Welcome Home Kish

Today we welcome back to The Valley, in my eyes, a true Charlton hero.

Never the most skilful or prolific of players, he carved out a reputation with us as being the one who did the donkey work so more flamboyant players could "do their stuff".

Kish was a Marmite player.
Many fans chose to ignore his tireless work for the team and focused on his wayward shooting or occasional erratic distribution.

I saw him as the player who gave the rest of the team, especially the midfield, the confidence to go out and play, safe in the knowledge that should they make a horlicks of it, our man Radostin was there to clean up.

Kish loved Charlton.
It's fair to say that he still does.

Reports have circulated this week attributing quotes to him that must give all of us a warm feeling inside.

Radostin is bringing his family to the game today, such is his strong bond with our club.

Everyone has their favourite incidents from watching Charlton.
I know I have many.

I enjoyed it when a bloke near me in the East stand used to refer to Kish as 'Great Uncle Bulgaria'.
 Over time, this got reduced to merely "Unc".

Definitely somewhere in my top 20 memories will be the time our man Rad came up against a preening and pouting C Ronaldo who was wearing a Manchester United shirt.

Ronaldo was just starting out on his road to fame and footballing fortune.

Ronaldo was a cheating diver on the day. 
Though he could have taken on our team and skinned them with pace and skill, he decided to throw himself to the floor whenever one of our players came near.

We knew it was happening, the players knew it was happening, I'd imagine the officials knew it was happening but they still played along and gave free kicks.

Kish had seen enough.

He rightly concluded, the next time he went near Ronaldo, the little weasel would launch himself skywards yelling in pain.
If the United winger was going to get a free kick for nothing, he may as well give away a real free kick!

The image above was taken as Kish made the sort of agricultural tackle that normally would make me wince with shame.

In this instance, I stood up and cheered.

I was not alone.

Around 20,000 people all cheered too and Ronaldo was a broken man for the rest if the game.

Welcome Back Kish.

A (nameless) Charlton manager made a real error in my view when you were shipped out to Leeds United.

The 7 years you spent at the Valley were also one of the best times Charlton have ever had.

A coincidence?

Maybe...... but Charlton would have been a much weaker prospect without our Kish.