Fulham last 4-5 years has just been an collection of older players (27~), big and strong (Paulinha) and experienced enough to keep afloat.
Now Fulham has gone for youth and smaller silkier players.. Josh King, Garcia, Bobb, Palacios.. Although small, but the midfield is rejuvenated and young (Charles and Larsson are both 22).
Seems more in the Brighton mould now.
Not sure I'd call this team as exciting as the promoted team with Palhinha and Mitrovic. Willian was incredible that season too.
Understand the sentiment you're getting at, and there's a lot to look forward to and young players growing. But we're not there yet. Agree the midfield looks rejuvenated, we've got what we've been looking for post Palhinha - and a tonne of options.
I am not sure this team is as exciting as the last Championship team we had. In fact, any team we had with Mitrovic in it is probably more exciting (except maybe the PL Parker season). What a guy.
In terms of building a squad with a long-term future (with RCB, LCB, RCM, LCM, AM, RW & CF that should all peaking in 3-7 years), this has to be one of our best. The big assumption is we can look after the short-term, remain injury free, stay up, maintain our budget (i.e. league pos) and improve.
I think all we need to do is to find another Lou Saha and we may have our Jean Tigana years back
I would suggest we are a GK, LB and Striker short right now
Best football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
Great young players don't tend to be here for very long.
Unfortunately, that's the biggest problem!
Now, if we could work out a way to combat that!
Love our playing style, very Spanish.
Quote from: The Rational Fan on October 25, 2026, 01:04:33 AMIn terms of building a squad with a long-term future (with RCB, LCB, RCM, LCM, AM, RW & CF that should all peaking in 3-7 years), this has to be one of our best. The big assumption is we can look after the short-term, remain injury free, stay up, maintain our budget (i.e. league pos) and improve.
In my opinion the big assumption is more about what level they will actually peak at, and about how many of them will still be here in 3-7 years after the big clubs have come circling. If any of them turn out to have a very high ceiling (with King looking most promising at the moment) they probably won't be here when they reach their peak.
Like it or not, there's a 0% chance that we will still have all the players you refer to in 3-7 years. Either because they've failed to establish themselves as regular starters (jury still out on a couple of them) or because they've moved on to a bigger club.
Long term strategy for a club like Fulham means constantantly punching above our weight in the transfer market, and also to keep developing new youth players. We can't build a young squad first team squad now and expect them all to still be here when they reach their peak. If they are, it's probably because they didn't turn out to be quite as good as we hoped for.
The truth is, a club of our size will always be just a couple of poor transfer windows away from relegation. Or even just ONE poor transfer window, like our infamous 2018 summer window that both got us relegated and crippled us finacially for years.
So while we do have some promising young players at the moment, it's not something we can base our entire long term strategy on. We will just have to hope that some of them will turn into star players, and that we will be able to get a good transfer fee for our young players when they leave, which is something the club has failed miserably with in the recent past.
Shea Charles looks a snip at the fee we paid.
Goes to show that there is some serious talent in the EFL we should be looking at.
Potentially exciting maybe but only a team winning more games than they lose can be called truly exciting!
Quote from: Yamus on October 25, 2026, 05:45:56 AMI think all we need to do is to find another Lou Saha and we may have our Jean Tigana years back
With the price paid I think Garcia is supposed to be that figure unless we can unearth a gem. Time will tell, but wouldn't be shocked if we signed a player with less expectations who succeeds there. We just seem to have more success with players on lower fees and big signings are slightly cursed. Of course it's too soon to draw any conclusions on Garcia.
At present NO. We are only winning games 1-0 or losing by the odd goal. But for the team to be considered better than some of our previous they have to be more consistent and kill games off when they go ahead, otherwise we will always get to the nervous 80th min and the anxiety creeps in.
We need a striker in the Mitrovic class who will put the fear factor into the opposition defence. Let's hope either Garcia or Muniz can hit form and confidence to become that feared striker or in January look at the loan market to get an older Marquee singing.
We were not exciting yesterday
Quote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
Amazing comments when you consider the talk that AA could be gone if we lost at Cov.
Quote from: EN1 FFC on October 25, 2026, 11:16:52 AMAt present NO. We are only winning games 1-0 or losing by the odd goal. But for the team to be considered better than some of our previous they have to be more consistent and kill games off when they go ahead, otherwise we will always get to the nervous 80th min and the anxiety creeps in.
We need a striker in the Mitrovic class who will put the fear factor into the opposition defence. Let's hope either Garcia or Muniz can hit form and confidence to become that feared striker or in January look at the loan market to get an older Marquee singing.
