I just caught Danny Murphy previewing our chances in the Championship this season on the talkSPORT Colin Murry show.
Murph suggested that we've lost far too many experienced players, have too many youngsters and the majority of our transfers have been from abroad, so in effect we're too green for the Championship.
He may be right, but from my unbiased point of view it's those senior players that we've lost who are to blame for our relegation. Now we have a clean sheet, the negativity and losing mentality which ran through the team last year has been removed, and we've got a new young and hungry squad. We'll be fitter and faster team than we've been for years and if Felix can nurture these players and use his wealth of experience he, and we, will enjoy great success.
So is Murph right or are we in a better position (squad wise) now than we've been in these last three years?
He is right to be cautious, we are in the middle of a massive upheaval and it would be a pretty stunning achievement to bounce right back up to the premier league at the first time of asking when we have a new team playing in a very competitive league with other more established teams looking to do the same.
Im just happy that we will be watching a team that hopefully actually give a crap.
Quote from: Sgt Fulham on August 07, 2014, 12:49:15 PM
Im just happy that we will be watching a team that hopefully actually give a crap.
Amen to that Sarge! :plus one:
I don't know whether Murphy is right or not but we will know soon. The fact is a lot of managers will write us off for the same reason. We could go either way but my bet is onwards and upwards
As much as I love Murphy for his on-field ability at Fulham, I feel that he is in no position to judge, especially when he went to Blackburn on the basis of installing "experience", which in turn fell flat on it's face. We, along with Murphy, know nothing about Magath, but he does have a proven track record in regards to working with youth, and brining them on quite quickly.
We have so few known quantities compared to the other relegated teams - he's right to be cautious about our chances.
The way I see it, either we'll be incredible - with a fit, young, talented squad, who'll be scoring for fun - or we'll be way out of our depth - with a young team that can't play together, who aren't good enough and are constantly burnt-out from a tactically naive manager who'll overwork them..
Anyone but Murphy and the first 6 comments would have been "talkshite is just there to get a reaction blah blah".
Either way, I think he's right what he says, it's pretty much what I posted in a thread the other day. I certainly don't think he's judging, he's just giving an opinion on a club he holds in high regard. He's often asked about Fulham on there.
I love murphy, a fulham legend but since he's left I've noticed he only talks about fulham in a nice way when it was a period that he was apart of. Admittedly the club/team has gone backwards so much and it deserves to be criticised. But murphy never seems to have something positive to say. When the likes of talksport, motd ask a fulham legend a question, It would be nice to hear him mention a positive rather than always remind the person of how great we used to be.
still love ya murph if your reading this
Are we in a better position as a squad than we were last season? I think we are because we are on the first step to a Fulham that seems to be looking forward. Not close to being a good squad or a squad to blast through the Championship. But compared to last season, yes we are in a better state.
As for this idea that we have too many youngsters and have lost the experience. Personally beyond Sidwell and Stockdale I can't think of any player I wanted the club to hold onto. The big question now is in this last three weeks of the transfer window, can we maintain the squad and improve it. Losing players and not replacing them could be a problem.
No we may not do much in a way of promotion but then we are a squad in progress. I would have liked us to be further down the road of having a great squad. But then that was never going to happen. The keepers will be a big question mark. A poor mistake and they will suffer from confidence and so may the fans. But at least we are now taking a step going forward. Not sitting in deckchairs.
One old man was sitting in a deck chair.
His mate said 'is it nice out?"
'Yes lovely' came the reply
" Oh good I'll get mine out too then" Morecambe and Wise never get old but Fulham did.
Yes, Danny if you are reading this ( or the Lovely Joanna )
Danny, you need to hush now .....................you have been gone too long.
You are beginning to disappoint.
To some extent I agree in that we have a team no one knows a great deal about, but have had a good pre-season run. We were absolutely right to get rid of the older players from last season and am not sad to see their going, even Brede. So will hold judgement until a few games in and see what they look like.
I His points are valid and from the outside looking in he's probably right.
But as much as I like him he is still bitter about how he left and also he is mates with Riise who I'm sure has given a glowing report on the list two seasons to him.
Actually I'd like Murphy to take over one day... But only once Riise has long since retired because I'm pretty sure he would still be here if Murphy was in charge.
From the outside, it may well look like we could struggle, whole new team (practically) with many of the U21s coming into the first team. I fully expect Ipswich to bring the game to us on Saturday and then we will see how resilient this young team really is.
