So Defour wont. be happening.... taxi for Ali mack

[Bassey the warrior]

A lot of work to do to save his job in my eyes. We needed to bring someone in much earlier in the window and for my life I'll never understand why it took so long to be rid of Jol. I haven't seen Defour play but obviously to have a highly rated player so close to being ours, only for the bid to seemingly fall short and thus lose him is very frustrating. We need a couple of big, huge signings to save our season and his job.

[epsomraver]

...it doesn't help that my laptop pad transposed my words, which should have read:-

"TMT, read that last line again to yourself"

TMT is your MB initials and I was referring to your comment "If teams around us are improving themselves with players we don't rate, they are still improving" it's a bit like saying "even though their building toppled over it was bigger than ours"...

Addressed to tootle mctoot "Hi Tmt" " sorry didn't know you were referring to me" !! fp.gif

[TonyGilroy]

None of the players that our rivals have signed SO FAR impress me - essentially they're other teams' dross.

I think we're aiming higher but may end up doing no business which is better than bringing in players that won't improve us straight away without a too long settling in period.

I don't have an opinion on Alistair Mackintosh's competence - I don't have enough information except to know that it's not his own money that he's trying to spend.

[ToodlesMcToot]

...it doesn't help that my laptop pad transposed my words, which should have read:-

"TMT, read that last line again to yourself"

TMT is your MB initials and I was referring to your comment "If teams around us are improving themselves with players we don't rate, they are still improving" it's a bit like saying "even though their building toppled over it was bigger than ours"...

Addressed to tootle mctoot "Hi Tmt" " sorry didn't know you were referring to me" !! fp.gif

More like "sorry, I didn't know that TMT was supposed to be short for my handle." I understood he was speaking to me well enough as evidenced by my response.

[Baszab]

I repeat - shocking incompetence by Mackintosh and the board not to realise the damage Jol did to the team - It was obvious to all at the club that the players had no faith in his training methods nor his tactics (some of the senior players had no idea what their match instructions were) - U21 team nearly always beat the first team in practise - this makes Mackintosh's decision-making suspect -- then couple that with our transfer policy over recent history and it reinforces the perception that we need better management  - don't forget that there is a complicated scouting set-up at FFC as well - ex-players etc who watch all round the country and overseas   - surely someone must have tracked ONE player during the first half of the season that could improve the squad in January ?

[Arthur]

I repeat - shocking incompetence by Mackintosh and the board not to realise the damage Jol did to the team...

They did realise: Jol was sacked.

Presumably, you mean that they ought to have realised sooner. Yet, how much sooner? Jol was sacked 13 games into the season. After 8 games, we had won 3 and lost 4 - not a start on which you would expect a Club to sack its manager. 5 consecutive league defeats later, the axe was wielded. Does this constitute an unreasonable delay?

[Lighthouse]

I repeat - shocking incompetence by Mackintosh and the board not to realise the damage Jol did to the team...

They did realise: Jol was sacked.

Presumably, you mean that they ought to have realised sooner. Yet, how much sooner? Jol was sacked 13 games into the season. After 8 games, we had won 3 and lost 4 - not a start on which you would expect a Club to sack its manager. 5 consecutive league defeats later, the axe was wielded. Does this constitute an unreasonable delay?

I think we make the mistake of looking at this season in isolation. Remember that the second part of last season bar the last result was equally appalling. Jol was here way beyond it was clear he had no idea what to do. BUT it remains unclear what the club want to do. We had the excuse that Al was selling the club that is why things were tight. I am now at a loss why we a heading for relegation with still very odd decisions appearing to be made still by the club

[hovewhite]

I think firstly the club makes some serious  signings and if that means spending big money do it,as the club needs to stay in the PL,once achieved the club off the pitch needs a good hard honest look at what has gone wrong and address the findings honestly and sort it out.
Otherwise we will be relegated sooner or later.

[Arthur]

I think we make the mistake of looking at this season in isolation. Remember that the second part of last season bar the last result was equally appalling. Jol was here way beyond it was clear he had no idea what to do.

Yes, if the run of six consecutive defeats towards the end of last season had come at a different point in the campaign, it may have spelled the end for Jol sooner rather than later. (Although, in fairness, in only one of that run of fixtures - Reading - did we expect to get a positive result.) And, yes, it was a warning that an even more difficult season could follow. I can understand, however, why the Club were prepared to allow Jol a further shot at getting it right: up to now, in the PL era, no Club which has sacked its manager every other season has been successful for any length of time - at least, not without a huge injection of funds... and we haven't had that sort of money to invest.

[GloucesterWhite]

It's not as if Ali Mac is spending his own money. He is employed by Khan and has to follow Khan's instructions. If Ali Mac appears to be penny-pinching I suggest it is because Khan has too tight a grasp on his wallet. Same with MAF in his last years, we all moaned that Jol didn't buy younger players but he wasn't given the money.

If we don't buy well this week I can't see Rene staying beyond the end of the season even if we do stay up. When he first arrived Rene said the team obviously needs strengthening and if it doesn't happen I think he will be off.

