The January Silly Season thread

[grandad]

OK then,suppose Dempsey comes back for a few weeks, who makes way for him & where would he play. We now play a nice 4-2-3-1 formation so can he play up top instead of Berba,no didn´t work before. Can he play wide left,no not quick enough. Can he play wide right,no Ashkan better. The only place left is CM. So that means either Sidwell, Kasami or Kara have to make way. Those 3 have put their heart into our change of attitude & would not want them cast out.

[Big Martin Jol]

Demspey could go the easy route and join West ham, but the fact that he looks likely to be rejoining us shows courage and means clearly that he is desperate to restore his reputation and standing with the fans.  I like that.  And if he comes back here with that kind of determination and plays a part in keeping us up, then all that has gone before will be forgotten as far as I am concerned.

uh, not so much. Clint is a professional footballer. He works for Seattle now, and his reason for seeking european football during MLS break is to keep his form up with the World Cup coming up. The idea that he's obsessing over how Fulham fans feel about him two seasons after he left the club is ludicrous. These guys, like everyone else with a job and a family, are obsessed with being the best they can and making sure that their family's are secure. Several years ago I left a company I was working for and set myself up in business. After a time, I secured two or three contracts with my former company. I did so NOT because I owed them anything, but because they were paying me a decent bit of money for a decent bit of work.

When it comes, Clint's decision will be based on how much pitch time he can get -- not because he owes something to Fulham or Tottenham fans. I can't believe the naivete on here.

Not sure if Seattle qualifies as professional football.  :005:

[MiltonBurrows]

Looks like its just going to loan signings in january again, but if they are of enough quality and keep us up, i'll take them.
Lescott, buttner, dempsey, zaha, anderson all being thrown about.

And are we ever going to ship the deadwood out? Passengers such as Ruiz should be long gone, no fight for the club.

I don't want to as far as say the window will be make or break for us, but its quite obvious that we do need to bring a few additions in.

[horse1031]

I agree with Hatter that he wants to get in shape for the World Cup and since he has been at Fulham and knows the setup we are probably a pretty good option.  I don't think he thinks he owes that fans anything.  He gave his all in every game and left for greener pastures.  I am fine with a 2 month option but once again, what would our setup be with Berba up top?

[theotherdembele]

Just to clarify you cannot loan more then 2 players from the premiership in the same season and you also cannot loan more then 1 player from the same premiership club, so zaha, anderson and others on loan is impossible and just lazy journalism.

[EJL]

OK then,suppose Dempsey comes back for a few weeks, who makes way for him & where would he play. We now play a nice 4-2-3-1 formation so can he play up top instead of Berba,no didn´t work before. Can he play wide left,no not quick enough. Can he play wide right,no Ashkan better. The only place left is CM. So that means either Sidwell, Kasami or Kara have to make way. Those 3 have put their heart into our change of attitude & would not want them cast out.

4231/4411 is essentially the same formation - at least, the wide players perform the same function in both systems. Jol used both of those formations during his spell at the club with and without Dempsey. So to say he suddenly can't play wide-left is bizarre as that has been his main position throughout his career.

[FPT]

I've not seen us linked with Joleon Lescott or Alex Buttner.

Reports in Russia suggest an £11m move for Balazs Dzsudzsak which suggests money will be available.

[DJinNJ]

Demspey could go the easy route and join West ham, but the fact that he looks likely to be rejoining us shows courage and means clearly that he is desperate to restore his reputation and standing with the fans.  I like that.  And if he comes back here with that kind of determination and plays a part in keeping us up, then all that has gone before will be forgotten as far as I am concerned.

uh, not so much. Clint is a professional footballer. He works for Seattle now, and his reason for seeking european football during MLS break is to keep his form up with the World Cup coming up. The idea that he's obsessing over how Fulham fans feel about him two seasons after he left the club is ludicrous. These guys, like everyone else with a job and a family, are obsessed with being the best they can and making sure that their family's are secure. Several years ago I left a company I was working for and set myself up in business. After a time, I secured two or three contracts with my former company. I did so NOT because I owed them anything, but because they were paying me a decent bit of money for a decent bit of work.

