I do wish Players and Fans would not refer to Fulham FC as a 'massive' Club, the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United and Bayern Munich are massive, Fulham are a small Club, a good little Club, by any measurement a proper Club but massive? never were and never will be, and all the better for it.
I suppose it depends who you are and where you are coming from. To someone like Pringle stepping up from Rotherham I suppose we are a big step up. In recent history not many have achieved what we have. But no if we are comparing in general then fulham are a medium sized club suited for the championship.
I don't think the players meant we are a Man Utd.
I think you have to take these things into context of the player who's saying them based on where they've come from.
Fulham have been until recently and for over a decade a premiership team, competing amongst the best teams in the country and at times the world, and in getting to the Europa league final and having top players play for us, like the Berbatov's, or even having the England manager manage us makes us a bigger club than most in the country.
On our day in the premiership we could beat a most and always expected to beat teams in lower leagues.
That makes us a big club.
Especially if you've only played championship football for 3 or 4 years or even professional football for that long.
No not a massive club in comparison.
But it's our club.
I would say in the context of the Championship, given our recent history, we are a massive club
We are the biggest team in Fulham
Err hold on a minute
Quote from: Ged on September 08, 2015, 08:15:41 AM
We are the biggest team in Fulham
Err hold on a minute
Maybe not but Fulham are the best football club in Fulham , London, England , Europe The World, The universe and they are our club. COYW
Quote from: f321ffc on September 08, 2015, 08:25:28 AM
Quote from: Ged on September 08, 2015, 08:15:41 AM
We are the biggest team in Fulham
Err hold on a minute
Maybe not but Fulham are the best football club in Fulham , London, England , Europe The World, The universe and they are our club. COYW
Totally agree
Who wants to be massive and end up like chelsea god no
To me Fulham will always be massive...no, in fact, gargantuan.
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Equally, new players often refer to our 'fantastic history', or words to that effect.
I have loved this club for 56 years but, in terms of real success and trophies won, we do not have a fantastic history. It's more of a 'romantic history', maybe, with abiding friendly and feel-good factors mixed-in.
I think it is more a problem with individual players' limited vocabulary, than anything else. As others have said, calling us a bigger club than they have come from would be more accurate (though detrimental to the team and fans they have just left behind), and certainly saying we have a romantic/interesting/unique history would be a better turn of phrase.
Blame the education system.
Quote from: Ged on September 08, 2015, 08:30:22 AM
Quote from: f321ffc on September 08, 2015, 08:25:28 AM
Quote from: Ged on September 08, 2015, 08:15:41 AM
We are the biggest team in Fulham
Err hold on a minute
Maybe not but Fulham are the best football club in Fulham , London, England , Europe The World, The universe and they are our club. COYW
Totally agree
Who wants to be massive and end up like chelsea god no
Heaven forbid we actually win some trophies!
No, we are not 'massive' -though it's all comparative as posters have said - but we are Fulham.
Massive is an over used word in the English vocabulary. For some reason we are led to believe big is best! If you look at some things that are big, they are rarely good. Ie I work for a small charity where 100% of what we raise goes to supporting the charity. Other charities spend a lot on promotion and even pay wages etc so the money raised does not all go to the charity. It all becomes blurred. Back to football and we all love to see a small club triumph over a big club. So I think we all prefer small
No. The only massive club in west London are Chelsea.
Our only hope of becoming like them is if Ernie Khan flogs us to an Uzbekhistan billionaire with a hatred of all things Russian and Abramovitch in particular.
It's all about context and new players need to say something positive in their first interview. How would it sound if a player came out with.. "it's always been my ambition to play at a small club who probably don't have much history and should really be scraping around in League 1 and I really hope I can help them go back there!"
Of course Fulham might not be massive but they are pretty dam big here in Auckland. When my wife, 3 kids and I go out on a weekend we wear our latest FFC Shirts and if ever we are asked, whose shirt is that? we puff out our chests' and proudly tell them WE ARE FULHAM! and guess what? Most respond with a smile and a "good on yer! Do we want to be a club everyone hates? of course we want them to get back to the Prem. But please don't stop being, "OUR LOVERLY FULHAM !!!!!!!
:wine: 078.gif 082.gif 067.gif :yay: :group hug:
I suppose it depends on how you define massive.. Actually, it doesn't really.. We're not.
