I overheard some Sky presenter last week mention that Fulham was the oldest team in the EPL, a fact I unaware of. But having done some digging, weâre certainly facing a problem in the not too distant future. The majority of Saturdayâs starting 11 were the wrong side of 30 â itâs actually easier to list the exceptions: Pog, Dembele, Kelly and Dempsey (barely). I hate to say it, since I like our team as it is, but I think weâre in for some serious change in the not-to-distant future. Imagine this summer Jol doing the prudent thing and unloading half the people on that following list; thatâs a boat load of change! Schwartzer â 39 JA Riise â 31 Murphy â 35 Diarra â 31 (in two weeks) Davies â 30 Andy Johnson â 31 Duff 33 Hangeland 31 (in June) Hughes 32 Davies - 32 Baird -31 Sidwell, Etuhu and Dempsey are 29 Let me say that Iâm not advocating that we dump any of these players (except maybe AJ, Davies and Etuhu so they can get some playing time elsewhere); I think players should play as long as theyâre effective. But the writingâs on the wall.
Schwarzer â 39 (Stockdale, 26) JA Riise â 31 (Briggs, 21) Murphy â 35 (Kasami, 19) Diarra â 31 (in two weeks) (Gecov, 24) Davies â 30 (Frei, 18) Andy Johnson â 31 (Trotta, 19) Duff 33 (Kacaniklic, 20) Hangeland 31 (in June) (Burn, 19) Hughes 32 (Senderos, 27) Baird -31 (Squad player) Sidwell, Etuhu and Dempsey are 29 (Ruiz, 26) (Sa, 23) I believe I have solved your problem
What a stupid thing to say cravens. Of course those players right now would not be good enough to keep us fighting for top 8 but they won't be thrown in straight away, they will be used sporadically and integrated in while the older players will be weeded out. Jol knows what he is doing. In a years time I think the majority of those players will be first team players whereas the other ones will be on the bench.
I think the age thing is overplayed. Of the XI that started the Europa League final, three have moved on: Konchesky, Gera & Zamora. Five of the seven substitutes have also moved on. I am sure that the Fulham squad at the end of 2014 will see a similar number of changes. Schwarzer, Murphy & Duff are all likely to be retiring then. AJ, Davies & Baird are no longer first team players. But players like Kacaniklic, Frei and Briggs should all be first team players by then. Hopefully players like Burn, Woodrow and Kasami will be coming into the first team too as well. Squads evolve. There is no need for wholesale changes to lower the age of our team, just 2 or 3 signings per season maybe (in the vein of Dembele, Ruiz Pogrebnyak). The only serious change we are likely to see is Murphy retiring and Dempsey leaving. The way we replace them could change the way we play.
Stoke are ! Personally I think it's quality that counts not age. Nine out of the 11 we regularly field are active Internationals and they bring relevant experience. This was a trend started by Tigana (he who in one match started a game with 11 Internationals from 11 different countries) and re-built by Hodgson. Currently Fulham play as many Internationals as Man City and, in this, we are second only to Real Madrid across the 5 major European leagues - http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/pdf/b5wp_issue_007_en.pdf "If it aint broke don't mend it"
My point is that the back bone of the team is 30+. I'm not advocating scrapping the team I love, but Jol would be an idiot not to start finding, and working in, the first-team replacements soon. Think of the players as a fleet of lorries; you don't wait for them all to break down before buy replacements. No, you space out the new purchases so that your business continues to run with some level of continuity. Jol won't wait for all of them to turn 35 before looking for new players. The other thing is this: Kasami is no Murphy. Frei and Stokedale are ready, but the rest of them - particularly Gecov and Kasami - have a bunch of learning to do before they're ready to fill the shoes of people like Murphy, Duff and Dempsey, not without our team the taking a big dip in form. Remember how long it took for Kelly to get up to speed? I think CottageCravens is right - swapping out our starters with the people you listed, Bandy, would be a relegated club. And since when did you start liking Senderos?
The point I was making DR is that we do have younger players waiting in the wings ready to step up if needed. Not once did I state that those players were good enough yet to get us to where we want to be, of course they're not, they need time to fulfill their potential. Which will be given to them over the course of next season. I don't like Senderos, I was merely listing a younger central defender than Hughes as everyone seems to think we don't have a player under 30!
Where have you been since Jol came in, DR? This is quite clearly what he's doing - out with the old, in with the new.
It's worse than we thought - Davies evidently aged two years in the time it took DR to type this list!
I was trying to figure out who the other one was, but couldn't so I just erased it from the quote. There is no other Davies, right? Sean and Steven are long gone.
I hear you Demps but I think there's too much experience to let some go. I'd keep Captain Marvel, Schwarzer (best keeper in Prem bar Hart), Riise, Diarra, Hangeland, Hughes and the ol' geezer Bairdhino. I'm not sure how old Senderos is but if he decided to move I'd wish him well and cheerio!
Bidley - I've been here watching. I'm a Jol supporter, always have been, and I like what he's doing. I see him bringing in some young players, but with the exception of Frei, none have seen any appreciable playing time. Apologies to Mark Davies - I think I was guessing at his age, then looked it up and wrote it a second time. I think he's 30, actually. Again, I'm not advocating changing anything, but I doubt Jol's going to wait long before making some wholesale changes in the makeup of our team. If you think about it, we've been quite lucky these last two years. Our starting 11 has been largely the same since the start of the 2010/2011 season. We've moved in Riise for a whole season and Pog for half. Etuhu's playing less and BZ's gone - but other than that, we're largely the same. If you go back to the beginning of the 2009/2010 - we're still about 80 percent the same. That's three years of player continuity we've come to enjoy, but I can't see that lasting much longer given the factors I've mentioned. It cannot last because a) so many of our key players are either at or past their physical prime as football defines it, and b) Jol is not blind. Jol's too good a manager to wait for the team to break down before implementing wholesale personnel changes. Jol doesn't want Fulham to go through "a year of rebuilding", if you know what I mean. That's the year when he brings six new players into the starting 11, adversely affecting the flow and continuity of the team as a result. He can change a few starters in a given year, maybe three or four if he works them in gradually .. that's about it. We've seen what happens to the flow of our game just removing Murphy or Hughes from the starting 11 - it's like we're a different team, and not for the better.
Simon ... Mark was a typo. I was holding the keyboard above my head while looking at it backwards in a mirror. I guess that's what happens after you've written computer code for eight hours and then decide to blog.
Just realised he plays for Bolton. Wouldn't be a bad signing, maybe to replace/cover Danny and if they go down a snip at what £3m ?
I absolutely agree - we were rumoured to be in for him a couple of years ago when he was at Reading - but apparently the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool are sniffing around. I can't see us getting him, even if Al Fayed will stump up the £10m his parent club are asking for.
