My hopes from the beginning of the season

[Fulham Joe]

I don't know about the rest of you, but the negativity lately is getting to me.
Yes, we have been poor so far, and losing to Cardiff isn't great, but they would have had that game down as one they could and should win, and they have done.
The only thing I wanted, and indeed expected from this season was to stay up, and I don't see why we can't do that.
It's the Premier league, and according to many on here we are totally abysmal, yet we still have two teams below us, and a few around us.
We were never going to have instant success, so try and show a bit of patience.
We have a manager we were all praising just a few months ago, we have a chairmen who has spent money the likes of which we've never seen, so let's see where we end up.
Some of you guys need to remember where we were 25 years ago. In that time, we have had a far better run than most teams.

[Lighthouse]

While I admire any fan who comes up with this sort of comment. I don 't think we can sensibly sit back and say that our aim is to stay up and we are not down yet. The worst start to any Prem season by a Fulham side. The worst goals conceded in the Prem this season. The constant changing of the team and questionable attitude of players and their contusion on the pitch is not something we can just shrug our shoulders at and pretend we are content to being beaten by the bottom club who doubled their seasons goal tally in one game.

The negativity doesn't come from the fans but the team. We all jump about and act stupid and feel better for the week when we watch a good performance or see a win. But having players fall over not once but many times. Have players make silly passes and look stupid and confused EVERY game or at least a large part of it.

Comments and frustration are bound to take their toll. We can be positive in any circumstance. But it doesn't make it sensible. We all hope for a change. But until we see some sort of clue that any player or the coach looks as if he has any idea what the hell he should be doing. We can't just sing 'Don't worry be happy'. We would look as silly as our defenders did yesterday.

[davew]

While I admire any fan who comes up with this sort of comment. I don 't think we can sensibly sit back and say that our aim is to stay up and we are not down yet. The worst start to any Prem season by a Fulham side. The worst goals conceded in the Prem this season. The constant changing of the team and questionable attitude of players and their contusion on the pitch is not something we can just shrug our shoulders at and pretend we are content to being beaten by the bottom club who doubled their seasons goal tally in one game.

The negativity doesn't come from the fans but the team. We all jump about and act stupid and feel better for the week when we watch a good performance or see a win. But having players fall over not once but many times. Have players make silly passes and look stupid and confused EVERY game or at least a large part of it.

Comments and frustration are bound to take their toll. We can be positive in any circumstance. But it doesn't make it sensible. We all hope for a change. But until we see some sort of clue that any player or the coach looks as if he has any idea what the hell he should be doing. We can't just sing 'Don't worry be happy'. We would look as silly as our defenders did yesterday.

Well said!!

[toshes mate]

As physics suggests if you take a positive and introduce it to a negative they cancel each other out.  Hence they co-exist until reduced to neutrality and balance.   The neutral view has no misfortune or fortune in sight and yet it may always hold the key to making a move than being positive or being negative will ever do.  When you make a bad move you cannot erase it but you can learn from it.  In similar vein if you make a good move it is not a guarantee that your next move will also be good, but you will learn much from both outcomes.  It takes a while to become really pragmatic I grant you but everybody can do it if they really want to.  Of course, for many, positive and negative are simply far too good or bad too miss.

I could go back to the archives for last October and find much the same material as we see today, and I bet I would find lots of pessimism, gloom and doom mixed up with little doses of optimism here and there.  I also bet that at any point in the future there'll be fair doses of both as fortunes turn first this way and then that way.       

[Fulham Joe]

People don't need to be happy at the moment, but calling for the managers head because we've made a poor start is pathetic.

[Camel Club]

I've been on here many times this season pleading for patience and have pointed out the disadvantages of being promoted via the play-offs; particularly during a World Cup year and when the transfer window has closed this early.

That said I must admit I really am beginning to question my belief in SJ's ability to manage at this level. I love the guy and what he's done for us; not just in terms of our promotion but in the way he has helped put Fulham back on the football map with the brand of expansive attacking football played under him.

I know he said even before the season started that he wouldn't change the way his team would play. I'd always thought that there was a bit of bravado in that statement but I'm increasingly beginning to think that's the only way he knows how to play.

I hope that's not the case but by now he really should have demonstrated that a) he is close to deciding on his best defensive line up and b) he has set the team up to better protect our defensive frailties as we gel and cope with the number of  injuries that have made us especially vulnerable.

My concern is SJ appears to have learned nothing and I don't think any of us could have predicted the line up yesterday. I hope everybody gets behind him and the team against Bournemouth next Saturday as I would hate to hear even a small number of our supporters calling for his head but I honestly believe he has only 2 games to save his job.

Yes we're only 3rd bottom and there are plenty of teams around us but lose the next 2 games and we could be cut adrift by the end of the year.

Is it too much to hope for that he goes for a 4-4-2 next week, we win 2-0 and that the fans are chanting his name at the end of the game?

[filham]

No I am not calling for the managers head, not this week.

But can some one advise me that with with £100million spent on new players, nine games gone, only one win and 25 goals conceded how much longer we should continue to take these sucker punches before a change should be made.

[filham]

Look Fulham Joe , it must have been about 23 years ago that Micky Adams assembled a good division 2 promotion winning team for about £70,000, now we have spent some £100,000,000.and have held on to valuable players in Cairney and Sess. and are watching a team that can win but one game in nine.

