Charlton Bloggers.....

Anyone with more than a passing interest in CAFC knows that we have a supporter base that has an almost unparalled interest and close connection with the football club. Certainly since the mid-eighties when the very existence of the club was in doubt, Charlton fans have rallied in many unique ways in defence and support of their club. That bond was hardened for many by a seven year absence from the Valley that crystalised what was most important about our club; home and community.

It's been no surprise that the bond between the fans and the Board has been so special over the last 20 years. The fan on the board, Target 10,000 and subsequent campaigns, fans employed in key club roles including Chief Exec and a committed and award-winning community scheme. The Premier League years gave the club a chance to spread that work with charitable work overseas. We pioneered Kid-for-a-Quid and Valley Express. Our supporters were central to all of this and much more.

I was on holiday once and was identified as a Charlton fan within the first day or so by a Rotherham supporter who told me that he had met two Charlton fans previously on separate occasions, both of whom, to his mind were "fanatical." He said to his wife "this bloke won't just buy tickets for the odd match, he'll have had a season ticket for twenty years and go to practically every away match. I had to laugh, but he was spot on.

You might be wondering by now what the title of this post has to do with the above? Well, I got to thinking about the number of Charlton Blogs that there have been and the number that are still running and still appearing. I was prompted by New York Addick's revelation that he will be returning home and that his active blogging days may be coming to an end.

From a quick count, the total is around 50. During the close season I decided to put a link from each club in League One to the best looking blog that I could find about them. This might sound straightforward but it was a real struggle as you can probably tell if you ever try one of the links. In many cases all I could find was one of the franchised message-boards that are run by businesses looking to sell advertising rather than dedicated supporters who want to talk about their club. Finding Charlton Bloggers is simple. As soon as you find one, all of the others are invariably linked.

The other key thing with blogs is about how often they are updated. Finding a regularly updated blog on an opponent is often as hard as finding one in the first place. Typically they are a full match behind and often worse. If you add to that the relative health of our message boards, and Charlton Life in particular, then I think you begin to get a much fuller view of the strength and dedication of the support we have for our club.

Perhaps it's the anorak in us but I like to think it has much more to do with our history and the kind of people we are.