It may be that he had other commitments or he didn't want to waste a bottle of Cava on the City chiefs, but MAF apparently had had enough by half time on Sunday - "Jol revealed his team's recovery had even caught chairman Mohamed Al Fayed by surprise. The Cottagers boss quipped: "On Sunday, he left at half-time - so that was a little problem. "He was going to come out, then saw the result on the screen and went home. "But after the game he was happy because when he got home they told him we had a draw, so he could not complain about that!"
I personally have great respect for M A F,when you consider the financial input he has put into the club, and where we are now, from where we came from. A FFC club man through and through.
I wouldn't read too much into it. That said, I am more ambivalent towards Al Fayed. It's true that we wouldn't be where we are today without his financial input, but I think he's a Mohammed Al Fayed man through and through, rather than a Fulham man. I've never been comfortable with chairman who revel in the spotlight and parade around on the pitch - the pitch is for the players and the coaches, not the fans and not the board - and he has been prone to rewriting history to emphasise his role and deminish the efforts of those who have gone before him or fallen out with him. On the plus side, he's been a good chairman - a little hasty to sack managers before we reached the Premier League, but giving decent managers time since then and not (as far as I'm aware) interfering in team affairs. I wouldn't want to see him go, but I don't share the same affection for him that I know some other Fulham fans have.
Captain totally disagree with your comments,without M A F,we could well be out of the league. and most probably be ground sharing at best.
I'm not sure it matters, in the long run, if Chairman Mo's heart goes pitter patter for FFC. Love is a fickle thing; if suddenly Al-Fayed discovers the wonderful world of F1 racing, his interest and support for FFC could move to the back burner, endangering the team's future. But if MAF takes a business man's approach to supporting Fulham, knowing the club's more valuable as a success in the EPL than an also-ran in League 1, he'll continue supporting the team. And that's what matters to us.
I said that we wouldn't be where we are without Al Fayed, but the Micky Adams team won promotion out of the fourth tier before he bought the club, and Jimmy Hill secured our long-term future at the Cottage before Al Fayed bought the club (I can't remember if that happened at the start or end of the promotion season, but it was one or the other). It's pure speculation on my part but if Al Fayed hadn't arrived when he did, I think the team Adams was still building would have stabilised in the third tier and been competing for promotion to the second tier in a few seasons. Best case scenario after that is that we would be a team who had some seasons of being a decent championship side and some where we struggled, possibly seeing us shuffle between the Championship and League One. Worst case scenario would probably have seen us doing the same between League One and League Two. Micky Adams' record at Brighton (with a team including several players who were deemed surplus to requirements by those who came to Fulham after him) makes me think that the first case is the more likely. It suits Al Fayed to paint the picture that the club was going nowhere until he arrived, but the truth is that after several years of moribund underachievement, we were finally a club on the up before he arrived. That's not to say that he hasn't made a huge contribution to the club - he undoubtedly has, as I said in my original post - but he isn't the reason we're still here. If anyone deserves that accolade it's Jimmy Hill, who got a lot of flak at the time and seems to be airbrushed out of history now.
Captain , when you have watched Fulham as long as I have,and been a season ticket holder for the past 37 years, maybe then you would take a different view,on our fortunes under M A F .No one is air brushing Jimmy Hill or Micky Adams from the contribution they have made to the club ( that is your opinion as an armchair supporter)
First of all, Roscafre, apologies if you thought I was accusing you personally of airbrushing Jimmy Hill, Micky Adams et al out of history. That certainly wasn't my intention. Instead I was talking about the official line that club puts out these days. To illustrate my point, here's a page from the official club website, which certainly implies that things hadn't already turned a corner before the current chairman rode to the rescue: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Chairman/Chairman.aspx This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. This could just have easily have been written with a gracious acknowledgement of those who went before Al Fayed - even in a single sentence - and still focused on highlighting all the investment and success that Al Fayed has undoubtedly brought to the club. I just think it lacks class and humility, and disrespects many people whose connection to Fulham, like your own, goes back a lot further than Al Fayed's. When I disagreed with your statement about where we would be without Al Fayed, I gave an alternative assessment and backed it up with reasons. You may still disagree with me - fair enough - but at least engage with my argument and tell me why I've got it wrong, rather than dismiss me as not being a proper Fulham fan and not being in a position to know what I'm talking about. I've supported Fulham for over 30 years, and while it's true that I can only get to a few games a season now, for many of those 30 years I was a regular. I don't think that the fact that geography, family and work commitments and the sheer cost of attending games makes me any less of a Fulham fan. One of the things I like about this board is that those of us who have been Fulham fans for a long time don't get high-handed with the newer arrivals. I'm sorry if I provoked you into treating me in that manner.
Captain I have seen the article you have mentioned,and wilst not mentioning the aforementioned persons in M A Fs article,I do not see it as airbrushing all that went before. Some time ago I was in the company of Jimmy Hill,chairman at the time, who I watched and admired through all of his phases as a true Fulham man. several questions were raised. One of them being will we ever get back into the top league,the reply was we would need lots of financial backing much more than our present board could manage. secondly could we as a lower division club maintain our position at the cottage,this brought the answer, our costs were mounting and the decision one day could not be taken by us but by our creditors. Thus my support and admiration for M A F,who through his input allows me to sit, as a season ticket holder, and watch my club play in the premiership,something I and others could not have dreamed of before his tenure. My apologies if my article upset you in any way,as I can assure you was not my intention.
Fair enough, Roscafre. Apology accepted. And, as I said in the first place, I absolutely accept that we wouldn't be where we are without Al Fayed. He may be a mad old goat, but he's our mad old goat!
