Tony Khan playing real life Football Manager has ruined Fulham FC

[charliejones141]

My article on our summer spending click here!

https://t.co/tX7VEmOYRK

Fulham spent £100 million this summer. That is more than most teams in the world dream of spending in five years. Team's that routinely qualify for the Champions League, Europa League or equivalent competitions across the five continents can't come close to this type of spending but somehow Fulham have managed to regress after their spending spree.

In recent years Fulham fans have come out in their droves to point fingers at backroom staff relating to the club's transfer failings, Mike Rigg and CK spring to mind as two people who were unfairly blamed for transfer failings while the club was in the Championship.

Both have since left the club and one man remains to head the club's transfer movements and that is the chairman's son Tony Khan. Khan has enjoyed a summer of being bankrolled by his father using a transfer strategy that clearly doesn't work.

Khan was praised initially for his dealings this summer but the signings have backfired. Khan has been treating the club like a real life Football Manager spending frivolously whilst only looking at numbers due to Fulham's stats based transfer policy.

It's all well and good to sign a player with 20 passing or 20 finishing on the video game because it is all based on algorithms and translates onto the virtual pitch, but when you only look at stats when signing players in real life like Khan does.

No Fulham player had created more chances (3) or attempted more passes (55) than Jean Michael Seri vs. West Ham before being substituted.

Subbed off as Fulham chase the game. pic.twitter.com/k9uphvre4M

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) December 15, 2018

"No Fulham player had created more chances (3) or attempted more passes (55) than Jean Michael Seri vs. West Ham before being substituted."

Squawka's tweet tells the whole story, it is so easy to manipulate stats to make a player look good. But when your Director of Football is being conned by the numbers into signing players he knows relatively little about there is a problem.

Seri may have attempted 55 passes today or had three 'chances created' but anyone who watched the game would pick him out as the worst player on the pitch against West Ham and this is why Khan's transfers have on the whole been abject failures.

We live in a world of Opta, WhoScored, Squawka and Transfermarkt. While these sites can have their uses they can't be a substitute for old-fashioned scouting methods and the sooner Tony Khan realises this the better.

www.fulloffulham.com/fulham/tony-khan-playing-real-life-football-manager-has-ruined-fulham-fc/

[Spirit of 2000]

Stats are often misleading and do not show the whole picture.... to be lead too much by them is unwise. Yes Tony Khan is playing a poor game of FM

[DevonFFC]

I won the champions league with Fulham and didn't even set us to have a sugar daddy, he should have given me a call.

[@jolslover]

To think Tony Khan signs players off the back of just stats is naive. No doubt he will send scouts to watch the players in real life and will spend countless hours watching videos, Stats will just be used to flag a list of potential targets.

[AnOldBrownie]

I'm a Seri critic and I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch today.   I though Claudio was the one who lost this game by having Odoi at RB and Tim Ream on the pitch.

West Ham are on form right now.


Seri was a non-factor today imo, but Fulham don't have the luxury of having their midfielders be non-factors.

I haven't been following the team long enough to know if the article is spot on or not, but I do love FM2019 mobile.   

[DevonFFC]

I'm a Seri critic and I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch today.   I though Claudio was the one who lost this game by having Odoi at RB and Tim Ream on the pitch.

West Ham are on form right now.


Seri was a non-factor today imo, but Fulham don't have the luxury of having their midfielders be non-factors.

I wouldn't say a non-factor, when he went off we didn't create much at all and the ball bypassed the midfield to no avail

[Matt10]

Watched the game and he wasn't the worst or even had a bad performance. Stats don't give the whole picture, but neither does someone's generalizations without giving specific examples how someone was the worst.

[AnOldBrownie]

I'm a Seri critic and I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch today.   I though Claudio was the one who lost this game by having Odoi at RB and Tim Ream on the pitch.

West Ham are on form right now.


Seri was a non-factor today imo, but Fulham don't have the luxury of having their midfielders be non-factors.

I wouldn't say a non-factor, when he went off we didn't create much at all and the ball bypassed the midfield to no avail

Ok...we also didn't concede.   But I'm not giving Johansson credit for that either.

Seri did nothing more than he does every week.   He's a 5...again.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I have been saying this for as long as I can remember, that TK has been using Fulham as a toy, a rich mans sons plaything, and you reap what you sow, because unless that League Table is upside down, we appear to be currently the worst team in the Premier League, and it's no surprise with most of the players Khan has recruited.
The frustrating part about it is. We could have taken the lead in the first half on two occasions, but because we cannot keep a clean sheet, we came away empty handed.
Certain players have not got the right mentality, no passion or spirit. Schurrie for instance thinks he is doing us a favour, he did not once break sweat.
However, people can blame Jok they can blame Claudio, but the Architect for Fulhams demise is Tony Khan, and his pathetic recruitment policy.

