With Shahid Kahn cutting costs and Dimitar Berbatov disinterested, Fulham look doomed to relegation The Craven Cottage side desperately need an injection of belief if they are to beat the drop this season Writes James Nursey Fulham have been in the Premier League since 2001 but I can see that proud run ending this season. We reported in the Mirror in July that Mohamed Al Fayed was selling up. (Hyperlink: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fulham-put-up-sale-owner-2041129) And my sources now tell me new owner Shahid Khan believes he can sustain the Premier League club on the cheap. Granted, USA tycoon Khan has money and he dug deep to pay over £100million for the Craven Cottage club. But it is no coincidence his NFL side the Jacksonville Jaguars, which he bought in 2011, are also struggling. They prop up AFC South with nine losses in 10 games at the time of writing. I appreciate the different dynamics in NFL football as you cannot simply open a blank chequebook in their game. But with both Khan's clubs toiling, I think it is fair to ask how much Khan - however much of an impressive businessman he may be - actually knows about professional sport? Fulham are currently 18th after three straight losses left them in the relegation zone. Since then the club have acted to bring in respected ex-Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen. He is working alongside under-pressure manager Martin Jol on the training field to improve Fulham's current squad. If Jol and Meulensteen have the right chemistry then this actually looks a shrewd move. But it still is unlikely to be enough to save Fulham as Khan is crucially not willing to invest much money on players in future. And I think the move for Meulensteen has come about as the club are not willing to spend their way to safety. So a January spending spree can be ruled out unless Khan has a radical change of heart and change of strategy. The club's chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, has been instructed to run the club as a sustainable long-term business which breaks even. It is an admirable principle but Jol's current squad will need more than free transfers, loans and bargains to keep them up. For starters you won't find many decent Bosmans out there in January. To hell with it - C O Y W !!!!
Not to sure in this point in time for Kahns motives in purchasing the club. But being somewhat a cynic,I have it at the back of my mind that the real estate value of the ground was the real reason for the purchase,would feel a lot more comfertable if the proposed new stand development was actually given a start date.
Understand the cyncism over Shad Khan's motives rosc. However the Club have just posted an update saying that we are just waiting on a 'work licence' from the River Authorities before geting the new development started - "As you are hopefully aware, following a lengthy negotiation process over various planning conditions, the Club received formal planning permission in July this year from Hammersmith and Fulham council. This decision was then further approved by the GLA. As a result, we are keen to start building work as soon as is practicable and are in negotiation with the Port of London authority – who manage the River Thames – to obtain a River works licence. It is the nature of these major construction projects, especially when it involves the River Thames, in a sensitive residential area, that a number of planning hurdles and regulatory bodies need to be satisfied before work can start. However, we are very much committed to this scheme which will be a major step forward for the Club" Source: http://www.fulhamfc.com/stadium-development
I also don't agree with the Sun. Okay, we are 3rd from bottom but the points differential between any of the clubs is so small that making a prediction now is like saying Liverpool will definitely win the league.
Unless a club has a 65k seat stadium and can sell 30k season tickets at top dollar, there's no way an EPL team "breaks even" year after year. Really, the only way an EPL team could be considered a good investment is in it's eventual sell-on price to the next owner, much as Chairman Mo did. So if Khan's genuinely interested in running the team so that it breaks even, you can pretty much bet that FFC will be relegated this year - in fact, that's probably his intention. How else would he be able to shed the older players and top wager earners on the club (Duff, Hangeland, Sidwell, Parker, Berbatov, Ruiz, etc.) and bring the team into the black? Faced with toiling in relative obscurity of the Championship during the last productive years of their careers, I'm sure 2/3 of the team would opt for greener pastures, thus bringing the wage bill into line with the club's earnings.