Nevertheless, I'm a optimist and fully expect us to run out 2-1 winners.
Hopefully we can show Danny this young creative team can challenge for promotion.
If they're good enough they're old enough. As for being foreign and too "green" to compete with established Championship clubs, they're established for a reason. I'm glad we're not in their position, and hopefully the players will miss the PL enough to work double or triple hard to get us back there.
I'll just be happy if we win matches, unlike last season
On a related note, is Danny Murphy a Fulham Fan? Has anyone seen him at games at the Cottage after he retired.
I know he was our Captain and is on the up in the media with the Beeb, Sky, Talkshite all in love with him but how much of a Fulham Fan is Danny Murphy?
It will be a real test of how good our youngsters are and whether they can raise their game even further. I think they can having watched them regualarly over the last few years, each test they all rise to it, but it is a big unknown and Danny is right when he says it is a very competitive league, there are 12-14 teams that could be predicted of having a chnace of promotion.As for the foriegners brought in Voser, Hoogland & Staffy look very good and able to deal with the physicality.
I was also listening to him sitting in a traffic jam on the M25, in the early part of the show he talked a lot about Huddlestone taking over Gerrards role for England effusing about what a great lynchpin and passer he is, the main man at Hull last season. I just thought why oh why we pulled out of the deal tosign him last summer because Jol & the club thought another 500k-£1m was too much for him last summer. Whats the saying pinch pennies, pound poor, it could have been so different if we would have had him in the centre last season.
Quote from: PakistaniWhite on August 07, 2014, 02:27:06 PM
On a related note, is Danny Murphy a Fulham Fan? Has anyone seen him at games at the Cottage after he retired.
I know he was our Captain and is on the up in the media with the Beeb, Sky, Talkshite all in love with him but how much of a Fulham Fan is Danny Murphy?
Danny grew up a Liverpool fan but has stated many times how he loved his time at Fulham, and in particular, working with Roy and how proud he was to captain the club.
His wife Joanna used to tweet all the time about her love for the club, the fans and the Cottage and I think she was genuinely gutted that Danny left (who wouldnt be? London>Blackburn?!).
Valid point my Murphy in general, but if they are good enough, they will simply outclass the entire league and it won't matter. I get the feeling that could be the case, especially as the team starts to gel.
Danny Murphy has his views and some of the points he makes may be right
but I find people are either totally writing us off or expecting us to win the league by a mile
being realistic finishing in the top half of the table is probably what I expect
what I do hope to see is a team with more fight more flair and a greater desire to win
lets hope this is the season when we build a team that we are proud of week in week out , win or lose
Jesus, Murphy is dull.
I recall the team of 1982 was pretty young and inexperienced, we had the likes of Dean Coney, Ray Houghton and Paul Parker emerging as raw, unknown talent, with a few veterans to give them the benefit of their wisdom. They didn't do too badly in the end, at least until Clay started his asset-stripping.
Different times, I know, and we do not have Ivor playing any more, but who knows, we may have a decent enough squad to compete at this level. Until Saturday it is all just personal opinions, so relax and enjoy it, the grey hairs start sprouting after the game starts.
Quote from: colcliff on August 07, 2014, 03:07:26 PM
Danny Murphy has his views and some of the points he makes may be right
but I find people are either totally writing us off or expecting us to win the league by a mile
being realistic finishing in the top half of the table is probably what I expect
what I do hope to see is a team with more fight more flair and a greater desire to win
lets hope this is the season when we build a team that we are proud of week in week out , win or lose
+1
I'll be utterly amazed if we storm the league
murf is giving the safe view. He is a pundit and to say anything else wuld be foolish.
What is for sure is we are a brand new team, we have a top class manager with a really excellent record of success who I suspect is hurting from the events of last season. The team seems to be enthused (save for Parker's intervie on club TV which i thought was a little lack lustre). What i have seen of pre season friendlies looks pronmising. I love the younger players and woodrow is such a great prospect, David looks good too!
But I think after five or six games we will get the hang of whether we are on the right lines, too soon to tell really.... but I have no argument if with the Murf if he sounds cautious.
I actually think the newness of the squad and the influx of foreign players in several positions might turn out to be a big advantage for us... I think we are really going to be an unknown to most teams early on...
Mitroglu, Stafy, Ruiz, Bodurov, Hoogland, Voser, David.... none of the teams in the Championship are going to have a clue what these players are all about once the whistle blows.... They will however key on Ross....just means others will have more time on the ball...
