Charlton Athletic Historical Timeline (1975-1992 Decline and Exile)

From promotion in 1975 to financial worries and then exile in 1985 and finally return home in 1992

Charlton returned to the Second division in 1975 at the third time of asking.  Underfunding and a lack of development continued to be problems though.  Following a change of ownership in 1982 the club was left financially overstretched leading to a string of debts and court appearances.  A rescue package saved the club with minutes to spare in 1984, but within a year the new board turned from heroes to villains as the club was forced to leave The Valley.   Only the joint actions of a new board and the fans would see the club return home.

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Charlton Athletic: Historical Timeline (1958 to 1974 – In The Doldrums)

From failing to get re-promoted in 1958 to dropping down to the Third Division

In 1958 the club failed in their bid to get re-promoted.  Defeat to Blackburn Rovers on the last day of the season kept them in the Second Division where they would stay for the next 15 seasons.  Years without any significant development and a pattern of selling-off the best players finally saw Charlton leave the Second Division in 1973 when they dropped down into the Third.

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Charlton versus Middlesbrough (ten year record)

Charlton’s poor record against ‘Boro over ten years.  

We’ve played Middlesbrough 90 times in the league overall.  That’s second only to the 96 times that we’ve played Portsmouth.  Over that whole period, results have been pretty even.  Boro have just shaded things winning 37 to our 34.  And aside from two major demolishings in the 1950s  7-3 and 8-1 (still our record defeat) our record overall is pretty reasonable.  Not recently though.  A look at the results for the last ten years shows that we have played them twelve times.  Of those, we have only won twice, drawing three and losing seven.

Charlton Athletic: Historical Timeline (1905 to 1921 – The Early Years)

From foundations in 1905 to Commencing League Football in 1921 

From foundations as a self-formed club for local teenagers to a being a professional Football League team just 16 years later, Charlton Athletic’s successes were quite remarkable.  The first team won their division for eight years in succession.  The reserves also won their leagues on many occasions.  This early success is even more remarkable that three years were lost to the club as a result of World War I.

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New Age Movement

 Times They Are A Changing – And The Charlton Squad Is Getting Younger! We were intrigued by an interview with Katrien Meire in CASTrust’s TNT7 in which stated that Roland Duchâtelet is “famous for giving lots of young professionals a chance”.  This was cited as a reason for Bob Peeters being appointed as Head Coach rather than Jose Riga.  This set us thinking, if RD is out to employ bright young managers like Katrien and Bob, would this philosophy of employing youngsters extend to the first team at Charlton? Looking at how the average age of a squad member has changed over the past 11 months, it would certainly seem so.  On the day that RD took over the club the average age of the first team squad was 25 years and 159 days.  By the final day of last season that had dropped to 24 years, 155 days.  Today it stands at 23 years and 182 days.  That’s quite a remarkable change in less than a year.  It has been achieved in two ways.  At the older end of the scale, we had 9 players older than 26, last January.  Of those, only the skipper remains.  The others have been retired, re-leased or re-sold.  Of the new recruits only two are over this age: our double-barrelled centre-back pairing.  At the younger end of the scale our youngest player is now aged 17 years and 122 days.  And with 4 appearances already, young Mr Gomez certainly isn’t there just to make up the numbers.  It certainly seems that the Duchâtelet philosophy of giving young talent a chance has been extended to the Charlton first team.  The only question is, how low can you go? Full Table of Squad Ages Please click to enlarge

Match Timeline: Millers v Addicks

Rotherham Utd. 1 – Charlton Athletic 1. SkyBet Championship, 20th September 2014

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Easier Times Ahead?

Are Charlton about to play some  some easier team?

Please click on the graphic to read the small print.

Twice last week we played teams in the top three of the table.  It was difficult, but we came away with four points, so something’s going right.  We’ve had a few trick fixtures so far and remain unbeaten.  With the exception of Norwich, the next teams all look as if they could be a bit easier.  On paper, at least!

Venn of the Week: Scottish Addicks

Charlton Players With Scottish Connections

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N.B. We won’t necessarily publish a Venn diagram every week.  The title is just to give the impression that this blog might have  some sort of order to it.

Addick’s Origins

Where the Valiant 786 were born

With the possibility of Scottish independence dominating the news, we wondered how many Charlton players past and present  had come from Caledonia.  It seemed pointless presenting this without comparing it to the rest of the British Isles and, indeed, the world.  So here it is.

N.B. This shows nationality by birthplace.  It is not necessarily the same for those International Addicks as which country they represent(ed).  A case in point being our current trio of Welsh Wizards, Simon Church, Morgan Fox and Rhoys Wiggins.  For these particular cynrychiolwyr Cymru, the green green grass of home is Amersham, Chelmsford and Uxbridge respectively.

The Pentagons Of Truth: Charlton 1 Wolves 1

Charlton Athletic 1 – Wolverhampton Wanderers 1. SkyBet Championship, 16th September 2014 Please click to enlarge. Each axis of the pentagon measures one key aspect of the match on a scale of 0 to 10.  The larger the pentagon, the better the performance.

Verdict:  We were lucky to get a point.