When it comes, Clint's decision will be based on how much pitch time he can get -- not because he owes something to Fulham or Tottenham fans. I can't believe the naivete on here.

Is that the same naivete that led some people to believe he might be open to joining Seattle over the summer?

Sure, it's probably too far to say he's desperate for Fulham fans to like him, but if he does come back it probably wouldn't be a coincidence that he chose his former club. Maybe he just still has an affinity for the club, maybe he still has a couple of friends on the team, maybe now that Jol is gone he wants to take the opportunity to show there are no hard feelings (without being desperate to do so). Now, I don't really know what's in Clint's mind, but I don't think Fulham fans' opinions are his main concern. But assuming that there are other clubs interested, I don't think he could completely separate the five and a half seasons he spent here from his decision.

And yes, he might want to go where he can get the most game time, but I don't think it's necessarily clear where that would be. How much time he gets will depend on form as much as anything, as any manager's priority is getting points, not getting Dempsey game time. And there's still three months of MLS, I don't think getting five games rather than eight while he's here (while getting just as much training time) is going to make much difference when it comes to the World Cup.

[TheManOnTheBus]

Hard to see where he fits into our team, as currently structured, though.  Assuming Berb stays, does he keep Kaca out of left attacking role?  Kaca is winning us penalties and plays well with Berb. 

Also Berb and Dempsey haven't played together (since they crossed somewhere in Central London doing their swap last August). 

I wouldn't pick Clint over Kaca (although Clint wouldn't have missed that sitter at Goodison, so perhaps I would).

[MiltonBurrows]

Not sure how the fans are going to respond with dempseys return. He left in pretty acrimonious circumstance, but on the other hand he did score over 50 goals for us in the league, which we are lacking at the moment.

2 months isn't going to save our season but hopefully he can knock a few goals in.

Play him in the number 10 role just behind berba and he might just do this.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Furby]

Looks like its just going to loan signings in january again, but if they are of enough quality and keep us up, i'll take them.
Lescott, buttner, dempsey, zaha, anderson all being thrown about.

And are we ever going to ship the deadwood out? Passengers such as Ruiz should be long gone, no fight for the club.

I don't want to as far as say the window will be make or break for us, but its quite obvious that we do need to bring a few additions in.

No I've not seen the Buttner rumour either, but I'd love us to have him on loan until the end of the season. Although someone has said in another post you can't loan more then 2 players from the premiership in the same season and you also can't loan more then 1 player from the same premiership club. So it'd have to be only one with Lescott out of the four you suggest.

[DJinNJ]

OK then,suppose Dempsey comes back for a few weeks, who makes way for him & where would he play. We now play a nice 4-2-3-1 formation so can he play up top instead of Berba,no didn´t work before. Can he play wide left,no not quick enough. Can he play wide right,no Ashkan better. The only place left is CM. So that means either Sidwell, Kasami or Kara have to make way. Those 3 have put their heart into our change of attitude & would not want them cast out.

So should we not look for better CM's because we don't want to "cast out" your favorite players (and while I don't have anything against Kasami's attitude, he is one of the players that was dropped when we broke our six game losing streak)? And of course, Karagounis can't play 90 minutes anyway. Dempsey would easily fit in either in Kaca's position, or behind Berbatov in the 4231. Whether he's the best option is another question, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have the option, particularly since Kaca's form is far from consistent. It might also make us less predictable to have a right-footed option on the left.

[EJL]

OK then,suppose Dempsey comes back for a few weeks, who makes way for him & where would he play. We now play a nice 4-2-3-1 formation so can he play up top instead of Berba,no didn´t work before. Can he play wide left,no not quick enough. Can he play wide right,no Ashkan better. The only place left is CM. So that means either Sidwell, Kasami or Kara have to make way. Those 3 have put their heart into our change of attitude & would not want them cast out.

So should we not look for better CM's because we don't want to "cast out" your favorite players (and while I don't have anything against Kasami's attitude, he is one of the players that was dropped when we broke our six game losing streak)? And of course, Karagounis can't play 90 minutes anyway. Dempsey would easily fit in either in Kaca's position, or behind Berbatov in the 4231. Whether he's the best option is another question, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have the option, particularly since Kaca's form is far from consistent. It might also make us less predictable to have a right-footed option on the left.

