When the manager leaves............ Excited or disappointing?

[bill taylors apprentice]

I was nine years of age and knew nothing about Bedford Jezzard as a player or promotion winning manager so when he was replaced by Vic Buckingham it seemed to me a positive step, but excited? Nah!

Buckingham's pedigree was sound and he was highly regarded as a coach, according to my sources at the time i.e. Charles Buchans Football Monthly.
What a disaster he was and I was happy to see the back of him.

Bobby Robson was gone almost as soon as he arrived, what a missed opportunity, exciting times ahead maybe but the way the club was run was never going to allow it.
Bill Dodgin steadied the ship but had a lower league manager mentality and was mediocre at best, I think the most exciting thing was we started wearing red socks for a few seasons!

The great Alec Stock arrived and it was the first time I remember being excited about a managerial appointment.
Financial troubles and other turmoil in the club saw him ousted and replaced by Bobby Campbell, another coach with a good pedigree but I was left disappointed when the  promise made to Alan Mullery to succeed Stock was reneged on by the club.

Malcom Macdonald came in and had two (almost) great seasons before being worn down by that bastard who now owned the club. My disappointment in him leaving was only exceeded by the worry in how the Club was being run.

While Stock & Macdonald had excellent coaches along side, the pattern of recruiting a highly regarded coach to manage and  make the best of working on a tight budget continued with Ray Harford's arrival and yet again a couple of seasons of moderate progress lead to relegation.

Over the years, most of the time I was ambivalent whenever there was a change and history show's that was probably the correct feeling.

Ray Lewington did his best but by now any kind of appointment as manager was the least of our problems and was met by a shrug of the shoulders by me.
Dick's, Mackay, Lew again and Branfoot, WTF can you say!
The club was struggling for breath by this time and finding anyone with a CV to manage the team under the circumstances was a bonus.

Then of course came Micky Adams, I can't say I was excited but I became excited as the season went on and was disappointed when Wilkins was announced.
Keegan was a different feeling altogether, WOW!
Bracewell may have seemed the thing to do but it was a disaster, without it though we may never have met Monsieur Tigana and boy that was EXCITING!!!

[Lighthouse]

I was also really annoyed when Mark Hughes left as I was one of the few that liked the way things were going.  I think age and experience teaches us not to get excited now about any appointment. I for one would have picked Ranieri out of all those that were being linked. He just seems more Fulham like than most. But there also comes a tinge of regret. I never bought into the Slav is God and any problems are because of others. But his success last season despite his poor start was exciting. A bit too exciting for the team I thought we had. But any change is a leap into the unknown.

Fact is we were going nowhere but down. This gives us a bit of hope. At least for some. A mixture of excitement now the change has been done and disappointed it didn't work out for Joka.

[Mickeyboro]

Let's pray he is the Italian Roy...




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[jarv]

Reading through that list, Fulham has had some seriously good managers on the books. I think Slav can be included amongst the best to be fair to him. Personally, I loved the Stock years. Great football, great signings....Moore, Best, Marsh, Mullery....

[LittleErn]

Sorry you never saw Beddie Jezzard play, you missed a treat. I must be just a few years older than you and it was the worst day of my young life when he retired through injury at the height of his powers. I have a vivid memory of him in full flight taking a long pass on his heel and flicking it in front to run onto and score. Haynes, Jezzard, Robson - what a magnificent trio they were, but ever Fulhamish we never had a tight defence to match them. Made for some exciting games though!

[Holders]

It depends but, this time, sad.

[Twig]

I guess SJ's departure was getting close to inevitable. My main emotion is of intense sadness at his departure. Raineri doesn't seem such a bad choice but I just can't get excited by it. But still, his dismissal from Leicester after his incredible achievement appeared harsh so nice to see him back in the prem. and rather Ranieri than a lot of the names bandied about!

I look forward to seeing if he can get more out of the squad, it will give us a bit more of a fix on SJ's strengths and weaknesses.

