Thursday Fulham Stuff (08/08/13)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Trotta Talks Parma



Fulham's Italian striker Marcello Trotta is looking forward to a match-up against FC Parma on Saturday afternoon.

The Serie A side visit Craven Cottage for our final pre-season friendly before the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League campaign begins on 17th August against Sunderland and, after some tough fitness work this summer, Trotta is keen to be out on the pitch again.

"The pre-season started well for me," he said. "We went away to Costa Rica which was very nice, and Austria as well. In the meantime, I have played a few games for the Under-21s and that was good to get some game-time under my belt, and I scored a few goals as well. It was good to get a good few days of hard training done in order to get fit for the new season."

Trotta began his youth career with Napoli but chose to move to England and joined the Whites in 2009, however he is well aware of the Italian reputation for tough defending and thinks that Parma will be no different.

"I think they will be a solid side and they will try to play on the floor; passing the ball all the time and trying to keep possession," he said. "As is normal for Italian sides, they will try not to concede and will want to play the best football.

"If you don't concede then you don't lose the game, so in the past that has worked for Italian teams but the game has changed now and we will have to see what they do on the day. We know that it will be tough, whatever happens.

"Parma has always done well in Italy, sometimes they have stayed in mid-table but they have had a few good players over the years and will come with a strong team looking to win on English soil. I think they will do well this season."

The Club may find themselves up against tricky Italian striker Antonio Cassano and our forward insists that their number 99 is a dangerous opponent if given room to show his skills.

"Cassano is a very talented player as everyone knows," he said. "I think he has shown that with a number of different clubs and it is always good to watch him play. He can make the difference, so Fulham will be wary of what he can do with the ball."

Trotta also believes that having international teams visit SW6 is good for both the players and the Fulham fans, as they can see a different style of play from that on show in England.

"I think it is great to be playing other European teams," he added. "Not just for the fans, but also for the players to experience other styles of football. It will be a good test for us and we are all looking forward it."

Marcello is wearing the new 2013/14 Away Kit (our Third Kit for the 2014/15 campaign) which is available to buy online now, or from the Stadium Store from Saturday 10th August.



http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/august/08/trotta-talks-parma?

[WhiteJC]

 
Clint Dempsey moves to Seattle

It must be strange being a footballer. For most of us our careers, such as they are, stretch out into the great temporal unknown. (Mine does anyway – I know lots of people are in a hurry to get to 'the top', but if I ever reach 'the top' it will have been because someone drove me there against my will.)

But as a footballer you're basically tied down to the knowledge that beyond, say, 33, you'll be lucky to get the jobs you want. If you spend a year in the reserves you lose one of these crucial years, and you also lose time to build a reputation that then might get you a better job... before time runs out. Every season counts. It's partly why injuries, which seem so ideal to those of us who'd love a few weeks out of circulation, are so distressing to footballers.

For Clint Dempsey that career clock started ticking quickly. He wasn't in the top leagues until relatively late, and then he found that he couldn't get the regular games he felt his ability deserved. Whether his talent was held back by Roy Hodgson or shaped by him is quite hard to untangle, but in any case, Dempsey under Mark Hughes and Martin Jol had become a fabulous player.

Too late, though. Had he been 25 he might have had the pick of clubs, but as things stood, in the eyes of a big club he was always a second hand lexus rather than the new ferrari his goals tally suggested.

Dempsey still believed in himself though, which is why he left Fulham, where a second hand Lexus was the best car in the garage (the metaphors are quite confused here, aren't they? What with Fulham being a very wealthy area, too), to Spurs, where expensive (overpriced) cars were the norm.

He gave up being a big fish in a smallish pond to being a small fish in a big pond (lexus? fish? what next?).

We have talked before about the folly of ambition but you can't fault Dempsey for trying. You can fault Jurgen Klinsmann for belittling Fulham and Dempsey's achievements there, and you can fault football in general for transforming itself into a 'me first, show me the money' industry where individualism is all there is, but Dempsey, with that ticking career clock, had to at least try to move on.

The sad thing is that it all happened so wrongly. Spurs must have appealed on the basis that they were "somewhere else" but in retrospect it was a terrible choice for Dempsey, who could have been useful to a number of other half-reasonable teams, particularly had he looked abroad.

