And here's a lint to the whole cornucopia of pictures - http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/june/29/pre-season-begins I do believe Thomas Eisfeld is in there and more importantly, so is wee Georgie Williams.
Jamie O'Hara signing confirmed - on a 1 year deal. please log in to view this image "The 28-year-old becomes Fulham’s fifth summer signing, following the arrivals of Ben Pringle, Andy Lonergan, Tom Cairney and Jazz Richards. Speaking from Fulham’s training camp in Portugal, O’Hara said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I’ve had a couple of weeks training with the team and I really felt I wanted to get to this Club. I’ve loved it, I’ve worked hard and now it’s paid off. I have to thank the Manager for giving me the opportunity.”
So I think that is Jamie O'Hara, Blackpool player of the season, Tom Cairney, Blackburn player of the season and Ben Pringle, Rotherham player of the season. Not bad.
I actually think this could be the best bit of business we have done so far, to get such a proven and experiened midfielder in on a free is brilliant. How many times last season did we all say we needed someone in there to help out Scotty Parker when it came to having a bit of experience in the middle of the park, O'Hara is a great signing. I'm also excited by the signing of Cairney, who is also fairly experienced at this level even though he's a bit younger. Just think O'Hara will bring some much needed grit and determination to the team that maybe we didn't have last season.
Time will tell on O'Hara, the new Murphy or an un-needed centre midfielder who will end up being disruptive. At the minute I've got no idea where to put my money.
I think the key to O'Hara is if he can stay injury free, looking back he was very good at Spurs and Portsmouth but went to Wolves struggled with injuries and it all went down hill, his life style did not appear to help. I think we might be signing him at just the right time, he split from his wag wife went to Blackpool got himself fit and the second half of last season showed very good form with no injuries what so ever, if we give him a tough pre season getting him into good shape we may be on to a winner.
I agree with Cookie. O'Hara is a great signing if he stays fit and shows the kind of form we all remember him having in the past. Strangely enough, five years ago people were identifying him as the person to take Murphy's place as our playmaking central midfielder. I just hope, five years on, that he isn't taking Murphy's later role as our aging midfielder whose legs aren't what they used to be.
I'm in the same boat as Silky, I'm not sure what to make of the signing. I suppose it can't turn out to be a disastrous signing considering we haven't had to pay a penny for him. I was actually one of the people calling for O'Hara as a replacement for Murphy all those years back. He showed so much promise but I think injuries coupled with problems in his personal life contributed to his downfall. At 28 he still has time to turn things around. Cautiously optimistic is probably the best way to describe how I'm feeling about this signing.
I'm hoping that he's learnt from the last couple years and will put everything into squeezing the best out of himself as he approaches what should be his prime. This is based on press gossip and the limited amount of Big brother I watched, but his ex-wife looks to have had quite an influence over him, whether she intended it, and his decline, loss of fitness and distraction can probably be traced to their relationship, not that she is to blame - he's gone looking for it, hardly a secret she enjoyed the company of footballers. Now she is out the picture maybe we will see a new man - he's only got a year contract which I think is a smart move on the part of Fulham as it should keep him motivated. Maybe it's all been a consequence of his environment and getting in with a crowd whose activities don't tally with what a professional should be doing but I wouldn't completely absolve him, I think he comes with an ego and we'll need to work on taming the chimp' to get value out of him. I would be quite upset if his signing and wages meant we couldn't afford to get quality in the full back, dm and centre back positions, considering the wealth of options we've now got in centre midfield.
Interesting article in the Mail (!) about O'Hara this week. I found it interesting that O'Hara says he approached Kit first, rather than the other way around. The cynic in me thinks it is because he wants to be in west London, but then again he could have gone to QPR... at face value it looks like he genuinely wanted to be here and I can't complain about decent players who want to play for us. Certainly makes a change from players we have to convince to come here.
I know he's only been with us for about 6 weeks but for me he has been our best player all pre season and he doesn't even look as fit as he could be hopefully he has good season.
That would mean sacrificing either LVC or Cairney which I don't think Kit is willing to do. I wonder if O'Hara will last the full season. He hasn't really played a full season before. The most games he has ever played in a season is 31 and that was way back when he was on loan at Portsmouth. He'll benefit from having a full pre-season but is still carrying a bit of timber. I'd love if his mentality of wanting to be at the club filtered down to those youngsters.
Not necessarily in that, it's a long season and some rotation will be necessary. Also there's the infamous Plan B and the option of bringing either or, and fresh legs, from the bench. Sure your reading of Kit is correct FI. However, I still think there's a flaw in having 4/5 like minded midfielders and none that are out and out defenders.
It could be that once other managers suss out the role O'Hara is playing they will target him to close him down quickly, and try and isolate him like they did Parker, we need other skilful players along side him who can take some of that attention away from O'Hara and give him the time and space he needs to create.
