Two rumours that Reading are looking at our assets - 1. The Pog http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/news/2012/06/03/reading-hope-to-nab-pavel-pogrebnyak-from-under-the-nose-of-fulham-102039-23884707/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter 2. Dickson Etuhu This one is 'twitter' type speculation and said to be an offer of around £700k
(Tongue firmly in cheek.) A highly probable story from a highly credible source: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/254764/Brendan-Rodgers-Liverpool-targets/ Cheers,
We are being repoted to have put in a £2.4m bid for Rumanian Banel of St Etienne - http://www.libertatea.ro/detalii/articol/banel-nicolita-oferta-premiere-league-397854.html He's a really quick right winger who scored 3 goals in 19 outings last year.
Suppose there could be some mileage in this Pogrebnyak story as Reading have now been taken over by a Russian(?). Can't see Etuhu getting too many games for us next season, as there is plenty of cover, although his current contract runs till 2014. Website rumour of Adrian Ramos (26) Striker Hertha Berlin, Fulham have shown interest in taking the striker to Craven Cottage.
Whilst it would be nice for the Pog to stay I wouldn't be too worried about next year. Jol's got plenty of time to scout around and put in offers- there is a lot of talent to pick from. Pog had a great spell with us but I'm not convinced it is worth giving him a long contract. Another rolling deal would be ideal, just to see if his form continues. I suspect he will be looking for a longer term deal though and can probably get a better wage elsewhere.
Jol is off to the Euro's having a look at players so you never know what names he will be jotting down in his little black book.
Slight correction to Cottager's post. His name is Banel Nicolita, and he is Rumanian! Also, I read that he's can play as a right back as well, which might make more sense given our existing squad. Wikipedia says he's not the most technical player in the world, but praises him for hard work and 'electrifying pace'. He's 27 and has a lot of first team games under his belt in Rumania and spent last season playing in France for St. Etienne
Looks like AJ's pension fund ambitions may have been premature. Love the heading in this article ("ex-Fulham") - http://www.sport360.com/article/al-ahli-rule-out-move-ex-fulham-ace-andy-johnson
Rodriguez move to Southampton has been confirmed - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/10/jay-rodriguez-southampton-transfer?newsfeed=true Not a bad line up Lambert, Rodriguez, Sharp
And yet if we had signed any of them, there would be grumbles about how we ought to be in for better players. I'm not saying that any of these would have been right for us (of the three, the only one I would have considered was Rodriquez) but finding up and coming players who are both good enough and hungry enough to step up from the Championship or below has to be a central plank in our transfer strategy. Experience shows that if we wait for players to be established, we only get them when they are on the downward trajectory of their career arc (yes, AJ, I'm looking at you); when we sign up and coming players - Stockdale, DemPele, Dempsey - that's when we get real value for money. Yes, I know two of the players mentioned above didn't come from the lower divisions, but they were both the kind of signings that prompted cries of 'who?' when we made them. The fact that we haven't made a lot of decent signings from the lower divisions doesn't mean there aren't good signings to be had. It means we are letting other clubs make them instead of us.
That's quite funny. Assuming him and Bobby don't come back to haunt us, I can't see him getting a lot of goals for them next season. And if I was a QPR fan, I would be hoping for better signings than that up front for next season. Still, good luck AJ if this happens. Despite your critics on these pages you always put in an honest shift for Fulham when you were fit, and the injuries were hardly your fault.
Yes, good luck to AJ with everything. He was a class player while healthy. Amongst the "goal of the season" options on the Fulham web site, AJ was remarkably cool in both cases. I wished we'd obtained him 10 years ago.
It was also the only notable piece of goalscoring against decent goalkeepers (as opposed to dodgy-Europa-League-minnows level keepers) that he managed this season. Perhaps QPR think he finishes like that every week. Ah, bless, they'll soon learn.
If it hadn't been for the Amkhar Perm defender that pole-axed him I'm sure I would have more, and fonder, memories of watching him. Always gave his best though and probably had a role keeping crazy Bobby from harming himself.
And after all this time, Val isn't around to give him his own brand of special send-off. He's probably got his party hat on wherever he is though
Au contraire. I would take both Lambert and Rodriguez in a heartbeat. Sharp also if the price was right. Both Lambert and Sharp essentially played in a Premier League quality team last season and scored goals against the best teams in the league. I expect Lambert in particular to excel at this level. How can you turn your nose up at a player who has scored 80 goals in three seasons? Disappointed we didn't bid for Rodriguez as he would be better value than Rhodes and for around the same price. Cap, there was no indication that AJ was on the decline when we signed him. His record for Everton was decent and had no previous injury problems. I doubt we would have splashed out over £10m for a player that was no longer doing the business. I also disagree that there aren't many good players from the lower leagues. In the Championship there's Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Mark Noble, Peter Whittingham, Kasper Schmeichel, Chris Gunter, Matt Phillips, Nathan Redmond, Jack Butland and many more that I would take instantly if the price was right. Let's not forget that our very own captain was once a lower league player whom Liverpool took a chance on.
Bandit, time will tell on Lambert - I has similar misgivings over Grant Holt, who has done well this year, so there's every possibility that I'm wrong on this. I suspect your love for Southampton may be influencing your opinion, but we'll soon see. Do you really think they are essentially 'a Premier League quality team'? I was pleased to see them come up as it makes for a close-at-hand away game for me, but other than that I don't have any affection for them as a club (perhaps that's influencing my opinion in the other direction!). As for AJ, his second season with Everton wasn't as good form-wise as his first, and we signed him at an age where we weren't likely to see an improvement (although I've just checked on wikipedia and he's a couple of years younger than I had thought. We signed him at 27, whereas I had assumed he was about 29 when he came here). Perhaps the warning sign was his medical to join us being times with a calendar rather than a stopwatch. I don't know what you are disagreeing about re: there being good players in the lower leagues. See my comment 'the fact that we haven't made a lot of decent signings from the lower divisions doesn't mean there aren't good signings to be had. It means we are letting other clubs make them instead of us.' I've always argued that we should be fishing in the lower-division ponds - on this much, at least, we're agreeing with each other!
