As the season comes to its stressful end, I have been thinking for the last few weeks - what would be the best outcome for us? Naturally, as an optimistic football fan, I would love us to get back to the Premiership - however the Fulhamish side of me wonders if it might be better to have another season in the Championship to allow the team, especially the youngsters, to mature and go up with a better side to survive in the Premiership. looking at Brighton, that has some merit. But then I think - what about the threat of loosing our best players and/or our manager if we don't make it to the Premiership?? - why is being a football fan so stressful!! On reflection, currently I am plumping for a typical Fulham compromise - we make it into the top 6 but don't make it into the Premiership - that builds our confidence, allows us to keep everybody and be in a better place to get promoted in an automatic slot next year with a team better prepared. What do others think??
Whilst there is the potential Brighton argument (who have missed out time and time again and are arguably now better prepared to stay up), I think it's always best to go up than to miss out. Far more teams fall away after coming up short than rebuild stronger the next year. This league is a jungle. I have confidence in Jokanovic to strengthen us no matter what happens, but if we miss out this year there will be a huge fight to retain Cairney and if we start slowly next year we may also then lose Jokanovic. Nothing is certain in football, so you always have to ride the wave while it's there!
What Surlyc said. I think Sessegnon will stay whatever, but clubs will be sniffing around Cairney in the summer, and if we can't offer him Premier League football, his head might be turned by someone who can. If we lost him, he'd be a big hole to replace and his departure could well be a big enough disruption that we fail to build on current momentum next season.
Sound points gentlemen - and I think I broadly agree with you. Momentum is everything - so I looked at the last 10 results for all the top 7 sides - and that shows we are definitely the side with momentum. only Brighton have a better record - 21 points against 20 for us - but we have actually lost less than them - twice as opposed to 3 times for them. Huddersfield are the side with the worse record - 14 points with 4 losses and Leeds are not far behind with 15 points and 3 losses (same as Newcastle as it happens) So the wave is definitely there - let's hope we can ride it.
I thought this was actually going to be a discussion about Fresh bagels, many a night shift I get a Salt Beef Bagel from Brick Lane !!!
When I worked near London Bridge I used to get a fantastic salt beef bagel from Borough Market, with pickles, tomatoes and chilli sauce. Making my mouth water thinking about it...
I've never actually eaten a bagel. I just had to look it up to check exactly what it was and I am correct in what I thought - the roll with a hole in the middle. I think being brought up in Scotland it is the hole that puts me off and not getting my moneys worth. If we win then I'll try one !!
Yup, go for it I say as well. These guys did and the rest was a neat time in our history. Picture after clinching promotion with a win at .... Huddersfield .... in 2001
