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Tuesday Fulham Stuff (23/03/10)

Started by WhiteJC, March 23, 2010, 07:24:04 AM

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WhiteJC

http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=192567
Fulham - A Proper Financial Model!
One of the most pleasing aspects of our little old club having a second great season on the trot is that we play things, on a financial scale, by the book.

We`re not one of those clubs that are prepared to speculate millions jus ton the off-chance we`re going to accumulate success, we`re prepared to pay sensible salaries, chip away at those above and live content that our club will not be doing a Portsmouth, a Leeds or suffer the fate awaiting those who are prepared to spend far more than there revenue provides.

It`s a point that (Sir) Roy Hodgson has picked up on when he`s remarked,

"The amount of money that the top teams are spending increases every year - not just the transfer fees but also wages."

"The chairman has said this week that clubs should not really be living beyond their means and depending on sugar daddies in order to survive."

"I totally agree with that philosophy so it would be unwise of me to say that we should try to break into that top six by breaking the bank."

"Some teams have a massive advantage over Fulham - they have a capacity of 60,000 to 70,000 whereas we have 23,000."

"The existence of the club is more important than short term gain."

And that last line is probably the crux of the matter is it not? Surely the continued existence of our football club is all that matters; the fact that we`re enjoying such success is just reward for the efforts put it!


WhiteJC

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/GeraFACupPreview.aspx
Big Game Hunter



After Sunday's disappointing defeat to Manchester City at Craven Cottage, Whites midfielder Zoltan Gera has this week's FA Cup Quarter-Final Replay firmly in his sights.

Having played out a goalless draw with Tottenham little more than two weeks ago, Fulham travel to White Hart Lane on Wednesday determined to secure their first Wembley appearance in 35 years.

Following Thursday's memorable UEFA Europa League triumph, the Whites were brought back to reality as a result of City's 2-1 victory, but our Hungarian schemer believes Fulham can bounce back with a bang.

Speaking exclusively to fulhamfc.com he said: "The result on Sunday was disappointing, we all know that, especially after the game against Juventus. But we made it very difficult for ourselves because we just didn't start the game very well.

"It's tough to come back from two goals at half-time, and had my chance in the first-half not been cleared off the line, maybe we would have seen a different outcome. That said, we did play better in the second-half and probably should have taken something.

"But we have to forget about that game now, and we have the perfect match to bounce back in this week when we face Tottenham in the Quarter-Final of the FA Cup.

"We are facing a very good side, and one that has a lot of top players. We know this will be a difficult game, as the first one proved. There wasn't a lot between the two teams that afternoon, and I think it will probably be the same again.

"We have faced them three times already this season, so we know what they are all about. We're yet to beat them though, having drawn twice and lost one. So hopefully we can change that this week. It could be a matter of whichever team makes the most of the opportunities that they are given."

And when considering his current form, few would back against the 30-year-old taken his, for Gera has become Fulham's man for the big occasion scoring against CSKA Sofia, FC Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk and Juventus.

"Well this is a big occasion," enthuses Zolly. "For the players, fans and the Club. It will be an important night for us all, and hopefully I can play my part. I am pleased with my season so far, but there is always more that you can do.

"I have managed to score some important goals, and I would like to do so again. It's always nice to score, but of course, when it has a greater importance for the team that is great.

"But it's not just about one player, this is a team and we all have the same hopes for Wednesday – we all want to go through."

Reward for Wednesday night's winners will be a trip to Wembley, if successful it will be the Club's first visit since they reached the 1975 FA Cup Final.

"It has been a long while since Fulham last ran out at Wembley," he added. "So to be part of a team that achieves that for the Club would be very special.

"And it's a special place to play, one of the best. I have been lucky enough to play there twice before, but I would love to go back and this time with Fulham."

Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/GeraFACupPreview.aspx#ixzz0iyy23AUN

WhiteJC

http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=192566
Fulham - City Were Hanging on!
After the loss to Manchester City, (Sir) Roy Hodgson was his usual honest self in the post match interview.

Although defeat is always a bitter pill to swallow, Roy was quick to point out that Fulham finished the stronger of the two sides and had run Manchester City really close,

Speaking about the narrow defeat this is what Roy had to say,

"We conceded two very bad goals to them in the first half but I thought the team did remarkably well to come back from that and City were much happier to hear the final whistle."

"I`d like to think my players put that game behind them but it`ll be results that condition people`s judgment on things."

