Read an interesting article during the week,by Nathan Nipper,a well respected writer on the PL in the States,whose column is syndicated in several American sports papers. He points out that mainly because of Fulhams US connection,he has like many others across the country have become a FFC supporter, but cannot see why the Club does not at this point in time promote itself, a close season tour would be excellent idea. He makes many points, amongst them, CD moving on, something he hopes does not happen,but following on with the American connection mentions a ready replacement in Brek Shea.a 22 yr old member of FC Dallas. I must confess I have not heard of him,but goes on to say that recently he had a trial with Arsenal, and 4 other premier league clubs are monitoring his progress,with, it appears, Landon Donovan pushing Evertons interest. Any of you FFC 606rs know anything about this lad.
Brek Shea is a talented wide forward who came out of no where last year. I believe he was actually played CB and the coach at FC Dallas decided to play him out wide and he just started tearing people apart. He's scored some pretty good solo goals along with being able to pass and get involved in team build up ect. Ever since Klinsmann has been appointed manager of the USMNT, Shea has been in almost our every team. He's got a bright future, but I'm not sure if he's quite ready for the PL, but given some time at a good PL club, like Fulham he'll go on to be a pretty decent player.
Thanks for the info Manobear,if he could be bought for a reasonable sum he may be well worth a punt. I would not expect him to set the PL alight but with the coaching standard set at FFC,he could soon hone his craft. I dont think CD was not a permanent fixture for the first season or so.
He wouldn't be too expensive, he doesn't play for a "big" team here in the States so I doubt they'll try and make you throw unreasonable amounts of money at them.
A bit harsh, Bandy. It was 'the idiot' who signed Dempsey, along with Davies, McBride, Bullard (I know, I know, but he did great for us on the pitch and all of us were initially critical when Roy sold him and replaced him with Etuhu) and other decent signings. I think Coleman had his faults, but overall he was more plus than minus in my opinion. Someone (Dempsey's Revenge?) mentioned Bolton's Stuart Holden as a good signing, particularly if they go down. If we are looking to sign someone to maintain our profile in the states, he'd fit the bill too. Incidentally, I can see the financial logic, but I hate the idea that we sign a player because of the marketing value of their nationality. We should be looking for the best player to fill a role in the team/squad. Nationality is a factor in terms of international travel and consequent fatigue and availability issues, but I find it a little sad if we really are recruiting on the basis of extending the brand in particular countries.
I have to agree with the Capt - Cookie wasn't the manager that Hodgson was or Jol is, but he wasn't an idiot. That term I save for Sanchez. Brek Shea - I've watched him develop for several years now - he first caught my eye playing in the U17 Toulan tournament. He was not just the best American player on the pitch, he was head and shoulders above most of the European prospects against whom he was playing. He had a long try-out last summer with Arsenal, no less, but Wenger opted not to buy him. Fulham's link with the US players, I suspect, is/was a calculated financial move by the team. Fulham gets an instant fan-base in a country of 300 million people, many of whom grew up playing football (soccer surpassed baseball a decade ago as the largest organized sport in the US). And even if Fulham's US fans can only see re-runs of EPL games on FoxSports, they'll still buy Fulham shirts and other merchandise. Other teams do it - ManU has a Korean player and (strangely enough) you frequently see adverts for Korean products scrawling across its billboards. Doing a tour of the US, playing MLS teams, might be a nice change of pace this summer for Fulham. Perhaps they can play the Seattle Sounders and face former players Kasey Keller and Eddie Johnson
Going off topic here, but for a while I had a theory about Fulham rarely appointing two good permanent managers in a row. It isn't a perfect sequence, but bear with me: Alan Dicks: Was poor. Miss. Don McKay: Finished badly, but certainly improved on Dicks for a year or two so he counts as a good appointment (maybe). Hit (of sorts) Ian Branfoot: The Sanchez prototype, the man who thought dropping Le Tissier was a good idea when he was at Southampton. Like Sanchez, he also made a number of good signings while overseeing ghastly football. Miss. Micky Adams: Legend. Hit. Ray Wilkins: Lovely bloke, excellent coach, dire manager. Under him we played the most technically proficient rubbish football I had ever seen at that point. Miss. Kevin Keegan: Can't argue with his record with us, just a shame that it ended the way it did. Hit. Paul Bracewell: Sadly, never up to the job he was asked to do. Miss. Jean Tigana: C'est magnifique. Hit Chris Coleman: I count him as a plus, which is where the pattern breaks down - two good 'uns in a row. Hit. Lawrie Sanchez: Nothing needs to be said here. Miss. Roy Hodgson: The anti-Sanchez. Whatever happened to him? Hit Mark Hughes: I defended him at the time, and still think he did okay for us. Nevertheless, his reign has to be seen as a wasted year, so we can count him as a bad appointment. Miss. Martin Jol: The future is bright... So, you have to count McKay as a good appointment to make this work, and Tigana-Coleman-Sanchez gives us either two good or two bad in a row, depending on how you regard Coleman, but overall the conclusion is... we need Martin Jol to stay for the forseeable future: the next man in is likely to be a shocker.
