Having read the posts recently, admittedly I donât comment too often myself, but we seem to have a lot of doom and gloom. Our board is suggesting that MAF isnât investing enough, MJ is leaving or just not up to the job, and the following should be shipped out, Schwarzer, Senderos, Urby, Sidwell, BR, Berba, Frimpong, JAR, Enoh, Petric, Rodallga, Kaca, Manolev, Richarson and probably more⦠Only positive replies to this post please, but I donât expect any. We must get some though, cos we ainât got a team to support otherwise![/FONT]:
Good luck with that! I've got a positive outlook. We've not had a great season, but it started brightly, and even when we lost our two best players we looked good after Christmas until Dejagah got crocked. We've not had a settled side all season, we've clearly not had money to spend and given that, the loanees and frees haven't done badly. It was always going to be transitional and, barring bad luck, we'll still be in the PL next season. I'm looking forward to recruitment this summer and seeing some of our outstanding youth players make the step up. I know some like to wallow but we should be looking ahead! A win tomorrow would put a smile on everyone's face (well, perhaps not ros').
Considering the only way we go down is if we concede at least 13 goal over the next two games, I'm not sure bad luck would be enough. We'd have to play far worse than we have been to get ourselves in that situation and would only have ourselves to blame! Anyways, there has been an outpouring of negativity over the past week, that's true. But watching the performance against Reading brought back all the memories of our dire Christmas period (Swansea especially) and that made a lot of us feel down. But there are positive posters (Bidley & the Captain being two noted optimists) and reasons to be positive. Firstly, Martin Jol. He has a good transfer record with us, in my opinion. We probably overpaid for Ruiz, but that aside he has got some very good value for money. Dejagah has looked worth double his fee, Berbatov is our leading scorer, Riether was a loan potentially turning into a low fee. Jol generally makes the right substitutions too (Reading being a bizarre exception), although that leads to my only real criticism: he often waits too long to make that obvious substitution. But Jol has an idea of how he wants us to play and with some moderate summer spending I think he'll have us going in the right direction. MAF does need to invest this summer, in my opinion. Not a huge amount, but after 2 years where we have trading in credit I think it is reasonable to ask for at least £15m to spend. I trust in Jol to find us some good value with that (remember Dembele was only £5m and Murphy was free! The signings are out there.) Now, the playing staff. I would not mind seeing the back of Sidwell as he just doesn't seem a Fulhamish player (much like when we signing Michael Brown); however, I accept he probably does have a role to play with us. Aside from that, most of the players who will leave (e.g. Baird, Davies) will do so because they are getting old rather than because they were terrible for us. Players like Urby will be leaving as he is only a loan player. Petric is out of contract. It is absolutely fine to want to fine-tune our squad and I don't think that is negative at all. There is only one player who really divides opinions now and that is Ruiz. Yet even the most frustrated of us (probably you, Ros ) would have to admit he has an upside. Without his big fee, he would not be the target for criticism that he has become. He is a very good attacking player and he can be accommodated in the right system. We've been playing catch up since the club gambled on retaining Dembele; this summer we should finally get the chance for Jol to reset and identify the first team style and personnel he really wants. How's this for a positive outlook: remember how good we looked until Dembele went? I have no reason to think Jol won't have us playing that well again once he has a few months to work on it.
I agree. He's only ever looked like a £10m player in flashes, but him and Berba are two easy targets, because they look brilliant when we win and woeful when we lose. It's true if we didn't have them at Fulham we may not have lost games we have lost, but on the flipside we wouldn't have won the games we have. It's easy to point the finger at these players because they don't bust a gut and they're not workmanlike at all, but we wouldn't fair much better with a team of donkeys. I think it's fair to say the squad, as it is, isn't what MJ wants (despite what most will say) and unless there's something mentally wrong with him (again, as most will say) he'll be looking to make us more like the complete article over the summer. I don't think he's frightened to pay big fees or prefers to spend little or nothing (yep, like others will say), and the board needs to back him up with a few quid. A couple of choice signings with a few from the academy would suffice.
Surlyc, thanks that is positive and pitched about right in my humble opinion. I hadn't sussed that Villa and Wigan game had the effect it has following today's result, derrrr, so that has me in a better frame of mind! From the recent interview, MJ would appear to be looking for contract players to give stability to our team. His skill in the market and knowledge of players will come to the fore I'm sure. Maybe the odd donkey may come in who we can moan about, but that is just being Fulhamish I guess. But we can't moan at all the players, management and the Owner. A good result tomorrow would be good, but we are Fulham, not LFC. Happy days ahead
Keeping a "Positive" outlook and I would remind everyone about Micky Adams' "Keep The Faith". Yes we have issues, but were were not serious contenders for relegation - As the bookies agreed. I remaining convinced that there are a lot of teams in the Prem/leaving it/joining it with bigger problems than Fulham. Bidley is absolutely right about Berbatov and Ruiz "on the flipside we wouldn't have won the games we have." You have to accomodate flair, which means changing shape from a "norm". Certainly I'd love to keep Berbatov next season! I'm still not sure about Ruiz, unless we can get the centre of midfield sorted - Which brings me back to my broken record. Central midfield has been the main weakness this season, with no steadying hand (ala Danny) or flair player who can actually tackle (DemPele). Yes we all have a shopping list for half the positions, but the critical point is midfield. I will not blame our defence too much for letting in 4 goals last week - part of the reason for them getting dragged about was the woeful coverage in the centre of the pitch. MJ got caught out in this area last summer and I think he's too clever to not to fix this. But the summer beckons - MJ will do his work. MAF will give him some money - We's got a new stand to justify! So 1 or 3 points against Liverpool please. C O Y W !!!!!!
