Sunday Fulham Stuff (07/04/13)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Jol: I want English players – but they cost too much

MARTIN Jol takes his Fulham foreign legion to Newcastle today with a stark warning for English players: You are pricing yourselves out of the Premier League.

As he prepared to face a Newcastle side bristling with Frenchmen, the affable Dutchman – who is expected to name a team containing nine 'imports' – revealed he had been forced to assemble a squad made up almost entirely of foreigners because Fulham can't afford homegrown players.

"I always wanted to have an English spine but it is too costly," said Jol. "It is almost impossible to pay those prices, so I have to be inventive.

"I admire Newcastle's Frenchmen – they remind me of Arsenal. They have done ever so well with their French players. Now we are a cosmopolitan team also."

Jol said he envies Newcastle's involvement in Europe, even though he is hoping to cash in on what appears to be a dip in the Geordies' form when they return from playing abroad.

Newcastle have lost three in a row, most recently Thursday's Europa League quarter-final first leg defeat away to Benfica.

They play the return leg on Thursday and round off a run of three home games in a week with the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland three days later. And Toon manager Alan Pardew admitted: "The Fulham game is an important one for us, no doubt about that.

"We want to set ourselves up for Thursday. To do that, we probably need to win."


http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/389890/Jol-I-want-English-players-but-they-cost-too-much?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-football-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Football+Feed%29

[WhiteJC]

 
ALAN PARDEW FEARING DIMITAR BERBATOV

ANXIOUS Alan Pardew hopes one-time Toon fan Dimitar Berbatov cries off with a headache when ­Fulham visit Newcastle today.

The former Manchester United and Spurs striker was a Magpies follower in his younger days ­because Geordie legend Alan Shearer was his idol.

And Pardew knows the danger Bulgarian Berbatov, 32, poses as Newcastle prepare for three ­crucial home games in eight days.

The Newcastle boss said: "Berbatov is a fabulous playerwho has been much under-rated and much under-used for the past few years.

"His game time at Manchester United was not as much as it might have been but when he does play, he's wonderful.

"I signed Teddy ­Sheringham at West Ham so I like that type of player. He's ­someone I admire.

"He's a Newcastle fan? Well, hopefully he will do us a favour and not play. I hope he gets a headache."

After Fulham, Newcastle host Benfica on Thursday in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final, trailing 3-1 from the first game. Then a week today derby rivalsSunderland are at St James' Park.

And Pardew admits: "We have a little bit of pressure on us because of our league position.

"Now we have two home games in the Premier League and we have to capitalise on that.

"So this game against Fulham is the most important of the season for us because, if we can get a win, we can take the safety net off and really go for it on Thursday.

"I have said to the players that I want that and for them to give me that opportunity.

"It's a big moment. The derby is going to be huge and we have the quarter-final of a European competition, which is fantastic.

"We have five first-teamers missing – Hatem Ben Arfa, Massadio Haidara, Mathieu Debuchy, Fabricio Coloccini and Cheick Tiote – so next year, without the complications of the Europa League, we will be better armed for the Premier League, for sure.''



http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/307797/?

[WhiteJC]

 
MARTIN JOL WOULD NEVER TURN DOWN EUROPE

FULHAM boss Martin Jol envies Newcastle's life in the Europa League even though it has caused them pain when returning to league duty.

The Dutchman misses the cut and thrust of zig-zagging across Europe and testing the best.

Newcastle have paid a heavy price for their adventures this season, losing every time they return to domestic football.

And because of that, they are now rubbing shoulders with those fighting the threat of relegation.

But Jol said: "I hope I never see a time when an English clubrefuses to play in the Europa League.

"Despite the fixture congestion and the new money arriving in the Premier League I think that would be awful.

"You try in this league to be in the top five to get into Europe, so why would you not want to enter?

"I can remember at other clubs talking about their glory nights. You try to achieve something in this game.

"If you want to be a top club, you have to win things – then you get a big squad and carry on.

"It was a problem for us last year but I would never swap anything as I would love to play in Europe again.

"It is not a poisoned chalice. It is something to be enjoyed.

"Newcastle's adventure in Europe is exactly what I want for Fulham."



http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/307799/?

[WhiteJC]

 
French Connection

Martin Jol admitted that it is unusual for a club to have as many players from the same country as Newcastle United currently do with their French contingent, but praised the effectiveness of Alan Pardew's foreign imports.

"I can only think of Arsenal a couple of years ago," he said when asked if he could recall a similar example. "They were almost entirely French with one English player.

"We've got a lot of nationalities [at Fulham] so for me there is no difference. I said at the start of last season that I would prefer an English spine, an English team but, for us, it's almost impossible to pay these prices and transfer fees so I have to be inventive.

