Reality check

[JackyFulham90]

The Premier League is such a tough league, for me this has been a poor season for us, when we went into last summer I genuinely felt we could be top 6 this season & after the 5-0 win over Norwich I was very excited about the season ahead, losing Dembele & Dempsey knocked the club for 6 & although Jol did well replacing Dempsey & Dembele with Berbatov & Dejagah it was always going to be a tough season. The last few weeks have been very disappointing only getting 1 point from 4 games but with 3 games left we still have a chance of a top 10 finish. The blow of losing Diarra all season & Dejagah in the QPR game have both been huge blows, we still have 3 games left hopefully we can put some points on the board heading into what will prove to be a very busy summer for Fulham, my main point is I share the frustration of a average season for Fulham & of course I want more but when you look at Portsmouth & Wolves I really appreciate what we have & where we are! COYW!

[Artful Dodger]

Maybe we have been spoiled by our successes of the last 15 years and should be grateful that we are still in the premier league and accept that every now and then we will have a season that has no excitement whatsoever with largely uninspiring football. Roll on next season.....

[watfordwhite]

Its been a very tough season, yes we should finish top 10 but how close are we to the bottom pack?
Anotner season of coupling things together and we will be joining the Har hars and Brentford.  1500.gif

[Burt]

Depends on your expectations...

All I hope for at the start of every season is premier league survival and a good cup run.

We've been quite good at the survival bit, and a bit below par with the cup runs.

[Oakeshott]

We'll do much better next season - with a new manager. Jol has largely wasted the money he has been allowed to spend. We need a manager (like Roy and indeed Sanchez) who can buy well, and one (like Roy but not Sanchez) who can get the team to play consistently in a style compatible with staying comfortably in the Premiership. Jol was ok at Spurs, where money wasn't and still isn't an issue, but he's never going to shine with us as he lacks man management skills, is tactically inept and keeps bringing in players who either flop or don't get a chance.

Berbatov has in one sense been a success, and without his goals we'd surely be down. But he comes at a price - moody, often "absent", and I suspect a problem because of Jol's approach of trying to get others to fit around him. I think we'd have done better with a more conventional centre forward, giving various other players, particularly Bryan and Hugo, more scope to demonstrate their strengths.

I don't wish Wigan any harm. Like us, they benefit from a generous enthusiast, try to play decent football and we've done well against them! But if as seems likely they are relegated I'd take Martinez over Jol all day long. And if he come to us he'd find, even with our careful budgetting, he was well resourced compared to his years at Wigan.

If Jol stays, all we can realistically expect is another up and down but essentially disappointing season like the current one. If he goes, and the Board makes a good appointment, we could look forward to next season with genuine optimism.

If I was "voting" on the Jol thread, I'd be generous and give him 3, though I think he has damaged our Club, and we may stay up solely because of the good fortune of playing Spurs after they had played on the Thursday.

[Lighthouse]

It is down to expectations I agree. But I think when you are close to being a top seven or six side as we were last season. I don't understand why we have become a side now happy to stay in the Prem. We are an established Prem side. However we can all see what direction we are going in. If it wasn't for some very poor sides this year we would be down.

Still next season I have the expectation we will go down without investment. So I guess I was stupid to think we were any better than a small club without a hope of ever being better than we werelast year.

[simplyfulham]

A little bit of perspective is surely required here Lighthouse.

Not only did we lose Dembele and Dempsey, very late on in the summer transfer window, but we also lost Murphy and Etuhu. We also effictively lost Diarra, who has only managed 8 games for us this season. That is an entire central midfied.

We managed to sign Berbatov on the final day of the window, but we haven't had enough time to 'build' a side around him. Which is one alternate solution to trying to directly replace Moussa and Murph. (Some have said)

If we can address some the issues from last summer that we are still suffering with, I'm sure we can compete again next year.

With a club like ours, we will eternally struggle to keep the players who make us successful, meaning that building on success is a very difficult job indeed.

No need to begin preaching doomsday (again) just yet.

[Fulham1959]

I would be absolutely AMAZED if we should finish in the top half.  Maybe we can beat Reading at home but I expect 'NIL pwan' at Swansea.  A draw against Liverpool would be a major achievement, given our current form and theirs yesterday.

One thing's for certain  -  we won't reach 50 points !!

[RaySmith]

I would be absolutely AMAZED if we should finish in the top half.  Maybe we can beat Reading at home but I expect 'NIL pwan' at Swansea.  A draw against Liverpool would be a major achievement, given our current form and theirs yesterday.

It would be very Fulhamish to go on a run and pick up quite a few points from our remaining games, and have a couple of good wins.

One thing's for certain  -  we won't reach 50 points !!

[RaySmith]

Sorry - this how the above post should read -

I would be absolutely AMAZED if we should finish in the top half.  Maybe we can beat Reading at home but I expect 'NIL pwan' at Swansea.  A draw against Liverpool would be a major achievement, given our current form and theirs yesterday.

One thing's for certain  -  we won't reach 50 points !!

It would be very Fulhamish to go on a run and pick up quite a few points from our remaining games, and have a couple of good wins.