Now that the first layer of dust has settled on the reign of our madcap, I thought it would be interesting to analyse a few of the immediate legacies we are left with. I'm just thinking about tangible legacies here - I'm not going to rehash the stories of the mental abuse and crazy psychology, that's a little too raw right now! Squad turnover - whichever way you slice it, we've had incredible squad turnover. Of the 25 players in our Premier League 25 on 1 February 2014, only 4 are still in our squad nine months later. This could almost be a quiz question, but the answer is Zverotic, Amorebieta, Parker & Hugo. It's no wonder that we've been so disjointed this evening when you consider that many of our replacement players either joined late in the summer our are youth players with little exposure to the first team last summer. Lack of wingers - Kacaniklic, Dejagah, Richardson & Duff all left in the summer (as well as Kasami). We have young wingers (such as the Williams') but have only brought in one real winger (Adil Chihi). This has left us almost bereft of an entire gameplan and leaves us dangerously one dimensional. Lack of central midfielders - Our second and third choice central midfielders have a combined age of 38.5. For some comparision that is the age of our back up goalkeeper Mr Pyjamas. The only other central midfielder we have is Mark Fotheringham, who couldn't even get a job at Notts County. Who's our No. 9? - I think it is fairly obvious that Magath wanted to sell Ruiz. In cannot think of another reason why we would go out and spend our entire transfer budget on a no. 10 to replace him (McCormack) instead of looking for a no. 9 to play with him. Instead we are left with Hugo (who it seems Magath wanted to get rid of) and Matt Smith. For a team with no wingers and only the one way to play (multiple central skill players feeding in behind a no. 9) it is crazy to think that our only option was to have been Matt Smith. No experience - If we were still in the Premier League, only 17 of our first team squad would count against the squad limit. The only experienced players we brought in (Fotheringham & Pyjamas) are not first team players and arguably aren't even bench players. This has really exposed players like Hutchinson and Voser who are instantly some of our veteran players but have no experience in English football, let alone Championship football. Where did the money go? - We signed seven players for fees in the summer, of which four were not supposed to have been more than £1m (Taggart, Bodurov, Smith, Staf). Even if we take McCormack's fee at the full £11m, we spent about £15m in total. Given that we raised about that from the sales of Riether, Kasami, Richardson, Stockdale & Dejagah (even before the loan fees for Mitroglou, Stek & Kaca), we spent effectively nothing in the summer. So much for the investment, Mr Khan. Wage bill slashed - Following on from the previous point, we dumped 21 of our senior 25 players and brought in just one player from the Premiership (Eisfeld). No matter how you slice it, barring gross negligence (i.e. fraud) of the highest nature our wage bill must be significantly lower this season. This is a positive for the club finances, but it seriously undermines any claim by Mr Khan that he would spend (any) money to help dig us out of the hole we are in. It makes me think of a story I heard of a TV executive in the US who was paid a percentage of the costs he cut; was Magath given the same? No style of play - No wingers & no defensive midfielders. No consistency of selection. Kids being cycling in and out of the team with no clarity as to what they should really be doing. Is Ryan Williams being converted to a central midfielder? Is Kavanagh ready to start ahead of Staf or Amorebieta? What happened to Eisfeld? There is no Fulhamish style right now, on the pitch or off it, and I think that ultimately this one is what hurts the most. *takes a deep breath* Now, I know that there is not much constructive there and I know there are other legacies (feel free to add others). However writing all that was certainly cathartic for me. I wonder if we should all do the same; maybe then we can start to move on from the trainwreck of the last 18 months.
Nothing to add really. It was all visible last night. Despite these factors I think the team will improve. Three main ingredients we need: 1. Patience 2. Confidence 3. Stability Patience with the new players, they are still developing. Mistakes will happen, wrong choices will be made but the long term benefits will be more... Confidence on their ability to win games. Yesterday's game has this positive only. Ability to score two goals, create chances and hold the result... Stability both at manager level and team selection. Nice to see minimal changes and this has to continue if we want to have a style of play... Last use the loan options and free agents out there...
I appreciate the positive spin FFCMadness! My post wasn't really intended to be positive, although I am feeling more positive right now. The only way is up for now (until next May of course)!
My view is that Khan like many other foreign investors don't actually put money in to a Club once they have bought it. There is so much money in football that there is good opportunities to take money out - and why would a foreign owner with no interest in football invest in a Club like Fulham. It's a gamble for them though as our value will have decreased significantly now we are in the Championship, but for now the parachute payments mean there is still money swashing about. There is secrecy in all big Club's accounts and no-one can see the full picture from those that are published.
Don't have much to add to your assessment, Surlyc. Other than a by-product of lack of wingers and midfielders seems to have been first Magath and now Kit using players out of position. My assumption was that Hoogland was signed as a RB and Staf as a LB. I'm pretty sure we've had at least one defender in midfield for every match so far this season. Not ideal. On the transfers, I wonder how many players chose not to join Fulham because of Magath's reputation. I suppose we'll never know.
Good assessment there Surly, just a couple of fairly small and inconsequential (read: pedantic!) points: Is Staf not here on loan, with an option to buy? Also, The £11m spent on Mitroglou was a big investment by Khan back in January, and what a waste that turned out to be. Another side note; all this makes the shipping out of Kaca even more puzzling (as was pointed out in another thread). He'd slot right into this team, has Championship experience, he's young yet further along in his development. Bizarre. Stocky is another one - he clearly wanted to be here, and would hands-down be our number 1!
Agreed, but I believe there was a loan fee which is what I was referring to. Agreed on all the other points.
Super post surly. Nothing to add but just wanted to express my appreciation beyond clicking the 'like' icon.
My opinion has no more credence than any other supporter, and we have to live with what we have until the Jan window. Our problem is ridding ourselves of this failure to attack the opposition, allowing them to play further up field putting unnecessary pressure on our Weak back line up, wingers we have 2, Roberts & Williams play them for the 1st 45min Mc C in the centre with Rodders as he has not the speed to play on the flanks. Exclude yesterdays game, we must give Kit 5 league games before any decision is made on a permanent manager, be it him or cast the net. Classy stylish football must be put on the back burner, points on the board and a climb up the table must be our priority at this moment in time.
