The FoF non-existant but ever present "Badge of Honor"

[epsomraver]

No one, not even Tony Gilroy, is going to convince me that Tony Macedo is not our greatest ever goalkeepr but that is just my opinion.

With you there Mr P 092.gif

[MJG]

Be honest this has nothing to do with old players, new players, old posters or new posters.
Its about CLINT DEMPSEY.

[Lighthouse]

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Yes the players are better now. But the game isn't and the long travels too and from grounds in the lost wilds of Northern England were fun. Now I can't even afford to go to home matches. So maybe that has a little to do with seeing Brian Dear and Stan Brown and Jimmy Dunne through rose coloured specs, while seeing the great Fulham players of today as great but overpaid millionaires.

[jazz hardrockin]

Actually I enjoy reading everything Fulham from the past. May I encourage some oldies to put a "Badge of Honor" thread together and stick it to be available at all times for newbies like me.Thank you.  076.gif

[MasterHaynes]

Co

Be honest this has nothing to do with old players, new players, old posters or new posters.
Its about CLINT DEMPSEY.

Correct, even the slightest perceived dig or slight at dempsey will set McScratch off on his drum.

[jarv]

Talking about goalkeepers. What about Gerry Peyton, he was pretty good??? I thought so. :54:

[vagrant]

Sorry, but this really should be treated as a non existent post.  092.gif

[Peabody]

Sorry, but this really should be treated as a non existent post.  092.gif


Spoilsport.

[Logicalman]

Yeah but with Tony, we generally scored more!

but none of those took us to Wembley!!!



and a nice little segue back to the US Mellor Coaching

[Vinnieffc]

I am growing ever tired of this hidden yet outwardly display of affection for players from the 60s, 70s and early 80s just to make the newer people feel less important...

Anytime something like Dempsey gets brought up... you old gits want to talk about the good old (actually often no so good) days when you stood on the terraces and supported the likes of Marsh, Jezzard,  Ivor and Terry Angus etc...

Those of us who have come to the club in the last 10 years (like myself) are well aware that a wonderful club existed before our time supporting Fulham... and indeed many of you have the good fortune of being simply older and geographically convenienced in order to do so...

Also I am pretty sure that most of the newer supporters on here like myself are just fine with you paying homage to the days of yore at the club but it does not need to be used a tool for slagging people off or the newer players that they have grown to love in their time following and supporting the Whites...

There is no Badge of Honor...merely respect for those that have been lifelong supporters... and kudos to you... but please stop using it as a tool to belittle others...

I personally haven's seen any evidence of this but, are we not, a Fulham family ? That extends to all ages and creeds, and diverse opinion. I personally would never deliberately put down any of our supporters. Anyway I digress, my American friends, why can't you open an airplane window at 36,000 feet ?  starsnstripes :005:

[Berserker]

Oh i love all the old pictures, love all the old stories, kinda puts things in perspective.
Also wouldn't mind tossing a few pots! Can i have one of those badge of honour thingies, whatever they are

[WhiteJC]

some images from yesteryear...

      

      

[HatterDon]

Two things:

1. As an American and as a relatively new convert to this religion, I enjoy discussions about former players and matches. I gravitate to them because they not only fill me in on the club's history, but they also give me an opportunity to appreciate what changes a fan of MANY decades has seen. I know that the older posters romanticise players from the past, and I know that as skillful and talented as current players might be, they'll never capture the heart of veteran fans the way that their hearts were captured by players from their youth. This is love we're talking about, and love it -- by its definition -- emotional AKA irrational.

2. It's been barely a year since you've stopped posting heartfelt defenses of Eddie Johnson in response to jibes real and imagined. I was enjoying the respite. If threads are going to turn into diatribes about Dempsey, I'd really prefer that one of my countrymen was not responsible for starting them. Of course, your mileage may vary, but if what is disturbing you is Dempsey being trashed, you have to realize that a good portion of that trashing exists on threads you've created or aggressively participated in. Take a break; have a KitKat.

[Jimpav]

It's not a surprise that our senior members wax lyrical over past legends - how many one club players have you seen in your lifetime or at least how many do you think will equal the number of appearances of some of those early greats.

You don't need a badge of honour or to be in the Dad's army to realise this though. How many of our Europa finalists are still at the club? 4 in the first team and Davies? Or go back 10 years to our first season in the premier league - how many remain - none. This doesn't detract from the efforts and skill of those who have departed but it does speak volumes about the transient nature and lack of loyalty in the game these days.

I've had my heartbroken countless times in the 17 years I've supported the club and I'm sure I will many more times. Do you see why our elders hold the golden days so dear now?

Ps. That's even before we get onto the other gripes about the modern game and match day experience.

[Peabody]

Can we just agree that CD became a very good player for us, we nurtured him and he produced what we needed.

He had warned us that he wanted to play at Champions League level at the end of 2010/2011 and we could quite clearly see that at the end of last season, when the players paraded round the pitch, that his body language was saying goodbye.

However, to then come back and say his choice was Liverpool, who are not a Champions League side and only just finished above us, plus the fiasco of Fenway giving the game away, by saying they had signed him, when they had'nt, gave the clear impression that he had his head turned whilst he was at home in The States and left a nasty taste in the mouth.