Whilst it has been a poor finish to the season, there have been positives to come out of this season. Securing the services of a world class striker. There are surely no other 4.5 million pound rated strikers that have scored 14 premier goals. Berbatov has been frustrating and utterly sublime, he has been inspiring whilst seemingly not to bothered by anything. Love him or loathe him his ability for us has been amazing, certainly up there with Dempsey and Saha of recent goal scorers. Sacha Reither - Absolute class. A very solid right back that is great defensively and has linked extremely well with Dejagah as the season's went on. We must sign him up as a priority. Dejagah - Taken a while to adapt but looks a good buy. Our dip in recent form coincidentally marries up to him getting injuried. Kaka - We should forget that he had a very good start to the season and showed signs of linking up well with Berbatov. This was somewhat short lived but is something to work on over the summer. Ruiz - As with Berbatov a controversial character. I will be the first to say I have bemoaned his presence in the team. However, he has turned in 5 goals, 6 assists and has a pass completion of 84.8 %. These are decent stats for an attacking midfielder, he could do with getting some more goals though. Jol has talked of freeing him up by getting another playmaker, if this were to happen these stats could only improve. Our youth development: Trotta has mixed reports, although his performances of late have improved ( apart from THAT penalty miss ! ). Dan Burn has been good and is surely a great prospect. The under 18's winning the league and the Dallas Cup. Whilst the form of the senior team has been inconsistent, the youth teams have been playing quality professional football. A huge summer lies ahead for Fulham football club, will any younger prospects be moved up to the senior team ? How many of the curent squad will be playing for us next season ? Will Jol be leading the ship ? 1 point from a possible 21 is poor, many managers have been moved on for less.
Having watched our recent matches,and the adopted playing format it appears we do not have the fight or determination to survive as a premiership club. I know i will be criticised for my negativity, by those postees, who accept mediocrity as our highest form of achievement,but lets face facts, we have failed to even reach this level. Apart from those glorious RH seasons,we seem though, talented on paper,lack the three most important ingrediants conviction, motivation, determination,some or all of these atributes,can be seen in those clubs who are in religation dogfight. My aspirations as a supporter are no so high Stand up if you believe,a great Micky Adams quotation,adered to by most fans,but not by it appears many of our lacklustre team and management.
A lot of thoughts laid in this post. I share some of the concerns such as 1 point out of 21, good performances but no end result, etc. It is a problem with our current squad. Too many players on loan and short contracts. You can't expect commitment by any of those. They will never be settled. Does this have to do with the budget? Quite possibly. Another problem I see in contrast with roscafe is that we have not achieved even such a mediocrity. The team has not managed to stay on top 10 two successive seasons. We are part of a group of teams only theoretically established in the PL. Massive re-building this summer. The issue I can see with this is the lack of players to build around apart from the defense. Hangeland and Riethe are two of the four. Midfield is a landmine. In contrary to those wanting Sidwell to move on I would keep him as one of the building blocks. His commitment is not questionable. Kasami might have a future if he works harder. Kaca and Frei if they get fit and Dejagah are still with us. Potentially Enoh can stay as we have the option. Up front? Another mystery. Depends on Berba. We have Hugo. This season was marketed as transitional but can't see where the transition will be to. Next season will be the same, need to spend wisely our limited funds and bring on some youth from the ranks who might have some commitment. Come on you Whites.
