I have to admit I'm starting to get really irritated by everyone saying ...

[Tktd]

"this is a big thing for such a small club" or people belittling this club.

Yes our past is not as glamorous as others but this club now has as much potential as any other.

In Hodgson we have a manager arguably unrivalled by any other in the world , who has a solid understanding and ability to put into action his nous and tactical ability onto the field, whilst he's building a solid team one by one which financed by MAF could lead to buying the quality of player needed to progress and improve on a higher standard and having beaten the likes of Shakhtar, Basle and  also beating the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool comfortably there are signs for real progression and ability now to move forward and really rival clubs for cups and competitions.

Anyway this small club mentality can't be around much longer and we need to get over it and realise the potential this club now has.

That's all... lol.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

let them I say...we are a small club right up until the point we beat them,then we got lucky ;) underestimate Fulham Football Club and we will rip you apart! ;)-only in a gentlemanly way ofcourse ;)

[FC Silver Fox]

When I hear this, I look at it from a different perspective. Yes, we are a relatively small club in terms of budget and size of our squad. We don't have bottomless pit of money like certain other clubs. We maximize the use of all the club resources we have available and achieve great results, even better than 'larger' clubs with more money, bigger squads, larger, more modern grounds.
I take the quote as a compliment on what we are achieving.
It will have knock-on effects in the coming seasons when we want to attract new players to the club. They'll be far more willing to come to a progressive club that is known on the international stage.

[LBNo11]

...I think the 'small' club relates to our fan base which if you take away the large number of tourists and non-fixed premiership football junky fans is probably 17k ish, and by comparison to the 'big' clubs this is small.

However, if people are referring to Fulham FC as a small club in a patronising manner I am glad to have our potential underestimated as it means that opponents may be off their guard when playing us. Slaven Bilic and Alan "quality defending" Hansen both underestimated our worth prior to the Donetsk game, and hopefully Juventus will think the same.

I think that the old attitude is changing though - see my signature that quotes Mr Hodgson recently - says it all...

[Logicalman]

I can see your point Tktd, but imho, we are still a small club, when we look at other Prem and especially our past, current and potential opponents in the Europa competition.

I mean small in many ways. Our budget, our squad size, our ground, our support base and, in reality, the expectations of many people both inside and outside of the club.

Can you honestly tell me that when we qualified for the Europa compo last season you believed we could go all the way, especially in the knowledge that the throw-offs from the other Euro competitions would be joining at the latter stages?

We are walking in the land of giants in comparison to what we have experienced in the past 40 years. Our last great effort, the inter-toto cup was our only real exposure to those other teams on the world stage, outside of our domestic league(s). Now we face the mighty of Juventus, a team that most footballing followers the world over have heard of, and we have dispatched the current champions, an achievement that looked somewhat doubtful when they put the ball in the net at the cottage last week.

yes, we are a small club, but it simply makes our achievements the dreams of other small clubs and youngsters alike, lest we forget we had those dreams not too long ago ourselves.

[Tktd]

For me though it's more a point of structure...

If a club have a solid base and a good manager with a thoughtful chairman like ours the world is our oyster and our ambitions can be as high as we like as they are all possible.

How?

Well even if we kept the squad we have now and bought in just one or two players to better it each window and kept Hodgson on board as manager for life this club would end up going places and would become a force to be reckoned with as the team and squad would constantly improve and with Roy we would be able to beat any team and therefore achieve any goal.

Structure and fan base will grow if you focus simply on what's on the field, money will come in (£3 million for Europa so far?!) and that's why I think we are not a small club in terms of ability to expand.

Yes we are a smal club right now based on parts of history and our ground but it's not because we can't do more it's because we like the cottage, we like Fulhams small and friendly club and how it goes about its business in an unassuming but professional manner!

Anyway just erks me when I see people refer to us as small when a club is only as small as it's ability on the pitch in so many and more important ways.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

we are massive in the only place that matters-HEART!
biggest hearted club I know,as our american friends say:-
it's not the size of dog in the fight that matters, but the size of fight in the dog ;)

[Rupert]

Actually, I like being a small club. In a perverse way it makes us even more special. If Liverpool win the Europa Cup this season it will be seen as a consolation, and not much of one at that. Should we win the final in Berlin it will make people really sit up and take notice of this family-friendly club nestling on the banks of the Thames with its small but dedicated band of supporters and its superb, picturesque, traditional football ground.

We really are living the football fan's dream, right here, right now. Many of us saw our team in the depths, only fifteen years ago, remember. We were 91st out of 92 clubs. Some of us go a bit further back and can recall going to what was billed as possibly our last ever home game. Some of us are even old enough to know what it feels like to lose an FA Cup final.
Now, the bad times were very bad, and I would not wish them on our newer supporters, but oh boy do they make you appreciate what is happening now even more. We remain the same old club from my youth. Oh, things have changed, we no longer have the half-time scoreboards with the six letters and multiple lights, the tannoy bloke no longer asks, at half time whilst reading out other scores, "Are there any Chelsea fans here today?", (a pity, actually, as there were always a few cheers from around the ground, then he'd tell us how much they were losing by to even more cheers from the rest of us), but many things remain the same. We still have the Cottage. We still have the walk through Bishop's Park. We still have fans who are friendly enough that everybody feels safe wearing their team's colours, and long may that continue. We are still very welcoming to strangers. Look at how many fans we have picked up via the Neutral End. My Dad, over from Ireland in the late 50's, chose Fulham over both Brentford and QPR because of that willingness to include strangers in the Fulham family. Would any other Premiership club- no, COULD any other Premiership club- have tried the Neutral End experiment so successfully? Nobody else has copied us to date, even those with lots of empty seats.

