper scrambled across his line to stop what looked destined to be Salech's second of the game.

Having seen his side struggle as the first half wore on, Charlton boss Nathan Jones made two changes at the break as Amari'i Bell and Timothy Ouma replaced Milenic Ali and Bindon.

And it was the visitors who had the first big chance of the second half, as former Cardiff man Karlan Grant was played through on goal but could only find the side-netting.

The Bluebirds responded with a good chance of their own, Joel Bagan's cross finding Colwill at the back post, but Okonkwo was equal to the effort once again.

After seeing countless chances come and go, Cardiff eventually restored their two-goal lead on the hour mark, as summer-signing Moylan smashed an effort in off the post from the edge of the 18-yard box.

Bagan came close to adding a fourth for the Bluebirds, but his effort curled away from the far post and behind for a goal-kick.  Ollie Tanner was next to threaten, as he drove into the Charlton box and beat Bell but was denied by the outstretched leg of Okonkwo.

Charlton rarely threatened in the second half but should have pulled one back when substitute Charlie Kelman found himself one-on-one with Trott; however, he was denied what would have been a goal with his first touch by the Cardiff keeper.

Moylan almost added a spectacular fourth, but his curling effort from distance drifted just wide before he was replaced to a standing ovation by the home supporters, Calum Scanlon coming on in his place.

Victory for the Bluebirds ends what has been a tough return to the second flight, but they go into the international break having broken their winless streak at the eighth time of asking.

For Charlton, it is now five games without a win, having previously sat top of the Championship after three successive victories to start the campaign.

AI avatar Desmond from Deal says: ‘At least the three week international break will give the board the time to sack Jones and find a quality replacement.’

 

 

Another draw at Cardiff?

Nathan Jones goes to his native heath tomorrow for the match at Cardiff.   Charlton fans may want to read the result off the table, but it is too early in the season for that, indeed I always think it is a bad idea.   I suspect that it may confirm Charlton's status as draw specialists.

Perhaps not a bad time to be away from South-East London as 400 police are being deployed to the dockers' derby at the Toolbox.

The Bluebirds are yet to win a league game since returning to the second tier this season while Charlton's early form has deserted them with no victory from their past four outings

Each of the past three league matches between Cardiff City and Charlton Athletic have been drawn, with this the first since a 0-0 stalemate in June 2020.  Charlton have lost five of their past six away league games at Welsh clubs (D1), although their last win was at Cardiff in March 2015 (2-1).

Along with Burnley, Cardiff are one of two sides yet to win a game in the Championship this season (P7 W0 D4 L3). Only in 1964-65 (11), 1989-90 (8), and 2018-19 (8) have the Bluebirds ever failed to win their first 8+ games of a league campaign.

Charlton are winless in four league games (D3 L1), failing to score in their past three – the Addicks' longest scoreless streak since March 2023 (4 in a row).

Only Millwall (58.5%) have won a higher proportion of their aerial duels in the Championship so far this season than Charlton (54.8%), while only Lincoln (1,907) have attempted fewer passes than the Addicks (2,190).

Four Four Two predicted a 18th place finish for Cardiff at the beginning of the season, saying that their limitations may restrict progress.  The fan forecast mid-table.  He also named Nathan Jones as pantomime villain: 'He is a Cardiff fan and incredibly dramatic.'

Presumably he can reply to any insults in Cymraeg.

NYT looks at prospects for sale of Charlton franchise

Andrew Umbers, a partner at London-based Oakwell Sports Advisory, has talked to the New York Times about seeking investors in Charlton.

“The introduction of tighter financial rules and increased regulation has made English football more attractive to sophisticated, professional investors, not less attractive, as those investors value good governance and don’t like risk,” said Umbers, whose firm is running the process to sell Championship side Charlton Athletic.   [My understanding is that the search is for an additional investor, but a really good ownership offer would be considered].

He also believes the much-anticipated agreement on a new financial distribution deal between the Premier League and the EFL will make the latter’s clubs more desirable. And he was not the only expert to make this point.

However, another interviewee warned: “The Championship is the most expensive lottery ticket in world sport. A wage-bill built for a promotion push does not shrink when the promotion doesn’t arrive, and by year three you are running a Premier League cost base on Championship revenue.”

“It is very easy to make money in PowerPoint and Excel — the model always says yes. Then you own the club and find out how hard it is — your best striker has a hamstring strain, your manager has an agent, your supporters have an opinion, and none of those three things is in the spreadsheet. Everyone thought player-trading is easy and you can copy Moneyball.  I’ve lost count of people who got that part of their investment thesis wrong.”

Any prospective buyer of the Addicks would soon find out that the franchise only consisted of EFL membership and the players with the stadium and training ground leased.