Happy Birthday to the Gaffer ... 48 today please log in to view this image A nice win tonight will cheer him up no end.
Well according to the local West London paper the Gaffer is not a happy bunnyl today. "The Whites head coach has become frustrated with what he perceives to be inaction over suggestions he has made for players to add to his squad. The Serbian has overseen an excellent start to the Championship season, with two wins and a draw, and behind the scenes he has been urging the club to capitalise on their strong position. He has identified a number of players himself, including Blackburn winger Ben Marshall, but has already seen previous targets join other clubs. Jokanovic wanted Real Murcia’s Eddy Silvestre, who has been loaned to Cordoba, and Almen Abdi, who he worked with at Watford. but the Swiss midfielder signed for Sheffield Wednesday." They then go on to criticise Rigg and the analytic duo Kline and Khan Jnr. Not in as many words maybe but it couldn't be more obvious. The actual blurb is: "Chief football officer Mike Rigg is in overall control of strategy at Craven Cottage and Fulham officials insist the club is working hard to support Jokanovic, and expect to bring in three or four new players before the transfer deadline. Rigg and his backroom team are keen to use modern scouting methods and, like many other clubs, place great emphasis on statistics when assessing possible signings." Link to the story and a wonderful picture of Rigg in the throws of mortis: http://www.westlondonsport.com/fulham/jokanovic-fulham-transfer-dispute-108917?
Its quite sad that this is even an issue, its hard to enjoy the good start we've made to the season with this whole thing going on. Nothing ever seems to run smoothly at Fulham these days, theres always an issue somewhere. Jokanovic deserves to be backed, every interview he does hes practically begging for more signings, that isn't right. To me that comes across as Slavi basically saying he has no voice at boardroom level so needs to make his feelings public in an attempt to force their hand to back him.
This is rather a good article on the story. http://hammyend.com/index.php/2016/...that-sum-up-football-journalisms-sad-decline/
Excellent article by Dan Crawford. In tomorrow's programme there is a column by the Gaffer re-confirming that new players will be joining. Given that this is an "official mouthpiece" you'd have to assume therefore that he has the full backing of the Club. please log in to view this image My difficulty is I cannot believe that Jokanovic isn't "frustrated". Can there be any doubt but he wanted more players in before the season started and that some players he wanted have slipped through the net? Understand getting a name on the dotted line is not as straightforward as me fom my sofa would like; the dreaded Agent, keeping the pot boiling on two possibles when you know you only want to sign one (Jozabed v Sylvestre?) and so on. However, the window closes in two weeks, the season is in it's second week and he still hasn't got cover or that elusive striker. Who wouldn't be "frustrated" by all the background stuff when all you want to do is concentrate on your job of coaching the first team to success.
If there was any doubt that the Gaffer is not happy with the transfer situation listen to him after today's game against Cardiff - he starts ripping in from about 1:50 minutes in The key comment he makes is: "I'm not the person who dictates transfers. I want to take responsibility but I'm not part of the process"
Jokanovic has certainly laid down the gauntlet here. Do you think Shad Khan should step in and back him or sack him?
Wow, challenge issued. Mr Khan, it's time to make a choice - do you want yes-man Rigg or a decent manager?
Rigg is definitely in the mix. However, believe Jokanovic is pointing the finger at Craig Kline as the malefactor. And if you recall Kline has a history of falling out with people having been giving his marching orders back in February. Link to that story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...analyst-Craig-Kline-sent-back-to-the-USA.html What beggars belief, and incredibly poor judgement, is that Khan has allowed the situation to repeat itself. This time with potentially devastating consequences if Jokanovic is the one who goes.
It sounds like Jokanovic really isn't happy the way and the inexperience of Rigg and Kline in implementing the continental style of having a head coach instead of a manager and he would rather be a manager of the transfer period. He seems to be saying Kline is blocking players he has shown an interest in getting because his analysis is their stats are not good enough. I said months ago when the above article on Kline appeared, that he is a theoretical analysis devoid of any football knowledge and he would push it on the club to gain notoriety and a reputation, trying to show his theory can work in any situation, and hence make him big bucks, we are his experiment to gain a reputation.
And the most annoying thing of all SuperBri is that Kline isn't even an employee of the Club. He doesn't have any responsibility or carry the can if it goes wrong.
