Clint is coming home. Albeit only for a couple of months or so, but I think with his desire to earn himself a starting role for the USA in Brazil 2014 and perhaps an unconscious want to atone for the way he left us in summer 2012, we should see some exciting displays and hopefully a few goals to boot. Alan Curbishley. Although some might scoff, he is a very knowledgeable football man. He performed wonders with Charlton Athletic, (look where they are now) and did another decent job at Upton Park. I'm not entirely sure what a First Team technical director's role is but I think he will be a good sounding board for Rene and will put forward ideas and changes of his own. Rene. Everytime I listen to him speak I'm impressed. He has got the team playing with vigour again and has already picked up some decent results. He is enthusiastic, keen to learn and has been yearning for a chance like this for years. Ferguson doesn't take fools gladly and if the rumours are true he was highly complimentary to Moyes about Rene and strongly suggested he remain on the coaching staff at United. Old Trafford's loss is I think our gainâ¦.. The transfer window. Bye and thanks and best of luck in the future and all that to Berbatov, Ruiz and Richardson. Rene has the oppourtunity now to build his own team and although I don't think major rebuilding will occur until the summer, loan from the North West and more specifically United are a big possibility, (Buttner has already been linked to fill our troublesome left back slot). Forget the result yesterday. Freak results like that sometimes happen and we were just unfortunate to be on the receiving end of one this time, (remember the 6-0 vs Norwich, the 6-1 vs West Brom and the 6-0 vs QPR). It happens, but the important thing for the team to do is pick themselves up and get a decent result against West Ham back at the Cottage on New Year's Day. Keep the Faith. COYW!!!
I don't share the belief that we need to ship out half our squad in January, it's the worst time to do so and we have less chance of getting any replacements in. The idea is to improve on what we have, not to get rid of everyone who played badly the other day and hope whichever Tom, Dick or Harry we sign is better. Changes are needed, but we need money, something which seems to elude us at the moment. Broadly speaking though, we have been much better since Rene took over, we had a massively changed side out yesterday. We've only had one truly bad half a game and we leaked 6 goals! Two massive games coming up and I think everyone will be up for it.
FFC will have to rely on its own performances. Looking at the current table there are load of clubs starting at the drop zone; it's difficult to see which 5-6 will be in trouble come February/March. So, in Glass-Half-Full mode, I'll make a posting that could still easily apply in 3 months - We have (had) a challenging March, but let's consider the final 6 match run-in. Writing-off the Spurs match, there are points in the other 5 matches, against teams who are (/may be) in danger. - Villa away - Norwich home - Spurs away - Hull home - Stoke away - Palace home C O Y W !!
I think we'll be out of trouble by then. Feel free to throw that back at me if I'm wrong, but I think it's onwards and upwards from here on in.
Given the team's performance over the first dozen games, these stats give lots of room for optimism. "Goals Conceded" being the obvious one major worry, and which leads to a raising of the eyebrow when looking at individual player assessments, but overall not so bad.. please log in to view this image
13th on goals scores while =17th on shots per game suggests that when we shoot, we're fairly accurate and efficient. Even so, the shots per game and tackles per game are a worry. But on the basis of form under the Mule, the second half of the season must be better. Someone wrote into TOOFIF years ago with a theory that Fulham don't have good and bad seasons, we have good and bad calendar years. If that's the case we can definitely put 2013 in the 'bad' column. I think 2014 is going to be one of the good ones.