Mais non: he went to Spurs, a vehicle for the sprawling talents of the simian Gareth Bale, a team that had a number of good players who might also want Dempsey's role, and which wasn't in the Champions' League either. He had an up and down season, a predictable one probably: he got some goals, but didn't really convince his new team's fans. He certainly didn't have to move on after that, but a switch to somewhere like Everton, as mooted, would have made sense.

Then we find out he's gone to Seattle. This makes a lot of sense as well:

1. the atmosphere he'll play in front of will be great. I know American sports teams try to build in English style "passion" to their marketing, what with their songs and named groups and whatnot, but in truth English football is pretty passion-less. This is partly to do with all-seater stadia, and partly a demographics issue, but you can go entire seasons watching top level English football without experiencing a saucepan atmosphere, let alone a cauldron one. I went to Anfield a few years back, full of excitement: it was silent. True, it was 'only' Fulham, and perhaps the fans weren't so thrilled to see us, but still. (Roy Hodgson, of course, noted the same thing while managing the club, which only made them hate him more). In any case, Seattle draws fans by the bucketload, and games there should be good fun for that reason.

2. he'll be the star man. I think he'll enjoy being "the man".

3. he'll be paid to be a star man. This matters, of course.

4. it's not really a backwards step when you consider everything. I mean, he has a young family, which presumably he'd want to take home before long, so really what do you do? Mess around in England for four more seasons trying to recapture a glory that may never be re-caught? Move your family to Germany for a bit? Dunno, but moving to Seattle would be a decent option in that list I'd say.

5. why not? America seems to be a fabulous place to live if you have money. I'm stunned that more footballers don't do this.

6. when you get to a certain material comfort zone, I'm told that life becomes less about securing more money than about leaving a legacy. Look at Tony Blair! He left us with the milennium dome and the Olympics! Where would we be without those! In any case, Dempsey playing in MLS probably does matter, on all kinds of levels. He's making a difference to the game in the US. That's important. Good on him.



http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/clint-dempsey-moves-to-seattle/?

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham closing in on Aston Villa outcast Bent

Fulham are hoping to conclude their summer-long chase for Aston Villa striker Darren Bent by the end of this week.

Martin Jol has made Bent, whom he managed briefly at Tottenham in 2007, a priority target after it became known the England forward wished to leave Villa Park.

Bent was frozen out by Villa manager Paul Lambert last season and has also been the subject of interest from Newcastle in the current window, who signed Queens Park Rangers striker Loic Remy on a season-long loan on Monday.

Villa are reportedly asking for £6million for England forward Bent, with the clubs yet to agree on a deal, but Jol hopes to confirm the signing by the end of the week.

He said: "We don't speculate on things which are not 100 per cent, but with Darren Bent hopefully I can tell you something about him, or another player, by the end of the week.

"We have got several doors open so for us it's only about making a decision and getting the player."

But Jol appeared to rule out a move for Roma forward Pablo Osvaldo, saying: "Players like Osvaldo will be a lot of money so we will never do it."


http://talksport.com/sports-news/football/premier-league/transfer-rumours/130806/fulham-closing-aston-villa-outcast-bent-203141?

[Bassey the warrior]

Clint Dempsey moves to Seattle

It must be strange being a footballer. For most of us our careers, such as they are, stretch out into the great temporal unknown. (Mine does anyway – I know lots of people are in a hurry to get to 'the top', but if I ever reach 'the top' it will have been because someone drove me there against my will.)

But as a footballer you're basically tied down to the knowledge that beyond, say, 33, you'll be lucky to get the jobs you want. If you spend a year in the reserves you lose one of these crucial years, and you also lose time to build a reputation that then might get you a better job... before time runs out. Every season counts. It's partly why injuries, which seem so ideal to those of us who'd love a few weeks out of circulation, are so distressing to footballers.

For Clint Dempsey that career clock started ticking quickly. He wasn't in the top leagues until relatively late, and then he found that he couldn't get the regular games he felt his ability deserved. Whether his talent was held back by Roy Hodgson or shaped by him is quite hard to untangle, but in any case, Dempsey under Mark Hughes and Martin Jol had become a fabulous player.

Too late, though. Had he been 25 he might have had the pick of clubs, but as things stood, in the eyes of a big club he was always a second hand lexus rather than the new ferrari his goals tally suggested.