We're not a massive club. I dare say we're not even a "big" club in terms of how I'd choose to define that term although I'd say we were in that ball park during Roy's tenure.
We're currently well outside the top 20 clubs in England in terms of current footballing form.
We've never won anything of any significance.
We're tied 42nd with about 20 other teams on the list of FA Cup final appearances.
We're about 10th in the list of average attendance in the Championship.
None of this is inherently bad though, it's just how it is. To try an argue we're a massive club in the grand scheme of things is ridiculous. The Europa Final might have brought us to the attention of a lot of the rest of the world for a season but I suspect this is likely to be remembered in the same way that everyone recalls the Wimbledon FA Cup win in 1988 as much as anything else.
If I wanted to support a massive club I'd follow Manchester City or something.
Massive Club?
Too be honest i wouldn't worry about it.
We are what we are and be proud of that. We are the best situated with the finests set of supporters, the team do not always match the crowd's quality but I hope they will improve.
No we are not and thank heavens for that. I am proud to support a decent mid sized club and not a "brand".
I think it's pretty much been covered, but it does depend on the context with us. In the Championship, Championship players should see us as a big club - we've had longevity at the top (the majority of Tom Cairney's life, we've been a Premier League side). We've had success in Europe, the only English side to get into the final of the rebranded Europa League (I won't count Chelsea, the Champions League drop out rule is so stupid). I don't know the statistics, but I'm sure our owner is the richest majority owner in the division - plus being a London side gives us a point or two above most clubs.
As for fan support, we're not, but then we're one of many clubs in London rather a town of one or few clubs where they have more of a catchment area. Take Newcastle for example, it's pretty much them and Sunderland (arguably Boro too) having the North East to themselves. I think you'd be surprised though by our overseas support (which understandably would have dipped with relegation a tad), but look at just the official supporters clubs:
FFC Sweden, FulhamUSA, The Fulham Exiles - USA, Dutch Fulham Members Club, Fulham Members Club Norway, FFC Australasian Whites - Oz and New Zealand, FFC Italian Cottagers, FFC Tampere Finland, FFC Denmark, Fulham FC Germany, Fulham NYC, Chicago Cottagers and Fulham Texas.
I would like to see figures for support abroad and money made from overseas - for things like merchandise and tickets and compare it through England - I think we'd have a more than respectable position. To me, it seems logical to think "I support this football club, I can't turn up on a weekly basis, so how can I contribute? I'll buy a shirt, or a mug etc." I'll try not to go off on a tangent about marketing and merchandise.
I think for what we are, we do bloody alright. We can do more, but I always feel that. We're not massive if you're talking about England, but in our own little group/catchment/place in the country, I think we are. If you take everything into discussion, we've got to be at least top 30 if not for our Premier League longevity alone, I think only 8 teams were in the Premier League longer than us at point of relegation, and the top teams live in their own bubble in the discussion.
To finally round up, once the stadium is expanded and we're back to where we belong. I think the growth will accelerate quickly - we can invest in quality players, we can attract more people to the Cottage and we can market ourselves strongly abroad - which Shahid Khan will be keen to do, and I'm sure we'll have the right people around us making it happen.
Quote from: Twig on September 08, 2015, 02:21:15 PM
No we are not and thank heavens for that. I am proud to support a decent mid sized club and not a "brand".
Well said Twigster. When I first came to England I supported Arsenal due to the Irish contingent of O'Leary, Brady and Stapleton and went to Highbury regularly. But I felt like just a number and not part of a club like I do now. My cousins introduced me to Fulham nearly 40 years ago and I'm still in love. Love the club, the people on here, the whole shebang. Support the club, not a brand.
Compared to Rotherham, with our history we are bigger. To someone who knew us in the 60s, or who is so young that they can only think of us in the context of the last 13 years then we are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in "The Championship" at the moment but Div 2, by whatever name it's known at the time, is where we historically sit most comfortably and that's about right.
It could have been so different if we hadn't turned down Stamford Bridge all those years ago or if Abramovitch hadn't bought Them. There was a short period when we had Fayed and before the Russian when it looked as if, for once, we might have the ascendancy for a while but that was short-lived.
What I can't rationalise is Mr Bullard calling Hull bigger than us.