Quote from: Yamus on October 25, 2026, 05:45:56 AMI think all we need to do is to find another Lou Saha and we may have our Jean Tigana years back
Saha in this team would be something.
I have said it elsewhere, but I thought we were poor yesterday. Misplaced, ponderous passing against a side that was only interested in hanging on for a point.
We should have nailed them.
Not sure exciting is the right descriptor. More like nerve racking/nail biting.......
I thought a team had to score goals to be exciting ::wink::
Hopefully someone will pop up from nowhere to do just that ::candle::
Quote from: demeant0r on October 25, 2026, 12:28:46 AMI am not sure this team is as exciting as the last Championship team we had. In fact, any team we had with Mitrovic in it is probably more exciting (except maybe the PL Parker season). What a guy.
I did love his application of the dark arts especially at corners where we became very effective. But then there were times when the red mist descended and there was also the belief that he was the best and only penalty taker so I have mixed feelings about him.
Quote from: Grassy Noel on October 25, 2026, 09:50:13 PMQuote from: demeant0r on October 25, 2026, 12:28:46 AMI am not sure this team is as exciting as the last Championship team we had. In fact, any team we had with Mitrovic in it is probably more exciting (except maybe the PL Parker season). What a guy.
I did love his application of the dark arts especially at corners where we became very effective. But then there were times when the red mist descended and there was also the belief that he was the best and only penalty taker so I have mixed feelings about him.
He was our best forward since Saha, no question. But he also had the potential to be a massive **** and it cost us.
I am still not over how he chased the money to go to a two bob league and decimate his career rather than test himself in Europe (as in the top European leagues) at club and international level.
Quote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
We have played way better football many times over many years since Tigana. This is an odd comment.
Quote from: the nutflush on October 26, 2026, 12:25:18 AMQuote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
We have played way better football many times over many years since Tigana. This is an odd comment.
That's odd in your opinion.
I went to every home match and nine away matches in the league when we won the Championship under Tigana and that's some of the best football I've ever seen Fulham play since my first match in 1981.
Jokanovic and Silva promotions were fantastic also but IMO one would be hard pushed to name a more entertaining forward line than Hayles, Boa Morte and Saha since Tigana's promotion.
Maybe a bit against the grain but is love to see kevin get a run instead of Iwobi. much bigger one on one threat and balances us with bobb on the other side. talk about exciting!
In my opinion, the most exciting time, by far, was when Roy Hodgson saved us from relegation on the final day of the season, in 2008, followed by the run to the UEFA Europa League final two years later.
There is NOTHING, that even comes close.
Quote from: FFC007 on October 25, 2026, 09:43:10 AMShea Charles looks a snip at the fee we paid.
Goes to show that there is some serious talent in the EFL we should be looking at.
It's would be interesting to know how we got Charles. Doesn't seem like Arbeloa would have been aware of him.
I know this may be shocking to many, but could it be that it was a stat signing???
He looks the business to me- really improved our centre mid, able to carry the ball, shield the ball, win headers,pick short or long passes, he even had a shot on Saturday.
I could be well wide of the market but the difference between other managers and AA is their priority was to stay in the Premiership. Where as Alvaro's, is playing exciting do or die football. Whether that's going to lead to his rise as a legend or him getting the elbow is a toss up. I don't think he really cares either. He's focused on the football. He seems to have achieved the squads confidence. Hopefully he can instill some of that into Gonzalo and Rodders to produce more goals.
How I think that effects us? We could go down, we're in a good position to win a cup, as we're playing a style of football that relies on scoring more goals than the opposition, there's no going for a draw or parking the bus in any of our games. More involvement from academy players as we move forward. More chance of picking up younger players from bigger clubs as we move forwards as well.
I can't see people's views on him changing either, in the short to medium term. We're going to need to be around the top six by Christmas to allow the doubters to feel we have enough points to keep us above the drop, to relax.
Quote from: Hatch007 on October 26, 2026, 02:17:25 AMQuote from: the nutflush on October 26, 2026, 12:25:18 AMQuote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
We have played way better football many times over many years since Tigana. This is an odd comment.
That's odd in your opinion.
I went to every home match and nine away matches in the league when we won the Championship under Tigana and that's some of the best football I've ever seen Fulham play since my first match in 1981.
Jokanovic and Silva promotions were fantastic also but IMO one would be hard pushed to name a more entertaining forward line than Hayles, Boa Morte and Saha since Tigana's promotion.
