Felix Magath will continue as Fulham manager next season, the club have told Sky Sports. The 60-year-old German, who succeeded the sacked Rene Meulensteen in February, was charged with keeping the Whites in the Premier League but watched them tumble into the Championship with defeat at Stoke at the weekend. The former Bayern Munich, Schalke and Wolfsburg boss signed an 18-month contract when he took over and vowed to rebuild an ageing squad after their 13-year stay in the top flight was ended. And a Fulham spokesperson told Sky Sports on Wednesday: "Felix will manage the club next season. There has never been any ambiguity over his future from our perspective. He wants to bring us back to the Premier League."
Lets wait and see. We have seen so many talk the talk this season,2014/15 should be an action season, like many others Dec could be decision time.
Well I think this is good news. Let's not start setting a deadline for getting rid of him. What we need now is a bit of stability as we rebuild. I've just done some number crunching. If you look at all three of our managers this season, Magath has marginally the better record. The figures below are only for Premier League matches: Felix: played 11, won 3, drew 2 lost 6. 11pt. Mule: played 13, won 3, drew 1, lost 9. 10pts Jol: played 13, won 3, drew 1, lost 9. 10pts If you averaged each manager's points/game over a 38 game season, Jol and Mule would have ended up on 29-30pts, whereas Felix would have reached 38pts and (probably) safety. If we beat Palace, Felix's 38 game average goes up to 44pts (though if we lose, it goes down to 34pts). The point is, Felix has been the best of the three managers statistically, and most of us - even those who aren't convinced by him - seem to agree that his Fulham sides have looked better than Jol's or Mule's (please, correct me if I'm speaking falsely on anyone else's behalf). If you discount the first three games under Felix, when he was visibly getting to know which players could be depended upon and which couldn't, his stats improve a lot (up to 47pts for the season), which shows that the team under him is improving. It was all too little too late, but I think he'll do better next year, particularly as so far he's had no chance to bring in his own players and get rid of the ones he's decided aren't good enough.
I for one am pleased with this anjouncement. We really need stability, clearly he's no spring german chicken but I really think theres a chance for a younger guy to come in as his second in command and take over when the time is right. His philosophy is great, his track record is excellent. We have got arguably the most qualified coach in the Championship in terms of the quality of clubs coached and honours achieved. He just needs to translate that to the English league. In Felix I trust. COYW
Unfortunately Captain we are in such mess that we are not in a position to set a deadline for anything!! His track record was excellent before he took over us. Now we can't use this any more!
I don't see how his track record ceases to be relevant. Okay, he can't say that he's never been relegated anymore, but does anyone really think that he's to blame for us going down? His 20+ years of top level experience (or whatever it is - can't be bothered to look that up) doesn't disappear just because he's now been relegated.
First of all I didn't say that his track record is not relevant, just not excellent any more. He has his share of responsibility for going down. The ones that have no responsibility what so ever are the fans. Simples!
Fair enough, but I'd still call two Bundesliga titles an excellent track record, albeit a slightly blemished one.
Glad he's still on the job. We're lucky to have someone like him. The alternative is we get some pedestrian, caretaker manager who's limited skill and imagination who can't improve the team. That's not Felix; he's a builder and a genius, in my book, amongst the best managers in Europe. It might take month or two for Felix to start getting results, but I think we'll emerge next year a lean, fit and very technical team able to run and compete with the best in the EPL. I'm excited.
It will be interesting to see how Khan backs Magath financially if he stays. We still don't really know Khans motives for buying, except to get a higher profile in London for his Jaguars. I suspect the payouts to Jol, Meulensteen, Curbishley and Wilkins might have taken the chunk of money we saved by farming out Berbatov, Ruiz and Taraabt. Will our CEO survive the chop? That will have a big influence on the players coming in and going out. I'd like Magath to stay just for continuity, but I haven't really been convinced with his management, he seems a bit of a gambler, and it hasn't worked. I suspect like all our previous managers he will rely on buying players he has previously worked with, so as has been said above a few unknowns might come in. Interesting times this summer.
Again apologies - in retrospect, I should have posted this here because it gives an insight into how Felix plans to go forward (including a hint or two to Mr Khan). In today’s lunch time press conference Felix said that “the future will be based on a young team, but with experience”.. but, no talks have taken place with Sidwell or Heitinga. He also said that his “attention will be on the Academy with some joining the first team”. If we are looking at 'what went wrong?', Felix said it was “making 8 new signings in January” [thought it was 7 but no matter, same argument applies.] and “previous regimes tried to build for one season only.” He was also scathing of MAF - “the last owner didn’t want to invest in the team so they sold well performing players; they looked out for free transfers." His philosophy he said, “is only to take care players who identify with Fulham” and “ to look after the young players”.
Felix must have been reading our posts about the aging of our team (something I brought up at the end of the 2012 season link) and the lack of investments by MAF. But I'm not sure adding players in January hurt the team all that much. Most were rubbish and barely graced the hallow grass at The Cottage; Holtby was the exception. Not bringing in some players would have signaled that we'd given up our EPL status. I'm encouraged by what Felix is saying. He's no non-sense, speaks his mind and can see the obvious. Hopefully he has enough freedom, and the resources, to rebuild the team as described. I suspect, though, that the first couple months in the Championship will be rough, assuming he's going to clean house and get rid of players upon which we've come to rely - people like Sidwell, Hangeland, Reiter, etc. I think next season will require some patience on the part of Fulham fans.
Here he is in this week's internal video re-inforcing those points DR - [video=youtube;1wkBMcl38Pk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wkBMcl38Pk&feature=player_embedded[/video]
I think you could be right, DR. Sadly, we've not shown ourselves to be particularly blessed in that department - I think we have to go back to Hodgson for the last time no one was calling for a manager to go within the first couple of months, and I suspect that even he only got such a honeymoon period because his immediate predecessor was so remarkably awful.
