This Club is an absolute grade A joke

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

I'm excited about next season with a proviso or two. If we can sign a Danny Murphy type and a striker I'll be happy. Pretty much everything else is lower priority IMO.

[Woolly Mammoth]

In the Kingdom of the Blind, the one
eyed man is King.

[Jimsbeerbelly]

Sadly, there are many fans on this forum, who still can't see the wood through the tree's, and regardless of how the Khan's operate, will defend them at all cost, just because they pump in a few quid in.

Reading back through some of the comments, fans on this forum also like to point jibes, rather than debate, so you are onto a losing battle before you've even started.

Before I go, because I will be deactivating my account after this post, we've just employed a very inexperienced coach, who at this stage, should've been backed with at least 2 signings by now before heading out to Portugal.

Fans on this forum seem to forget, or have been to to used to Marco Silva pulling the strings, pushing to get things done, making sure we start quick, be he isn't here now.


My prediction...


The Khan's do their usual again and back Arbeloa late, with players still coming in on September 1st.

We have a rough, slow start in the first 5 games and find ourselves in the bottom 3.

Arbeloa has zero experience of dealing with a relegation battle and we struggle.

Arbeloa either see's it out, or is sacked by Christmas, all because he wasn't given the right tools.


@Terry Towling - Yes, I do know someone very well who works for Fulham, so in a way you could say I'm in the middle of something.

We have also been chasing Chibuike Nwaiwu for 1 month now, back and forward, penny pinching, and have only just re-structured our offering because Trabzonspor were getting seriously pee'd of. It's now at the point of collapse, unless Fulham can resurrect it

Goodbye. 

[ElRay]

In 4 of the last 5 summers, Bar Palhinha which was much earlier, our first signing has been made somewhere between 24th-26th of July. Officially, the record will say JKA was signed way earlier this summer but in terms of new players we're approaching that now.

Seems plausible that'll be close to the case again between all the different RM players, Nwaiwu and Charles. Seems likely one will be over the line in July

ESR went on Arsenal's summer tour before being signed with us so whats the big deal about that with Nwaiwu?

Not that I'm on the alarmist bus here, but I do think we shouldn't really be comparing windows to this one considering we only just got a new manager with relative zero experience of running and the running of our club, the league, and having some experienced (with key statistics) heads leave.

I do feel like the club should be feeling the pinch (and hopefully they are and react to it) so a tad more urgency than any of the other windows would be very much welcomed, and required. 

Agree with this.

We've hired a new manager who wants to play a completely different style to Marco and he's also very inexperienced at senior level.

If we're changing the playing style, the club also needs to change its transfer strategy to support it. At the moment, it feels like the club is saying to Arbeloa implement your style with an ageing squad and you'll get the players you need once we've negotiated every deal as hard as possible, just as we always do.

Strategically, I think that's a dangerous approach. You've changed the manager but not the recruitment model. Unlike Marco, Arbeloa doesn't have years of experience with this group or the relationship with them to begrudgingly wait for reinforcements while still getting results.

Fulham ranked 13th in the Premier League for pressing intensity last season, so if Arbeloa wants to turn this into a front foot, high intensity pressing side, that transformation isn't going to happen overnight. The club should be helping him by getting key signings through the door early, making the transition smoother rather than asking him to force a  different style with players who were recruited for something else.

[demeant0r]

In 4 of the last 5 summers, Bar Palhinha which was much earlier, our first signing has been made somewhere between 24th-26th of July. Officially, the record will say JKA was signed way earlier this summer but in terms of new players we're approaching that now.

Seems plausible that'll be close to the case again between all the different RM players, Nwaiwu and Charles. Seems likely one will be over the line in July

ESR went on Arsenal's summer tour before being signed with us so whats the big deal about that with Nwaiwu?

Not that I'm on the alarmist bus here, but I do think we shouldn't really be comparing windows to this one considering we only just got a new manager with relative zero experience of running and the running of our club, the league, and having some experienced (with key statistics) heads leave.