Dempsey still believed in himself though, which is why he left Fulham, where a second hand Lexus was the best car in the garage (the metaphors are quite confused here, aren't they? What with Fulham being a very wealthy area, too), to Spurs, where expensive (overpriced) cars were the norm.

He gave up being a big fish in a smallish pond to being a small fish in a big pond (lexus? fish? what next?).

We have talked before about the folly of ambition but you can't fault Dempsey for trying. You can fault Jurgen Klinsmann for belittling Fulham and Dempsey's achievements there, and you can fault football in general for transforming itself into a 'me first, show me the money' industry where individualism is all there is, but Dempsey, with that ticking career clock, had to at least try to move on.

The sad thing is that it all happened so wrongly. Spurs must have appealed on the basis that they were "somewhere else" but in retrospect it was a terrible choice for Dempsey, who could have been useful to a number of other half-reasonable teams, particularly had he looked abroad.

Mais non: he went to Spurs, a vehicle for the sprawling talents of the simian Gareth Bale, a team that had a number of good players who might also want Dempsey's role, and which wasn't in the Champions' League either. He had an up and down season, a predictable one probably: he got some goals, but didn't really convince his new team's fans. He certainly didn't have to move on after that, but a switch to somewhere like Everton, as mooted, would have made sense.

Then we find out he's gone to Seattle. This makes a lot of sense as well:

1. the atmosphere he'll play in front of will be great. I know American sports teams try to build in English style "passion" to their marketing, what with their songs and named groups and whatnot, but in truth English football is pretty passion-less. This is partly to do with all-seater stadia, and partly a demographics issue, but you can go entire seasons watching top level English football without experiencing a saucepan atmosphere, let alone a cauldron one. I went to Anfield a few years back, full of excitement: it was silent. True, it was 'only' Fulham, and perhaps the fans weren't so thrilled to see us, but still. (Roy Hodgson, of course, noted the same thing while managing the club, which only made them hate him more). In any case, Seattle draws fans by the bucketload, and games there should be good fun for that reason.

2. he'll be the star man. I think he'll enjoy being "the man".

3. he'll be paid to be a star man. This matters, of course.

4. it's not really a backwards step when you consider everything. I mean, he has a young family, which presumably he'd want to take home before long, so really what do you do? Mess around in England for four more seasons trying to recapture a glory that may never be re-caught? Move your family to Germany for a bit? Dunno, but moving to Seattle would be a decent option in that list I'd say.

5. why not? America seems to be a fabulous place to live if you have money. I'm stunned that more footballers don't do this.

6. when you get to a certain material comfort zone, I'm told that life becomes less about securing more money than about leaving a legacy. Look at Tony Blair! He left us with the milennium dome and the Olympics! Where would we be without those! In any case, Dempsey playing in MLS probably does matter, on all kinds of levels. He's making a difference to the game in the US. That's important. Good on him.



http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/clint-dempsey-moves-to-seattle/?

Was reading this earlier as I'm a subscriber. Really well written piece, but I have to disagree about a couple of points.
It certainly is a backwards step. The MLS is where you go to retire. He's still in his prime. He kicked up such a fuss about leaving to play at a higher level then he quit when he didn't have everything go his way.
I don't believe he was transfer listed I think he simply couldn't handle not being the star man. But there's lots of Premier League clubs that would have him as their star man and plenty of clubs playing in Europe who would play him at least some times.
He does look a hypocrite and is hard to take seriously. Maybe some day we will learn what 'the real reasons' for him leaving were?

[Bassey the warrior]

Clint Dempsey moves to Seattle

It must be strange being a footballer. For most of us our careers, such as they are, stretch out into the great temporal unknown. (Mine does anyway – I know lots of people are in a hurry to get to 'the top', but if I ever reach 'the top' it will have been because someone drove me there against my will.)

But as a footballer you're basically tied down to the knowledge that beyond, say, 33, you'll be lucky to get the jobs you want. If you spend a year in the reserves you lose one of these crucial years, and you also lose time to build a reputation that then might get you a better job... before time runs out. Every season counts. It's partly why injuries, which seem so ideal to those of us who'd love a few weeks out of circulation, are so distressing to footballers.

For Clint Dempsey that career clock started ticking quickly. He wasn't in the top leagues until relatively late, and then he found that he couldn't get the regular games he felt his ability deserved. Whether his talent was held back by Roy Hodgson or shaped by him is quite hard to untangle, but in any case, Dempsey under Mark Hughes and Martin Jol had become a fabulous player.

