A sad day yesterday that seems to have summed our season in a nut shell, lack of passion and shipping in a lot of goals against. A season to forget, simples. I have been lucky enough to follow Fulham through their journey in the premiership. During this we have watched some amazing players grace the hallowed pitch at Craven Cottage. For me watching David Beckham was a real highlight, not too mention the likes of Thierry Henry, Denis Bergkamp, Rooney to name but a few. There have been some great goals, big Papa Diop's bullet against United, that goal from Clint in the Europa cup. Our magical tour of Europe is something none of us will forget. How fortunate we were to experience this. From Russia to Hamburg we played like a team united by one goal, to collectively play to the best of our abilities. Not graced with the most gifted players but graced with passion and self belief that they could achieve anything. So the era ends. However, watching the youth cup final last Monday, there were signs aplenty that the passion and self belief still burns brightly in Fulham Football Club. Going 1 - 0 down to the team that had made 5 of the 7 finals, we stepped up and scored 3 goals to put us in great position for tomorrow nights second leg. Whilst the first team have lacked the qualities needed to succeed the youth have it in truck loads. The championship is a fantastic league. While the premiership is dominated by the top 5 or 6, the championship is generally available for anyone to win. Leicester have shown that good football prevails and comes out on top. If we can take the passion and self belief combined with the quality of football that the youngsters show anything is possible. We have the footballing infrastructure in place to make a return to the premiership within 2 or 3 seasons. The key issue for the club to address is the management infrastructure. It is paramount that we have a manager in place who is committed to staying with club and taking it through it's next era. Is Felix the man ? Not for me. A young manager who has the confidence to stick to his style of football, perhaps someone like Uwe Rosler. A sad day for the club, yes. The start of a new adventure though, yes. Life in the championship will be hard, a different one to that of the premiership, but Fulham football club will still be playing at Craven Cottage and we will still be chanting ' Come on Fulham '. Exciting times lay ahead, with exciting players full of self belief, our Fulham will be back in premiership soon. COYW
As I've said elsewhere, I'd give Magath his chance to get his own players in. Other than that, I agree with every word, Froggy
Absolutely. I think Magath should be able to attract some good but unknown (to us) players. I also like his style. Let him build us for the next season and see if he can get us up. He certainly has the pedigree and the nous to do so.
Half of me says stay with Magath the other half thinks that a manager who understands the championship might be better suited. Ideally I would have Magath and get Danny Murphy as his assistant, that's if he wants to do it.
I agree, too, with previous comments. This may be a blessing in disguise. On one hand the old, half-dead players who brought us this season of humiliation will be out on their a$$es soon enough. But we've got a great young crop of players who could win a U21 FA Cup for us on Monday, showing us a potentially bright future ahead. Hopefully Felix can salvage from the scraps of the current 1st team players anyone who's worth keeping and build with our good young players a quality team that can complete for years go come at the highest level of the best league in the world. Unfortunately for me, I won't see much of anything from the next season since all I'll ever get on Sky are highlights on Match of the Day II and the occasional game on Sky Sports. And since I won't be seeing many games next year, I have even less to contribute to the discussion on this board. Hats off to Sunderland for the best "great escape" in history.
Not sure who you'd get in but with the squad needing some rebuilding, assuming players leave, then it would be the ideal time to bring a new manager in with a long term plan. Good luck on bouncing back
Welcome the the Championship, Gentlemen. Millwall fan in peace here, and I'm genuinely looking forward to playing you next season! I used to go to your home games a lot when you were in Division 3 during the Ian Branfoot/Mickey Adams era (I lived locally, and some Saturdays it was 50p for kids to attend - also you had Terry Hurlock!)... but the last time I was there was April 21st 1999 and you sang, "We'll never play you again." That wounded me, haha! Here's to a cracking season next year, I hope you have a good un!
I think talk of getting rid of Magath is a bit premature. Part of the reason we're in the state we're in is the ridiculous revolving managerial door. It certainly didn't work for us, so why would sacking another one do any good? Unless we get someone better than Magath in then it's another pointless exercise.
Agreed. Felix is a very, very good manager, and just because he couldn't save Fulham doesn't mean he's not the right man to build a new, better team that's fit for the future.
Sorry to see you relegated. Good luck and hope you get promoted back next season. When we (Swans) played you in the cup a few years ago and went back to the replay, a lot of fans considered Fulham a Premier League team to emulate; not huge, locally supported and playing good football.
Did any of you watch the game yesterday? What manager puts a left footed CB 6ft 6 tall to play on the right as FB and mark a winger as fast as theirs? Then we can talk about it again... Not only that he didn't change it at half time. Magath has his responsibilities and has done many mistakes. The only excuse is that he didn't choose the players. Championship is going to be fun and will allow the club to regroup. As Stockdale said we have to wait a week before we start looking into ourselves what went wrong! Come on Fulham!
Bad luck guys!! Sorry to see you relegated. On the plus side, teams relegated from the Premiership usually do well the following season in the Championship. Re: QPR and Wigan this season getting to the play-offs. Once things have settled down and you adjust to the Championship, you will do well. Should QPR miss out on promotion, you have a plethora of West London derbies, plus of course Charlton and Millwall, and Reading who are not a million miles away, and maybe Orient too!! Nice post from a Millwall fan as well.
Cheers lion84. Ah, the old Warlock brings back mixed memories - think he managed more penalty points than we did league points in the year he was with us. The best story I've read about him was from Tony Cascarino: "Some of us [Millwall players] were playfully goading Terry about what he was going to do to Vinnie Jones in the upcoming fixture with Wimbledon. Without saying a word, he got up from the table and walked to the entrance of the pub and ripped the door off its hinges."
Haha, gotta love Hurlock, such an animal... I clearly remember him shouting "you c**t" at the ref during a home game of yours (I was in the Hammersmith end)... he didn't even get a talking to haha.
I remember those chants in a few games that year, and hated them - so disrespectful of other decent clubs and fans. I'm just glad it's taken this long to come back to haunt us.
The real reason we got relegated... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/michael-jackson-statue-removal-to-blame-for-fulham-relegation-claims-mohamed-al-fayed-9327964.html The removal of the statue!!!
