Jump to content
IGNORED

9 months is a long time.. FFC


Hampshire Red

Recommended Posts

Many of us were envious of Fulham back in August when they had a PL fixture list to 'look forward' to. They had one of our own local academy/top players, they'd spent £110m on 12new players and they were considered to be in good shape. A year ago they played great football, apart from at home to City, and had good youth reserves. 

Now they are returning to The Championship I wonder what their fans think of this brief encounter with the top flight. No away wins all season after years of dreaming about going to O.T, Emirates, Anfield etc. 

Like they say, Be careful what you wish for. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hampshire Red said:

Many of us were envious of Fulham back in August when they had a PL fixture list to 'look forward' to. They had one of our own local academy/top players, they'd spent £110m on 12new players and they were considered to be in good shape. A year ago they played great football, apart from at home to City, and had good youth reserves. 

Now they are returning to The Championship I wonder what their fans think of this brief encounter with the top flight. No away wins all season after years of dreaming about going to O.T, Emirates, Anfield etc. 

Like they say, Be careful what you wish for. 

They will have learned from the experience and will probably have enough money to have another shot at a quick return next season.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hampshire Red said:

Now they are returning to The Championship I wonder what their fans think of this brief encounter with the top flight. No away wins all season after years of dreaming about going to O.T, Emirates, Anfield etc. 

Fulham were a well established premier league club not so long ago, it's not like they were desperate for their first crack at the big time. Given the ambition and spending power of their owner, I'm sure they'll get back to the Premier League again in the coming years.

In recent memory their fans have had the pleasure of a run to a European final that included battering Juventus, and finishing 7th in the Premier League.

Granted this season has been a disaster for them, but they're hardly deprived of recent success. They'll be thinking they need to learn from the experience and try to bounce back, not just sit and enjoy being a good championship club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin
2 hours ago, Hampshire Red said:

Many of us were envious of Fulham back in August when they had a PL fixture list to 'look forward' to. They had one of our own local academy/top players, they'd spent £110m on 12new players and they were considered to be in good shape. A year ago they played great football, apart from at home to City, and had good youth reserves. 

Now they are returning to The Championship I wonder what their fans think of this brief encounter with the top flight. No away wins all season after years of dreaming about going to O.T, Emirates, Anfield etc. 

Like they say, Be careful what you wish for. 

Expect the bank manager will be the happiest with the Sky money

Ultimately their recruitment was shocking last summer and disrupted a side which if left alone may have done better 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, phantom said:

Expect the bank manager will be the happiest with the Sky money

Ultimately their recruitment was shocking last summer and disrupted a side which if left alone may have done better 

indeed. I reckon they are in a worse position to compete in the Championship next season than they would have been without spending the money. I reckon it might be two or three seasons before they compete again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Roe said:

Fulham and Huddersfield having seasons like they have is a good for a club like ours to be honest as if we were to go up they're good examples of what mistakes to avoid.

Tbh, Huddersfield's promotion was almost a lucky accident. They have the opportunity to build a proper solid foundation now- fact they banked 2 years TV money and 3 years parachute payments because of it and they had the 2nd lowest wage bill in PL last season- unsure I'd class them as having made a great deal of errors. £29.7m (before taxation) profit last season. I liken their promotion to Blackpool's- except where it went wrong for Blackpool was they had the Oystons, Huddersfield have Hoyle OTOH a fan and a very prudent owner.

Fulham OTOH...where to begin.

@phantom Don't think a lot of those individuals they signed were so bad tbh. Certainly if you look at it in terms of pedigree or past experience, they would have been a lot higher individually and probably collectively than Cardiff, or Burnley when they came up and stayed up, or Bournemouth when they came up. Their big issues were too many IMO, instability off the back of it- switching between 3 goalkeepers for a start, Bryan at LB- losing Fredericks and Targett a big blow, regular changes of the shape...yeah trying to play exactly the same way was a blunder too, but agree they would have been better keeping the bulk of their Championship squad then adding say one CM- Seri- and maybe Schurrle and Vietto as icing on the cake, as extra striking/wide options. Kalas too perhaps push harder for his retention (though glad they didn't), Norwood retain him and only one new keeper not 2. Then focus some of those extra saved resources on let's say Mawson and one high calibre centre back. Bryan not an LB either, not really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Tbh, Huddersfield's promotion was almost a lucky accident. They have the opportunity to build a proper solid foundation now- fact they banked 2 years TV money and 3 years parachute payments because of it and they had the 2nd lowest wage bill in PL last season- unsure I'd class them as having made a great deal of errors. £29.7m (before taxation) profit last season. I liken their promotion to Blackpool's- except where it went wrong for Blackpool was they had the Oystons, Huddersfield have Hoyle OTOH a fan and a very prudent owner.

