We really shouldn't keep Diarra. Great player but too old and too injury prone. Perhaps if we sign a slightly older head we may get a choice. I'm surprised that Parker isn't Captain material. He looks the sort who should be.
Absolutely right - Sidwell is the motivator in the side. And he'll do well in the Championship for us, bossing midfield. COYW
Looks like Felix has got a financial motivation to keep us up... Fulham boss Felix Magath will face a 30% pay cut if the club are relegated this season. Full story: Daily Mirror
I'd imagine something similar applies to the players too. The club couldn't have been naive enough not to put these types of clauses into players' contracts... or could they?
Yes but that was done out of desperation at the last minute. Signing players up to contracts happened over the past couple of years. I think they'll all receive a wage cut if we go down.
I'm going to get this on record right now: if we go down, I certainly don't think it's the fault of Magath. If he'd joined the team in December or even January, I'd say he's got some responsibility in this fiasco, but given the fact he didn't take control of the team until Feb 14, and thus didn't have time to turn things around, I'd say the majority of the fault lies with Khan. Frankly, I think he should have just left Rene in charge. Seemed like the team was gaining some momentum and confidence under Rene's command when Khan brought Felix in. Assuming the worst, I'd say MAF was 60% at fault, 40% for Khan for a) not recognizing early enough the danger the team was in and b) for failing to respond properly once he realized we were in trouble.
I dug out my Excel spreadsheet from the great escape season where I did a few of the scenarios back then... As back then and now we are not commanding our luck but because everything is so tight at both ends it is nearly impossible to make a prediction! Even 3 wins and a draw might be enough to save us...
Might be, but I doubt it. I still think we need four wins and a draw as a bare minimum. We've left ourselves with very little margin for error... again. It's 2008 all over again (we hope).