"Stefan Okaka missed a great chance and there was a penalty appeal that might have led to a second penalty."

"I was 70 yards away, so I`m not commenting."

"I`m pretty sure if Okaka had scored or the referee had given a penalty to make it 2-2, people would say my players are all recovered."

Nothing too controversial there but would you really expect there to be from Gentleman Roy?



WhiteJC

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/MilsomReturns.aspx
Back In Business



Highly rated Fulham Academy Graduate Robert Milsom is back in action after a 12 month absence through injury.

Milsom was struck down by a serious knee injury just a week after making his First Team debut at Old Trafford last season but the midfielder is now looking towards making a breakthrough next season after making a full recovery.

"The injury happened during a Reserve Team game against Arsenal," Milsom explained. "It was unfortunate. I'd just come back off loan from Southend and I thought I was playing really well for the Reserves and in training.

"I was given a chance in the First Team against Manchester United at Old Trafford a week before the injury happened. I've been back a few months now and training so hopefully it's all behind me. It was a long time out but I think I'm over it.

"I've played two Reserve matches. In the first I played 75 minutes against Stoke which was a good game to come back in and I played against Birmingham the other night. I'm not fully match fit yet – that's going to take a while after being out for 12 months but I feel okay."

Milsom was handed a one-year contract extension last week and is determined to repay the faith the Club has shown him during the hard times by making an impact in Roy Hodgson's First Team next season. 

"I was awarded a new one year extension which was nice," said Milsom. "I owe the Club a lot for helping me through my injury and I'm grateful that they offered me another year for me to prove myself and get myself into the First Team.

"He [Roy Hodgson] always gave me encouragement when I was injured and was always asking me how I was. At the moment it's all about getting games with the Reserves and seeing what happens next season.

"I'm going to play the rest of the season for the Reserves. Of course I'll be trying to break into the First Team but I'm not expecting massive things. Then I'm going to play in Scandinavia over the summer.

"I'll get around 15 games and be match fit for the start of the new season. Hopefully it will give me an advantage when we come back for next season because I'll be match fit. I've been out for a long time so I'm happy to go over there.

"I've missed so much all I want to do is play football. I don't need a rest!"



Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/MilsomReturns.aspx#ixzz0iyybKq3S

WhiteJC

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/london-sport/fulham-fc/2010/03/22/shorey-sets-sights-on-fulham-starting-spot-82029-26086699/
Shorey sets sights on Fulham starting spot

NICKY Shorey is willing to battle Paul Konchesky for Fulham's left-back spot in a bid to earn a permanent deal at Craven Cottage.

The Aston Villa loan star has helped the Whites to six clean sheets in eight games while Konch has been sidelined through injury.

But he now faces a fight on his hands to keep the shirt after the former West Ham full-back got the nod for Sunday's defeat against Manchester City.

Shorey moved to SW6 because he was third in the pecking order at Villa Park, where he has a year left on his contract.

And he has made it clear he is not prepared to settle for a place on the bench as he tries to stay at Fulham for good.

He said: "I left Aston Villa to play games, and they [Fulham] had a gap to be filled.

"Obviously, Konch is back now, so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, I'll get more chances to impress.

"I was behind Stephen Warnock [at Villa], and Martin O'Neill played Luke Young in front of me as well.

"I knew I had a better chance of regular football here. I wasn't happy being third choice, and that's why I made the decision to go out on loan.

"I think there have been talks with a view to a permanent deal, but I'll have to wait and see what happens in the summer."

WhiteJC

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/CityProgrammeNumber.aspx
Lucky Programme Number

The lucky programme number from Sunday's match against Manchester City at the Cottage was 05915.

If you were the lucky buyer of this numbered edition then please email [email protected]| with a scan or photograph of the inside back cover as proof of your success.

The winner will receive a medium Fulham shirt, signed, as well as a signed copy of Sunday's programme.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the programme at every home game to be in with a chance of winning great Fulham prizes like these.

Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/CityProgrammeNumber.aspx#ixzz0iyz7U7xY


WhiteJC

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/WolfsburgTickets.aspx
Wolfsburg Tickets

Fulham v. Wolfsburg Home Leg Ticket Information
Following Thursday evening's famous victory over Juventus at Craven Cottage, Roy Hodgson's European heroes will now take on Wolfsburg in the UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final. The first leg will take place at home on Thursday 1st April (Kick-Off 8:05pm).

Season Ticket Holders have until 9am on Tuesday to purchase their seats, after which they will be released.

