ALLAN SIMONSEN CHARLTON’S GALACTICO

In October 1982, the Addicks broke the bank to bring in the Ballon d’or winner from Barça. But if it all seemed too good to be true, that’s because it was

It was a genuine ‘eh?’ moment. One requiring pause for reflection – and a glance at the calendar to check it was not the first of April. When Charlton Athletic, sat mid-table in England’s second division, announced the signing of Allan Simonsen in 1982, the sound of jaws dropping around the country was almost audible.

That Allan Simonsen, the player who had won the 1977 Ballon d’or in front of Kevin Keegan and a youthful Michel Platini? Surely some mistake.

Five months earlier, the diminutive, mop-haired Dane with the dancing feet had nodded Barcelona ahead in their Cup Winners’ Cup final triumph against Standard Liege – becoming the first (and only) man to score in all three major European club finals. Still only 29, here he was, about to trade an away day at the Bernabeu for one at Barnsley instead.

If it all seemed too good to be true, that’s because it was. Five months on, Simonsen’s south-east London spell was history: 16 games and nine goals a bizarre footnote to a bizarre season.

Those who saw it never forgot it; nor the madness it laid bare at a club so riven with financial strife that a month after the campaign had concluded with

“HE JUST COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY WE WEREN’T PLAYING LIKE BARÇA, AS THE BALL WAS LUMPED OVER HIS HEAD ONCE AGAIN”

a last-day escape from the drop, they were pursued through the High Court by creditors and the tax man.

Lennie Lawrence still remembers the 1982-83 season vividly. It had proved a baptism of fire for a 34-year-old who began the campaign as the Londoners’ new reserve-team manager, but then found himself in the hot seat following the sacking of Ken Craggs.

“At first I was given the job for only a month,” he tells Fourfourtwo, “but I lasted nine years!” He puffs out his cheeks at the suggestion that it was all a bit bonkers. “Yes, it was indeed.”

Charlton’s ambitious supremo Mark Hulyer brokered the Simonsen transfer. The youngest chairman in the league at 28, his game of thrones had kicked off with sponsorship of the club’s main stand the season before. Now, having wrested control of the Addicks in June from Michael Gliksten, Hulyer wanted a marquee signing to improve crowds averaging 6,000. He tried to lure Kevin Keegan from Southampton, but Mighty Mouse went to Newcastle.

Hulyer’s focus switched to Simonsen. A summer target for Real Madrid and Tottenham, the Dane knew his cards were marked after Diego Maradona’s move to Barcelona. Three – Maradona, Bernd Schuster and Simonsen – would not go into Spain’s two-foreigner-only ruling. Aware of Simonsen’s friendship with Addicks youth coach Ernst Netuka – he’d known him ever since the player joined Vejle BK as a youngster – Hulyer sewed up a two-year deal.

“I’ll be heartbroken if people do not come and support the team now that we have signed Allan,” Hulyer said of his star man. “We couldn’t have done any more to show our ambition to get back into the First Division.”

Simonsen’s club-record transfer fee was a comparatively low £324,000 – but it was still twice what Barcelona had paid for him three years earlier and a hefty wedge above Charlton’s £270,000 yearly income. His weekly wage was an eye-watering £1,500.

“I think the average whack at the club during that era was about £200 per week,” admits Lawrence.

Simonsen made his entrance amid a blaze of publicity, Hulyer pulling his rabbit out of a hat before a frenzy of flashbulbs. Barça, wary of Charlton’s standing, had insisted his fee be paid in guaranteed instalments over three years. And the Catalans also wanted £100,000 paid upfront: no money, no Simonsen, so no October 16 debut at home to Burnley as planned.

Feted as a new messiah, Simonsen instead watched on from the sidelines until the off-field matters were resolved. On November 9 – almost a month after arriving – he finally received clearance from the Spanish FA five minutes before a reserve-team clash against Swansea and duly made his bow as a substitute, scoring in a 4-1 win. Normally watched by about 200 people, the second string attracted more than 2,000.

That Saturday, he made his first-team debut in front of a 10,807 gate at home to Middlesbrough. Clearly not match fit – a tweaked hamstring would force him to sit out the following two matches – he scored with a deflected free-kick in a 3-2 defeat at The Valley.

By the time Simonsen was available again, Craggs’ 173-day reign had come to an end after a 5-1 loss to Rotherham in late November, watched by the Dane from the directors’ box. Only 6,761 saw it, some way short of Hulyer’s dream of seeing a full house in SE7.

Lennie Lawrence was drafted in as the Addicks’ caretaker-manager, initially for just a month, with a fire-fighting mission to salvage the season and try to harness Simonsen’s talent. The Dane returned and scored in a 2-0 win over Newcastle, with Keegan sitting out the battle of the Ballon d’or winners. The encounter was watched by an estimated 60 per cent of Denmark on live television.

However, Simonsen was struggling to adjust to Charlton’s level just as much as his new team-mates were failing to decipher the star’s subtle promptings.

“It took him a fortnight to get up to speed to a football unlike anything he had experienced before – it wasn’t like Barcelona,” former Addicks midfielder Steve Gritt reveals to FFT.

“It would have been up-and-at-em for quite a few clubs we played back in those days, like Shrewsbury, Grimsby and Carlisle – I bet Allan was probably wondering where those places were!

“He tried to integrate; he’d play cards on the coach. He wasn’t very good – he was usually paying out come the end of the trip – but he was popular, probably as he was on a few quid!”

The goals came regularly enough. A quick-fire double in a 5-2 home win over Chelsea in March is still spoken fondly of today – but Lawrence recalls a frustrated star in a team that edged towards the trapdoor.

“He was a very talented boy; a great player in a distinctly average side that was battling to save its life, so then he became a good player – it just brings you down,” he admits.

“His performances at home were match-winning. But away, we didn’t see too much. I don’t know why, but he could run riot at home – as he did in the Chelsea game.”

All bar one of Allan’s goals came at The Valley. By March 19, and a narrow 1-0 home loss to Leeds, the net was closing in on Hulyer, who was behind with payments to Barcelona, Gliksten and the player himself.

It was at this point that Simonsen triggered a clause in his contract that allowed him to move on if the Addicks could not guarantee his wages – and so he headed back to boyhood club Vejle on a free. Charlton were handed a transfer embargo. Lawrence believes that getting home may well have been Simonsen’s motive all along. “It had all become financially unsustainable,” Lawrence says, “and I think he wanted to get back to Denmark – that is what it had all been about.”

Chairman Hulyer’s vaulting ambition had come to nought. The crowds had rallied – close to 17,000 turned up to see an FA Cup Third Round reverse to Ipswich – but then slumped again as results failed to pick up.

Lawrence managed to keep Charlton up on the last day, coming from behind to beat Bolton 4-1 and send the Trotters down to the third tier instead. Yet, fans still talk of Simonsen’s stint on internet forums – a warmly remembered oasis in a desert of dejection.

Lawrence adds: “I would ask myself, ‘What’s he doing at Charlton?’ But he did make a significant difference to us in a handful of home matches, which helped us to stay in the division – no doubt about it. In the end, though, the cost of keeping him made it unrealistic.

“I suppose,” he concludes, smiling, “it was an early example of Madrid’s approach to Galacticos!”

Steve Gritt concurs: “I always thought that Allan was the right player for the wrong time – and certainly the wrong club, because without doubt he was very, very good. He was immensely frustrated while with us.

“I remember in training he would say, ‘Why don’t we pass the ball?’ as it was lumped over his head once again. He just couldn’t understand why we were not playing like Barcelona.”