Is This Fulham's High Water Mark?

[White Noise]

http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/even-flow/


Even flow


May 8, 2012


rich



I was recently watching a documentary about Pearl Jam, the American rock band (still on iPlayer if you're interested). It was strange: the first time you hear Eddie Vedder's voice you do a sort of aural double take. *Christ*.  But in the end Pearl Jam lack a certain something and while there's nothing inherently wrong with their output it's somehow less than it ought to be. Years ago a friend of mine and I listened to their "Ten" album and decided that there wasn't really much that could improve it, but now, probably 15 years later, it's clear that we were wrong.

Not that you can dismiss the album in any way: it's really good. The band themselves are good, too: Mike McCready's an extraordinary guitarist and Vedder's voice is like something a giant bear might come up with had it learned to speak human (then learned to sing well – I didn't think this one through did I?).  It's something beyond the norm, and explains why the band became so successful so quickly.  It was all just *there*, great, obviously great.

Sometimes it's not that simple though. Sometimes that indefineable *it* is missing, and no amount of ability or longevity or anything else can give you it back. I'll tell you how you know: Pearl Jam made an effort to be less 'commercial' in their sound and it sounded like they were making an effort to be less commercial in their sound, which to me was getting away from what they were good at. Contrast with Nirvana, who reacted against Nevermind's over-production and commercial success with the implausibly good In Utero. Vedder's attempt to get off the beaten track may have been a personal success but not a musical one; Cobain doing the same was an artistic triumph.

I don't know what this is or why it happened, and after all it's just a subjective judgement from someone who doesn't know as much about these things as he thinks he does, but even so, I'm on to something here.

It's why Fulham are so pleasant to watch at the moment, I think – there's a primacy and recency effect in play here, I grant you – we ended the season in the best possible way – (how many dashes?!) but the team has just about enough of everything, in the following ways:

Much of this team has struggled together. Hangeland, Hughes, Dempsey, Murphy and Davies were all here in the bad times when we were all really glum. They bonded then and pulled this club through a terrible situation. We were with them every step of the way. We feel them, they feel us, we get them, they get us. They are Fulham players and deserve our respect and gratitude for their efforts. As QPR are finding, you can't just buy a team. A team grows.

Beyond the relegation fun though, we went stratospheric, to a degree heretofore unimaginable. Mark Schwarzer and Damien Duff were part of the team that did this, too, so they're in our hearts and minds as good eggs as well.

We're still on about something that's real about this team – there was a time not so long ago when we didn't really know our players, we didn't sing songs for them, we just watched them play. Now they are part of the club's fabric. They are not Nickelback or Snow Patrol or some other lamentable excuse for a guitar band; they are our Nirvana, the best thing of its kind any of us will ever see or hear.  Because in addition to the soul issues mentioned above there's a new authenticity to the team's play.  Cast Roy Hodgson as Butch Vig, the man to do things the right way, but bring in Steve Albini or Scott Litt as Martin Jol, letting things go a bit, relinquishing a small amount of appropriate control for the common good and producing a team that can just be what it's meant to be. Clint Dempsey is playing like a free man; Moussa Dembele is a talent so pure and exciting; John-Arne Riise looks like he's never had so much fun on a football pitch.  It's real.

This is why today's team is so satisfying. It has a core that Roy Hodgson nurtured and made us believe in, but now it is becoming true to itself, becoming even more than the sum of its parts, becoming something really spectacular.

Nirvana stopped there; Pearl Jam carried on Pearl Jamming around for a while. This Fulham's probably not going to be this good again but like the legions of Pearl Jam fans who follow their band everywhere, I'm sure we've got much to look forward to even if we never produce another "Ten".

Blake Babies - Nirvana

[White Noise]

http://blogs.soccernet.com/fulham/archives/2012/05/all_things_must_pass.php



All Things Must Pass


Posted by Phil Mison 6 hours, 25 minutes ago



© Getty Images


And if all things must pass, even a pyramid won't last. A lyric from a hugely under-rated act of the 80's for you to work out. Fulham Football Club is a force for change and progress. We should not fear it.

There's no denying it was hard going watching the squad's lap of honour after Sunday's win. Nothing to complain about from the afternoon's entertainment with a 10th home win achieved in fine style. All three goals dazzled but as Jol said afterwards with a dash more luck in front of goal Fulham could and should have won by a comfortable margin. Finishing top ten is now guaranteed, and we can approach the final weekend's trip to WHL with real confidence of picking up more points. To end the season 7th and with a new points high from our EPL season would reflect on an excellent run since Christmas. The bittersweet side of Sunday came when studying faces on the lap of honour to try and second guess who might not be wearing Fulham white next August. Every fan at the ground will have harboured such thoughts.