Members can buy theirs from Midday on Tuesday 23rd March.

Tickets start from £30 for Adults and from £15 for Juniors.



Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/March/WolfsburgTickets.aspx#ixzz0iyzTbcvD

WhiteJC

http://www.ealinggazette.co.uk/sport/football-ealing/fulham-fc-ealing/2010/03/22/shorey-prepared-to-battle-for-fulham-spot-64767-26087144/
Shorey prepared to battle for Fulham spot
NICKY Shorey is willing to battle Paul Konchesky for Fulham's left-back spot in a bid to earn a permanent deal at Craven Cottage.

The Aston Villa loan star has helped the Whites to six clean sheets in eight games while Konch has been sidelined through injury.

But he now faces a fight on his hands to keep the shirt after the former West Ham full-back got the nod for Sunday's defeat against Manchester City.

Shorey moved to SW6 because he was third in the pecking order at Villa Park, where he has a year left on his contract.

And he has made it clear he is not prepared to settle for a place on the bench as he tries to stay at Fulham for good.

He said: "I left Aston Villa to play games, and they [Fulham] had a gap to be filled.

"Obviously, Konch is back now, so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, I'll get more chances to impress.

"I was behind Stephen Warnock [at Villa], and Martin O'Neill played Luke Young in front of me as well.

"I knew I had a better chance of regular football here. I wasn't happy being third choice, and that's why I made the decision to go out on loan.

"I think there have been talks with a view to a permanent deal, but I'll have to wait and see what happens in the summer."

WhiteJC

http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/breaking-down-the-tevez-goal-what-went-wrong/
Breaking down the Tevez goal – what went wrong?
Filed under: General — weltmeisterclaude @ 9:48 pm

I haven't seen this, but it has been noted that Hodgson went absolutely barmy after City's second goal, throwing his coat into the dugout and showing signs of general fury.

Why might this be?   Let's have a look.  As ever, what follows must be prefaced with the comment that this is the analysis of an amateur relying on books he doesn't really understand.

Okay, so in order:

1 and 2  Baird goes out to meet Tevez, who slips the ball onto the left flank to Bellamy, cutting Baird out of the game
3 Bellamy has acres of space.   Hughes now has to decide whether to stay or go.    Difficult decision because he shouldn't be in this position.   Note also how far away from Hughes Smalling is.
4 Bellamy chips inside Hughes, removing him from the defence too.   Baird, torn between chasing Bellamy (futile) and tracking Tevez, has done neither.   At this point I am reasonably certain that Smalling should be close behind Hughes and therefore able to cut out the cross
5 Smalling flies past Tevez a la Billy Wright/Ferenc Puskas ("like a fire engine going to the wrong fire" – Geoffrey Green)
6 Konchesky can't get there either.

Now, part of this is the perils of getting caught too far upfield.  People moan that we don't get our midfielders into the box, but this is exactly why Roy is so cautious.   To be honest I can't even remember the play that preceded this, but transition is everything to Roy's teams, and to be so exposed like this (no matter that it was by Bellamy and Tevez, two of the game's finest counter-attacking forwards)... well, no wonder he was angry.

Here's what's meant to happen (borrowed from "Soccer's 442 system, by Ceccomori et al):


Note that the actual goal was a fast counter, whereas the above assumes a more set 'shape', but still.   Note also that in the above situation (well found, I think), the full-back (#2) has, as per our game, been cut out.     But #6 is across quickly, and the rest of the unit shuffles over to account for this.    This isn't as easy as it sounds, as Tevez was running infield and Bellamy was very wide, so shutting them down so fast was always going to be hard, but the above hints at what ought to have happened.

This one's better still because the team has retained its shape, and the midfield (even more advanced than we normally allow them) are doing the closing down, so the defence keeps its shape (it was pulled apart mercilessly by City, really, wasn't it?) and everyone's a winner.

Looking back at the photos then, we see Murphy on the flank, Etuhu in the middle of the pitch, and under those circumstances, perhaps Baird was right to close down Tevez.    At this point, though, you really do need the team to cover as per the first diagram above, and that, or the delay in doing that, proved crucial in the concession.

Or not.  Easy for me to sit here pretending to be an expert.  It's  a different story when Tevez, Bellamy and co are racing up the field and execute so flawlessly.   But Roy's reaction suggests that he felt it could have been defended better, and having gone through the above, perhaps we can see this.