Lads, we are unique, in many ways, and if a price of that is for others to regard us as a small club then I am happy to be so regarded.

[FatFreddysCat]

Actually, I like being a small club. In a perverse way it makes us even more special. If Liverpool win the Europa Cup this season it will be seen as a consolation, and not much of one at that. Should we win the final in Berlin it will make people really sit up and take notice of this family-friendly club nestling on the banks of the Thames with its small but dedicated band of supporters and its superb, picturesque, traditional football ground.

We really are living the football fan's dream, right here, right now. Many of us saw our team in the depths, only fifteen years ago, remember. We were 91st out of 92 clubs. Some of us go a bit further back and can recall going to what was billed as possibly our last ever home game. Some of us are even old enough to know what it feels like to lose an FA Cup final.
Now, the bad times were very bad, and I would not wish them on our newer supporters, but oh boy do they make you appreciate what is happening now even more. We remain the same old club from my youth. Oh, things have changed, we no longer have the half-time scoreboards with the six letters and multiple lights, the tannoy bloke no longer asks, at half time whilst reading out other scores, "Are there any the dark side fans here today?", (a pity, actually, as there were always a few cheers from around the ground, then he'd tell us how much they were losing by to even more cheers from the rest of us), but many things remain the same. We still have the Cottage. We still have the walk through Bishop's Park. We still have fans who are friendly enough that everybody feels safe wearing their team's colours, and long may that continue. We are still very welcoming to strangers. Look at how many fans we have picked up via the Neutral End. My Dad, over from Ireland in the late 50's, chose Fulham over both Brentford and QPR because of that willingness to include strangers in the Fulham family. Would any other Premiership club- no, COULD any other Premiership club- have tried the Neutral End experiment so successfully? Nobody else has copied us to date, even those with lots of empty seats.

Lads, we are unique, in many ways, and if a price of that is for others to regard us as a small club then I am happy to be so regarded.

What a great post rupert. :D

[Lighthouse]

Better to be looked upon as the small fish that eats big fish than a big fish eaten by the small fish. Oh yes.

[clintclintdeuce]

Mate, I think that youre missing a point here. While the support we have in England may be smallish compared to others, and there may not be any possible way of attaining the numbers of Spam or Spurs, we are growing quickly and massivly in other fronts such as Australia and the USA. I was at the US Mens National team game on Wednesday in Tampa Florida, and I saw more FFC attire then I have ever before.

[FatFreddysCat]

Mate, I think that youre missing a point here. While the support we have in England may be smallish compared to others, and there may not be any possible way of attaining the numbers of Spam or Spurs, we are growing quickly and massivly in other fronts such as Australia and the USA. I was at the US Mens National team game on Wednesday in Tampa Florida, and I saw more FFC attire then I have ever before.

Also a sprinkling of FFC shirts in Northolt in what was once a Qpha stronghold, though most of the kids are now Darkside. But if we keep doing well we can only grow. We miised a good generation or two of fulham supporters because we was so sh1t, but now attract quite a lot of young uns who will hopefully stay loyal if we ever go down. Perversley enough i used to go all the time when we was crap, but now very very rarely go. Though if i was minted i would definately go to every game, i have to be sensible now i'm 41, plus i can see us on Football first for fifty minutes at least every week, plus live games and illegal quite often crap illegal streams.i've got the call for dinner. Tally Ho.

[alfie]

Lighthouse is a phrophet

[alfie]

sorry not quite as good as it sounded

[Motown]

Small, but perfectly formed ;D I have to admit to being slightly irritated at today's press coverage. Liverpool had an easy run-in, Popeye's boys got their limitations spanked and we beat last year's champs (in the competition's old guise) - but guess who got all the column inches!
We are being structured as a club - with a manager who has the utmost respect for his knowledge of the game throughout Europe - which, under his tutelage will remain a reasonable Premiership force. There will be some exciting offshoots along the way - the Yids and the Old Lady being the most immediate. How many games have we played this season with a fairly lean squad on all fronts?
When you look at the money poured into last night's opponents, with their array of Brazilian quality, our team is peanuts in financial comparison.
But I rate our squad. Somehow, even when we're lacking ( first choice backs) we held it together - and that's down to RH and a bunch of players that plays for each other.
Last night wasn't pretty. But over two legs LAST YEAR'S CHAMPIONS couldn't do us.
We're not the biggest club in terms of finance and fan base... but, I'll match the loyalty of that fan base against anyone...
Bring on the Old Lady......

[HatterDon]

Plus one on Rupert's post.

Oh, and we're about three hours away from having an intervention to keep Mr. Fat away from the new smilie. I may not be a pusher, but I recognize addiction when I see it!  8)

[Cornnolio]

...I think the 'small' club relates to our fan base which if you take away the large number of tourists and non-fixed premiership football junky fans is probably 17k ish, and by comparison to the 'big' clubs this is small.

However, if people are referring to Fulham FC as a small club in a patronising manner I am glad to have our potential underestimated as it means that opponents may be off their guard when playing us. Slaven Bilic and Alan "quality defending" Hansen both underestimated our worth prior to the Donetsk game, and hopefully Juventus will think the same.

I think that the old attitude is changing though - see my signature that quotes Mr Hodgson recently - says it all...

Spot on.  350 away fans is not going to help in getting rid of the "small club" label.

[VicHalomsLovechild]

I can live with the small club tag. What really irritates me is, we put out last years winners but get mentioned after Everton (knocked out) on BBC news and web.
Putting aside size and popularity, won't you mention your countries successes before it's failures. The Brits liking of an underdog rule, doesn't seem to apply to Fulham.