If you're looking at our losing run from a purely statistical point of view, then yes, I guess dropping Kasami did coincide with us breaking the streak. But, as I'm sure you know, Kasami has probably been our best player this season after Scott Parker and without a doubt one of the upsides to this extremely underwhelming situation we find ourselves in. What about the games we won in which Kasami started? Would we have scored twice as many goals had he not played?

[spikey norman]

Talksport reporting that we are after Monaco defender  Nicolas Isimat -Mirin.
Anyone know anything about him?

[Victor Meldrew]

Looks like we're going to get multiple threads as well, regarding January transfers. Did you not notice the already 2 page long January Silly Season thread, before deciding to post this one?  092.gif

[west kowloon white]

Vic,one is  a highly authorative substantiated thread the other mere speculation .

[jmh]

For goodness sake get over this Dempsey love in. He is past it now. He has done very little in the MLS this last season. He will never be the same player he was when with us.

Dempsey scored 12 goals in all competitions for Spurs last season, twice as many as any Fulham player other than Berbatov.  Seems to me that that's more indicative of his current abilities than a few matches while attempting to gel with a new team mid-season.  I'd still rather see Meulensteen and Mackintosh and the rest looking for long-term solutions rather than inexpensive stopgaps (the reliance on which has been a reason why we're in this situation), but as far as stopgaps go, we could do worse. 

[Danitar]

For goodness sake get over this Dempsey love in. He is past it now. He has done very little in the MLS this last season. He will never be the same player he was when with us.

Dempsey scored 12 goals in all competitions for Spurs last season, twice as many as any Fulham player other than Berbatov.  Seems to me that that's more indicative of his current abilities than a few matches while attempting to gel with a new team mid-season.  I'd still rather see Meulensteen and Mackintosh and the rest looking for long-term solutions rather than inexpensive stopgaps (the reliance on which has been a reason why we're in this situation), but as far as stopgaps go, we could do worse. 

Maybe they are but I think having Dempsey at the club wouldn't do us any harm. He is something different at this club and if he can pick up 7 or 8 goals during his loan spell I'm all for it

[BestOfBrede]

Quote from Junichi:
067.gif If you look at teams like Southampton, Norwich and Swansea, they're able to attract certain big names, why can't we?  067.gif

Hmmm, possibly something to do with our wage structure?
Although it is a sensible way to ensure we can continue as a viable business, it sure doesn't help with any plans of improvement!

[DJinNJ]

OK then,suppose Dempsey comes back for a few weeks, who makes way for him & where would he play. We now play a nice 4-2-3-1 formation so can he play up top instead of Berba,no didn´t work before. Can he play wide left,no not quick enough. Can he play wide right,no Ashkan better. The only place left is CM. So that means either Sidwell, Kasami or Kara have to make way. Those 3 have put their heart into our change of attitude & would not want them cast out.

So should we not look for better CM's because we don't want to "cast out" your favorite players (and while I don't have anything against Kasami's attitude, he is one of the players that was dropped when we broke our six game losing streak)? And of course, Karagounis can't play 90 minutes anyway. Dempsey would easily fit in either in Kaca's position, or behind Berbatov in the 4231. Whether he's the best option is another question, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have the option, particularly since Kaca's form is far from consistent. It might also make us less predictable to have a right-footed option on the left.

If you're looking at our losing run from a purely statistical point of view, then yes, I guess dropping Kasami did coincide with us breaking the streak. But, as I'm sure you know, Kasami has probably been our best player this season after Scott Parker and without a doubt one of the upsides to this extremely underwhelming situation we find ourselves in. What about the games we won in which Kasami started? Would we have scored twice as many goals had he not played?

Agreed, perhaps I should have added that I had no problem with his performance in addition to his attitude. It just seemed odd to credit Kasami as a reason for our improvement when he's actually had a reduced role. Or imply that he's undroppable when we won after dropping him. Though we did improve against Tottenham, which Kasami started, the problem was that Jol was playing him in the wrong position. But that doesn't mean we can't try to improve on him, or at least try to bring in some players to compete with him for his place.