I do feel like the club should be feeling the pinch (and hopefully they are and react to it) so a tad more urgency than any of the other windows would be very much welcomed, and required. 

Agree with this.

We've hired a new manager who wants to play a completely different style to Marco and he's also very inexperienced at senior level.

If we're changing the playing style, the club also needs to change its transfer strategy to support it. At the moment, it feels like the club is saying to Arbeloa implement your style with an ageing squad and you'll get the players you need once we've negotiated every deal as hard as possible, just as we always do.

Strategically, I think that's a dangerous approach. You've changed the manager but not the recruitment model. Unlike Marco, Arbeloa doesn't have years of experience with this group or the relationship with them to begrudgingly wait for reinforcements while still getting results.

Fulham ranked 13th in the Premier League for pressing intensity last season, so if Arbeloa wants to turn this into a front foot, high intensity pressing side, that transformation isn't going to happen overnight. The club should be helping him by getting key signings through the door early, making the transition smoother rather than asking him to force a  different style with players who were recruited for something else.

That's true but we are in serious need to bring in 4-5 players this season. I don't think you can do that with the measly transfer budget of ~£100m without some penny-pinching. I really dislike TK and his transfer strategy but this seems like a season where penny-pinching will matter more than other seasons.

[SG]

I couldn't agree more.
There's a certain amount of "I need it now" from some fans. They need transfers now. Not for any real reason, the difference between signing someone now and next week is minimal in the grand scheme of things.
It's the same impatience that allows streaming sites to charge people not to watch 30 seconds of ads every 15 minutes, it just seems to be that the way things are.

Well said Jim
I have never seen so much histrionics in one thread. It's pathetic. I am happy to wait until the end of August and make a judgement then

[Fulham Seaxe]

I couldn't agree more.
There's a certain amount of "I need it now" from some fans. They need transfers now. Not for any real reason, the difference between signing someone now and next week is minimal in the grand scheme of things.
It's the same impatience that allows streaming sites to charge people not to watch 30 seconds of ads every 15 minutes, it just seems to be that the way things are.

Well said Jim
I have never seen so much histrionics in one thread. It's pathetic. I am happy to wait until the end of August and make a judgement then

Would you actually be happy to see majority of business done at the end of August? Jim has mentioned there's no real difference in signing someone this week or next week. I would say that it's an advantage to have as many new players in as early as possible due to squad integration.

[We Are Premier League]

Diop gone and Anderson starting the season suspended, will hopefully get another right side CB in before the first few games...

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

'Please get out of this club Tony Khan'

If TK goes so does Shahid Khan.

No owners are perfect. Ours are pretty good.

Out of interest, who would you like to come in and buy the club?

Sorry but I fundamentally disagree that we should be willing to tolerate Tony just because some of us like Shahid (or more specifically, Shahid's chequebook).

If Shahid was a rational owner who had the club's best interests at heart he would recognise that, whilst Tony has had some successes in the transfer market during his tenure (as he likes to brag about at length on podcasts and on social media), he has also got plenty wrong and also been a big PR liability at times. It just feels that he gets preferential treatment just because he's his son.

I do a lot of work on responsible investment for my job and one of the key areas for assessing good corporate governance is board independence and accountability. We wouldn't view it positively that the owner's son has been given a position of such great responsibility within the organisation over a long period without any prior experience in football administration, and who for a large part is absent from his role as he's over in the states focusing on his other business interests. I don't think that just because some of our fans like Shahid's money that they should be willing to tolerate nepotism and a lack of accountability.

For the record, I don't believe Shahid has the interests of the fans of this club at heart. We are one of the most expensive clubs to support in the country and we are nowhere near being one of the most successful, no closer to winning a major trophy and repeatedly failing to qualify for Europe. I fully believe that his intentions are to make as much money out of day tripper tourists and PL revenue as possible, whilst only taking enough risk on the footballing side to ensure that the latter can continue as long as possible (ie avoid relegation).