Fulham OTOH...where to begin.

@phantom Don't think a lot of those individuals they signed were so bad tbh. Certainly if you look at it in terms of pedigree or past experience, they would have been a lot higher individually and probably collectively than Cardiff, or Burnley when they came up and stayed up, or Bournemouth when they came up. Their big issues were too many IMO, instability off the back of it- switching between 3 goalkeepers for a start, Bryan at LB- losing Fredericks and Targett a big blow, regular changes of the shape...yeah trying to play exactly the same way was a blunder too, but agree they would have been better keeping the bulk of their Championship squad then adding say one CM- Seri- and maybe Schurrle and Vietto as icing on the cake, as extra striking/wide options. Kalas too perhaps push harder for his retention (though glad they didn't), Norwood retain him and only one new keeper not 2. Then focus some of those extra saved resources on let's say Mawson and one high calibre centre back. Bryan not an LB either, not really.

Spot on. In a nutshell they changed far too much. Also, my rule of thumb for a relegation guaranteed season is more than 2 managers.

And a comment on an earlier post: Fulham battering Juventus. Incredible to imagine that now......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Tbh, Huddersfield's promotion was almost a lucky accident. They have the opportunity to build a proper solid foundation now- fact they banked 2 years TV money and 3 years parachute payments because of it and they had the 2nd lowest wage bill in PL last season- unsure I'd class them as having made a great deal of errors. £29.7m (before taxation) profit last season. I liken their promotion to Blackpool's- except where it went wrong for Blackpool was they had the Oystons, Huddersfield have Hoyle OTOH a fan and a very prudent owner.

I guess it depends how you look at it.  They've certainly had a remarkable few years that not many would have predicted a while ago.  Ultimately though they have got relegated and I doubt that was their plan at the start of the season.  It's a sign that investment is certainly needed, whereas Fulham is an example that too much investment can sometimes have the opposite effect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Roe said:

I guess it depends how you look at it.  They've certainly had a remarkable few years that not many would have predicted a while ago.  Ultimately though they have got relegated and I doubt that was their plan at the start of the season.  It's a sign that investment is certainly needed, whereas Fulham is an example that too much investment can sometimes have the opposite effect.

I would agree not necessarily part of the plan- but expected at some point I am sure. Certainly would have been factored into their budgeting and accounting, likely Cardiff have also factored in the potential for relegation season 1.

Investment needed- yes, and no. Better investment most definitely. Throwing money at it isn't always the best answer. Easiest, yeah. Best? Not always. Fulham an excellent example. They are a club who definitely won't have factored in likelihood of straight relegation, think they were looking to build a squad or the basis of a squad for 4-5 years last summer- get through that first season, let it mesh, let it gel and build from there in years 2 and 3, with a lot of up-front investment and then some changes here and them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Coxy27 said:

Fulham were a well established premier league club not so long ago, it's not like they were desperate for their first crack at the big time. Given the ambition and spending power of their owner, I'm sure they'll get back to the Premier League again in the coming years.

In recent memory their fans have had the pleasure of a run to a European final that included battering Juventus, and finishing 7th in the Premier League.

Granted this season has been a disaster for them, but they're hardly deprived of recent success. They'll be thinking they need to learn from the experience and try to bounce back, not just sit and enjoy being a good championship club.

I really enjoyed watching that Fulham team of that time. Signing 15 players was always a risk that it would disrupt the harmony and winning mentally that was achieved by their run in the 2nd half of last season. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

I heard on the radio there cheapest match day ticket this weekend against Man City is £55 

you can see why some are protesting 

i hope we don’t stoop to these prices if promoted 

I wouldn't be surprised, supply and demand dictates price to some extent and against the bigger sides you can charge more - probably a lot more than they have. If you could only attend the odd game and you're concerned about price just get a ticket v Burnley, I would imagine they are much cheaper and you still get to see the same team that matters play. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, phantom said:

Expect the bank manager will be the happiest with the Sky money

Ultimately their recruitment was shocking last summer and disrupted a side which if left alone may have done better 

Yep, needed a few improvements / upgrades and the opportunity to prove themselves

4 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

indeed. I reckon they are in a worse position to compete in the Championship next season than they would have been without spending the money. I reckon it might be two or three seasons before they compete again. 

Yep, Mitrovic will be in demand, Sessegnon, plus others will want to jump ship to avoid taking a cut of up to 50% if their wages by dropping down.

The key will be how they spend that money.  No players have relegation release clauses, so can get good value...but then again you don’t want unhappy players either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...