We might jump right out of the gate fast and hard and top the table after September....
Funny how a lot of the senior players seem to have/had the same view of Magath and our prospects with the current squad/FM's barmy tactics and training - Duff, Hangeland, Bent, Murphy, Riether, Riise and more
Yes I know that these players were past it and got us into this mess but they are still very experienced seasoned pros.
Quote from: Baszab on August 07, 2014, 05:24:31 PM
Funny how a lot of the senior players seem to have/had the same view of Magath and our prospects with the current squad/FM's barmy tactics and training - Duff, Hangeland, Bent, Murphy, Riether, Riise and more
Yes I know that these players were past it and got us into this mess but they are still very experienced seasoned pros.
Who don't enjoy running anymore...
You cant expect him to say we're going to win the league (even if he privately thinks that)because of the amount of the stick he would get if we didnt. We all know every club has a section of supporters that get after even the most trivial of things. It was a wise move and he is right. This however, is a perfect time to see whether or not our youngsters are up for it.
Quote from: Baszab on August 07, 2014, 05:24:31 PM
Funny how a lot of the senior players seem to have/had the same view of Magath and our prospects with the current squad/FM's barmy tactics and training - Duff, Hangeland, Bent, Murphy, Riether, Riise and more
Yes I know that these players were past it and got us into this mess but they are still very experienced seasoned pros.
Where did Duff say something?
Quote from: Bedford White on August 07, 2014, 12:43:46 PM
I just caught Danny Murphy previewing our chances in the Championship this season on the talkSPORT Colin Murry show.
Murph suggested that we've lost far too many experienced players, have too many youngsters and the majority of our transfers have been from abroad, so in effect we're too green for the Championship.
He may be right, but from my unbiased point of view it's those senior players that we've lost who are to blame for our relegation. Now we have a clean sheet, the negativity and losing mentality which ran through the team last year has been removed, and we've got a new young and hungry squad. We'll be fitter and faster team than we've been for years and if Felix can nurture these players and use his wealth of experience he, and we, will enjoy great success.
So is Murph right or are we in a better position (squad wise) now than we've been in these last three years?
Without attempting to be a smartarse, I would say that if you take the statement
"Murph suggested that we've lost far too many experienced players, have too many youngsters and the majority of our transfers have been from abroad, so in effect we're too green for the Championship. "
and changed a couple of the words, you could say that the same applied to the team that played in the Europa League, with very few players of international experience - and we remembered what happened then we played as a team, with belief - it was like the famous Muhammad Ali quote :
"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
Quote from: MJG on August 07, 2014, 06:01:59 PM
Quote from: Baszab on August 07, 2014, 05:24:31 PM
Funny how a lot of the senior players seem to have/had the same view of Magath and our prospects with the current squad/FM's barmy tactics and training - Duff, Hangeland, Bent, Murphy, Riether, Riise and more
Yes I know that these players were past it and got us into this mess but they are still very experienced seasoned pros.
Where did Duff say something?
Exactly what i'm wondering. Duff was supposed to be the fittest player at the club last season so I doubt he was worried about a bit of extra running.
Didnt he go out to Afghan last summer to visit HM forces and train with his soldier brother?
No disrespect to Murph intended, but this is all low hanging fruit he's picking. Anyone who has paid much attention to team sport would come up with his conclusion looking at what we've come thru over the last couple of seasons. It's the safest opinion to have.
Felix, the staff, and the players would likely express an opposing opinion that is far more positive and state their valid reasons.
The reality is that it's going to be wait and see for the whole season. We won't know enough about the team until there is real pressure on it either from having success and questions around being able to sustain it, or from failure and questions around their ability to keep their heads on straight and push thru bad form.
The old expression "Don't mix with losers, because their despair is contagious" is a good counter to the idea that losing our senior pro's is a disadvantage. The alternative is admittedly hit and miss, but should it come together, who knows what can be achieved?...I remember Ipswich storming 3 consecutive champions' cups in my youth, and to a lesser extent, a well funded Blackburn taking some very established top class clubs by surprise.....
A very interesting first few games are in prospect as we see what Felix has put together in practice and not just in theory. P45 time may come round in time for a Christmas present if the worst happens. I'm sure we'll all be delighted to see the opposite.
I don't care what he or anyone alse thinks,its a frsh start .say what you think and look a mug end of season.
