Saturday April 29th 2006 will go down as one of the saddest days in the history of Charlton Athletic, with manager Alan Curbishley deciding to leave the club after 15 glorious years in charge.
Some fans could never have imagined Curbishley managing another club than the Addicks. To most fans, ‘Curbs' IS Charlton, but over this season, passion was lost in the fans, the players, and most importantly, the manager. The recent England debacle put even more pressure on Curbishley and after a meeting with chairman Richard Murray, it was decided that it was time to move on for everyone.
Curbishley's final match will be this Sunday at Old Trafford that will take the number of games he's been in charge to 729, one behind legendary manager Jimmy Seed, and unfortunately he wont be able to equal Seed's number of games due to the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Middlesborough.
This summer at The Valley will be the most interesting in years, with a new manager hopefully bringing in new players and a new style of football. Front-runners for the job include Wolves boss Glenn Hoddle, Reading's Steve Coppell and new young gun Adrian Boothroyd of Watford. Whoever takes over will need big feet… because they have big shoes to fill.