WhiteJC

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-nets-16314bn-tv-rights-bonanza-1925462.html
Premier League nets £1.4bn TV rights bonanza

Global broadcasting deals double in value after bidding war, shattering expectations / Clubs in line for extra £13m each per year

By Nick Harris

The Premier League's sale of its overseas broadcasting rights for 2010-13 will raise around £1.4bn, more than double the previous level of £625m, The Independent can reveal.


With just two deals left to be concluded – in Albania and Russia – the League is assured of raising each club's average annual income from overseas rights alone from £10m now to about £23m per season from this summer.

That leap of £13m per club per year will not necessarily be split evenly. Some of the new cash will bankroll increased parachute payments, up from £11.2m last year to £16m from this summer. Parachute money will probably also be extended beyond the current two years. The League is finalising details on that, as well as how much extra money it might give the Football League in "solidarity payments". It currently gives the 72 Football League clubs £21.6m per year combined for a variety of academy, community and club projects.

The overseas rights bonanza underlines the global appeal of England's top football division, and has been fuelled by intense bidding wars in key areas, mainly between pay-TV rivals in Asia.

The Abu Dhabi royal family, from which Manchester City's owner Sheikh Mansour hails, has also played its part. The ruling elite's Abu Dhabi Media Company has won the rights for Premier League matches across the Middle East and North Africa from the incumbent holder, Showtime Arabia.

Local sources say Showtime paid around $120m (£80m) last time and that ADMC entered the auction for 2010-13 at $150m, but ended up paying more than $300m (£200m-plus). If that is a stunning endorsement of growth in one region, then the auctions in Singapore and Hong Kong were downright jaw-dropping.

In Singapore, an island with a population of 4.8 million people, the rights are held by the pay-TV operator StarHub, which paid an estimated £67m for 2007-10. Its fiercest commercial rival, SingTel, believes that Premier League content equals lucrative subscriptions so poured huge resources into the effort to take the rights from StarHub. It succeeded. Sources in Asia say SingTel paid £200m for 2010-13.

In Hong Kong (population 7 million), the Now TV station currently has the rights (having paid about £115m last time) but has lost them to i-Cable, which is understood to have paid close to £150m.

The Premier League will retain the same partners for 2010-13 in some regions: Fox and Setanta will continue to be the main carriers of the Premier League across North America and the Caribbean, as will Fox Latin in South America, and ESPN Star across 18 major Asia countries, including India.

Canal+ retains rights in France and Poland (in a deal worth about £60m), but a shake-up in Scandinavia has seen Canal+ lose the rights there to an intermediary sub-licensee, Medge Consulting. Medge has paid £111m for rights in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Medge has sold or will sell the rights on to individual broadcasters at a healthy mark-up. An incidental quirk in the Scandinavian sale is the involvement on a consultancy basis in the sell-on of rights of Rune Hauge, the agent at the centre of the Arsenal "bung" scandal of the early 1990s. Almost 20 years on, Hauge is still making money from English football, strictly legally this time.

The League simply does not have the manpower to do individual deals itself in all 211 countries where its games are shown, so sub-licensing and the sales of packets of regional rights is common. The League has 98 broadcast partners, as well as its own new TV station, Premier League TV, which will provide "viewer ready" action, commentary and analysis for nations wanting to buy rights "off the shelf".

In the future, the League hopes PLTV can attract non-traditional buyers to the market, for example entrepreneurs who want to enter the football market but don't have broadcasting capabilities themselves.

The Premier League's live domestic rights for 2010-13 raised £1.782bn when sold last summer. With such enormous growth in international sales, and room for expansion, foreign rights should overtake home sales in the future.

The League has been careful to strike the right balance in its latest sale between maximising income while making matches available to audiences that are as large as possible. Pay-TV stations pay more because they can earn more by charging viewers, but free-to-air stations always deliver much higher ratings.

In China, the pay-TV firm WinTV will keep rights for 2010-13, having paid around $50m, the same as it did for 2007-10. Exchange rate movements mean that $50m was worth £25.6m in 2007, but £33.3m now.

As The Independent first reported two years ago, the last WinTV deal caused a furore among the Premier League's top clubs because WinTV alienated potential viewers with crass marketing and high prices, and got so few subscribers that viewing figures were negligible. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool were unhappy at the lack of exposure in what is seen as a key market for their international brand growth.

The difference this time is that while WinTV has retained the rights for 2010-13, the new deal in China will involve the screening of at least one free-to-air match per week from this summer.