I never thought to see the day that Joey Barton is any way a possibility for Fulham. Michael Brown was bad enough. And I did ilke The Wardrobe - He almost made my signature team.
Don't know how many remember Terry Hurlock - 15 yellows in 29 games . Rotund and scruffy, if it moved he kicked it and needless to say that wasn't the ball. What Charlie Adams circa 1995 do I hear you say ?
Hurlock's year with us was the last of his long and card-strewn career. He came to us after a few seasons in Scotland with Glasgow Rangers, and I recall a theory that many of his cards were things that other players would have got away with - the feeling was that English refs who hadn't had the chance to officiate in games he played in were taking the chance of adding him to the collection of players they had booked. As Cottage says, he got 15 yellows but no reds. If we had lost our last game, he would have finished the season with more disciplinary points than the club had league points. I also remember chants of 'Terry's gonna get ya' if opposition players started putting in hard tackles on our frail but gifted Cypriot playmaker Ara Bedrossian, and wolf howls from the Hammersmith End whenever Terry came on as a sub. And finally on this episode of 'reminiscence from a middle-aged online bore', I heard a story from his Millwall days, when the team were preparing (in the pub) for a match against Vinnie Jones' Wimbledon. The other Millwall players were teasing Hurlock, asking what he was going to do to deal with the new hard-man on the block. Terry said nothing, but eventually got out of his seat, walked across the room and pulled the door off its hinges before returning to finish his pint. That may or may not be apocryphal, but (to paraphrase Stewart Lee) even if that story isn't true, what it reveals about Terry Hurlock is true, I think.
Nice one Captain - the old ones are the best. Didn't The Salvation Army (they were around the ground in that era) sponsor Hurlock's boots ?
The Salvation Army link is a new one on me, Cottager. Mind you, their motto is 'Blood and Fire', which doesn't seem entirely inappropriate for the way Hurlock approached the game. That really is their motto, by the way, not just a cheap joke. Talking of sponsorship and advertising, back in the early 90s I always enjoyed the fact that the Samaritans had an advertising hoarding at the Putney end of the ground. Standing on the Hammersmith End, whenever action switched to the right your eye fell on the words, 'Lonely? Suicidal?' which many would consider a pretty accurate summary of the life of a Fulham fan in those days.
In case others aren't aware Nolan is having a medical at West Ham as I type so that's one link to us that is going to fail to materialise.
I suppose Nolan was attracted because of Allardyce who he played under at Bolton. And no doubt the £4m allegedly paid by West Ham - wonder what his cut was !
he's got to be on a healthy bonus if they come straight back up. But in truth it sends a message to the WH fans. Get ready for route 1 - if they didn't already know it.
True Cottagecravens but I think that will be more of Allardyce's making than Nolan's. Nolan showed up well at Newcastle, linking with front men and going forward to score a reasonable number. Anyway time for closure. It's a done deal and WHU are obviously looking to replace Scotty Parker and offer his kind of wages.
I don't particularly like Barton, but he is a good player. I can't stand the sight of Bellamy, but would I turn my nose up at the chance of us signing him? Hell no. What they do off the field to a degree doesn't matter as long as they do the business on the pitch. Ask any Man Utd fan if their opinion of Giggs has changed since this whole cheating saga came out, and they will tell you that he is still a club legend in their eyes.
West Ham paid £4.5m and £55k a week over 5 years for Nolan! If they don't get promoted they'll be in deep doodoo.
I'm not as opposed to signing a player like Barton as some here, but what a player does off the pitch does have some bearing on things. Even if you leave aside any moral judgement, it's worth considering the impact any given player will have on the dynamic within the squad. The big question mark against Barton would be whether he would be likely to upset and divide the rest of the squad. On the basis of his time at Newcastle, that didn't seem to be a problem. Maybe he's achieving a degree of maturity (I'm using the term relatively) that he didn't have in his younger days. If so, he could be a good signing. On the other hand, much like a more extreme version of Craig Bellamy, I would always have the sense of him being an unexploded bomb just waiting to go off.
