Are we sleepwalking into relegation?

[Coastwalker]

Doing a Wolves propping up the league this season.  

[Sammyffc]

We have lost two players who were involved in 29 of the 47 goals we scored last year and have not replaced them.

We have hired a manager who has never had a full time job in professional football on the seemingly sole basis that he was at a big club.

We have not raised any money through player sales to re-invest. The squad is a year older and the same gaping holes that were in the squad last year remain.

From my perspective, we are less than a month away from the start of the season and need to find 29 goals in new signings to stand still. If we don't get these incomings, I cannot see a world where we are not in deep trouble. Yet it feels to me like the board and many of our fans are pretty relaxed? Is that the real problem here?

I understand the worry, im relaxed because i see the calibre of players we are in for. Garcia is liked by Mourinho and wants him as a backup to Mbappe etc so that's a good sign ,it's not like we are fighting for any old player there.

On the squad being old and not selling ,i totally agree and that's all on Marco , hence the reported arguments with the board in January as they made it clear we needed sellable assets, something marco just wasn't a fan of.

At some point we have to change , that time is now in my opinion.

Let's not forget some people wanted Marco on a life time contract, so its going to take alot of convincing to change their mind on the current process the club is going through.

All of our rumours appear to be players under 24 if im right, which is a massive shift from Marco's older less sellable assets

[Andrew]

I'd like go back to Hodgson's first full season, or our first seasons in the PL under Tigana or Silva, when we genuinely looked like we were in the ascendancy and could compete for Europe.

I don't want to go back to the Championship which is a rat race with shithousery, crap refereeing and no guarantee that being a good side will win you games or promotion.

I'm happy to give the new manager a chance but otherwise agree with the OP - you can't lose your most potent attacking players and not replace them. We've a few areas of weakness and an ageing squad to rejuvenate (still) and waiting until the last week of the window is just a stupid handicap to give ourselves yet again. In a good year it holds us back from the top half, in a bad year it puts us in a relegation fight.

well put.

[Jim©]

and could compete for Europe

One point off of europe last season, good finishes the previous two seasons (with a tail off sadly), means that we are doing that aren't we?
 

[Andrew]

I do dislike the tone of many of the posters, especially the ones effectively defending the club from any critical analysis.

The truth in my opinion is that we are in a very delicate situation that could easily go pear shaped. It appears to me the new manager has a clear idea on how he wants to play but I am not sure that that style suits the squad we have. But it is hard to be sure from pre season friendlies whether that is true or a trick of the light.

As it is I think everyone more or less agrees we need some new players of sufficient quality and that doesn't look like happening any time soon. The management seem to be following their usual pattern of waiting until the last minute to bring in players.

Personally, and this is just my own point of view, with 60+ years of watching and being part of the club, I think this is a good time to panic, if that is your thing. Personally I am not panicing I am just very upset that we could have been in a much better situation, and it is also my personal belief, we could have kept Marco but made it impossible for him to stay.... my opinion based on my life in business.

Come October we will sort of be able to gauge better whether panic was the right thing at this time.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

The main thing that annoys me is when people say they're happier watching Div 2 football and expecting nothing. I've been supporting the club since just before Al Fayed and really can't get on board with this. It's a loser mentality, and I don't think the fans younger than me will ever be on board with it either.

The club has moved on very significantly since then and higher standards are correctly expected.

[C Block]

I do dislike the tone of many of the posters, especially the ones effectively defending the club from any critical analysis.

The truth in my opinion is that we are in a very delicate situation that could easily go pear shaped. It appears to me the new manager has a clear idea on how he wants to play but I am not sure that that style suits the squad we have. But it is hard to be sure from pre season friendlies whether that is true or a trick of the light.

As it is I think everyone more or less agrees we need some new players of sufficient quality and that doesn't look like happening any time soon. The management seem to be following their usual pattern of waiting until the last minute to bring in players.

Personally, and this is just my own point of view, with 60+ years of watching and being part of the club, I think this is a good time to panic, if that is your thing. Personally I am not panicing I am just very upset that we could have been in a much better situation, and it is also my personal belief, we could have kept Marco but made it impossible for him to stay.... my opinion based on my life in business.

Come October we will sort of be able to gauge better whether panic was the right thing at this time.