I think you all misunderstood me. I like Coleman, I am Welsh after all. But he made a mistake by not playing Dempsey enough for the first season. Understandably we had Steed and Boa on the wings but Dempsey could have made an impact long before 'that' goal against Liverpool.
Permanent appointments only, Craven. No caretakers or till-end-of-seasons. That's why Ray Lew isn't on there a million times.
Hah I find it funny how we can still say 'Permanent' appointments. Most managers nowadays are lucky to last 2 years.
Great piece of insight Captain and pretty spot on assessments. I do think you are taking a bit of licence with McKay but since we ended up mid-table in his only full year in charge, fair enough. Also, I think your missing an adjective when you say 'Dicks .. "Was poor" - perhaps the noun used in Cravings post above ?
My first Fulham game after moving down from Scotland in the early 90s was towards the end of Dicks' time (game number two was the Hayes FA Cup tie). There was something slightly unsettling about standing on a terrace full of men shouting 'Dicks out' at the top of their lungs. Its a wonder I came back at all.
Capt - What team did you go and see in Scotland ? I came down from Scotland also but in the 80's - used to watch Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen week in week out. Good times !
I'm going to go out on a limb here and defend Branfoot! Granted, the football was dreadful and he oversaw our descent to the bottom reaches of the fourth tier in English football, so he was hardly a resounding success. But, in Fulham The Complete Record Dennis Turner makes quite a convincing case for Branfoot, saying that Simon Morgan compared him favourably with his predecessors in that he restored some pride and discipline to the dressing room, even if that wasn't reflected in the results on the pitch. And, of course, if we hadn't had Branfoot we almost certainly wouldn't have had Micky Adams, and if we hadn't had Micky Adams heaven knows where we'd be now. So there's a case to be made for Branfoot laying the foundations for much of what followed. That said, I probably wouldn't take him back! Captain - you started going to Fulham just before me. My first game was 20 years ago last month, and was a 2-0 win over Bournemouth. Farrell and Brazil scored the goals. Happy days!
I was a student in Stirling in the late 80s/early 90s. When I was at school I didn't go to matches as I had fallen in with more of a music crowd rather than a football crowd. At University football reasserted itself for me, but I didn't go to games largely for financial reasons. When I graduated and moved back down south, I started going to watch Fulham (who I'd supported from distance since I was 11 or 12). My main distraction during my dissertation was poring over the lower reaches of the old division three table working out what Fulham had to do to avoid the drop.
I'll change my views on Branfoot, on the basis of who he signed, if you can find five regulars on this site who argue that signing Murphy, Konch, Hughes and Baird means that Lawrie Sanchez was a good manager! Sean Farrell and Gary Brazil - that takes me back. Back in those internet-free days, the first I heard of us signing Farrell was when I saw his name on teletext as having scored two goals for us at a game I hadn't been able to get to. As for Gary Brazil, I can remember bringing a mate with me to see us play Luton in a league cup second leg. We were awarded a penalty in the last minute of extra time and my mate was going mad on the terrace next to me. I remember just looking at him, marvelling at the innocence that would let someone think Brazil was capable of actually scoring a decisive last-minute pen. Sure enough, Gary missed. To be fair, he still had the guts to step up and take one (and score) in the shoot out. As you say, happy days.