[MrProphet]

It's not as if Ali Mac is spending his own money. He is employed by Khan and has to follow Khan's instructions. If Ali Mac appears to be penny-pinching I suggest it is because Khan has too tight a grasp on his wallet. Same with MAF in his last years, we all moaned that Jol didn't buy younger players but he wasn't given the money.

If we don't buy well this week I can't see Rene staying beyond the end of the season even if we do stay up. When he first arrived Rene said the team obviously needs strengthening and if it doesn't happen I think he will be off.

If Khan is penny pinching then he is getting some awful advice. We go down his investment won't be worth half what it is now and he will spend double getting us back up.

Rene said almost instantly that the team needed strengthening to survive and I would have expected that he got some assurance that this would have happened. If we buy no one then I wouldn't be shocked if he walked

[JBH]

It's not as if Ali Mac is spending his own money. He is employed by Khan and has to follow Khan's instructions. If Ali Mac appears to be penny-pinching I suggest it is because Khan has too tight a grasp on his wallet. Same with MAF in his last years, we all moaned that Jol didn't buy younger players but he wasn't given the money.

If we don't buy well this week I can't see Rene staying beyond the end of the season even if we do stay up. When he first arrived Rene said the team obviously needs strengthening and if it doesn't happen I think he will be off.

If Khan is penny pinching then he is getting some awful advice. We go down his investment won't be worth half what it is now and he will spend double getting us back up.

Rene said almost instantly that the team needed strengthening to survive and I would have expected that he got some assurance that this would have happened. If we buy no one then I wouldn't be shocked if he walked

And if you listened to Rene's post math interview he said that like most other clubs a majority of deals will be done in the last 36 hours of the window so prehaps we should wait to judge until it actually  065.gifcloses

[Baszab]

At Khan's level of wealth - he will not be involved in day to day decisions on any of his investments (that he acknowledges) that he knows nothing about - he has to rely on the managers of the investment - they (Mackintosh and the board) take the blame for failure

[TonyGilroy]

At Khan's level of wealth - he will not be involved in day to day decisions on any of his investments (that he acknowledges) that he knows nothing about - he has to rely on the managers of the investment - they (Mackintosh and the board) take the blame for failure

That really is something we simply do not know.

We haven't yet got a grip on how involved, committed and interested Khan is. My guess is not too much but I could be very wrong.

The problem in the January window is always that clubs resist selling players they need. Certainly in the major leagues few clubs are so in need of cash that they must sell so simply offering pots of money doesn't get you the players you need. Too often it gets you players the selling club no longer wants and if there's a good reason for that they are unlikely to make an immediate impact for a club like ours.

[GloucesterWhite]

At Khan's level of wealth - he will not be involved in day to day decisions on any of his investments (that he acknowledges) that he knows nothing about - he has to rely on the managers of the investment - they (Mackintosh and the board) take the blame for failure

So he is so rich he just signs a blank cheque? No way, he sets the budget. Same with the last years of MAF's reign, he obviously declared that there would be no net investment and the club made a profit on transfers during Jol's management.

[Craven Mad]

8.55AM SSN:

Fulham are now unlikely to sign Belgium midfielder Steven Defour from Porto. The 25-year-old's agent has been quoted in the Belgian media as saying that his client will now stay with the Portuguese club as they have allowed Argentina international Lucho Gonzalez to join Qatari club Al Rayyan SC. Paul Stefani said:

Now Lucho's gone, Steven has to grab his chance as Lucho was the one blocking him.
Steven was keen on joining Fulham. A few days ago, he even called Rene Meulensteen to discuss a transfer. He really wanted to move to Craven Cottage,
where he could sign for three-and-a-half years with an option

[Baszab]

 Do you honestly think Khan is sitting in his office working out his budgets on his Sage  or Excel programmes ? He will have a finance team that manage his portfolio of investments and they will liaise with the FFC board including Mackintosh and O'Loughlin - it is the FFC board's responsibility to ensure that FFC is not relegated and keep Khan informed - no he won't sign a blank cheque but he must receive the proper advice on the seriousness of "relegation" from FFC directors - that's what I am worried about

[TonyGilroy]

Do you honestly think Khan is sitting in his office working out his budgets on his Sage  or Excel programmes ? He will have a finance team that manage his portfolio of investments and they will liaise with the FFC board including Mackintosh and O'Loughlin - it is the FFC board's responsibility to ensure that FFC is not relegated and keep Khan informed - no he won't sign a blank cheque but he must receive the proper advice on the seriousness of "relegation" from FFC directors - that's what I am worried about

I've no idea how Khan runs his businesses and neither do you.

[Baszab]

1. You are correct I don't know the exact details of how Khan runs his business
2. I do have some idea of the setup
3. I have worked in a similar situation with other individuals and assume that those principles would be followed here at FFC
4. It is reasonable to think that our board have failed in advising the owner in not dealing with the (i) Jol and (ii) player investment side given our woeful performance over the last one and a half seasons

[Danitar]

It now looks like this one is dead so let's hurry up and move on to the next one. Get on with it Fulham