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment if I may, I admire your loyalty to Marco Silva, but what if instead of being the answer he was actually the issue?
His transfer business could be described as diabolical, he signed Andersen and Smith-Rowe for a combined £65 million and he was desperate to bring in Ricardo Pepi and Samuel Chukwueze for a further £60 million, does anyone on here want to try and convince us all that £125 million on those four would have been good business?
Marco Rose has joined Bournemouth after the departure of Andoni Iraola and he has little to nothing to do to his squad, whereas poor old Alvaro Arbeloa has inherited a complete train wreck of a squad that needs a major overhaul, and it's lovely to see that the players we are being linked with have all got a good pedigree and are all a good age,
By all means continue your blind support for Marco Silva, but please,going forward lets not have history rewritten and pretend that everything was rosy under him, because it wasn't.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

I actually think ESR is seriously gifted and we may be about to discover that under a different system.

Anderson was expensive I agree. Pepi and Chuck for that kind of money would have been disgraceful business.

Gotta wonder how much of it was down to Silva and how much down to the "system" though surely?

[Andrew]

I do dislike the tone of many of the posters, especially the ones effectively defending the club from any critical analysis.

The truth in my opinion is that we are in a very delicate situation that could easily go pear shaped. It appears to me the new manager has a clear idea on how he wants to play but I am not sure that that style suits the squad we have. But it is hard to be sure from pre season friendlies whether that is true or a trick of the light.

As it is I think everyone more or less agrees we need some new players of sufficient quality and that doesn't look like happening any time soon. The management seem to be following their usual pattern of waiting until the last minute to bring in players.

Personally, and this is just my own point of view, with 60+ years of watching and being part of the club, I think this is a good time to panic, if that is your thing. Personally I am not panicing I am just very upset that we could have been in a much better situation, and it is also my personal belief, we could have kept Marco but made it impossible for him to stay.... my opinion based on my life in business.

Come October we will sort of be able to gauge better whether panic was the right thing at this time.

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment if I may, I admire your loyalty to Marco Silva, but what if instead of being the answer he was actually the issue?
His transfer business could be described as diabolical, he signed Andersen and Smith-Rowe for a combined £65 million and he was desperate to bring in Ricardo Pepi and Samuel Chukwueze for a further £60 million, does anyone on here want to try and convince us all that £125 million on those four would have been good business?
Marco Rose has joined Bournemouth after the departure of Andoni Iraola and he has little to nothing to do to his squad, whereas poor old Alvaro Arbeloa has inherited a complete train wreck of a squad that needs a major overhaul, and it's lovely to see that the players we are being linked with have all got a good pedigree and are all a good age,
By all means continue your blind support for Marco Silva, but please,going forward lets not have history rewritten and pretend that everything was rosy under him, because it wasn't.

Is that playing devil's advocate?

I told you my opinion.

Did Marco make mistakes?
We all do.
Roy hodgsin made plenty and he was successful with us.
We were safer with Marco, I don't believe he was the problem at all but I can still pick fault with loads he did.

We are in more danger now.

[alfie]

I do dislike the tone of many of the posters, especially the ones effectively defending the club from any critical analysis.

The truth in my opinion is that we are in a very delicate situation that could easily go pear shaped. It appears to me the new manager has a clear idea on how he wants to play but I am not sure that that style suits the squad we have. But it is hard to be sure from pre season friendlies whether that is true or a trick of the light.

As it is I think everyone more or less agrees we need some new players of sufficient quality and that doesn't look like happening any time soon. The management seem to be following their usual pattern of waiting until the last minute to bring in players.

Personally, and this is just my own point of view, with 60+ years of watching and being part of the club, I think this is a good time to panic, if that is your thing. Personally I am not panicing I am just very upset that we could have been in a much better situation, and it is also my personal belief, we could have kept Marco but made it impossible for him to stay.... my opinion based on my life in business.

Come October we will sort of be able to gauge better whether panic was the right thing at this time.

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment if I may, I admire your loyalty to Marco Silva, but what if instead of being the answer he was actually the issue?
His transfer business could be described as diabolical, he signed Andersen and Smith-Rowe for a combined £65 million and he was desperate to bring in Ricardo Pepi and Samuel Chukwueze for a further £60 million, does anyone on here want to try and convince us all that £125 million on those four would have been good business?
Marco Rose has joined Bournemouth after the departure of Andoni Iraola and he has little to nothing to do to his squad, whereas poor old Alvaro Arbeloa has inherited a complete train wreck of a squad that needs a major overhaul, and it's lovely to see that the players we are being linked with have all got a good pedigree and are all a good age,
By all means continue your blind support for Marco Silva, but please,going forward lets not have history rewritten and pretend that everything was rosy under him, because it wasn't.

Is that playing devil's advocate?

I told you my opinion.

Did Marco make mistakes?
We all do.
Roy hodgsin made plenty and he was successful with us.
We were safer with Marco, I don't believe he was the problem at all but I can still pick fault with loads he did.