"Most of the teams are doing the same and Newcastle did very well. If you look at [Moussa] Sissoko, he plays in the national team and they got him almost on a free. He still cost a lot of money – I think we couldn't afford him – but he was relatively cheap. [Yohan] Cabaye is in the national team, too, so I think they did ever so well with the French players."

In his pre-match press conference, our Manager was also quizzed on the future of two Fulham players whose contracts are set to expire in the summer – Mahamadou Diarra and Mladen Petrić.

"Diarra is injured," he explained. "So unfortunately for him he is not in a strong position but, of course, we will look after him and hopefully he will be fit again and then – like with [Zdenek] Grygera last year – we will have to make a decision.

"Petrić is another one we would like to keep but, of course, Petrić is a player who wants to play and, because of Dimitar Berbatov, he couldn't play. He was probably the most effective player in England – he scored goals even though he didn't play a lot. Hugo Rodallega, for example, played more than Petrić. We will have to wait and see."

Jol also took time to highlight the Fulham Under-19s' recent success in the Dr Pepper Dallas Cup. Steve Wigley's men brought home the trophy in emphatic fashion, and Jol admitted it bodes well for the future of the Club.

"I was very proud of them," he said. "We've got a terrific team – they are the champions of England, the year before they played in the English Final, so it's a terrific young team and I think we are doing very well.

"All credit to the people who work with them - they won the Dallas Cup so it was nice. I don't want to talk about individual players but we've got three or four very good talents in there."



http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/april/07/french-connection?

[Forever Fulham]

Good stuff.  Thanks for posting.

[Barrie]

Yes, thanks for your hard work in putting these together, always much appreciated.

[WhiteJC]

 
A New Partner for Hangeland?
   
Transfer gossip, in the Sunday press, has Martin Jol casting a watchful eye on a central defender.

The player in question, Fernando Amorebieta, is on the books of Atletico Bilbao and is, reportedly, keen to make that move to the Premier League.

Aged twenty-eight, Amorebieta is out of contract this summer so is, therefore, available to secure on a pre-contract agreement for the Venezuelan defender.


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=315398#ixzz2PmWizNYq

[WhiteJC]

 
Another Suitor for Stockdale
   
It`s widely acknowledged that David Stockdale yearns for regular first team football.

Currently on loan at Hull City, it was expected that Stockdale might sign for the Humberside club, on a permanent basis, come the end of the season.

However, speculation in the press this morning, infers that Stockdale has an admirer in the shape of Sam Allardyce with West Ham rumoured to be an alternative destination for the 27 year-old ex-Darlington keeper.

We`ll keep you posted on any further developments.


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=315399#ixzz2PmX5T0Dm

[WhiteJC]

 
Loan Move for Icelandic Star
   
Fulham are amongst a host of clubs, according to the red-top press this morning, alerted to the fact that the young Icelandic star, Hordur Bjorgvin Magnusson, could be available on a season long loan deal next season.

Apparently, Juventus are keen to loan the talented U21 centre back out to enable the player to get some much needed experience.

As for the other clubs showing interest, we believe our London rivals, West Ham, head the list.


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=315400#ixzz2PmXHAxHe

[WhiteJC]

 
Top 4 Players Against Benfica To On Fulham

Looking for positives despite the ever growing injury list, there are crumbs of comfort that Newcastle United's best performers in Lisbon are fit and available to take on Fulham today.

The returning Tim Krul was outstanding on his return in midweek and in our man of the match poll, a sizeable 36% of you made him man of the match.

At the opposite end of the pitch it was reassuring to see Papiss Cisse turn in arguably his best display of the season and he picked up the second highest vote with 24%, If those two chances had glanced into the net off the post then he would have taken away the match ball and the man of the match plaudits.

The next two in the voting were Jonas on 15%, looking somewhere near his dependable best, while  Sissoko with 12% put in another energetic performance and made the goal.

If Cabaye can step up on recent performances and Gouffran give a little more goal threat then Newcastle can take the game to Fulham and come away with three points.



http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/top-4-players-against-benfica-to-on-fulham/?

[WhiteJC]

 
Greek torments keeping Giorgos Karagounis outside cosy football bubble
Veteran Fulham favourite's playing memories now tempered by economic trials of fellow countrymen


Giorgos Karagounis has made a big impact since joining Fulham last summer, but 'cannot escape' concerns about his homeland.
Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos/ Antonio Olmos

Interviews with Giorgos Karagounis used to linger on football. They might touch upon the free-kick he looped beyond Fabien Barthez as Panathinaikos punctured Manchester United in the Champions League at the turn of the millennium or the diving header that scuttled through Arsenal's David Seaman a year later to thrust them into the competition's last eight. But they would inevitably gravitate towards that gloriously giddy summer of 2004 when Greece, against all the odds, prevailed in Portugal.

