Saturday Fulham Stuff (06/08/11)...

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Hamilton: 'Of all the English teams Fulham have got the trickiest draw'

World Soccer magazine editor Gavin Hamilton joins Danny to preview the Champions League and Europa League ties featuring British teams including Arsenal vs Udinese, Fulham vs Dnipro and Rangers vs Maribor.

To listen back to the full interview click the link



http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/kickoff/blog/2011-08-05/hamilton-all-english-teams-fulham-have-got-trickiest-draw?

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Tottenham must take Hearts and Fulham get the short straw in the Europa League draw

The Europa League draw has thrown up another 'Battle of Britain' as Tottenham face Hearts in a two-leg play-off to reach the main group stage.

Scottish champions Rangers also face Slovenian side Maribor after crashing out of Champions League qualification this week and Celtic have been drawn against Sion of Switzerland.



But 2010 Europa League finalists Fulham have perhaps the worst draw of the English clubs, with a 3,200-mile return trip to the Ukraine to face Dnipro sandwiched between their first two domestic matches.

Dnipro's manager is Juande Ramos, who succeeded Fulham boss Martin Jol at Spurs in 2007.

Carling Cup winners Birmingham City will interrupt their Championship campaign to play Portuguese side Nacional and FA Cup finalists Stoke City take on FC Thun of Switzerland after knocking out Hadjuk Split 2-0 on aggregate in the third qualifying round.

Harry Redknapp's Spurs side will travel to Tynecastle on Thursday August 18, with the return leg a week later at White Hart Lane.

But Tottenham will be pleased to have avoided a long away journey for the first leg, which is only four days before Spurs play  Premier League champions Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Hearts beat Paksi of Hungary 5-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round.

The 4-1 win at Tynecastle on Thursday night was the first match in charge for former Sporting Lisbon coach Paulo Sergio, who took over from Jim Jeffries on Tuesday.

Sergio, the ninth Hearts manager in the last seven years, said: 'This is a very interesting draw for us, for sure.

'No matter who we were drawn against it was going to be a very difficult tie but it is a match which I am sure will capture the imagination.

'There is not much travelling for the supporters and of course there will be the Scotland-England rivalry.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2022972/Tottenham-Hearts-Fulham-short-straw.html#ixzz1UEAQlgzr

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Dempsey: Euro marathon good for Fulham



Fulham winger Clint Dempsey believes the Europa League will do their domestic hopes the power of good.

Boss Martin Jol complained that the club's pre-season preparations have suffered because they have had to play six qualifying matches instead.

And the Cottagers now face a gruelling 3,000-mile round trip to Ukraine for the final qualifying round after being drawn against Dnipro.

However, Dempsey says the more games the merrier – even though Fulham could face SEVENTEEN more fixtures if they want to make it to the final of the competition, like they did in 2010.

"We want to better what we did last season," said the US international. "We have a good core-group of guys who have been here through the most successful period.

"These last three years have been great. We want to make a good run in the Europa League and see what we can do in the cups.

"We've got more depth to our team and I think we're going to be a tough team to play against. I think we'll be in a good position coming into the start of the season."

Dempsey has had barely three weeks off between seasons because of international duties and played his first Fulham game on Thursday when they beat RNK Split 2-0 in the third qualifying round.

He shrugged: "Your career is short and you have to make the most of it. It is trying to find the right balance.

"You can't really take too long off because when you take a long period of time off it is difficult to come back, you start picking up injuries.

"We've had important games. You can look at it in different ways. It's been a good thing in the sense that you couldn't take your foot off the gas."

Meanwhile, Jol is celebrating passage to the Europa League play-offs by treating his players to a barbecue.

"It's good to have a nice dinner with the players and their wives," he said.

"I'm not cooking. It can't be at my house because I'm at a hotel still. I could cause the hotel a problem like that, but I'm not."



Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Fulham-news-Europa-League-qualifiers-will-help-make-strong-start-Premier-League-says-Clint-Dempsey-article781654.html#ixzz1UEB13djJ
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Cottagers eye French prospect

Fulham have made a £3m bid for Lens' teenage right back Serge Aurier, according to a report in France.
Le Parisien claims Cottagers officials have made the first move to land the defender, who made 19 appearances in Ligue 1 last season as Lens suffered relegation into the French second division.

Manchester City were briefly linked to Aurier earlier this season while Blackburn and Sunderland have also been credited with an interest in the young Paris-born prospect.

Big spending Spanish club Malaga have also been sniffing around him while Getafe are another club to have been linked to Aurier.