I won't criticise your negativity, Rosc, but I will criticise the way you dismiss anyone who disagrees with you as 'accepting mediocrity'. It may just be that we see things differently. Your use of commas is irritatingly eratic as well, but that's neither here nor there. I agree that we should be finishing higher up the table than we have done, and that even though it would take astonishingly bizarre results to put us down we should have been absolutely safe long before now. I'm realistic that we're never likely to be challenging for the Champions League places, but we should be doing better than our current position. Now for the things that I do disagree with... I don't get to as many matches as you, but the last game I was at, Reading, is one where several posters here have criticised our lack of fight. That wasn't what I saw. We were poor in the first half, but really went for it in the second. To twice come back and score having gone two goals behind isn't the sign of a team with no fight. On the thread for that game someone listed the number of times we hit the woodwork, were denied by excellent saves from McCarthy or otherwise had a promising move break down by the ball bouncing the wrong way in the box (that last one you can maybe put down to poor technique, but not lack of effort), plus the two penalty claims that we were denied (correctly, in my opinion, although I know that others disagree with me). On another day, that could just have easily have been 4-2 to us. It was a bad defeat, but not a hopeless or hapless one. I'm sure at some point someone will be saying 'if we hadn't won against QPR (or whoever else), we'd now be looking at relegation'. That's true. It's also true that if Hangeland hadn't been sent off against Sunderland when we were in stunning form, we would probably now have 6-10 more points at least. The three from that game, plus some of the points we dropped during his suspension. That was the moment that turned our season from one of looking upwards in hope to looking backwards in concern. When we criticise Jol for how we have done recently, we should also remember how well he had us playing at the start of the season. There's no reason to think we can't get back to that level again. There are problems in the team, but there's also a lot of potential. The biggest mistake Jol made, in retrospect, was to trust Dembele when he said he was happy to stay at Fulham. When Moussa then left at the last minute with no time to line up a replacement it meant that our midfield has been a case of make do and mend with free agents and loans rather than a class act to build a side around. Should we have lined up a signing just in case? Perhaps, although it's hard to say to a player, 'We'll sign you if we lose someone, can you keep yourself free for us on the off chance we come back for you?'. The timing of the Spurs bid made it an impossible situation. Karagounis was a great best-available solution, but we something longer term this summer. If we don't sign one or more quality (which may or may not mean established big names) central midfielders to build around in the summer, then - and only then - I'll be alongside you in the queue for the anxiety clinic. Stand up if you still believe? Well, I've just paused in my typing to stand up (I actually did stop and stand up, which is a little bit sad of me). As Micky Adams also used to say, Keep the Faith.
I agree captain,we must agree to disagree,but to get somewhat excited about our Reading result,and fightback. We lost 4 2 to a religated team at home. Having watched Fulham for many years i never envisaged that one day i would be watching us in the premiership. Well it happened,and if maintaining that status means cutting out the dead wood, be it player,coaching,or managerial, within the club so be it. It was allways known that Dembele had a get out clause,and Dempsey was chomping at the bit long before the seasons start, so where was Jols contingency plans. Survival on goal differance after 2 seasons in charge ?. I dont want to go down the road of our neighbours,managerial change as a fasion statement but i dont want to be having the same inquest this time next season.
Hard to be positive when weâve just lost 5 games on the bounce - equalling our worst run since joining the Premiership - and our form at the Cottage - won 7 drawn 3 lost 9 - is the worst since 1961. Mind you, we did have 11 consecutive defeats that season. But Iâll try. Itâs been a season of four quarters and the first of those provided as much fun as weâve had in many a day. The draw at Arsenal summed up the year in one game; some great attacking, some awful defending and in the end, nail biting. Specific positives to take forward ? * Brede Hangeland has signed a new contract * Weâre now going into our 13th consecutive year in the Premiership and in that time many bigger clubs have come and gone * The Club is solvent for the first time proper * The Ac ademy * The Ground Development * Kappaâs reign has come to an end * âDiddyâ David Hamilton is not going to retire We've had a lot of bad luck this season (some of it self inflicted and some of it ref-inflicted). There will always be ups and downs but as Jol said in his own version of what Fulhamish means, âthatâs usâ. WE ARE FULHAM
Yup, well if you can't then don't bother, the rest of the board is fair game for moaning! And agreed with your points, especially about the Kappa sponsorship! Looking forward to seeing the back of that chavviness.
Jol himself yesterday admitted we need 5 or 6 new players. Of course, some of these will cover the loanee returns, but he is right when he thinks we are short of real quality in some areas. I'm not Ruiz's biggest fan, but I am willing to admit he can have quality, we just need him to show it more often. I'd be quite happy to see Hugo move on - I don't see he gives us much and his goal scoring record with Wigan and with us is pretty poor, a sort of Heskey-a-like. Given the recruitment of his 5 or 6 and the promotion of a couple of the youngsters I think we'll be in a good place to start next season.
Yes, he is Captain. MAF grabbed him after the QPR game and told him, "as long as I'm here, so are you". End of .. As well as being part of the fabric, 'Diddy' is really professional and creates the right atmosphere for the Cottage, so good news all round. PS Also I'd miss his (mis-) pronunciation of the opposition player's names. On Staturday "Coates" of L'pool was " Co-A-tez" !
On a positive note, I expect my fine work on various Fulham internet forums may have finally caught the attention of the club, and I expect to be getting a call up this week for my first-team debut against Swansea. Frankly, it's about time I got some recognition from the club. Now look, I'm not saying anyone here on the forum has any pull with the club, but if any of you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, a testimonial match would not go unappreciated, that's all I'm saying.