We are in more danger now.

I'm just gonna wait until we have played a few games before I write them off.

[WindyCity]

Is that the real problem here?

No, i think panicking is the real problem here to be honest. We're still 4 weeks away from start of season.

Four weeks is not very much time at all!!

For a smaller, mid table club like FFC I would never fault any fan to be relegation worried heading into a new season.  So, this season, yes, very concerned about this team staying in this league.  As it stands, new coach hired, many think a gamble, and unsure if he can produce results.  Also, even though I had no problem with Jimenez and Wilson departures, it's hard right now to see where the goals are gonna come from.  Lots of questions, lots of holes to fill, new players and upgrades needed.  And yes, only 4 weeks to go and the clock is ticking.  So, yes, concerned about staying up this season, hope I'm proven wrong about the worry.  Not really pressing for Euro play, just looking for a solid season and staying up.

Fulham are better off in the lower leagues. It seems to be a case of entitlement all the time, the glass always half empty. Fulham will never play Champions League football or probably win anything. I am more than happy to see us where we are. Boxing clever and surviving in the toughest league in the world. Yet some are already writing the club off and predicting relegation. Look at Fulham and then look at the big clubs. The resources, the stadiums, the money, the owners they have. Lower league football would probably be a good thing for Fulham.  I don't hold out any hope for this new manager, and I can't see him getting Garcia to come to Fulham with Mourinho now at Real Madrid.
[/quote]

"Fulham are better off in the lower leagues." - - Disagree

"It seems to be a case of entitlement all the time" - - Disagree.  And really don't understand the reasoning.  I don't see FFC fans in any sense bearing marks of entitlement.  I think fans, at least in this forum, just want to see FFC do business better, stay in the PL, improve the team whenever possible, and maybe stop this 'cheap' way of doing window business such as always waiting to the last minute and sniffing around for frees.

"I am more than happy to see us where we are. Boxing clever and surviving in the toughest
league in the world." - - Agree

"Yet some are already writing the club off and predicting relegation." - - Well, can you really blame them?  Sure, we're 'linked' with some talented players, but being linked and getting business done are very different things.  We still have some good players in this team, but additions are still needed.  A new coach which many here see as a gamble.  I'm willing to give him a chance and see how things play out, but I can see why supporters are a bit nervous right now.  No new players yet brought in and season starts in less than a month.

"I can't see him getting Garcia to come to Fulham with Mourinho now at Real Madrid." - - Kind of agree here, I can't stand that egotistical asshat Mourinho and no doubt he will make things difficult obtaining RM product.  And there are others besides Garcia.  I just hope, if we're lucky enough to pull something off, that these players are not coming here on loans, or loans with no buy options.  I'd hate to think we would be used as a training ground for some starlets that simply return back to RM and that assclown.

[RAY Rock]

What has improved since May I will tell you absolutely nothing
1) new manager with 0 experience other than a shambolic performance at Madrid
2) 2 strikers that scored 1 goal between them last season
3) players have 0 clue how to put Arbeloa's tactics into a game environment
4)Anderson contracted for another 3 years looks totally disinterested
5) Leno on the slide couldn't save a shot from outside the box last season crap with his feet
6) 0 new signings 26 days until the season starts
7) Kevin shoulder strapped up won't last 3 games
8) Still conceding goals from set pieces
9) 0 threat from attacking set pieces
10) Harrison Reed playing and being captain
11)  ESR not improved still jogging around
Have I left anything out 😡

[Angus Telford]

and could compete for Europe

One point off of europe last season, good finishes the previous two seasons (with a tail off sadly), means that we are doing that aren't we?
 

Sorry Jim, this is why I think your previous point about the ostensibly narrow points gaps is a bit misleading. I can't recall us being in the top 8 at all last season, and never felt like we'd actually achieve it (except maybe a couple of moments - but equally there were a couple of moments I thought we might go the other way and get sucked into the bottom 6). Ultimately there were three clubs ahead of of us for that spot and you can't say we deserved it.

Contrast with 2001-02 where we fell well away at the end of the season points wise, but for two thirds of the season were up there and looked like a good, attacking side that could beat anyone if we were up for it.

[Jim©]

and could compete for Europe

One point off of europe last season, good finishes the previous two seasons (with a tail off sadly), means that we are doing that aren't we?
 

Sorry Jim, this is why I think your previous point about the ostensibly narrow points gaps is a bit misleading. I can't recall us being in the top 8 at all last season, and never felt like we'd actually achieve it (except maybe a couple of moments - but equally there were a couple of moments I thought we might go the other way and get sucked into the bottom 6). Ultimately there were three clubs ahead of of us for that spot and you can't say we deserved it.