Perhaps the novelty of seeing us play the football under Tigana first off left a bigger impression, but it's hard to say that we've not played similarly expansive and equally as appealing football since. 24 games unbeaten under Jokanovic, even some of the games this season have been great to watch! Silva's first two seasons (one in the Champ and first PL) were also great to watch - how many 7-0?'s, 6-0's or close did we get? Under Silva in the Championship we had a +63 goal difference. Tigana had an admirable +53 goal difference, and got more points, but the two don't need to compete.
It doesn't have to be a competition - we're just lucky to have a club identity grounded in wanting to play football properly and having had a few managers who've managed to get us ticking in a great way!
Stats as a reminder of our season in the champ under Silva (which has to be compared to Tigana as that's when we played our best football under him). We scored more than 3 goals in 17 of the Championship games that season. That's absurd.
We scored 7 goals 3 times, 6 goals 2 times, 5 goals twice, 4 goals 4 times, 3 goals six times.. the list goes on.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fulham-fc/spielplandatum/verein/931/plus/0?saison_id=2021&wettbewerb_id=GB2&day=&heim_gast=&punkte=&datum_von=&datum_bis=
Tigana's stats for his season with us when we won the Championship (league 1)..
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jean-tigana/leistungsdatenDetail/trainer/258/plus/0?saison_id=2000&verein_id=&gegner_id=&liga=&wettbewerb_id=&trainer_id=
Equally as good in terms of winning games, but not as comprehensive as some of the results we got under Silva.
Quote from: General on October 26, 2026, 04:24:50 PMQuote from: Hatch007 on October 26, 2026, 02:17:25 AMQuote from: the nutflush on October 26, 2026, 12:25:18 AMQuote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
We have played way better football many times over many years since Tigana. This is an odd comment.
That's odd in your opinion.
I went to every home match and nine away matches in the league when we won the Championship under Tigana and that's some of the best football I've ever seen Fulham play since my first match in 1981.
Jokanovic and Silva promotions were fantastic also but IMO one would be hard pushed to name a more entertaining forward line than Hayles, Boa Morte and Saha since Tigana's promotion.
Perhaps the novelty of seeing us play the football under Tigana first off left a bigger impression, but it's hard to say that we've not played similarly expansive and equally as appealing football since. 24 games unbeaten under Jokanovic, even some of the games this season have been great to watch! Silva's first two seasons (one in the Champ and first PL) were also great to watch - how many 7-0?'s, 6-0's or close did we get? Under Silva in the Championship we had a +63 goal difference. Tigana had an admirable +53 goal difference, and got more points, but the two don't need to compete.
It doesn't have to be a competition - we're just lucky to have a club identity grounded in wanting to play football properly and having had a few managers who've managed to get us ticking in a great way!
Stats as a reminder of our season in the champ under Silva (which has to be compared to Tigana as that's when we played our best football under him). We scored more than 3 goals in 17 of the Championship games that season. That's absurd.
We scored 7 goals 3 times, 6 goals 2 times, 5 goals twice, 4 goals 4 times, 3 goals six times.. the list goes on.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fulham-fc/spielplandatum/verein/931/plus/0?saison_id=2021&wettbewerb_id=GB2&day=&heim_gast=&punkte=&datum_von=&datum_bis=
Tigana's stats for his season with us when we won the Championship (league 1)..
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jean-tigana/leistungsdatenDetail/trainer/258/plus/0?saison_id=2000&verein_id=&gegner_id=&liga=&wettbewerb_id=&trainer_id=
Equally as good in terms of winning games, but not as comprehensive as some of the results we got under Silva.
Would be interesting to see the stats playing as Parkerball as a comparison.
Quote from: Hatch007 on October 26, 2026, 02:17:25 AMQuote from: the nutflush on October 26, 2026, 12:25:18 AMQuote from: Holders on October 25, 2026, 06:40:38 AMBest football since Tigana, just need a Saha as mentioned above.
We have played way better football many times over many years since Tigana. This is an odd comment.
That's odd in your opinion.
I went to every home match and nine away matches in the league when we won the Championship under Tigana and that's some of the best football I've ever seen Fulham play since my first match in 1981.
Jokanovic and Silva promotions were fantastic also but IMO one would be hard pushed to name a more entertaining forward line than Hayles, Boa Morte and Saha since Tigana's promotion.
Read the initial post. He said best football SINCE Tigana. So hes dismissing all the football we have played between now and Tigana. Thats is truly odd. I seem to remember a Europa League run in there somewhere...top half finishes... Mitro dominating...
Quote from: FFC007 on October 25, 2026, 09:43:10 AMShea Charles looks a snip at the fee we paid.
Goes to show that there is some serious talent in the EFL we should be looking at.
Lankshear and Gudjohnsen look like top strikers in the Championship.