It’s fair to say that after leaving Charlton Athletic neither Alan Curbishley or the South London club have enjoyed much success, with the Addicks enduring a massive fall into the third tier of English football.
In 15 years at the club Curbishley made Charlton into a respected and established mid-table Premier League side. In just one year after his departure all of that hard work was undone when the club were relegated to the Championship. Two years later that hard work became even more difficult to re-build after the team suffered another relegation to League 1. To think that a few years ago the club were attracting players like Paolo Di Canio and Danny Murphy, they now find themselves signing players like Gary Doherty and Alan McCormack.
When Curbishley decided to leave in 2006 fans were already growing tired with the brand of football being played at the Valley and mediocre mid-table finishes, the fans wanted to see some more excitement and somebody to take the club forward. Whilst the fans were very appreciative to Curbishley for all he had done in his time at the club everybody, probably including Curbishley himself believed that he had taken Charlton as far as he can.
Ironically the season the club went down the side were going to make a real push for Europe, with chairman Richard Murray agreeing to give Curbishley’s successor Iain Dowie the next seasons’ transfer money to make it happen. The club already made a terrible decision in choosing Iain Dowie as the next manager and things were made worse when he decided to waste the money on players who were not good enough. Charlton went on a poor run of form and this coupled with Dowie’s bizarre management, such at getting the team lost on a run the morning of their game away to Newcastle saw him last just 15 games before he was sacked.
Dowie’s assistant Les Reed then came in but he too was replaced after seven games the club then turned to recently sacked West Ham manager Alan Pardew. At this point of the season Charlton were involved in a relegation battle along with Pardew’s former club West Ham who soon appointed Alan Curbishley as manager. Whilst results picked up for Charlton under Pardew things did not at West Ham and a 6-0 thrashing by Reading and 4-0 thrashing by Pardew’s rejuvenated Charlton made it seem as though Charlton would be staying up at the Hammers’ expense. However results tailed off for Charlton and West Ham put together a good run of form which inexplicably saw them stay up, and at the same time Charlton were relegated.
Much was expected of Charlton in their first season in the Championship; they spent a fair bit of money in pre-season and had one of the best squads in the league. However they massively underachieved and finished the season in 11th place. They were expected to mount another challenge in their second season but endured a terrible start and by November found themselves in the relegation zone. Pardew was sacked and replaced by his assistant Phil Parkinson, but he was unable to stop the decline and Charlton were relegated to League 1.
During this time Alan Curbishley had taken West Ham to a 10th place finish during his first full season in charge of the club, but by the start of the next season he resigned after just three games as he was unhappy with the team’s transfer policy. He had been out of work for over six months by the time Charlton’s relegation was confirmed.
Under Phil Parkinson Charlton had a good debut season in League 1 finishing fourth in the table, and were cruelly denied a deserved Wembley play-off final after they were unable to beat Swindon in a penalty shoot-out in the semis. This season it is unknown what is going to happen to Charlton as they have lost some of their best players in talented youngster Jonjo Shelvey and captain Nicky Bailey. If they can make a few more good signings like former Tottenham youngster Johnnie Jackson, and hang on to some of their better players like Therry Racon, Jose Semedo and Deon Burton, then there is no reason why they can’t at least finish in the play-off places.
As for Alan Curbishley, he looks set to spend another year in the managerial wilderness, Curbishley who has recently been linked with the Fulham job has said:
“I was told I was on the Fulham shortlist but that there were a couple of people ahead of me, so I knew that was going nowhere.”
He added: “It (West Ham) has damaged me a bit, because I have been out for a while, and it is hard to come back if you are away for too long.”
Whilst it has been exciting to be a Charlton fan in recent years, it definitely hasn’t been rewarding and I’m sure many fans like me would gladly swap life in League 1 for the Premiership mid-table Curbishley days in an instant.
Click on image below to see the PORTUGAL babes at the World Cup
