Fulham look doomed to relegation

[Admin]

With Shahid Kahn cutting costs and Dimitar Berbatov disinterested, Fulham look doomed to relegation


The Craven Cottage side desperately need an injection of belief if they are to beat the drop this season[/b]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/shahid-kahn-cutting-costs-dimitar-2811255


Fulham have been in the Premier League since 2001 but I can see that proud run ending this season.

We reported in the Mirror in July that Mohamed Al Fayed was selling up. (Hyperlink: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fulham-put-up-sale-owner-2041129) And my sources now tell me new owner Shahid Khan believes he can sustain the Premier League club on the cheap.

Granted, USA tycoon Khan has money and he dug deep to pay over £100million for the Craven Cottage club. But it is no coincidence his NFL side the Jacksonville Jaguars, which he bought in 2011, are also struggling. They prop up AFC South with nine losses in 10 games at the time of writing.

I appreciate the different dynamics in NFL football as you cannot simply open a blank chequebook in their game. But with both Khan's clubs toiling, I think it is fair to ask how much Khan - however much of an impressive businessman he may be - actually knows about professional sport?

Fulham are currently 18th after three straight losses left them in the relegation zone. Since then the club have acted to bring in respected ex-Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen. He is working alongside under-pressure manager Martin Jol on the training field to improve Fulham's current squad.

If Jol and Meulensteen have the right chemistry then this actually looks a shrewd move. But it still is unlikely to be enough to save Fulham as Khan is crucially not willing to invest much money on players in future.

And I think the move for Meulensteen has come about as the club are not willing to spend their way to safety. So a January spending spree can be ruled out unless Khan has a radical change of heart and change of strategy.

The club's chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, has been instructed to run the club as a sustainable long-term business which breaks even. It is an admirable principle but Jol's current squad will need more than free transfers, loans and bargains to keep them up. For starters you won't find many decent Bosmans out there in January.

Frustration: Martin Jol has been unable to improve performances
Alex Livesey

Jol and Fulham also have to decide what to do with stand-in captain Dimitar Berbatov. The enigmatic Bulgarian is the top earner at Fulham on around £60,000 a week, which is way more than most of his team-mates.

But the former Manchester United striker is just not doing enough to justify his salary. He goes missing in games - usually away from home - as all fans will have seen. But also at the training ground I gather he is a law unto himself.

He is going to get Jol the sack at this rate if the Dutch coach continues to indulge him. Who can forget Berbatov's arrogant T-shirt stunt last season when he revealed a message saying: "keep calm and pass me the ball". I understand it went down like a lead balloon with team-mates.

Berbatov's salary and attitude is sure to bred resentment among colleagues, which also does not make for a good team spirit. They forgave him last season when he helped keep Fulham up in 12th place with 15 goals. But Berbatov looks like he is possibly doing more harm than good this season and has only one League goal.

He is certainly not the type of character ideal in the trenches of a relegation battle. Look what happened to QPR last season with a well-paid but dispirited dressing room.

Berbatov has this week been linked with Barcelona . I do not have any inside knowledge about this but selling him to raise transfer funds and offload an arguably bad apple would probably make sense.

Because as it stands, without a new injection of funds and players into the side in January, Fulham really look doomed.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

  Thought we had stopped all this chizzle and were going to get behind the management and the team ???
...and it's the friggin mirror  1500.gif

[Admin]

Thought we had stopped all this chizzle and were going to get behind the management and the team ???
...and it's the friggin mirror  1500.gif

This wasn't posted with the intention of of raising any doom and gloom, it was posted with the intentions of making others aware of the tosh that the Mirror are writing about Fulham Football Club.

[FFC1987]

This is simply poor journalism in my humble opinion.

[Rupert]

Typical tabloid piece, lots of personal opinion dressed up as "I think it is fair to ask" and "I understand" with un-named sources. The writer may end up being correct, but I'd like to give the new set-up a chance first.

[St Eve]

Khan doesn't buy a premiership team and not invest or they won't be a premiership team. It makes no sense

[jarv]

It is just another person's opinion. Nothing fact based, (except that Berbatov is a bad apple, we all know that) no insider quotes, nothing that could be considered accurate information or even of interest to read.

[EJL]

 "I understand it went down like a lead balloon with team-mates."

The same teammates that swamped him after he scored the goal? Yeah, I don't buy into this whole 'touchy teammates' story a few papers have run concerning Berbatov's tshirt. And how on earth does he know what he's like in training?

All in it's a pretty dreadful article. Nothing new or necessarily accurate, and the writer has essentially put all of our problems down to Berbatov.

[Northern Cottager]

On the cheap? I'm fairly sure Rene would of cost a small fortune to get in with the intention of probably spending in January. The Mirror are as useless as the Sun when it comes to anything but stalking celebrities in the privacy of their holidays or homes and reporting on what they are wearing on a day trip out.