[Whitesideup]

People don't need to be happy at the moment, but calling for the managers head because we've made a poor start is pathetic.

Agreed.

[Fulham Joe]

Look Fulham Joe , it must have been about 23 years ago that Micky Adams assembled a good division 2 promotion winning team for about £70,000, now we have spent some £100,000,000.and have held on to valuable players in Cairney and Sess. and are watching a team that can win but one game in nine.

Oh yes, how silly of me, because division two and the Premier League are so similar aren't they?

Look I'm frustrated too, but I'm someone who strongly believes that you shouldn't change your manager just because the team is going through a very poor spell.
I'm prepared to give Slav the whole season to put it right, but I guess we could go down the Jol, Meulensteen, Magath, Symons route, because that really worked didn't it?

[Baszab]

All those managers were sacked when things were going wrong
Just saying

[Lighthouse]

Without people being sacked we wouldn't have had Joka as a coach. But we all hope that he can turn it around. But sometimes a change is a good thing. Loyalty to a coach or player is good. However we all reach a moment in a job and in life when we decide that we can't influence things for the better and a fresh look could prove helpful.

[toshes mate]

Without life having started on earth.  Without Revs Cardwell and Propert, Dr Murdoch and Mr Norman and St Andrew's Church in Fulham Fields (thank Christ for that I guess!).  Without Khan buying up from MAF who also deserves our thanks, as do all the proceeding owners.  Without avoiding relegation to League One in Chapter One, I guess. 

'Without' is the opposite of 'with' and things change via either of them, no matter what, and we cannot know the state of anything had we chosen the opposite of the change we did choose.  We make decisions for a variety of reasons seemingly putting them in the positive / negative / good idea / bad idea boxes according to our own justification system, and not necessarily thinking anything about the way other people's lives will change too.   That is how the story goes.

Khan Snr has his personal justification system.  Some things may weigh heavier in his mind than others in his mind but I doubt his memory will be short because when you read about him his early life drove him to almost every change he has made since.  I guess he'll know his values better than anyone else could ever do so, and so, if he sacks his Head Coach, there'll be no point in commenting on it as a good, bad, or indifferent decision because it'll affect nothing we see from there onward. 

All that will happen is we will all be wiser after the fact, because we hopefully always are so.  Personally speaking I am glad it is Khan's choice and not mine.

[Woolly Mammoth]

While I admire any fan who comes up with this sort of comment. I don 't think we can sensibly sit back and say that our aim is to stay up and we are not down yet. The worst start to any Prem season by a Fulham side. The worst goals conceded in the Prem this season. The constant changing of the team and questionable attitude of players and their contusion on the pitch is not something we can just shrug our shoulders at and pretend we are content to being beaten by the bottom club who doubled their seasons goal tally in one game.

The negativity doesn't come from the fans but the team. We all jump about and act stupid and feel better for the week when we watch a good performance or see a win. But having players fall over not once but many times. Have players make silly passes and look stupid and confused EVERY game or at least a large part of it.

Comments and frustration are bound to take their toll. We can be positive in any circumstance. But it doesn't make it sensible. We all hope for a change. But until we see some sort of clue that any player or the coach looks as if he has any idea what the hell he should be doing. We can't just sing 'Don't worry be happy'. We would look as silly as our defenders did yesterday.

Well said!!

Well said again an again, there is hardly any negativity on here Fulham Joe, you are confusing negativity with reality.
But there are plenty of supporters on here being realistic, and not being naive and burying there heads in the sand.
Of course there may be some supporters who are calling for the Managers head, but they are entitled to there opinions.
Nobody expected Fulham to take the Division by storm, but even a recluse sitting in a cave on Mars can identify that with the worst goal difference this side of the equator. Fulham are treading on thin ice, you cannot press a button, and suddenly all is rosy in the garden.
It's going to take hard work by the Manager coaches and players to turn this around.
Not forgetting Commitment Application and Desire from all of the club.

[hovewhite]

I'm glad that Khan Sr will make the decision to stick or twist about the managers future.
For now I trust in slav .

[Woolly Mammoth]

I'm glad that Khan Sr will make the decision to stick or twist about the managers future.
For now I trust in slav .

I feel that Slav is still our best bet under the circumstances, as any alternative is no guarantee that the situation will improve any quicker, plus Jok deserves to reach at least Christmas.
However, one way or another we have to pick up points. Ugly points or otherwise. If it means we have to grind them out in a boring way than so be it.
No time for faint hearts or reminiscing of pretty football.
It's time to close the stable door, and get back to basics. Because so far our basics have been poorly executed to say the least. 
Even if a player is having a bad game, he can still run around. Some cannot or will not do even that.
Now is Joka bizarre choice of starting lineups and endless tinkering effecting morale, are players resenting being overlooked. Is there a divide within the squad, is team spirit fractured.
Have the players lost faith in the Managers judgement, which could be effected by his personal feelings.
End of the day, it's a Results Business, with an awful lot of money at stake.
I cannot answer any of these questions, and we can dissect the issue until the cows come home.
But on Saturday it's 11 v 11, it's as simple as that.
My head tells me that we need Bournemouth to have an off day, maybe we do, but it's time we orchestrated our own victory without any help from outside sources.
But to do that we have to first of all stop shooting ourselves in the foot.