The backroom issues are becoming more of a story than our performances on the field. Even the broadsheets are picking up on it. This from the Sunday Times:. "Fulham head coach Slavisa Jokanovic suffered an exasperating afternoon after seeing first-half dominance turn into a scramble to salvage a point against supposedly shot-shy Cardiff City. And with the end of the summer transfer window beckoning, he expects a similarly frustrating final 10 days trying to persuade his club to back his judgment in the market. On several occasions this summer, Jokanovic has been at odds with Fulham’s American data analyst Craig Kline, who has maintained that players identified as potential transfer targets do not have the sufficient performance numbers to justify financial investment." Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mcdonald-to-rescue-as-recruitment-row-rumbles-on-qb7ts9qkp
I have a feeling he may walk, pretty soon. No self respecting manager would come to us with kahns 2 stooges running the show
If there is conflict between management and the Head Coach Khan has to sort it out quickly and back who he wants to stay. Should Jokanovic walk then I'd expect a clear out of the management, because of this failure and previous incompetence. Would Khan revert to a manager system again and get someone like Steve Bruce in. The reason for putting in the structure of DoF and CEO is to take away the financial loses that many Football Managers incurred by chasing every player they wanted at all costs with weak Chairmen who either knew nothing football wise (eg Liverpool) and those chasing a dream (eg.Wigan). The problem you have to have competent people in place looking after the finances but not at the detriment of the club progressing.
I hope he doesn't go but he showed at Watford he would walk on point of principle. Something has to give, the better managers want more control - Ferguson wrote at length about the importance of the manager being the main man in his book - so the more limiting systems put them off. Kit was just genuinely happy to have the job and probably quite grateful too so those positions were made stronger - Clarke had a look at us and didn't fancy it. If Rigg and the other guy whose name I dont know but seems to be an influence are allowed to carry overruling him and any manager I'm afraid it's a bleak outlook for the club. It seems quite a bold move from Joka and he's waited his time to make it, hopefully he holds strong, the club yields and his position is greatly strengthened by the resolution. There does seem irony in the people appointed to keep the manager in check themselves needing someone to keep them in check because we have a clueless and absentee owner who is going to be trumped in his crossover goal by Levy - we could bring in a whole shadow coaching and operations staff along with weekly question time. Joka looks to know his business, give him what he wants and let him get on with it.
Personally don't believe a football club (any organisation even) can be truly successful where people are appointed to keep "check" on others. There's a place for the stats man, the football man and the money man but the key to success is that they work as a team. The best reference of all on how to make this kind of recruitment system work is "Big Sam: My Autobiography". Allardyce cottoned on to the use of stats when he was at Tampa Bay and was probably the first person to use them effectively in England when he became manager at Bolton. Very briefly, Allardyce/scouts would identify a player to fill a needed spot in the team, the stats man would run data through his model and identify any 'red flags' - yes they used them as well. If all okay Allardyce would talk to the money man. Two important points here. First Allardyce had the casting vote (note; none of them had the power of veto). Secondly, if it was decided to go for the player the money man took over negotiations regarding fee and wages. Allardyce didn't always get his man. In the current situation at Fulham, two distintinct differences stand out. The men in the 3 roles are acting independently. And secondly, the Craig Kline (he's the name you want silkship) statistical model. I have no idea what it's formulae are but I do know it's based on the one used by Khan Jr at Jaguars. The root theorems are therefore inherent in NFL best practice (with, I believe, at bit of Baseball thrown in). Further based on what Khan Jr himself has said on twitter and in blogs, the analytics have been 'bent' to accommodate "soccer". In other words it is exactly as SuperBri said above, an experiment. Nothing at all like the system, Prozone, used by Big Sam. Back to my main point though. There is a place for statistics but .. as Allardyce said in his book, "I was assessing player stats long before it was fashionable in football in England. Now owners believe algorithms determine whether a player will be a success or not. I would never go that far, because there are too many imponderables."
I'll to give big Sam's book a read - seems like we are adhering too rigidly to (A Beautiful) Kline's magic formula, I agree that we need to be looking at the stats of our team and potential targets when making decisions but Khan has made a big mistake if he's come into football thinking he can turn a profit on a largely or entirely stats based model. My issue with moneyball style methods is that they were successfully applied to a Baseball team initially, which is much more of an individual sport and incomparable to football. I don't know what analytics feed into the model but I imagine understanding a players personality and the influence he has on others around him is pretty tricky - Leicester have just shown how far spirit combined with talent can take a team, like Woy did for us. It's sad how far we went from that under Khan, although I think Joka has shown he can put a team together and get them playing together. Fans can be an influence in all this now that Joka is there to get behind. Kit was a uniting figure in that you knew he was there to do his best for the club, but he wasn't really up to the job and didn't inspire great support. Expect there to be chants in the next game if it's not resolved.
The situation appears to be diffused, for now anyway, thanks to the recent little flurry of transfer activity. However, here's a link to a good piece by Sam Wallace of The Telegraph, in which he brings out two quite interesting bits of information: 1 On the Man Utd thing "Kline said Pereira could not even be considered because he simply did not have enough data – minutes played - that could be submitted for analysis." 2 On why stats in the first place (at Fulham) "The American contingent is understood to have been unhappy with the signing of Richard Stearman from Wolverhampton Wanderers last summer for around £2 million on a three-year deal. They felt that he was overpriced, did not score highly on data and has not subsequently justified the investment. After that the introduction of Kline and his statistics-based approach was insisted upon as a key feature of the club’s recruitment." Link to the full story and other background stuff: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ig-kline-will-have-final-say-at-fulham-and-n/
