I like that as a hierarchy/structure silky. Are there any Fulham 'old boys' who could do the Director job?
Actually, I really don't understand how Frank de Boer is never mentioned as a potential successor when any PL coach is sacked. The man has never NOT won a league title (3x straight and counting with Ajax), has proven he can make players better (Eriksen, for example, credits his development almost solely to De Boer), lets his teams play attractive football and can pull off an upset or two (Barcelona last week, for example). And he consistently does this all with a bunch of 21-year olds that get bought away after each year. Now he would be quite a catch for a Director of Football.
Bringing in Championship players wasn't Sanchez's downfall, it was bringing in the wrong Championship players. How you tell them apart from the right ones before paying squillions is the difficult bit though. And, just for the record, although I have reservations about Meulensteen's lack of managerial experience, this thread wasn't meant to be an expression of that, it was just a joke!
What, "Muelensteen Out"? please log in to view this image Apologies traveller - I know what you mean but as the Captain said, he meant the thread as a joke
What Murphy said is what I've thought all along, that basically a few bad apples have ruined the whole bunch - particularly Berbatov (who originally supported) and Bent (whom I never supported). I think their attitudes have spread to people like Ruiz and some of the younger players while some of the more mature players (Duff) have just given up trying. Credit, I think, to Sidwell, Hughes and Parker, for giving that 100% no matter what. Since no decent player (unless he's old and crocked) would be willing to sign a contract with Fulham at this point, I suspect loans will be needed to bring in the quality we'll require to stay up. People like Anderson and Nani (as SuperBri said), Mata is being under used, same for Sandro or Holtby at Spurs, Lescott at ManC, plus some talent up front. It's probably wishful thinking, but that's the level of quality we'd need. Four or five top players, plus scrapping Berbs, Bent, Ruiz and others might save us.
I know beggars can't be choosers but I wouldn't want to see us sign Anderson, he's really not that good. Nani could be superb, but again he's one of these "when he feels like it players", same for Sandro I think - could be wrong about him, not seen him much. Holtby is good from what I remember of him and Lescott would be brilliant. This said, if the cheques being flashed are big enough most players would turn up (well, apart from those at Champions League clubs anywhere in Europe). Trouble is we could do a QPR and just sign or loan a load of talent that turns out not to be that talen...Oh, we've already done that, sorry.
Sean Davis makes a similar observation in his "Column": "Rene will be looking at what changes need to be made and I think we need more energy, particularly up front. Personally, I think we carry too many players. We’ve got a lot of talented footballers but a lot of them aren’t defensive-minded enough. I’d like us to be a bit more solid, with perhaps just one or two flair players. If you’ve got more than that then you’re asking a lot of your central midfielders, the people like Scotty Parker and Steve Sidwell. So I’d play maybe one or two of them but not all of them at the same time." Credit to him for openly criticising the "certain" players for not applying themselves and indeed the Cub for not shying away from posting this view on the Official Site. Here is a link to Sean's full article where he also talks about the management and coaching changes: http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/december/03/the-sean-davis-column
Like the article. It's a pretty honest and good reflection of the situation. It's not going to be easy tomorrow. The big thing is for the fans to get behind the team. I was at the Palace game and I thought their fans were excellent. I heard that they won tonight and bet Selhurst Park was rocking. If we are going to get out of our situation we need all our fans behind the team. At West Ham on Saturday the guy in front of me suggested when we were 3-0 down a rendition of "Stand up if you don't believe" I did think think that was quite funny but seriously there has been so much negativity that we need this to change. If we can put in a performance tomorrow and then pick up the points on Sunday it will give everyone a great lift and we can get out of this mess.
just been reading this thread thinking that this all sounds horribly familiar. I bear you no Ill & its gooing to be intresting to see how your club deals with almost exactly the same position we were in before 'Arry. I think the thing that may help you is that you've acted quicker than Rangers did and may have just brought yourself enough time to get out of the mess. We left it to late. Personally think you need to shift the dead wood and just try and consolidate this season. Start again with a new plan next year. Do what ever it takes to stay in the Prem (even 4th from bottom) as the footbal in the NPC is dire & itll take a long time to get back out. Good luck. cant wait to see how this unravels. Its getting tight at the base of the Prem and everyone can beat any other team down there.
Just to get this out of the way, Frank de Boer has stated he will not move on until he served his contract out, which is till 2017. He has turned down Liverpool and Manchester City in the past for that reason so I think that's why his name never pops up.
Rodney Marsh has joined the band wagon: “I look at the Fulham players and I see their shoulders drooped and I see Berbatov walking around like he is wearing an overcoat, smoking a cigar,” said Marsh, who didn’t blame recently-removed manager Martin Jol. Marsh is open to Meulensteen working some wonders with the current bunch of players, but was adamant in putting the onus on the players. “I am going to be watching over the next six weeks to see how the players react to this guy,” said Marsh. “I don’t think it has got anything to do with him. It is to do with the players.” Marsh went on to blast the character of Fulham’s players ahead of the Cottagers date with Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Wednesday afternoon. “On Saturday they started Taarabt. When you look at Fulham down the bottom of the league needing grafters, needing to put the foot in, needing to whack a few, are Taarabt and Berbatov going to be those types of players? The answer is no.” Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/04/fulham-great-blasts-berbatov-walking-around-like-he-is-wearing-an-overcoat-smoking-a-cigar/