[DevonFFC]

I'm a Seri critic and I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch today.   I though Claudio was the one who lost this game by having Odoi at RB and Tim Ream on the pitch.

West Ham are on form right now.


Seri was a non-factor today imo, but Fulham don't have the luxury of having their midfielders be non-factors.

I wouldn't say a non-factor, when he went off we didn't create much at all and the ball bypassed the midfield to no avail

Ok...we also didn't concede.   But I'm not giving Johansson credit for that either.

Seri did nothing more than he does every week.   He's a 5...again.

Do tell me who excelled as I'm intrigued?

[HV71]

Perhaps he should move from Football manager and FIFA to COD . That way we might get world peace

[Spirit of 2000]

To think Tony Khan signs players off the back of just stats is naive. No doubt he will send scouts to watch the players in real life and will spend countless hours watching videos, Stats will just be used to flag a list of potential targets.

Whether scouting is used on not Tony Khan was adamant he was the main driving force behind transfer policy and that the key method of identifying targets was stats ... whatever the case it's not worked well has it.

[Woolly Mammoth]

To think Tony Khan signs players off the back of just stats is naive. No doubt he will send scouts to watch the players in real life and will spend countless hours watching videos, Stats will just be used to flag a list of potential targets.

Whether scouting is used on not Tony Khan was adamant he was the main driving force behind transfer policy and that the key method of identifying targets was stats ... whatever the case it's not worked well has it.

It's been dismal and at best mediocre, Khan Junior is well out of his depth.

[cottage expat]

I have been saying this for as long as I can remember, that TK has been using Fulham as a toy, a rich mans sons plaything, and you reap what you sow, because unless that League Table is upside down, we appear to be currently the worst team in the Premier League, and it's no surprise with most of the players Khan has recruited.
The frustrating part about it is. We could have taken the lead in the first half on two occasions, but because we cannot keep a clean sheet, we came away empty handed.
Certain players have not got the right mentality, no passion or spirit. Schurrie for instance thinks he is doing us a favour, he did not once break sweat.
However, people can blame Jok they can blame Claudio, but the Architect for Fulhams demise is Tony Khan, and his pathetic recruitment policy.

+1. What that money could have bought us with some sensible recruitment !

[Deeping_white]

When are we signing Jota, Charlie?

[filham]

I wonder what the value of the £100 million group of players is right now, we would be lucky to get half our money back.


However am I wrong in saying that each of those players must have been signed with the approval of Jocanovic.

[nose returns]

To think Tony Khan signs players off the back of just stats is naive. No doubt he will send scouts to watch the players in real life and will spend countless hours watching videos, Stats will just be used to flag a list of potential targets.

to think mr khan the youger knows what he is doing is living in cloud cuckoo land.
however he chose the bunch of rubbish he brought in was massively in error
slava took us up despite khan's incompetence and because he is a brilliant manager. unfortunately you can be as brilliant as anything but in the prem you need a balanced team with a good squad with some depth. instead he brought on a bunch of unkown players with little or no experience of the prem, plus a an injured center half who played in a tam that got relegated.
it is said, and he says himself, that stats are a fundamenal part of the transfer regime, but it is used either incorrectly or instead of what the manager wants.
there is no excuse for this shambles after so many years.

[toshes mate]

To think Tony Khan signs players off the back of just stats is naive. No doubt he will send scouts to watch the players in real life and will spend countless hours watching videos, Stats will just be used to flag a list of potential targets.

Yes, but, but, but...

The scouting positions are 'jobs' employed directly or indirectly by FFC and they may be shown the door if they do not do as told, as the Rigg and K situations suggest.  Some may not care about that and gladly move on, but for others their investment in their current work may prove to be too onerous for them to risk upsetting the apple cart.  That is not the fault of stats and scouting per se.  It is the fault of having the owner's son ruling the roost.

[Statto]

Seri may have attempted 55 passes today or had three 'chances created' but anyone who watched the game would pick him out as the worst player on the pitch against West Ham and this is why Khan's transfers have on the whole been abject failures.

A kind response to this would be to say it's a matter of opinion that Seri was the "worst player on the pitch" yesterday.

A more accurate response might be to say it is just bo11ocks.

Was he brilliant? No.

Was he any worse than the other creative midfielders on the pitch, Cairney, Johansen, Kamara, Schurrle? No.

Did Snodgrass or Noble look any better? No.