I just wish I wasn't reading the same old pro and anti SJ posts during this sad time. We should all drop it and move on!

[Woolly Mammoth]

One door closes and another one opens, there are always casualties and that is the sad part.
It's more difficult to come to terms with what's happened with Slavisa. After all he has achieved, and if it is true, to do the dreaded deed over the phone to inform him of his fate was disrespectful and unprofessional and I wonder why, he most certainly did not deserve that.
Anyway we have to move forward because there is nothing we can do about it but hope that Claudio can achieve what Slavisa was not able to in the time he was given.
Yet the Chairmans son is still there in his roll, and that for me and many many other supporters is not in the best interest of any football club, he is a very weak link that has done far more to contribute to why this club is misfiring, far more than Slavisa who has been made the fall guy in this issue.
Nevertheless, Claudio is here and it's a brand new chapter, and the Southampton Match will be as intriguing as you can get considering what is at stake, and especially the starting lineup.

[PartizanFC]

I will still support this club,same as many others from Serbia..But most of you show to be people with short memory,expecially mr.Khan
How much money SJ brings to club just becouse he promoted Fulham?How many problems he had at the start of last season..Problems with directors who didnt wanted to buy him players he want...they give up at January and Fulham exploded becouse of 3 Joka signings
Soon all will know how many signings from this summer was his idea,except Mitro...I doubt that most of them wasnt his idea...in last 5 days of transfer window he got most of his signings...So many international breaks...And you give him just 12 games to play..when everybody knows that his teams start to play at december and dont loose form untill end of season...pathetic

You think Raniery have miracle stick?no,he will try to make few points untill new transfer window and then he will buy players he want
Fulham get nothing with this sacking,just maybe more divided squad and atmosphere

I hope Joka will get new job soon,in some club with reputation and show you all how much this move was bad

[Fulham Tup North]

 :031:  I know times have changed, but I don't remember this much upset when Micky Adams was kicked out by Al Fayed?

I loved Fulham under Micky and Alan Cork.  We had some great players and some great times.
Carlisle away, Ashford in the FA Cup, on the pitch at Mansfield.....
We will always love SJ, and people can argue Fulham have acted to soon, but Players and Managers will come and go, but the fans will always be here.
We reached a European cup final and Roy Hodgson just walked away to join Liverpool and yet fans still love him? 
If we stay up, people's mind will soon change.

Thank you SJ. Especially for the best day out at any football match for me and my son.
Good luck in the future.

COYW   049:gif   

[davew]

It depends but, this time, sad.

+1, the topic heading excited or disappointed is not really a fair question! I would have used sad, disappointed or hopeful but not excited, not yet anyway. Sad that Joka has been sacked, sad that the FFC player recruitment team have again failed in the management of our owners funds, disappointed that Joka wasn't able to find a solution to selecting a successful team who could do FFC proud, very disappointed that our squad have performed so poorly and at times almost showing disrespect of wearing a FFC shirt, I could go on and on. I am hopeful that things will improve under Ranieri, but not with our same squad, if they do that will prove (to me anyway) that the current squad didn't respect Joka and they should take a lot of the blame for his dismissal! Hopefully this won't prove the case and we will continue to struggle until the next window when Khan has to make a decision, well several, keep the same squad and spend nothing (guaranteed relegation), sell the new starlets (Summer signings)  + 1 or 2 of our best players (guaranteed relegation but cut his losses and maybe make a profit), spend another 100 million on more foreign wanabees using our widely acclaimed statistical analysis methods (not sure we are able to do that due to regulatory squad number restrictions but if so guaranteed relegation), purchase Cardiff, Huddersfield and perhaps Newcastle (obviously he can't do that in his name) and get our stat's team guys to rebuild their squads in the next window, that way I am hopeful we have a chance of staying up. Stupid post I know, b4 you respond, I hope Ranieri makes a difference and good luck and thanks to Joka, I never thought I would see FFC play in the PL again in my life time!