Why do we always single out one player for a slagging?

[Jimpav]

Last year it was BZ, who admittedly was very goal shy, still made a big contribution.

Year before that it was Baird (for punching Bullard?) and generally having a mare whilst being played out of position.

Going back further we have Seol and even further Zat Knight.

This year it seems to be AJ, a loyal servant who played a big part last season and put us on our way in the EL until he got taken out by the Russian thugs.

I can understand the reasoning for previous candidates (they were rubbish at the time) but it seems harsh on AJ who has always had a good rapport with the fans and commitment to the cause.

Do we have to have a scape goat when the team are struggling or is this an unwritten rule of the message boards?

[finnster01]

I'd like him to score a goal ever so often but I guess that is too much to ask

[White Noise]

The simple answer is yes - for a lot of people.

I have worked with people who are always looking to sack someone - they are constantly looking at things in terms of 'killing the weakest link strengthens the chain'.

Each to his own.

As one of my former bosses was so fond of saying "the sackings will continue until moral improves'.

[Fernhurst]

I hope I'm wrong but I feel Shorey may be the next MARK

[WhiteJC]

As one of my former bosses was so fond of saying "the sackings will continue until moral improves'.

his name wasn't Joe Stalin was it?

[finnster01]

As one of my former bosses was so fond of saying "the sackings will continue until moral improves'.

his name wasn't Joe Stalin was it?

But it might have been Gordon Brown

[Logicalman]

Last year it was BZ, who admittedly was very goal shy, still made a big contribution.

Year before that it was Baird (for punching Bullard?) and generally having a mare whilst being played out of position.

Going back further we have Seol and even further Zat Knight.

This year it seems to be AJ, a loyal servant who played a big part last season and put us on our way in the EL until he got taken out by the Russian thugs.

I can understand the reasoning for previous candidates (they were rubbish at the time) but it seems harsh on AJ who has always had a good rapport with the fans and commitment to the cause.

Do we have to have a scape goat when the team are struggling or is this an unwritten rule of the message boards?

It's just human nature for everybody to look to blame somebody, and in most cases, anybody will do, when nobody is really to blame.

[Lighthouse]

The answer is simple. It saves time.

Why slag off all the team and the manager when BZ is clearly at fault.

[Jimpav]

The answer is simple. It saves time.

Why slag off all the team and the manager when BZ is clearly at fault.

You are so 2008/2009 Lighthouse

[RidgeRider]

I'm with Tony. In life, slagging someone else, makes us feel better about ourselves. In most cases, it is cover for our own shortcomings and our own inability to deal with our shortcomings.

It is a way to blame somebody for why we feel bad. Fulham loses, we feel like shite, we need to blame someone for why we feel bad.

Slagging is much easier for most people than praising is...unless of course your Lighthouse who I know is in constant pain. Poor fellow.  ;)  ;D

[richie17]

This really annoys me, upsets me sometimes. 

AJ has hardly played this year, true, but when he's been on the pitch he's generally done a good job.  He works well with Zamora (the only pairing apart from Kamara/Nevland where the "2" plays like a "2"), makes very good runs off the ball, and has a decent strike rate given the way we played last season (very defensive).  I don't know how good Okaka is, but Johnson remains one of our better players and we're clearly a better side with him around.

I can see that people are frustrated with him, but not why he'd be singled out for negativity.

Similar with Greening, who hasn't been great or anything, but has consistently given us 6/10-7/10 performances while we were winning.  No harm there.

Steve Kelly has struggled a little, but not remotely to the degree that people make out, and even then you could argue that Hangeland's been worse than him lately. 

[Lighthouse]

RidgeRider - Leave my short comings out of this. There have come and gone and are just a memory.

[OldBrownShoe]

I can assure you we have always had players who get singled out for a slagging off and this was well before message boards, fanzines and the like. As I remember Jimmy Hill often had some of the crowd on his back yet he never stopped running and trying and weighed in with very useful goals. Ditto Maurice Cook as brave as they come. Steve Earle (or "Linda" has he was known to some at the Hammy End) had his moments of unpopularity as did Eddie Lowe and Robin Lawler. Yet they were never less than 100% solid professionals, the kind that every side needs. I even heard the Maestro barracked in a few of his final games. As friendly a club as we try to be, sadly there will always be dickheads in the crowd and now on the message boards too.