[ToodlesMcToot]

On the cheap? I'm fairly sure Rene would of cost a small fortune to get in with the intention of probably spending in January. The Mirror are as useless as the Sun when it comes to anything but stalking celebrities in the privacy of their holidays or homes and reporting on what they are wearing on a day trip out.

As much wrangling as it seemingly took to get Rene to accept, I'd be floored if he didn't negotiate some spending money into the deal. He had all the power in the negotiation. We wanted him, not the other way 'round.

[Skatzoffc]

The mirror have always slagged off Fulham.
Ignore the West Ham loving mugs.

COYW!

[Lighthouse]

Nevertheless the point is well made about lack of investment etc. Many of us have said for a few seasons we are heading for relegation. Lack of investment, poor management etc. But the Berbatov money thing is a made up story but not his lack of importance to the team. However the point about Jol and Berba were made for some time while the so called experts in the papers and tv told us it was too early to make such comments.

Fact is we need investment in the team and we have doubts over the manager. We do look doomed but I am not sure the conclusion in the Mirror about Khan and Berbatov and his wages are close to the truth.

[EJL]

From his Mirror bio:

"James Nursey is a Daily Mirror sports journalist, based in the Midlands covering football, tennis and golf."

[chiefo]

Nothing new on this worthless article. After all their source could easily be this Fof site. Yep poor lazy journalism.

[Logicalman]

I appreciate the different dynamics in NFL football as you cannot simply open a blank chequebook in their game. But with both Khan's clubs toiling, I think it is fair to ask how much Khan - however much of an impressive businessman he may be - actually knows about professional sport?

Fulham are currently 18th after three straight losses left them in the relegation zone. Since then the club have acted to bring in respected ex-Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen. He is working alongside under-pressure manager Martin Jol on the training field to improve Fulham's current squad.

Well, I guess when demonstrating how much an owner knows about the sport, if losses and position are anything to go by, then Khan knows more than Steve Parish, Martin Long, Stephen Browett and Jeremy Hosking put together, and also more than Niall Quinn ( Drumaville Consortium).

Ahh, journalism at it's best. As the years drag on it's been a long time since I've bothered looking in the mirror for inspiration!!

[Aaron]

"If Jol and Meulensteen have the right chemistry then this actually looks a shrewd move. But it still is unlikely to be enough to save Fulham as Khan is crucially not willing to invest much money on players in future."

While the article is sensationalist and nothing new, the main underlying point remains valid.. We're hardly safe yet..  

I think we will need to do some decent business in January and hope for a major turn around in both form and fitness to make sure we stay safe but it's by no means certain..

I'm not aware of the club's unwillingness to invest in new players.  I certainly haven't heard this from anyone in a position of sufficient authority to make such a statement.  Mind you, buying yourself out of trouble in January isn't something which has proven particularly cost-effective or successful for other clubs in the past.

While there may be worse teams than us, nobody is going to just roll over and die.  We'll have to work very hard to avoid the drop and ours are not the sort of problems that disappear overnight.  I think taking safety for granted off the back of RM's appointment is probably a little naive, there's more work to be done..  

I just hope the shot-callers at the club see it that way too.

[FFC1987]

I think with our current squad, a little direction and some form, we are capable of a 11-13 finish....Hoever, if none of these are achieved and we don't invest, we could also get some rotton club and finish bottom 3. I don't think we are a club in crisis yet though.

[ron]

Thank goodness for that. We have established without doubt that any worrying articles about the club are a load of made-up nonsense, and that below the relegation haunted façade of the club, there is a vibrant and successful organisation that is doing very well.

Phew, and there was me thinking we were in the doo doo.

[Aaron]

I think with our current squad, a little direction and some form, we are capable of a 11-13 finish....Hoever, if none of these are achieved and we don't invest, we could also get some rotton club and finish bottom 3. I don't think we are a club in crisis yet though.

Hmm... I think we're in a crisis alright, but I also think in terms of the quality of our performances, we've bottomed out already..  There's no way that RM's appointment can result in us getting worse and you would assume for someone who was number 2 at United for 15 years that there's a very really chance we'll improve significantly under his guidance.  We just have to hope that those around us don't do something to drastically improve their situations.

[FFC1987]

I think with our current squad, a little direction and some form, we are capable of a 11-13 finish....Hoever, if none of these are achieved and we don't invest, we could also get some rotton club and finish bottom 3. I don't think we are a club in crisis yet though.

Hmm... I think we're in a crisis alright, but I also think in terms of the quality of our performances, we've bottomed out already..  There's no way that RM's appointment can result in us getting worse and you would assume for someone who was number 2 at United for 15 years that there's a very really chance we'll improve significantly under his guidance.  We just have to hope that those around us don't do something to drastically improve their situations.

If we are bottom in January I'll agree but we can get enough points to stay up. We do have a tough run up but still, we can grind out a few results. Not down and out yet!!!!