These days there are grittier matters on which to dwell. Talk drifts off piste to economic downturn and financial crisis, to compatriots struggling to make ends meet or even feed their families, and the smouldering sense of national pride that spurred Karagounis and his team-mates at Euro 2012 to party-poop their section and conjure an evening in Gdansk last June when politics and sport mixed far too readily. "Beating Russia and getting into that quarter-final with Germany was a great achievement," he says. "In terms of what we were up against, it was almost up there with what we did in Portugal winning the competition. It was us against everything. We had a duty to put a smile on people's faces back home."

Karagounis is a cult figure at Fulham, a veteran who was secured as a no-risk free transfer last summer and turned 36 last month but whose streetwise industry and weighty experience are already cherished by those in the Hammersmith end. Back in Athens he is iconic. This is a midfielder who, during 14 years in the national side, has won a record 124 caps and remains talismanic to the team currently second in World Cup qualifying Group G. He was a key player in 2004 and captain in 2012, even if he was to miss the culmination of both European campaigns – the first glittering, the second defiant – through suspension. He has featured for Internazionale in Italy, Benfica in Portugal and now in the Premier League, his reputation established and respected across the continent.

Others may bury their heads in the sand over events in a distant homeland, content with life in a Thames-side flat with Chelsea's Juan Mata and Oscar as neighbours, and ignoring the politics Karagounis freely admits he finds impenetrable. But there is no living in a football bubble when you are idolised by those who are suffering in a debt-ridden country as it gasps through its sixth year of recession, a third of the population living below the poverty line. "I'm luckier than most in Greece but, when you see your friends with the smile wiped from their face, not having enough to provide for their families, to buy food from the supermarket ... You can't live your life oblivious to that, knowing how they're struggling back home. It's there all the time. Nagging at you. There is no escaping.

"We all felt it ahead of the Euros last summer. There was a desperation for us to do well. We had to give people something positive to cling to: they wanted us to put a smile on their faces, which is why the victory over Russia, the joy of winning that last group match to qualify, was almost doubled. It was about doing something for Greece and making people happy back home. It drove us on, particularly when it felt everything was going against us even there. We had to play half the first game [against the co-hosts Poland] with 10 men. I was booked against Russia when it was a clear penalty against me, which cost me a place in the quarter-final. And every single game was an away match because Greek fans couldn't afford to travel. But, despite all that, we got into that quarter-final. We made people happy. That meant something to all of us."

It was Karagounis's goal that defeated the Russians and forced passage out of the group, even if the player himself had to be substituted with his mind frazzled by a booking from the Swedish referee, Jonas Eriksson, after protesting the non-award of that penalty. The caution, his second of the competition, would deny him involvement in a poignant quarter-final. Germany are effectively Greece's biggest creditor and the country blamed for the severity of the austerity measures choking everyday life after the European Union bailout. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was in the crowd that day, watching on like Karagounis.

"It was a loaded occasion. Politically, it was charged," he says. "When we went to the Euros we all had dream scenarios in our minds. Mine was that we would meet Germany, partly because we hadn't played them for such a long time but also because of the significance of that contest, given everything the fixture would mean. Which is why I'd reacted so badly to being booked against Russia. I was devastated and, if I'd stayed on the pitch, I might have been sent off. My mind had gone and I was on the verge of doing something silly ... This is the national team, my national team, and we'd need our experienced players against Germany. Seeing us then go on to lose [4-2] ... It's hard to take. I've won so many caps but I missed that game and the final in 2004 through suspension. They changed the rules after that tournament and wiped yellow cards off at the semi-final stage. I was the last one to miss out on the old system. Jinxed."

At least he had celebrated with his team-mates at the Estádio da Luz while the world gawped at Greece's achievement. Almost nine years on and the names hardly trip off the tongue outside the Hellenic republic. That was a team spearheaded by Angelos Charisteas's goals and reliant upon the grey-haired Antonios Nikopolidis' saves. Angelos Basinas and Theo Zagorakis, the captain, graced the Premier League, two of eight from that squad who have featured in the English top flight even if only Stelios Giannokopoulos, at Bolton, made a prolonged impact. Yet when thrust together, in front of a disbelieving audience, Otto Rehhagel's team achieved something remarkable which, even now, seems inconceivable.