I know everyone will trot out the usual trite lines like "be careful what you wish for" "what have the Romans done for us" but the fact is that in the 13 or so years that I've been a fan the amount of money that the club expects me to sink into supporting it has grown exponentially, whilst on the pitch granted we are a better side we have still won nothing. It's a joke that supporting the club was more affordable for me 10 years ago as a 16 year old school kid than it is now as a 26 year old in full time employment.

[alfie]

Sadly, there are many fans on this forum, who still can't see the wood through the tree's, and regardless of how the Khan's operate, will defend them at all cost, just because they pump in a few quid in.

Reading back through some of the comments, fans on this forum also like to point jibes, rather than debate, so you are onto a losing battle before you've even started.

Before I go, because I will be deactivating my account after this post, we've just employed a very inexperienced coach, who at this stage, should've been backed with at least 2 signings by now before heading out to Portugal.

Fans on this forum seem to forget, or have been to to used to Marco Silva pulling the strings, pushing to get things done, making sure we start quick, be he isn't here now.


My prediction...


The Khan's do their usual again and back Arbeloa late, with players still coming in on September 1st.

We have a rough, slow start in the first 5 games and find ourselves in the bottom 3.

Arbeloa has zero experience of dealing with a relegation battle and we struggle.

Arbeloa either see's it out, or is sacked by Christmas, all because he wasn't given the right tools.


@Terry Towling - Yes, I do know someone very well who works for Fulham, so in a way you could say I'm in the middle of something.

We have also been chasing Chibuike Nwaiwu for 1 month now, back and forward, penny pinching, and have only just re-structured our offering because Trabzonspor were getting seriously pee'd of. It's now at the point of collapse, unless Fulham can resurrect it

Goodbye. 

There are many fans on this forum that have their own opinions, and as it happens have the same entitlement to post those opinions as you have.

[The Old Count]

'Please get out of this club Tony Khan'

If TK goes so does Shahid Khan.

No owners are perfect. Ours are pretty good.

Out of interest, who would you like to come in and buy the club?

Sorry but I fundamentally disagree that we should be willing to tolerate Tony just because some of us like Shahid (or more specifically, Shahid's chequebook).

If Shahid was a rational owner who had the club's best interests at heart he would recognise that, whilst Tony has had some successes in the transfer market during his tenure (as he likes to brag about at length on podcasts and on social media), he has also got plenty wrong and also been a big PR liability at times. It just feels that he gets preferential treatment just because he's his son.

I do a lot of work on responsible investment for my job and one of the key areas for assessing good corporate governance is board independence and accountability. We wouldn't view it positively that the owner's son has been given a position of such great responsibility within the organisation over a long period without any prior experience in football administration, and who for a large part is absent from his role as he's over in the states focusing on his other business interests. I don't think that just because some of our fans like Shahid's money that they should be willing to tolerate nepotism and a lack of accountability.

For the record, I don't believe Shahid has the interests of the fans of this club at heart. We are one of the most expensive clubs to support in the country and we are nowhere near being one of the most successful, no closer to winning a major trophy and repeatedly failing to qualify for Europe. I fully believe that his intentions are to make as much money out of day tripper tourists and PL revenue as possible, whilst only taking enough risk on the footballing side to ensure that the latter can continue as long as possible (ie avoid relegation).

I know everyone will trot out the usual trite lines like "be careful what you wish for" "what have the Romans done for us" but the fact is that in the 13 or so years that I've been a fan the amount of money that the club expects me to sink into supporting it has grown exponentially, whilst on the pitch granted we are a better side we have still won nothing. It's a joke that supporting the club was more affordable for me 10 years ago as a 16 year old school kid than it is now as a 26 year old in full time employment.