For the past 11 months, yes it's been a long season, all credit to the manager for getting his style across finally, and to the players too for raising their game. We sensed there was real quality in the team, but how frustrating was it to wait six games for that first win, fold at places like Wolves and Blackburn, and even as late as March turn in a woeful performance at a floundering Villa. Not to mention our excruciating exits from all three cup competitions.

It is no exaggeration to suggest we could be very close to a Champions League spot next season. Extrapolating our results from the 37 games to date you can make a convincing case for saying we should be 11 points better off and sitting above Chelsea. Think back. Three points tossed away after Bobby misses an open goal in the final minute v Everton. Two more dropped to a 94th minute header at Norwich that could so easily have been prevented. Two given up late on to WBA on Feb 1st, a point squandered at Villa with the last kick after Mark's fumble, denied a point at United by inept refereeing in not giving the penalty, likewise Chelsea denying us a win with the 'penalty that never was.'

This is no hard luck story. Add in the number of times we've hit wood and even a neutral would admit we aint had too much luck along the way. And how do Fulham play the game? No player red carded all league season, and Gera the only man to see red in 100 odd games. Never mind our final league position, we should be invited into the Europa League as a badge of honour, just as past champions are invited back to the Masters. Consider this. When was the last time you spotted an unsavoury story concerning a Fulham player or employee? No night club rucks, no drink driving, philandering with bimbos, racial slurs, daft comments to the tabloids. Crikey, nobody likes a saint, but we sound pretty much like the model professional football club. No wonder we are consistently overlooked by the media and MOTD. We are almost boring...

Forgive me for blowing my own trumpet, but you all saw my take on Hodgson's appointment. I'd even gone out on a limb a week before the announcement urging the FA to make a brave decision. And I'll be damned, they did. Plenty of writers and bloggers have since played catch up and come round to appreciating the plus points of life without 'Arry at international level. So here's another test for the nation's scribes. When they all stop slavering over Mancini's Citeh and having served up a ton of hyperbole on the Champions League final, who before we get into the Euros might find space to file a considered piece on al Fayed's journey with Fulham and the progress of our 'little' club? Don't hold your breath...With any well run organisation, the tone is set from the man at the top. I bet there's not a journo from the West End to Wapping who would ever have forecast how much MaF has kept in the background since 1997, considering his previous taste for gathering headlines and publicity.

And as Blackburn, and probably Bolton, head back to the 2nd tier, Fulham are looking only to go higher. So back to my theme. Quite frankly, our number 23 walked the turf with head down as if he'd dropped his wedding ring during the course of the match. I know Deuce can be a pretty laconic character and he's no heart-on-the sleeve sissy - even Jol described him thus - but to me that was a man closing the chapter on five fantastic years of great memories down by the Thames. THANK YOU for every minute you bust a gut for the cause. Now tell your agent to give me that call and let's write the book. Goal number 50 was another beauty and fittingly no man has now made more appearances for the Whites in the Premier League I believe.

As for our other goalscorer. Well, Moussa himself admitted he should have had a hat-trick. His talent is immense, were he to add some clinical finishing to his game he would indeed be the complete footballer. A Cottage version of Lionel Messi. But then of course, he wouldn't be hanging around at Fulham. Will he stay or will he go? Younger than Clint, he might be persuaded to give us another season. The bottom line with every single member of the set up is that money talks, and in the modern era all power sits with the players. And in light of the terms of employment pre-Bosman, who can argue with that.

The sour note for supporters of course in all this, is that our heroes literally just slip away in the night. Rarely is there the closure you get from a veteran signing off at the end of a fabulous career a la Shearer. I remember sitting with John Colllins at Motspur after he hung up his boots. We were at a table in the canteen there as the players final wage packets of the season came round. Once pocketed, John quietly took his leave, shook a few hands and drifted away into the car park for the last time. Eerily strange, no big send off, and when I asked John what he planned to do next, he just shrugged and shuffled off the stage.

Personally, if Clint goes chasing his Champions League dream, I hope it is outside the UK. It will be very hard to see him back at Craven Cottage in an opposition shirt. No point in dwelling on it till it happens. Let the travelling support Sunday lead our appreciation and here's hoping Dempsey hasn't quite finished with his goalscoring exploits for FFC just yet. A win over Spuds...now that really would put the icing on the cake of a run in to remember.

As Jol dodged the question Sunday when asked about the future of the double D's, "I prefer not to dwell on the negatives right now after this win," I am of a mind to think the die may be cast. But as all things must pass, an incontrovertible truth of human existence, I am excited by what the summer holds and who Fulham have on the radar for next season. Remember Jol's task to reduce the age of the squad and bring 'sexy football' to SW6 still has a way to go...and as we know from the new away kit, the future is BLACK, WHITE and now ORANGE!

More news before the Spurs game, and then we can all go and have a lie down. Thanks for following this blog over the past two years. It has been a lot of fun.

COYW!!!