This unfancied side, ranked 35 in the world, had arrived with a record of five defeats and a draw (with West Germany in 1980) in major finals. And yet, having qualified for their first tournament in a decade, they beat the hosts in the opening game – with Karagounis kickstarting the tournament in style – knocked out the holders, France, the Czechs in the semis and, back in Lisbon, Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portuguese again in the final – not bad for a team whose base, in Vila do Conde, had been limited at best.

"People spoke about our organisation on the pitch but off it there simply wasn't any," says Karagounis. "We were probably the only national team at that tournament with no facilities available to us. We were staying in a hotel around 40km outside Porto with no gym, so if someone wanted to go and work out they had to find one locally.

All the other teams were staying in swish places with amazing facilities to use.

"But there was a sense of unity in that team. We worked for each other, struggled for each other, brought the best out of each other. We were committed, a tight group, and that was the driving force. The whole squad felt like a family. It got us through. The only regret is they didn't take advantage of what we achieved back in Greece.

"Sure, there was a new respect for the national team. Previously, the attitude had been club football was more important, that players shouldn't risk injuring themselves playing for the national team but save themselves for competitions like the Champions League. That changed. But in terms of organisation and infrastructure, winning Euro 2004 didn't kickstart anything. We had the team but not the structure. If anything, it's worse now than it was, given the economic crisis. The expectations of the national team may have risen but Greek football, in terms of infrastructure, is worse than it was 10 years ago."

Even so, it would still be easy to pine for home. It is apparently 23 degrees in Athens while, outside in the bitter cold, an April sky of dismal grey is belching flurries of snow on Motspur Park. Yet Karagounis's swansong with Fulham has actually whetted his appetite. His second stint at Pana had been drifting towards divorce last summer. Martin Jol had lost Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu and, on the eve of the transfer deadline, Mousa Dembélé and needed bodies. The veteran's availability had been advertised on the internet, his bustling energy, even in the twilight of his career, surely ready-made for the Premier League. He will make his 19th top-flight appearance at Newcastle on Sunday – he managed only 21 in two years with Inter in his pomp – to suggest this has been a successful marriage of convenience.

There is frustration this is all happening so late on in his career. "The facilities, the setup, the lack of politics behind it all ... I love it here," he says. "There's a simplicity to it all, and it's refreshing. Proper football. I don't think the years I spent in Italy were wasted, even if I didn't play that many games, but I did have a chance to come to England after that (in 2005) and, in hindsight, that I should probably have taken the opportunity. I went to Benfica instead and loved it there, and now I'm finally here. The motivation is still there. I'm enjoying life. This is what I do. This is what I've always done, and the fans acknowledge the work I'm putting in. It's not just been about the impact I've made. It's about the impact these last seven months have had on me. It's been a great experience."There remains the possibility his stay could extend into a second campaign, though for that to happen his family would have to join him in London and the club would have to seek to renew his short-term deal. "We'd need both to happen before we know where I'll be next season but I'm sure there'll be talks, one way or the other.Wherever I am," he says, "I still want to play on and, ideally, get to the World Cup in Brazil. To take my country there would be the cherry on the cake. The perfect way to go out."



http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/06/giorgos-karagounis-fulham-greece

[WhiteJC]

 
Perch Out – Yoan Gouffran In For Fulham

James Perch cannot make the game today and Yoan Gouffran will start up front with Papiss Cisse in a 4-4-2 attacking formation.


Apart from that change it's the same team that played in Lisbon on Thursday evening – and Adam Campbell is again on the bench with Shola Ameobi, in case more firepower is needed in the game.

This is a very important game for the club – and a win would give us some relief from relegation – but now is the time for our players to produce – and hopefully they can get the job done today and win this game for the fans.

For Fulham Dimitar Berbatov and former target Bran Ruiz are the danger men for the Cottagers.

Howay The Lads!!

Teams:

Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Davide Santon; Sylvain Marveaux, Yohan Cabaye (c), Moussa Sissoko, Jonas Gutierrez; Papiss Cisse, Yoan Gouffran
Substitutes: Rob Elliot, Mike Williamson, Gael Bigirimana, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Adam Campbell, Shola Ameobi

Fulham – Mark Schwarzer; Sascha Riether, Philippe Senderos, Brede Hangeland (c), John Arne Riise; Stanislav Manolev, Eyong Enoh, Giorgos Karagounis, Damien Duff; Bryan Ruiz; Dimitar Berbatov
Substitutes: Neil Etheridge, Aaron Hughes, Kieran Richardson, Emmanuel Frimpong, Urby Emanuelson, Kerim Frei, Hugo Rodallega



http://www.nufcblog.com/2013/04/07/perch-out-yoan-gouffran-in-for-fulham/?