I suppose more recent supporters have a different perspective to those who've been supporting for longer. I've been supporting for 65 years and have seen some truly sh*t times.  Right now seems pretty good.
Being a supporter for this amount of time in no way makes one more worthy. Many recent supporters are more fervent and anxious to see us do better which is understandable.

[ffcthereligion]

We the only club in prem not to make a proper signing?

I noticed that you used "proper"
Does that mean you want to exclude the signing of Kusi-Asare?

Exactly right

[White Knight]

'Please get out of this club Tony Khan'

If TK goes so does Shahid Khan.

No owners are perfect. Ours are pretty good.

Out of interest, who would you like to come in and buy the club?

Sorry but I fundamentally disagree that we should be willing to tolerate Tony just because some of us like Shahid (or more specifically, Shahid's chequebook).

If Shahid was a rational owner who had the club's best interests at heart he would recognise that, whilst Tony has had some successes in the transfer market during his tenure (as he likes to brag about at length on podcasts and on social media), he has also got plenty wrong and also been a big PR liability at times. It just feels that he gets preferential treatment just because he's his son.

I do a lot of work on responsible investment for my job and one of the key areas for assessing good corporate governance is board independence and accountability. We wouldn't view it positively that the owner's son has been given a position of such great responsibility within the organisation over a long period without any prior experience in football administration, and who for a large part is absent from his role as he's over in the states focusing on his other business interests. I don't think that just because some of our fans like Shahid's money that they should be willing to tolerate nepotism and a lack of accountability.

For the record, I don't believe Shahid has the interests of the fans of this club at heart. We are one of the most expensive clubs to support in the country and we are nowhere near being one of the most successful, no closer to winning a major trophy and repeatedly failing to qualify for Europe. I fully believe that his intentions are to make as much money out of day tripper tourists and PL revenue as possible, whilst only taking enough risk on the footballing side to ensure that the latter can continue as long as possible (ie avoid relegation).

I know everyone will trot out the usual trite lines like "be careful what you wish for" "what have the Romans done for us" but the fact is that in the 13 or so years that I've been a fan the amount of money that the club expects me to sink into supporting it has grown exponentially, whilst on the pitch granted we are a better side we have still won nothing. It's a joke that supporting the club was more affordable for me 10 years ago as a 16 year old school kid than it is now as a 26 year old in full time employment.

Spot on Neutrol Zone Ultra

[Jim©]

We are one of the most expensive clubs to support in the country

We have the 11th most expensive match tickets, we have the 4th cheapest season tickets (from lowest price).
The average price hike of STs was 4.6%, ours 2.8%.

Agreed some of the prices in the Riverside are unpalatable, but there's only a handful.

I've been supporting for over 50 years and can't believe that many "I want success now" fans would have hung around long in the dark days. These times seem pretty good...

 

[blingo]

You can't beat a happy, optimistic thread on here     

[SG]

I couldn't agree more.
There's a certain amount of "I need it now" from some fans. They need transfers now. Not for any real reason, the difference between signing someone now and next week is minimal in the grand scheme of things.
It's the same impatience that allows streaming sites to charge people not to watch 30 seconds of ads every 15 minutes, it just seems to be that the way things are.

Well said Jim
I have never seen so much histrionics in one thread. It's pathetic. I am happy to wait until the end of August and make a judgement then

Would you actually be happy to see majority of business done at the end of August? Jim has mentioned there's no real difference in signing someone this week or next week. I would say that it's an advantage to have as many new players in as early as possible due to squad integration.