If he had gone to ManU, Man C or Arsenal, there would have been only our best wishes and whilst Spurs were more preferrable than Liverpool, they also are not Champions League. Think about it, next year he will be 32 and if  (a big if), Spurs do reach the CL, they will undoubtably be looking to strengthen their side. So Clint may have got his move but a large ? remains as to whether he will ever play CL football. I hope I am wrong but I have my doubts.

[cmg]

Well now, I'm old enough to be Mr P's only slightly younger brother but I am prepared to wax as lyrical about Berbatov as my limited powers of lyricism allow, and I have only seen him play for us twice. I was prepared to wax almost as lyrically about Dembele until he decided to wane off to north London. I take a small amount of pride in being as fair in my judgement of current players as my faculties allow - I think that Brede Hangeland is a better cente-half than Joe Stapleton despite the fact that Joe played in the days when buying a jar of Brylcreem was a sound fashion choice for me.

I might be prepared to take offence at the original post were it not so silly. Mr. P  may well be right when he acclaims Macedo as our best ever keeper, on the other hand he may be talking out of the lower rear of his Peabody - it is his opinion and it happens that he is in a position to make that judgement. It is not done in order to denegrate current players. (It is my personal opinion that Shwartzer has been, for us, a better keeper than was VDS, I might well be wrong, but more people are qualified to enter that debate than one that includes Macedo.)

I can make no apology for being around long enough to see such boring (but, believe me, great) names as Haynes, Cohen, Mullery, Clarke etc., etc. If I  offer an opinion (and that is all it can be) that past-player X was great I do not do so in order to suggest that present-player Y is not. On the other hand if I say that, again only in my opinion, that Graham Leggat was a better player than Clint Dempsey (which I do) I do not do so to denegrate Clint, who I consider to be a fine player, but merely to express a view which I am capable of holding having seen much of both. I can't pretend not to have seen Leggat play just because mentioning him might lead some forum contributers feel excluded.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

Be honest this has nothing to do with old players, new players, old posters or new posters.
Its about CLINT DEMPSEY.

this!

the oldies on here will always go back to when they first started watching Fulham and think they where the best-I do,I default to a certain Brian Robert McBride(can you imagine him running onto balls crossed by Duff!)-just like people default to Dempsey-he was there first Fulham hero and thus everybody who follows will be judged against them-that's just human nature.
So let people have there own hero's,because they are letting you have yours :dft012:

[Holders]

Can we just agree that CD became a very good player for us, we nurtured him and he produced what we needed.

He had warned us that he wanted to play at Champions League level at the end of 2010/2011 and we could quite clearly see that at the end of last season, when the players paraded round the pitch, that his body language was saying goodbye.

However, to then come back and say his choice was Liverpool, who are not a Champions League side and only just finished above us, plus the fiasco of Fenway giving the game away, by saying they had signed him, when they had'nt, gave the clear impression that he had his head turned whilst he was at home in The States and left a nasty taste in the mouth.

If he had gone to ManU, Man C or Arsenal, there would have been only our best wishes and whilst Spurs were more preferrable than Liverpool, they also are not Champions League. Think about it, next year he will be 32 and if  (a big if), Spurs do reach the CL, they will undoubtably be looking to strengthen their side. So Clint may have got his move but a large ? remains as to whether he will ever play CL football. I hope I am wrong but I have my doubts.

A very good summary, if I may say.

Going back to the "badge of honour". Well, I think we all look back on our earliest days as a Fulham fan with great affection and may inadvertently keep harping back to them with nostalgia without meaning to offend anyone - or brag. I started following the team in the 60s but didn't get to a game until we'd fallen into the 3rd in the 70s.

The badge of honour I don't have is of seeing Haynes play live - not even in Stan Brown's testimonial which was the only time I saw Tosh Chamberlain and Tony Macedo. 

Maybe the need for us to keep in touch with the mostly less-glamourous past is because being in the Premier is very un-Fulhamish. We should be suffering, not being relatively successful. Maybe to many of us it still feels like a dream from which we'll shortly wake up.

[alfie]

It's not a surprise that our senior members wax lyrical over past legends - how many one club players have you seen in your lifetime or at least how many do you think will equal the number of appearances of some of those early greats.

You don't need a badge of honour or to be in the Dad's army to realise this though. How many of our Europa finalists are still at the club? 4 in the first team and Davies? Or go back 10 years to our first season in the premier league - how many remain - none. This doesn't detract from the efforts and skill of those who have departed but it does speak volumes about the transient nature and lack of loyalty in the game these days.

I've had my heartbroken countless times in the 17 years I've supported the club and I'm sure I will many more times. Do you see why our elders hold the golden days so dear now?

Ps. That's even before we get onto the other gripes about the modern game and match day experience.

The only issue i have with this is the term loyalty, like all of us that are employed we want and try to do what is best for us and our families, it is no different for the players, it is their career and they also wish to secure the best they can , whether that be at one club or another. The only people that are truley loyal to a club are the spporters, we do not get paid to do that, we do it because we want to .

[mullers]

The difference is that when players retire all the talk is usually about their achievements. Who remembers talk about Haynes being finished in 1965, or why was he was too scared to take the plunge at a 'bigger' club? [The last point translates into loyalty now.] Similar things can be said about most players; what is interesting is, in five years time will Clint be welcomed back here when he is introduced at half time? [For some reason Mickey Conroy and Tony Macedo came to mind there.]