Former Charlton striker Martin Pringle recently enjoyed a return to the club that he called home between 1999 and 2002.
The Sweden international, who jetted in with fellow Nordics Hermann Hreidarsson, Claus Jensen, Martin Pringle and Mathias Svensson, watched the Addicks' 4-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at The Valley before visiting the club's Sparrows Lane training ground with Johansson and Jensen.
"It’s been fantastic meeting up with all the old players and coming back," smiled Pringle. "When you’re at The Valley or the training ground, so many memories pop up that you haven’t thought about in quite some years!
"It’s emotional whenever you come back - you have all these memories and it stands out because you dream of playing in England. Once you live that and get to speak about it to other people, you know what it means to play for a club like Charlton, where all of the fans still remember you.
"Even though it’s been 20-odd years, they still want to have a picture and get your autograph! It brings back a good time, good memories and probably the best time in Charlton’s history, the era we had."
Pringle joined the Addicks from Portuguese giants Benfica in January 1999, initially on loan before being signed permanently two months later.
“Playing in the Premier League was different from playing in the Portuguese league because the tempo was so much higher, and you were always on edge," he explained. "Coming towards the end of games, whenever I got the ball, I felt like I had to score, and I did [against Newcastle in the 90th minute]. I think that was the first point in six or seven games, and it turned things around for the last few matches we had in the Premier League that year."
"I don’t remember much about it, but as soon as I see it, I start remembering it again. There was a lot of skill in it, but also quite a lot of luck. I put it in the net and that was the most important thing!"
After suffering relegation to the First Division, Pringle was part of the title-winning 1999/00 side that clinched promotion back to the top tier of English football at the first time of asking.
"When you look back at it, it’s one of those seasons where it’s just so memorable," the Swede said. "The run we had, the players we had, we were just fighting to get back up. We had so many players that had played in the Premier League the year before.
"When you come into a good run like that [12 wins in a row], we knew that if we gave it our all we could beat anyone. The togetherness we had in all of those games was fantastic. That confidence was something we brought in late on in the Premier League and Hunty [Andy Hunt] won the Golden Boot that year as well. We were just on a high!
"Everyone, especially the forwards, had different traits and that was the most frustrating part at times," he added. "You could have Curbs [Alan Curbishley] pick a player who was good at holding the ball, and I was probably better at running down the wing, so he could mix and match the wings if he wanted to.
"He put us on edge to perform every single training session and that’s one of the most important things for everyone and for me - it was learning from the others. Hunty was good at holding up the ball, and Clive [Mendonca] was a great finisher, so we all had different traits."
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(Transcription by Joe Robinson)