Martin Jol is on the lookout for a new right back to cover for Stephen Kelly after the departure of John Pantsil.



http://www.eatsleepsport.com/fulham/cottagers-eye-french-prospect-1253708.html?#.Tj0iXXPHo98

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Fulham: Jol slowly adding to Cottagers' established base

With Ukrainian side Dnipro standing between Fulham and the group stage of the Europa League new Cottagers manager Martin Jol is just two games away from leading his team into the same European competition that produced some of the club's greatest moments during a run to the 2010 final. Despite having twice changed managers since then, the nucleus of that side remains intact.

Of the 14 players who featured in the 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid, only two are no longer at Craven Cottage, remarkable consistency for a club under new management for the second consecutive summer - a number of players have left, but the backbone of the squad remains. With Jol stepping in for Mark Hughes the Dutchman has added a number of interesting signings to a squad that finished a respectable eighth, reaching Europe again by virtue of the Fair Play League. Former Liverpool left-back John Arne Riise has returned to England from Roma, ironically filling a gap originally created by the departure of Paul Konchesky to Anfield and never adequately plugged by Hughes. Also arriving from Serie A is midfielder Pajtim Kasami, far less known than Riise but also, albeit briefly, a former Liverpool player. The 19-year-old Kasami joins Fulham from Palermo but spent a brief period on loan at Liverpool in 2008. The Macedonian-born Swiss U-21 international made 24 appearances in Palermo colours and has been praised by Jol for his versatility.

Two further signings from foreign climbs now call Fulham home, goalkeeper Csaba Somogyi and midfielder Marcel Gecov. Somogyi previously spent time on trial with Jol's former club Ajax and has been brought to west London as cover for Mark Schwarzer, with David Stockdale gaining experience on loan at Ipswich Town, but more is expected of the 23-year-old Gecov. Jol said after the signing of Gecov that Fulham scouts spotted the player during the Czech Republic's European U-21 Championship, particularly the match with England in which Gecov bagged two assists, and with only three natural central midfielders at the club when Jol took over - Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu and Steve Sidwell - bolstering that area has clearly been a priority. Kasami and Gecov join the aforementioned trio in comprising an engine room well stocked in talent if not numbers, with the likes of Clint Dempsey and Simon Davies also able to fill in centrally if needed, but Mahamadou Diarra and Thomas Hitzlsperger have also been linked.

Further possible additions have also been widely discussed, with Jol at one point in the summer saying the club needed half-a-dozen signings. The most persistent rumour has linked Robbie Keane to a reunification with Jol, his old Tottenham Hotspur manager, under whose tutelage the Ireland forward netted 58 goals between November 2004 and October 2007. Fulham's need for an extra striker is largely down to the chronic fitness problems experienced by those already at the club last season, from Andy Johnson's persistent knee injury to Bobby Zamora's broken leg and the ankle injury suffered by Moussa Dembele. Rarely able to get all three of his talented strikers involved at any one time, Hughes was often frustrated that, what, on paper, would be a dangerous trio, was rarely seen in practice. The signing of Keane, if it were to happen, would help alleviate the problem. Birmingham City's Cameron Jerome, Pablo Osvaldo of Espanyol, want-away Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy and Keane's Spurs teammate Peter Crouch have each also been mentioned.

Whether Johnson is a Fulham player at the close of the transfer window remains to be seen, however. The former Everton and Crystal Palace striker has been strongly linked with a cross-town switch to newly promoted Queens Park Rangers, although the budgetary constraints Neil Warnock is operating under could make such a move unlikely. Having paid Everton £10.5m for Johnson's services in 2008 Fulham have suffered somewhat diminishing returns, with 10 goals coming in Johnson's first year in white, but only nine spread across three seasons since, including three so far already this season. Injuries have been at the root cause of such paucity, but in terms of appearances, last season was more encouraging, as Johnson played 29 games of a possible 44, including 15 league starts and 12 substitute appearances. Johnson's history also suggests that his meagre goal return will not last - not only has he found the net regularly in the club's embryonic European campaign, but he had scored 121 goals before moving to Fulham, and the kind of goal scoring ability needed to reach that total is not lost over night. If Johnson can be the goal scorer Jol requires, then another startling European campaign is not out of the question, with maybe the domestic form to match.

In

Csaba Somogyi GK - free

John Arne Riise DEF - Roma, undisclosed

Pajtim Kasami MID - Palermo, undisclosed

Marcel Gecov MID - Slovan Liberec, undisclosed

Out

David Stockdale GK - Ipswich Town, loan

Pascal Zuberbuehler GK - retired

John Paintsil DEF - Leicester City, free

Jonathan Greening MID - Nottingham Forest, undisclosed

Zoltan Gera MID - West Bromwich Albion, freee

Interested in

Thomas Hitzlsperger MID - free

Craig Bellamy FWD - Manchester City

Robbie Keane FWD - Tottenham Hotspur

Peter Crouch FWD - Tottenham Hotspur

Cameron Jerome FWD - Birmingham City



http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/p6_2_8791_fulham-jol-slowly-adding-to-cottagers'-established-base.html