I don't how it is possible for Khan to come into this blind, as some American owners have done in the past. With Russian, Malaysian and Middle East owners using clubs like a Porsche to show off wealth it's completely unrealistic to expect a decent profit and the margins don't justify the risk. Agree with DR above, if he wants us to break even we go down. We got to the PL because of ALF and he helped to cover gaps that would have taken us down. Toward the end we were more reliant on good management and team spirit. With all three gone, investment, management and spirit, it's looking ominous. At the moment we some talent in the academy but whether its enough to support a PL team I'm unsure. With any investment it takes time for the reward and we, on the scale of things, only got our Category 1 status quite recently. That will attract better talent, and Moussa Dembele might be the first example, and help us to nurture it in a more effective way. If it works then we can hope to have something like Southampton's set-up - but it's unrealistic to expect it any sooner than 5 years away. Khan needs to put an investment in the team to at least cover that time and not rely on loans and free transfers. The money from Dempsey/Dembele along with increased TV deal didn't seem to show in the summer and we spent only £9m.
I agree with that. Think the article is flawed. In all fairness we have played Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool. These are 12 points gone normally out of 33. Max realistically was 21. We have dropped points against Cardiff and West Brom. Had we got these 5 points would be at 15. Equally had we continued are away form and lost to Sunderland and Crystal Palace we would be in the same situation... My worry is the way we play not the points tally. We have the strongest squad in years and we should be doing better. The move for Rene is good. It is like we are getting a new manager if it works out. As for DR's comment. Berba and Duff are out of contract at the end of season. The rest Parker, Sidwell and Hangeland are critical even at Championship. Ruiz can be sold unless things change.
It's this dynamic x 10 for any England manager. Win a couple of games and the rags speculate on a high finish in the WC. Lose a couple of meaningless games, and it's "what's wrong with Hodgeson's system." Ridiculous.
Not debating the points you and DR make silky, that Khan would not have come into this "blind". However, jumping a tad to his defense, he did say at the outset that he would support the "plan already in place" and he has indeed done that - putting more money into the Club than has been suggested. The Dempsey/Dembele money was long gone before Khan came in. As was the increased TV revenue - a loan (£17m) was taken before his time in anticipation of this and which Khan has subsequently repaid. Don't know what the source of the £9.1m spent in transfers is, but it would seem to be only for Stekelenburg and Berbatov. When you add the loan charge of £2m for Bent and £1m for Taarabt plus the signing on fees for the "free" transfers and the cost of Zverotic, you're probably up to a total of around £13m. So, Khan has probably shelled out £30m or thereabouts.
Which would be considerably lower if we went down to the Championship. If Kahn wanted a Championship team he would've bought one.
There's quite a few with contracts ending in the summer: Berba, Kaca, Senderos, Sidwell, Riise, Briggs, Duff, Hughes, Kara, Etheridge Wages saved on releasing the more senior among them plus Bent and Taarabt will be quite substantial. The trick, if we're to remain in the premiership, will be setting a 'wage cap' at a level high enough to attract quality replacements.
May be Khan has been sold on our Youth transfer policy coming through, with the likes of David, BouMesca, Minkvitz, Dembele, Tankovic, etc, but most are 18-20, so when will they be ready? The thing is we seem to send them on loan at present, so I think it will be 2 season before some of them get integrated. I would suspect if we went down to the Championship they would be introduced sooner.
This is the site for the transfer fees http://www.sportingintelligence.com...013/09/PL-spend-summer-2013-gross-by-club.jpg. The loan confuses me a bit. I though ALF took that as he didn't want to put money into operating costs. When is/was the TV rights money paid in? Before Khan joined or at some point after? If its after then Khan got (or will get) money back and its only the interest he is paying off. The rights deal money has shown in other clubs spending but not ours. If Khan is serious I think he needs to match it, particularly because we are in the process of rebuilding a squad. Some loss is to be expected at the start. Perhaps going down isn't a terrible option for owners as it comes with increased parachute payments and would allow us to bring through academy players earlier and give them experience. I don't know we could bounce right back though. The stadium rebuild would be pointless whilst we were there. If relegation is something they want to avoid its unrealistic to expect us to not be involved when transfer spending is so low in comparison to competition.