I would prefer to have all the new players in now. But as I am unable to influence this at all I am content to sit back and bide my time. There is no point worrying about something over which I have no say

[JimmyConway]

Been reading a lot of the posts and can understand fans frustration and fans who are quite relaxed about incomings and out goings.
The one thing I do feel strongly about is we have a young manager inexperienced in the most demanding league and this should be the priority of the club to support him and give the manager & his staff the best opportunity preparing for new season.
Pre season tours are a good bonding period for new players and team patterns. New manager has to be given the tools to succeed and the longer he gets to work with his squad the easier the transition will be. We might see new additions join the squad while away it's happened before but if no new additions by the time they come back then it's the same movie being repeated at the same time every year. Should that be the case which I just can't see that happening then another waste of a pre season and a new manager setup to fail by a missing DOF and the board.

[Fulham Seaxe]

I couldn't agree more.
There's a certain amount of "I need it now" from some fans. They need transfers now. Not for any real reason, the difference between signing someone now and next week is minimal in the grand scheme of things.
It's the same impatience that allows streaming sites to charge people not to watch 30 seconds of ads every 15 minutes, it just seems to be that the way things are.

Well said Jim
I have never seen so much histrionics in one thread. It's pathetic. I am happy to wait until the end of August and make a judgement then

Would you actually be happy to see majority of business done at the end of August? Jim has mentioned there's no real difference in signing someone this week or next week. I would say that it's an advantage to have as many new players in as early as possible due to squad integration.

I would prefer to have all the new players in now. But as I am unable to influence this at all I am content to sit back and bide my time. There is no point worrying about something over which I have no say

Supporters have no say on anything that FFC do.

[Angus Telford]

With the same dreary outcome: an underwhelming lower mid-table finish, looking over our shoulder hoping a run of injuries or bad luck doesn't suck us into the relegation battle, whilst clubs like Brighton and Forest take it in turns to play in Europe.

Let's take the two examples you've quoted- Forest and Brighton.
Forest have nearly been relegated two out of the last 3 seasons.
Their accumulated points over last 3 seasons? 141

Brighton couldn't be closer to us- 157 points, beating us to Europe by a single, solitary point last season.
Our points tally is 153 BTW (level on points with Chelsea, 7 points ahead of Palace last season for clarity).

The truth is we're just very steady, which is want we wanted after coming back up. If we'd have yo-yo'd again, fans such as yourself would have been raging about the poor way that the club was run. Arbeloa is a roll of the dice, get some new, younger players in and see where we go next.
I'm excited about the season.

We can complain about fine margins all we like. The bottom line is Brighton have finished above us three years in a row and made Europe once.

So have Bournemouth.

Palace have finished above us two out of three of those years and won a domestic and European cup.

Forest have made Europe once in that time and they haven't at any point been relegated, contrary to what some on here seem to think. They played a blinder, and go into this season with a stronger, younger squad than us as it stands, and a top manager.

[C Block]

Sadly, there are many fans on this forum, who still can't see the wood through the tree's, and regardless of how the Khan's operate, will defend them at all cost, just because they pump in a few quid in.

Reading back through some of the comments, fans on this forum also like to point jibes, rather than debate, so you are onto a losing battle before you've even started.

Before I go, because I will be deactivating my account after this post, we've just employed a very inexperienced coach, who at this stage, should've been backed with at least 2 signings by now before heading out to Portugal.

Fans on this forum seem to forget, or have been to to used to Marco Silva pulling the strings, pushing to get things done, making sure we start quick, be he isn't here now.


My prediction...


The Khan's do their usual again and back Arbeloa late, with players still coming in on September 1st.

We have a rough, slow start in the first 5 games and find ourselves in the bottom 3.

Arbeloa has zero experience of dealing with a relegation battle and we struggle.

Arbeloa either see's it out, or is sacked by Christmas, all because he wasn't given the right tools.


@Terry Towling - Yes, I do know someone very well who works for Fulham, so in a way you could say I'm in the middle of something.

We have also been chasing Chibuike Nwaiwu for 1 month now, back and forward, penny pinching, and have only just re-structured our offering because Trabzonspor were getting seriously pee'd of. It's now at the point of collapse, unless Fulham can resurrect it

Goodbye. 

Drama Queen 👸