...and here's why... Fulham manager Scott Parker says it is "scandalous" Wednesday's match against Tottenham was only confirmed on Monday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55634082 Get some ****ing perspective, mate.
Jose’s been in top form in the press conference today. Snapped back about how he was only given 2 hours notice for when the original game was cancelled. Said Devine is now back with the academy to help keep him grounded. Then was asked about Ozil’s Twitter comments about how he’d rather retire than sign for us, so Jose responded to the journalist when asked and said “who said Tottenham are interested in him?”
Tiddles has pointed out that you missed him telling clubs interested in Winksy...“What do I have to say to stop with this talk. I said already that he’s going nowhere. When I say he’s going nowhere, what more do you want me to say?" Nice work.
I don't even get what his complaint is, apart from it being relatively short notice. They don't have to do any additional scouting or anything, because we were due to play each other two weeks ago. Saturday/Wednesday's a perfectly reasonable gap and they've even had an additional day of rest over us. "We have had it tough"? We've played 30 games. You've played 19. We had 4 matches in 8 days scheduled twice and this match was rearranged with two hours notice. Give it a ****ing rest.
Parker's trying to make out that he was only told on Monday morning. Officially, that's correct...but they were told on Saturday that it was under consideration. If he didn't make internal arrangements for the game then, he's a twat and Fulham should sack him today.
The original game cancellation should never have been left so late and confirmation of tomorrow’s game should have been made earlier than Monday given the PL were considering this option 48 hours earlier. Jose is quite rightly upset at the short notice on the original game and Scott Parker is understandably (IMO) upset about this rearrangement. The problem lies with the decision makers who continuously dither on these matters.
Clubs can feel aggrieved about this stuff, but with the public blood-lust running very high at the moment with perceived "rules for thee and not for me" in general, and PL football currently (in particular those FA cup FT changing room celebrations) , they would be well-advised to publicly show "willing" and less whining about things. As for the "decision makers" , common sense dictates they should running "what if" scenarios for the fixture schedules and give clubs projected fixture change possibilities well in advance (even if they do not come to pass) .
I feel for Fulham, they played a strong team at the weekend because they didn’t think they were playing again so soon. Scott Parker “It's not about the fixture, the fixture, that's fine, I accept we have to play. It's the notice. Maybe the people in these places don't understand how you manage teams or how you manage players. You're constantly working out well in advance. The decisions I would have made, whether that's against QPR or players that are just coming back. We've had it tough with COVID, we've not been out there with numbers publically but we've had it tough. Working those players over a weekend thinking you've got six or seven days to get them up to speed - that's quickly changed on Monday morning. Madness really.”
They made a bunch of changes against QPR. Rodak, Ream, Kongolo, Tete, Onomah, Bryan and Mitrovic came into the side that played against Southampton, their last league game. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/3491246 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/3421815 Parker rotated heavily.
Time to focus on us and our need to win to keep us in the running. I guess we are playing our strongest available team which I think is - Lloris, Aurier, Regullion, Dier, Alderweireld, Hojbjerg, Sissoko, Ndombele, Bergwijn, Son & Kane.