Twitter@fulhamphil

[nevzter]

Good pieces - thanks.

[Lighthouse]

As a negative person, a cup half empty person. I am never sure why we are sorry to see players move on now. This is the best we have been. There are only a few clubs that the players we want to keep would move on to. It was sad when Ivor left after being carried around the ground. But one could understand that there were so many better places to be than Fulham. But now there isn't. So if Clinton Dempsey from the United States decides to ride his horse out of town. I for one will be thanking him for spending time at Fulham in the ups and downs of his time here. I will thank him because I know something better might just come riding into town. Or some new hero that may or may not make it. But now there is more hope than ever there was before. As for Dembele. Lovely player on the ball but far too many bad decisions and passes and shots to ever be greatly missed. At least not on the short time we have watched him. Yes he is a great player but not yet as good as he should be.

So go if you want to and go with our thanks. We would like you to stay but this time we know that we are going to see something special soon. We are pushing onto the next level. If players we want are moving on. Then the clubs they go too will have to be special or pay more money. So long and thanks for all the goals and the memories. You may be missing out on something special if you do go.

[Ron Sheepskin]

As a negative person, a cup half empty person. I am never sure why we are sorry to see players move on now. This is the best we have been. There are only a few clubs that the players we want to keep would move on to. It was sad when Ivor left after being carried around the ground. But one could understand that there were so many better places to be than Fulham. But now there isn't. So if Clinton Dempsey from the United States decides to ride his horse out of town. I for one will be thanking him for spending time at Fulham in the ups and downs of his time here. I will thank him because I know something better might just come riding into town. Or some new hero that may or may not make it. But now there is more hope than ever there was before. As for Dembele. Lovely player on the ball but far too many bad decisions and passes and shots to ever be greatly missed. At least not on the short time we have watched him. Yes he is a great player but not yet as good as he should be.

So go if you want to and go with our thanks. We would like you to stay but this time we know that we are going to see something special soon. We are pushing onto the next level. If players we want are moving on. Then the clubs they go too will have to be special or pay more money. So long and thanks for all the goals and the memories. You may be missing out on something special if you do go.

+1

[Fulham Far East]

As a negative person, a cup half empty person. I am never sure why we are sorry to see players move on now. This is the best we have been. There are only a few clubs that the players we want to keep would move on to. It was sad when Ivor left after being carried around the ground. But one could understand that there were so many better places to be than Fulham. But now there isn't. So if Clinton Dempsey from the United States decides to ride his horse out of town. I for one will be thanking him for spending time at Fulham in the ups and downs of his time here. I will thank him because I know something better might just come riding into town. Or some new hero that may or may not make it. But now there is more hope than ever there was before. As for Dembele. Lovely player on the ball but far too many bad decisions and passes and shots to ever be greatly missed. At least not on the short time we have watched him. Yes he is a great player but not yet as good as he should be.

So go if you want to and go with our thanks. We would like you to stay but this time we know that we are going to see something special soon. We are pushing onto the next level. If players we want are moving on. Then the clubs they go too will have to be special or pay more money. So long and thanks for all the goals and the memories. You may be missing out on something special if you do go.

+1

another +1

[rhyspabsolom]

As a negative person, a cup half empty person. I am never sure why we are sorry to see players move on now. This is the best we have been. There are only a few clubs that the players we want to keep would move on to. It was sad when Ivor left after being carried around the ground. But one could understand that there were so many better places to be than Fulham. But now there isn't. So if Clinton Dempsey from the United States decides to ride his horse out of town. I for one will be thanking him for spending time at Fulham in the ups and downs of his time here. I will thank him because I know something better might just come riding into town. Or some new hero that may or may not make it. But now there is more hope than ever there was before. As for Dembele. Lovely player on the ball but far too many bad decisions and passes and shots to ever be greatly missed. At least not on the short time we have watched him. Yes he is a great player but not yet as good as he should be.

So go if you want to and go with our thanks. We would like you to stay but this time we know that we are going to see something special soon. We are pushing onto the next level. If players we want are moving on. Then the clubs they go too will have to be special or pay more money. So long and thanks for all the goals and the memories. You may be missing out on something special if you do go.

+1

another +1

-1

Now there aren't better places to be than Fulham?

Dempsey owes us nothing and we owe him everything.
He had to fight through however many managers to prove himself and has been our only constant for the past 5 years.
I said this morning on twitter that my favourite Dempsey moment isn't the goal against Juve, it's the Birmingham home fixture where it was announced he'd signed a new contract before our (seemingly) inevitable relegation.

Your argument seems to be that we've had a good 2012 and that might mean that we might finish 6th next year. Yes, if everything goes perfectly next year we could get a decent league position but that's nothing on being in an established Champions League club.

There's no way anybody should hold anything against Dempsey if he goes.
I'd probably still sing his name if he came back and scored against us.