From our friends at the Guardian. Good old Danny. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/22/felix-magath-something-give-english-football-fulham Did anyone see him at the Blackburn match, by the way? The Blackburn fans were kept singing that he was "a W*nker" - at least, I thought they were singing Murphy's name so presumed he must be somewhere in the ground - otherwise the abuse was a bit random.
Yep, Danny's certainly having his say on all things Fulham recently. Never was one to hold back though, was he.
Rather than post this as a thread of its own, I'll say my piece here. The Magath "experiment" exemplifies the differences between two cultures, IMO. In Germany, Magath would never have been fired ... not in a million years. The players would have understood that A) Magath is in charge and, whether they liked him or not, B) it was their job to get in line and put 100% into the gaffer's system. It would have been understood that they were all replaceable and that Magath was there to stay come hell or high water, particularly because of his past track record of success. In England, however, the players know that if they don't like the manager, putting in < 100% and losing enough games will eventually get the manager sacked. Now, I rather doubt that Fulham's players conspired or even consciously considered this, but you can certainly see this pattern written across English football history in recent years. Case in point: Roy Hodgson, fantastic manager, moves from Fulham to Liverpool in 2010 and begins imposing his style and methods on a bunch of over-paid prima donnas. Gerrard and company don't like it and respond by play like crap until their new manager gets canned by Christmas 2010. Gerrard himself admitted "... we let Roy down." Did Roy suddenly become a bad manager between May 2010 and Aug 2010 when he took over Liverpool? Obviously not. "OK," one might argue, "Roy wasn't a bad manager, but perhaps he wasn't a good fit for the Liverpool." That rational proves my point. Roy Hodgson, David Moyes, Felix Magath, etc. didn't suddenly become bad managers. Their players, consciously or unconsciously, refused to adapt and got their managers fired. Cheese or not, the Fulham players understood this. BTW: Germany just one their fourth WC and leads the world in exports while, by some measures, the UK standard of living lags below every state in the USA except Mississippi.
"But it isn't all Magath's fault", says Danny - “It goes back a lot further than Felix Magath,” Murphy said. “He’s taken a hammering, and rightly so, because what he’s done has been ludicrous but the problems started the summer I left." The full story and a round-up of all the players we should not have let go, according to Danny - http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...made-two-years-ago--danny-murphy-9750880.html Is he talking himself out of a job or ishe simply miffed because he hasn't had that 'phone call'?
It's a good story and explanation for Fulham's downfall. People want to blame the managers who followed Roy, but the blame lands squarely at the shoulders of MAF and now Khan; MAF for pocketing the money from the sales of (Dempsey and Dembele) and unloading many of our best, high-wage earners. And Khan ... he's just an idiot for giving Magath the power to gut the club and then not backing him as manager. Interesting, too, the high opinion Murphy had of AJ.
I can't disagree with what he says - although I didn't quite catch his point about AJ? He was never our top goalscorer for 4 years? Or did he mean Demps? - but he does seem to be digging himself a bit of a hole now.
Magath had long enough. He drove our best players out of the club (if you believe the media, and notice the parts he hasn't publicly addressed), used 29(?) players in 7 games, used players in 3 or 4 different positions each... the list goes on. His record at Fulham speaks for itself. You can spin it how you like, but being bottom of the table with one point from 7 games is not good enough. His job is to set the team up to win and galvanise and motivate his players, and he failed on that front. Nobody expected us to be beating everyone week-in, week-out, but we expected to be competitive. Instead we're a bit of a joke this season
All of the Magath weirdness makes good headlines, but I'd don't think it's his methods and idiosyncrasies that were the biggest problem. If he was a complete bafoon he wouldn't have won three German league titles or saved so many other sides from relegation. His record last season was on a par with the previous two managers and he probably got as many results with that group of players as anyone else would have. The real problem that we've been left with is that he completely underestimated the Championship. His legacy is a mixture of average players from leagues around Europe who are out of their depth, promising youngsters who aren't ready yet, a few good players who wanted to leave in the Summer but couldn't and a few more who are actually up to scratch. Unless Kit or whoever else can fashion a reasonably effective unit out of them all to get us moving up the table, we could living with the Magath legacy for years to come. Murphy is clearly right to a certain extent about the longer term causes of Fulham's decline, but I don't think it's decisions that were made 2-3 seasons ago that led to us being relegated and the position we're in now. The squad that Khan inherited was not in such a state that relegation was inevitable. If the decisions made in the Summer of 2013 regarding Jol's future and new signings had been more long term we'd probably have been ok. Everything that was done in the pre-season after Khan took over appeared to be designed to just do enough to keep us up in the last year of Martin Jol's contract. I'm not convinced by what Murphy says about Dempsey. He'd publicly said he wanted to play Champions League football which is as good as having said he wanted to leave.
Yes, that was news to me, too. It would explain a few things, though, if what Murphy says was true Dempsey wants a new contract at the beginning of '11/12, but MAF gambles he can re-sign Dempsey on the cheap. Dempsey goes out and scores 23 goals while Dembele rises to stardom. Rather than pay the players what their worth, Dempsey and Dembele are put on the block, with MAF pocketing the money. Based on what we know of MAF, that would make some sense. Dempsey didn't start chirping about "champions league" until the end of the '11/12 season. Doesn't make any different. Fulham's a wreck and the new owner's pitiful.
He's talking himself out of the job - whether he intends to or not. I agree with a lot of what he says (miffed about the AJ bit though) but as a former captain the timing suggests perhaps the club isn't so close to his heart - as he would suggest. I think Danny Murphy means more to Danny Murphy than Fulham - this will do wonders for his broadcasting career but set him back in his as of yet non-existent managerial one.
I was 100% for Danny to be taken on board, but like the 2 previous postees I am now wavering, the thing is we don't want to make a cock up with our next managerial appointment.
Don't think Danny is experienced enough to help us... Remember Shearer and Newcastle a few years ago? Didn't work... Yes if he wants to come as one of the coaches/assistants. He will help by showing the youngsters how to put a through ball and release quickly. In a couple of cases yesterday they could have passed faster and get the advantage.
Yet more soundbites from DM: http://www.sportsvibe.co.uk/article...ks-in-depth-about-liverpool-and-fulham-36658/
