The fans at the Valley had grown tired. They’d had enough of the dull, uninspired football served up by Charlton Athletic week after week. It wasn’t sufficient that they’d finished in 13th place in the Premier League, they wanted to make that next step. They’d had enough of standing still. They’d had enough of Alan Curbishley.
And so within just a few weeks of the full time whistle blowing on the Addicks’ most successful Premier League season ever, Curbishley left. The fans longed for something more attractive, more entertaining. The results and league finishes only mattered so much. They thought their team could do better.
Of course, this is a well-known tale that ends with Charlton Athletic suffering two relegations in three years, never since returning to the top flight. The dismissal of Curbishley proved to be the moment an entire club’s modern history pivoted. That was the moment everything went wrong.
The episode now serves as a warning to Premier League clubs who find themselves getting carried away on the current of unrealistic ambitions. The notion of Charlton Athletic sitting in the top half of the Premier League table now sounds farfetched, but that was once a reality, and the club failed to recognise just how precarious a perch that can be.
One bad decision can lead to a downward spiral. Southampton are confident that won’t happen to them having taken the decision to sack Claude Puel despite leading the South coast club to an eighth place finish and the EFL Cup final last season, but there’s a comparison to be drawn between the call they’ve just made and the call Charlton made to fire Curbishley all those years ago.
Just like with Curbishley, Puel was forced out by an increasingly disgruntled fanbase yearning for a more attractive offering. Results weren’t what put him to the sword, but the manner in which they were achieved. Southampton are a club with lofty ambitions and the decision to remove Puel from his posts speaks to those targets.
This is almighty risk, though. As so many clubs have discovered down the years, the difference between Premier League thrivers and survivals can be bridged in just one season. It’s imperative that the appointment of Mauricio Pellegrino as his successor works out. The cost for getting it wrong could be monumental.
In a way, Puel has Mauricio Pochettino to blame for his demise. Southampton’s fans were spoiled by the Argentine, who imposed a dynamic, modern identity on the club and their style of play. But Pochettino was an exception, raising the bar to a new height. He could go on to become a great of the European game, and he started his English coaching career on the South coast. They will likely never find another Pochettino, even if Pellegrino sounds a little similar.
So there’s a chance that sacking Puel could turn out to be an exercise in futility. The margin to get better is a lot smaller than it is to get worse, with Southampton punching against a glass ceiling as they try in vain to force their way into the top four reckoning. Charlton found themselves in a similar situation and never managed to break through the ceiling, falling so far that they couldn’t even reach it.
Of course, are a very different case to Charlton Athletic. Their success is deemed to be a result of the system in place at the St Mary’s Stadium rather than the achievement of any one manager. Southampton’s infrastructure as a club is among the strongest, not just in the Premier League, but in Europe. Pellegrino will have a sound basis on which to build upon.
Nonetheless, Southampton have thrown their ball into the roulette wheel by sacking Puel after such a successful season. Things might get better, just as they did after the exit of Nigel Adkins, but they could equally get worse. Their fans must ask themselves whether that gamble was worth it. It wasn’t for Charlton Athletic.
