Afternoon one and all, firstly, apologies for not posting much recently, I guess things have been fairly quiet except for the Europa league, which has not yet grabbed me by the balls. I hope that we do a job over Dnipro, although I think we will need to be totally focused as they are reputed to be a pretty good team. WDWW creating a fantasy football team is superb. Everyone I know could not be bothered this year, so to have one on here is great. May be there should be a virtual trophy for the winner. I have been thinking about the summer business and how we have done: Outs: Gera - Greening JP Stockdale - loan Kamara Eddie Johnson Forgive me if I missed anyone Ins: John Arne Riise Pajtim Kasani Marcel Gecov Csaba Somogyi EJ and Kamara are no big loss, in fact in EJ's case a blessing. Greening I thought was showing great signs towards the end of last season, but to lose Gera is a big disappointment. He was a match winner, hard to replace. However, Kasani is supposed to be a brilliant player and Gecov comes highly rated. Riise, JA, is a proper left back. No centre back cameoing as a full back, just a bloody good left back. Good business me feels, have to agree with general concensus though, we desperately need a right back and a striker. That said Senderos has been good with Hangeland, so would hate to see Hughes sidelined. Also, Martin Jol's style of footie is beginning to show what AJ can offer. I would love to see him bang in 15 goals this year. All this is rounded off nicely with the appointment of Martin Jol. Great to have a manager with a bit of a personality at the helm. He seems very fulhamish and I hope he stays at the club for 3 or 4 seasons at least. With the game seemingly on on saturday, the street signs showing 13th August as the next game, I cannot wait for the start of the new season. Incidentally, does anyone know what has happening to Christian Marquez Sanchez. His profile is no longer on the FFC site. Needing a quality right back, I thought he could be tried out. I did read a while back that he was wanted by Malaga in Spain but thought it would not happen. COYW
I hadn't noticed the disappearance of Marquez Sanchez, so I went googling. This site http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/marquez-sanchez/profil/spieler_126742.html suggests he's currently playing for Atletico Malagueno (no, me neither), who are based in Malaga and seem to be a reserve side for a bigger Spanish side - possibly Malaga. I couldn't find any information about a permanent transfer, but he isn't listed on the 'loans' section of the official Fulham site. Looks like he's gone, then. Shame, he was someone I was excited about based on the enthusiasm many people on this board had for him.
Largely agree with what you say Frogman particularly about the need new for a new right back, to a slightly lesser extent a striker and how exciting a talent Kasami could be,.Also think Jol is the right man for the job. I noticed in the Split second leg although we were patchy, some of the stuff we produced showed flashes of the 'total football' we'd love to see from jol. Other positives of the summer I'd say are catching glimpses of some of our younger players particularly Frei, who at 17 looks a real prodigy. Briggs looks good but a tad naive in terms of positional sense, but will hopefully benefit from riise's experience in training and matches. Only thing I slightly disagree with you on is with Gera being hard to replace. While I admire and have as much time for gera as the next fulham fan, we must accept that last season he was on the fringes and had very little impact, but we were fine without him (at least when others were fit.) He was even struggling to make the bench in the 2nd half of last season. And to echo the thoughts of many on this board, I'd rather he was playing well and regularly at another club than left in the reserves and unhappy with us.
If Marquez Sanchez has indeed gone,i think the powers that authorized it,must have their heads up their arse. I amongst many others watched a great number of youth games,and the general consensus was,this kid is someone to watch In the Fulham v Everton game at the cottage I was sitting in front of the press, and scouts box, on enquiring why so many reps from various clubs were there,and why,answer to run the rule over future prospects especially young Sanchez. Dempseys Revenge said the other day that you could often tell a players potential,after a few minutes,this was so true of this lad. OK a bit showboaty,but that was probably due to the impetiousness of youth. Thank god this lot were not around when Jonny Haynes, Cohen, Mullery, were first on our books. But i suppose they think we do not have a right full back problem,now or in the future.
Unless it was just good PA but Gera said that he would have stayed at Fulham under the new management but he had given his word already to Hodgson. So sounds like the deal had been done before the end of the season, although strange how long it took to complete. Looking at the signings brought in I guess Greening thought his opportunities were going to be limited under Jol. Same for Dikgacoi who left for Crystal Palace. The two new midfield players in Gecov and Kasami, give Jol a very strong midfield, and various options in style of play. If you include Dempsey and Dembele along with Duff, Etuhu, Sidwell, Murphy, BH Riise, Davies and maybe Baird and Briggs. JA Riise has shown in games so far that he is a good signing, and hope he brings that form into the Premier. As for the attack I can see Jol counting Dembele as a Forward and the same with Dempsey because of his scoring record last season, if AJ stays and youngster like Valle and Frei are used as squad backup I can see Jol maybe going for a big name Loan player from those that don't get sold by August and are squad surplus. As for the right back, again maybe a loan, but I guess the options are Baird, Hughes and maybe even Simon Davies, not forgetting Kelly or Salcido. I was worried about the signing of the keeper until they revealed Stockdale had signed a new long term deal.
I think this would explain the disappearance of Sanchez.... http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/tra...r-Spain-return-with-Malaga-article761602.html It will be interesting to see how many games Gecov and particularly Kasami get over the course of the season. It seems MJ rates Kasami very very highly, Riise was the perfect fit for Fulham so i'm happy with that. Overall a decent bit of business, nothing too crazy, but as has been mentioned the lack of a quality RB is a bit of a worry. Lets hope Jol has it sorted.
It was the same with the lad Buchtmann that Roy signed from Liverpool. One minute the club is raving about the potential he's got, the next he's being sold back to his home country because of homesickness and not settling in England. I guess that's always the danger with signing 'foreign starlets'.
Just a bit on Spanish football - lots of sides have 2 other teams as well as the main team - so, for instance, Seville - and then they have a couple of "affiliate" sides - in Seville's case Seville Athletic and Seville C. Players can move between any of the three squads as long as there are no age constraints, in Seville Athletics case it's 23 years max age. Teams also have youth set ups and there are Under 19 leagues, etc. Quite what leagues some of these "affiliates" play I couldn't say.
A big plus from the Summer (so far) is that there have been no high-profile departures on the playing side. I always think hanging onto the likes of Zamora, Hangeland and Dempsey every transfer window is as important as new signings. Of those who have left, it's sad to see JP and Gera depart, but as much for sentimental reasons as anything. Riise adds much needed quality at left back. We're not talking about Senderos as a new signing, but he effectively is after missing most of last year. We're a right back short of having strength in depth across the back line, and the Stockdale/Ipswich move was a good deal for all concerned. Like others, I'm excited about Kasami - his 5 minute cameo against Split gave a good taste of what he's about. It makes a big difference to have a manager who looks and sounds like he wants to be at Fulham, rather than one who never really did. If the Europa League matches don't take too much out of the players in the first half of the season, another top ten finish looks a good bet, particularly if it doesn't take four months to win an away game this year.