Too late, though. Had he been 25 he might have had the pick of clubs, but as things stood, in the eyes of a big club he was always a second hand lexus rather than the new ferrari his goals tally suggested.

Dempsey still believed in himself though, which is why he left Fulham, where a second hand Lexus was the best car in the garage (the metaphors are quite confused here, aren't they? What with Fulham being a very wealthy area, too), to Spurs, where expensive (overpriced) cars were the norm.

He gave up being a big fish in a smallish pond to being a small fish in a big pond (lexus? fish? what next?).

We have talked before about the folly of ambition but you can't fault Dempsey for trying. You can fault Jurgen Klinsmann for belittling Fulham and Dempsey's achievements there, and you can fault football in general for transforming itself into a 'me first, show me the money' industry where individualism is all there is, but Dempsey, with that ticking career clock, had to at least try to move on.

The sad thing is that it all happened so wrongly. Spurs must have appealed on the basis that they were "somewhere else" but in retrospect it was a terrible choice for Dempsey, who could have been useful to a number of other half-reasonable teams, particularly had he looked abroad.

Mais non: he went to Spurs, a vehicle for the sprawling talents of the simian Gareth Bale, a team that had a number of good players who might also want Dempsey's role, and which wasn't in the Champions' League either. He had an up and down season, a predictable one probably: he got some goals, but didn't really convince his new team's fans. He certainly didn't have to move on after that, but a switch to somewhere like Everton, as mooted, would have made sense.

Then we find out he's gone to Seattle. This makes a lot of sense as well:

1. the atmosphere he'll play in front of will be great. I know American sports teams try to build in English style "passion" to their marketing, what with their songs and named groups and whatnot, but in truth English football is pretty passion-less. This is partly to do with all-seater stadia, and partly a demographics issue, but you can go entire seasons watching top level English football without experiencing a saucepan atmosphere, let alone a cauldron one. I went to Anfield a few years back, full of excitement: it was silent. True, it was 'only' Fulham, and perhaps the fans weren't so thrilled to see us, but still. (Roy Hodgson, of course, noted the same thing while managing the club, which only made them hate him more). In any case, Seattle draws fans by the bucketload, and games there should be good fun for that reason.

2. he'll be the star man. I think he'll enjoy being "the man".

3. he'll be paid to be a star man. This matters, of course.

4. it's not really a backwards step when you consider everything. I mean, he has a young family, which presumably he'd want to take home before long, so really what do you do? Mess around in England for four more seasons trying to recapture a glory that may never be re-caught? Move your family to Germany for a bit? Dunno, but moving to Seattle would be a decent option in that list I'd say.

5. why not? America seems to be a fabulous place to live if you have money. I'm stunned that more footballers don't do this.

6. when you get to a certain material comfort zone, I'm told that life becomes less about securing more money than about leaving a legacy. Look at Tony Blair! He left us with the milennium dome and the Olympics! Where would we be without those! In any case, Dempsey playing in MLS probably does matter, on all kinds of levels. He's making a difference to the game in the US. That's important. Good on him.



http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/clint-dempsey-moves-to-seattle/?

Was reading this earlier as I'm a subscriber. Really well written piece, but I have to disagree about a couple of points.
It certainly is a backwards step. The MLS is where you go to retire. He's still in his prime. He kicked up such a fuss about leaving to play at a higher level then he quit when he didn't have everything go his way.
I don't believe he was transfer listed I think he simply couldn't handle not being the star man. But there's lots of Premier League clubs that would have him as their star man and plenty of clubs playing in Europe who would play him at least some times.
He does look a hypocrite and is hard to take seriously. Maybe some day we will learn what 'the real reasons' for him leaving were?

I imagine some Man Utd fans were saying the exact same thing when Berbatov came to us, but we can see why he came. Jol is trying to build something, to build a team that play entertaining and flair-ridden football and ultimately that's what Berbatov wants more than anything. He's also still playing at a very high level in the Premier League, probably the most competitive in the world.
What's more he (probably) took a considerable pay cut to come here rather than Dempsey's considerable pay rise. Jol may need to persistently stroke his ego, but potentially with Taarabt and Faurlin coming in we could see Berba playing as more of a striker this season than a number 10, that means more goals for him and more goals created by him.