I've been a little bit prolific over the last couple of days. I haven't been this frustrated since Sanchez was here. The issue I have is many faceted (nice word, not sure if its the right word!) and is borne out of one thing. That particular element of this whole saga that has annoyed me is the issue of Muelensteen going to the press immediately after being told that Magath is coming in as manager. I have no doubt he was angered by the appointment, he only had 75 days as first team coach on his own. He was first team coach with Jol as well. So one could be pedantic and say he's had more than 75 days with a squad of players to get things right? By going to the media immediately and airing his dirty washing in public it has caused the fire storm at Fulham with everyone, including me, jumping on the band wagon. if he had just kept quiet for a few days, let the dust settle down look at things more objectively and realise that we were going down. I had resigned myself to it and this was represented in my flippant posts of late referencing Bournemouth and meeting Captain and enjoying some of his wife's home made cake. His record, in the cold light of day, was not great. I've referenced the difference between us and Palace in a previous thread and this only served as another indicator that something was wrong. Fortunately for us we do have a CEO, who has made a couple of errors recently, who I believe has now pulled off a master stroke of an appointment. FM is a winner, there's no doubt about that and he has a CV that most clubs would believe is out of their reach. He spotted probably with an ear bashing from the owner that something needed to be done. Failure was not an option, longevity is still the goal but it involves premiership football and not championship football. If I was the owner and the head coach had a record of 3 wins in 13 and saw the clubs we were above at the beginning of December are now above us I would have freaked out too. There is also talk of player unrest etc. This all left AM with no option to go and look for an alternative, no matter how bad it would look to outsiders, no matter what the fall out would be with the current coach and back room staff and he knew there would be fallout with media inspection of the club. At the end of the day, something had to be done, and quickly. 12 games is enough, they are all games, with the exception of a couple, that are winnable. Even I was thinking about the minimum requirement for survival as the best we could hope for. it's been a mess, Jol should have gone earlier but the club gave him more time than he deserved, RM was the obvious candidate. He knew the players, he clearly told AM he could do it and he agreed on the head coach role not manager. Is his position untenable now. I think it is, I'm not sure I would want someone at the club who goes to the media if he doesn't agree with something, I admit being told you have a new boss is not brilliant but it's business. it had to be done, IMO. Apologies for thrusting my views so many times to you all but I think this is a master stroke from the club. 3 points at West Brom would be the perfect silencer to the critics. COYW
Was there? The last two performances were the most cohesive we've seen in a long while, negative or not. That doesn't spell out unrest to me. Far too early to be calling it a masterstroke, but I do hope we can look back and say "what were we worried about?".
The masterstroke was getting a 3 times winner of the Bundeslegia and cup winner to our club to sort the mess we are in. I was deluded in thinking everything was getting better. It wasn't. We still ran out of steam in the second half, we only had 30% possession for a supposedly possession football coach, our goals against was 36 in 13 games! The player unrest could be pure media speculation but normally there is a ring of truth in these type of reports. He was a weak man manager but great coach.
The Guardian reported that players were not impressed with Wilkins training methods and this led him to being moved on yesterday, this could well reflect on Rene, who may or may not have had something to do with Wilkin's arrival. I get where Craving is coming from and getting a manager of such pedigree and quality to agree to come to us is a masterstroke, especially as Hamburg were so close to getting him back with them (albeit they refused his demands). My work colleague follows German football and has Hamburg as his second team. He was absolutely gob-smacked that Fulham had managed to lure a manager like Magath. He may not be known over here but in Germany he's considered as being up there with the best, although this is reputation is tempered by his dictatorial style.
Good article craving. It has been a wild few days and now the dust as settled I agree that we are in a better place. For me there are 2 elements to this: 1. The management of the team and the players themselves. 2. The management of the situation as a whole. Dealing with the first element. Whilst Rene was seeming to get improvements in the last few games, he was not getting the points. Say what you like about him as a guy, the figures were not good enough. I still feel he had more to give and would have kept us up. However, a coach he is, tactically he has a lot to learn. Step in Felix McGath. He is as craving said a winner. He is a disciplinarian. Having a few days to digest all of this, we are in a better situation than before. I have always felt we would remain in the premiership but I am sure McGath will cement this even more. As for his style..... The players are first and foremost athletes. They should be able deal we everything that is thrown at them from McGath, if they cannot then they have issues. Fitness is the very least they should be able to do to perform their jobs. The second element is a disaster. Whilst Ali Mac has done well to secure the services of McGath, the way we have employed the services of curbs and Wilkins has cost us dearly. The media have ramped it up way out of proportion. I feel for Rene but as craving have said he should have kept his mouth shut. The thing that concerns me is the figures that are being reported. If we get rid of Rene then this whole debacle could cost us 5 million, 3 for Rene and cool million for each of curbs and Wilkins. That said if we retain premiership status i guess 5 million is not too bad an investment. I cannot it for the west Brom game now. It will be nice to forget about all the nonsense. We need to be confident and take the game to them. I have a feeling rodders may feature, his energy may be rewarded by Felix.
My only reservations about Magath is that he's never managed outside of Germany, and he's not renowned for being liked by players - I suspect we'll be getting more reports of unrest in the camp. Saying that, if he does the business I can't complain. COYW
Back to back doubles with Bayern, League title with Wolfsburg (smaller club, lower budget), saved a few from relegation. I reckon he can manage in England and do a decent job of it. I'm not bothered if some of the players think he's a twit. Ff he keeps us up and does a half decent job next year then all well and good. If we stay up and win a cup we'll all say well done AM! If we do go down, he has the knowledge to get us back up. It's a throw of the dice for the club but it was definitely one worth playing. It's win win for him.
I do find it funny that you cite player unrest as a reason Magath was brought in... When he apparently has a horrible reputation for exactly that! But I've not got a huge problem with his appointment, which you'll see in my previous post. My reservations still stand though.
None of this would have happened had Jol been sacked when he ought to have been (much earlier). And for that the blame surely rests with Alistair Mackintosh.
(I'm a little late getting in my two cents - I was on holiday) Maybe it's a master stroke, but the timing could have been better. I can't see how changing horses in the middle of this race helps the confidence of the team just as the team's performances seemed to be improving. Probably should have waited until summer before pulling the trigger on this deal. However, Magath might be great for us. God knows our team is rather unfit, as evidenced by our tiring after about 70 minutes and then giving up a bunch of goals.
I think the lack of fitness correlates to our inability to keep possession - hopefully FM can improve us jn that respect
The Questions I'd love to ask Mackintosh Were Meulensteen, Wilkins, and Curbishley brought in separately or were they supposed to be a management team. Did each of them now their roles, or did they all think they could mange the team. What effect did MAF wanting to sell the club have on the way Jol was allowed to recruit, were transfer budgets slashed. Why were no decent replacements bought in over 3 transfer windows when both Dembele and Dempsey were sold on. I suspect that because of gagging clauses in peoples pay-offs we will not hear from all these people over this period. But we may get to hear unofficial leaks because I think these 3 are going to be a bit vindictive to AM as they all have media links. Has it been a case of AM playing Football Manager2014 with our club.
Fitness is our main problem,to those statisticians among us where would we be in the league if our previous games were played over 75m. I am to lazy to trawl through stats.