Contrast with 2001-02 where we fell well away at the end of the season points wise, but for two thirds of the season were up there and looked like a good, attacking side that could beat anyone if we were up for it.

See this is where i simply don't understand negative Fulham fans. You say that we didn't deserve it last season but in other posts you hold Brighton (1 pt ahead) in high esteem.

You say that you never felt we'd actually achieve it, but we were 4 points off of 5th and 3 points off of 6th after 22 games. https://www.premierleague.com/en/tables/premier-league/2025-26/matchweek-22
The only time anything looked at all dodgy was the first 6 or 7 games.

I guess it's just different perspectives 

[Chi_FFC]

8) Still conceding goals from set pieces

Still??? Only 3 teams (Arsenal, Spurs and City) conceded fewer goals from set pieces than we did last season.

[Angus Telford]

You say that you never felt we'd actually achieve it, but we were 4 points off of 5th and 3 points off of 6th after 22 games. https://www.premierleague.com/en/tables/premier-league/2025-26/matchweek-22

Click on the link Jim - we were 11th!
I think had we been 7th or even 9th all year I could agree but always seemed we were hovering in our standard lower mid-table slot.

[Angus Telford]

@Jim

So according to this...
https://mikami3345.cloudfree.jp/EPL/English-ver/EPLData-En.html

...of 38 gameweeks last season, we were only in the top 8 for two of them.

In contrast we spent nine gameweeks in the bottom 6, and the majority of the season in the bottom half.

[C Block]

I do dislike the tone of many of the posters, especially the ones effectively defending the club from any critical analysis.

The truth in my opinion is that we are in a very delicate situation that could easily go pear shaped. It appears to me the new manager has a clear idea on how he wants to play but I am not sure that that style suits the squad we have. But it is hard to be sure from pre season friendlies whether that is true or a trick of the light.

As it is I think everyone more or less agrees we need some new players of sufficient quality and that doesn't look like happening any time soon. The management seem to be following their usual pattern of waiting until the last minute to bring in players.

Personally, and this is just my own point of view, with 60+ years of watching and being part of the club, I think this is a good time to panic, if that is your thing. Personally I am not panicing I am just very upset that we could have been in a much better situation, and it is also my personal belief, we could have kept Marco but made it impossible for him to stay.... my opinion based on my life in business.

Come October we will sort of be able to gauge better whether panic was the right thing at this time.

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment if I may, I admire your loyalty to Marco Silva, but what if instead of being the answer he was actually the issue?
His transfer business could be described as diabolical, he signed Andersen and Smith-Rowe for a combined £65 million and he was desperate to bring in Ricardo Pepi and Samuel Chukwueze for a further £60 million, does anyone on here want to try and convince us all that £125 million on those four would have been good business?
Marco Rose has joined Bournemouth after the departure of Andoni Iraola and he has little to nothing to do to his squad, whereas poor old Alvaro Arbeloa has inherited a complete train wreck of a squad that needs a major overhaul, and it's lovely to see that the players we are being linked with have all got a good pedigree and are all a good age,
By all means continue your blind support for Marco Silva, but please,going forward lets not have history rewritten and pretend that everything was rosy under him, because it wasn't.

Is that playing devil's advocate?

I told you my opinion.

Did Marco make mistakes?
We all do.
Roy hodgsin made plenty and he was successful with us.
We were safer with Marco, I don't believe he was the problem at all but I can still pick fault with loads he did.

We are in more danger now.

Surrendering and waving a white flag in July must be some kind of record on here , I'd suggest to anyone to wait until the transfer window is closed before making such emotional statements.

[Arthur]

and could compete for Europe

One point off of europe last season, good finishes the previous two seasons (with a tail off sadly), means that we are doing that aren't we?

From the time we put our run of good results together over Christmas and the New Year, I was always of the thinking we were competing for a European place - even if at no time beyond mid-March did I actually believe we were going to achieve this. Right up to the penultimate game of the season at Molineux, despite the previous couple of months' lack of both goals and excitement, I still knew a victory - however uninspiringly attained - would give us a fighting chance of a European spot were we to then beat Newcastle.

Irrespective of the fact we were almost always outside the qualification places, my view is that it was a season in which we competed for Europe.

[Jim©]

@Jim

So according to this...
https://mikami3345.cloudfree.jp/EPL/English-ver/EPLData-En.html

...of 38 gameweeks last season, we were only in the top 8 for two of them.

In contrast we spent nine gameweeks in the bottom 6, and the majority of the season in the bottom half.

And we finished one point off Europe. Isn't that finishing position all that matters?