[Fernhurst]

I can assure you we have always had players who get singled out for a slagging off and this was well before message boards, fanzines and the like. As I remember Jimmy Hill often had some of the crowd on his back yet he never stopped running and trying and weighed in with very useful goals. Ditto Maurice Cook as brave as they come. Steve Earle (or "Linda" has he was known to some at the Hammy End) had his moments of unpopularity as did Eddie Lowe and Robin Lawler. Yet they were never less than 100% solid professionals, the kind that every side needs. I even heard the Maestro barracked in a few of his final games. As friendly a club as we try to be, sadly there will always be dickheads in the crowd and now on the message boards too.

Thats the first time I've heard "The Maestro" suffered abuse OBS... I'm glad I wasn't around when that happened or I would've been offering the entire Enclosure Outside....

[finnster01]

This really annoys me, upsets me sometimes. 

AJ has hardly played this year, true, but when he's been on the pitch he's generally done a good job.  He works well with Zamora (the only pairing apart from Kamara/Nevland where the "2" plays like a "2"), makes very good runs off the ball, and has a decent strike rate given the way we played last season (very defensive).  I don't know how good Okaka is, but Johnson remains one of our better players and we're clearly a better side with him around.

I can see that people are frustrated with him, but not why he'd be singled out for negativity.

Similar with Greening, who hasn't been great or anything, but has consistently given us 6/10-7/10 performances while we were winning.  No harm there.

Steve Kelly has struggled a little, but not remotely to the degree that people make out, and even then you could argue that Hangeland's been worse than him lately. 

You just mentioned the 3 most Shite players in our team in a positive post. Well done

[HatterDon]

My feeling is that it's a lot easier to trash a player than it is to actually think about what happened. To MOST supporters, every time a Fulham player makes a move towards goal and doesn't score, it's because he screwed up. It's never a good defensive move, a great save, or even a difficult chance -- it's because the player screwed up and, if the player's name is AJ or Zamora or Eddie Johnson, it's because he is crap.

Conversely, to these same folks, each goal scored AGAINST Fulham should have been stopped, and WOULD have been stopped if not for "bad defending, poor decision-making, lack of pace ... ." etc. etc. If the defender in question is Baird, Konchesky, Kelly, Zat Knight, or -- at the moment -- Chris Smalling, it's because the player is crap.

It's for this reason that the Fulham fans behind the goal at Man City were bitching and moaning at Kamara for taking so much time before shooting, and then went so nuts when he nutmegged Hart for the goal. It's for this reason that Dempsey was slagged the first three months this season for taking "speculative shots from outside the area" and then almost canonized for his goal at Stoke.

It's a much simpler universe if we lose because "Roy keeps playing that fekkin Baird/Kelly/Konchesky/Smalling" as opposed to [as against Spurs and Villa] we were soundly defeated by a better club. Beats the hell out of thinking.

[FatFreddysCat]

Last year it was BZ, who admittedly was very goal shy, still made a big contribution.

Year before that it was Baird (for punching Bullard?) and generally having a mare whilst being played out of position.

Going back further we have Seol and even further Zat Knight.

This year it seems to be AJ, a loyal servant who played a big part last season and put us on our way in the EL until he got taken out by the Russian thugs.

I can understand the reasoning for previous candidates (they were rubbish at the time) but it seems harsh on AJ who has always had a good rapport with the fans and commitment to the cause.

Do we have to have a scape goat when the team are struggling or is this an unwritten rule of the message boards?

ust been on SSN that AJ is out for the seaon  so can we start on Kelly now?

[OldBrownShoe]

Fernhurst, pretty much the whole team suffered booing and barracking in the Maestro's last season. I stood near a pocket of so-called supporters who gave him some abuse (happily it wasn't widespread); they gave others more.

A lot of years later I remember Gary Elkins got slagged off a lot.

[Peabody]

Good question, I agree with OBS on this, going way back in time, just why these so called experts would want to target our own Players like this, is beyond me. I never thought that Frank Large was that good, but I always supported him, as I would every player who wears the white shirt. Strangely, the only Player who I abused was Paul Parker when he returned under Micky Adams and never tried.

[Jimpav]

Can I nominate Kelly?