Two top professionals left our club tonight

[Shredhead]

Pluto.  Spot on.  All players make mistakes sometime.  Senderos was unfairly castigated IMHO. Both of them were great servants of the club. Especially Hughes who was crucial to our Europa campaign.

[filham]

Hughes is legend and Senderos was a real workhorse and we are missing them already.
Today with Lovebite reportedly injured and the new boys not yet ready we play 90 minutes football without cover for Hangeland and Burns.

[RaySmith]

Good luck to them both -top pros and top men, and in Aaron's case, an integral part of our most successful Prem team.

But - there is, sadly, no room for sentiment in modern, cut throat football, and you have to hand it to Rene for making the tough decisions - and he will be hailed if he, and the new signings save us, and condemned if he doesn't - but that's what he's paid for.

[Chesh]

Nice one Pluto - my take as follows:

Senderos - First of all, being objective imo he was not, and never has been a good defender. He is one of the modern types who gives more regard to jostling with his attacker, rather than concentrating on his positional sense in relation to the ball, and actually attacking it.

When he signed, I sighed, and although he had one or two good, isolated  moments, he never built up a consistency (even 2 games on the trot) where I could be confident in his ability.

Might sound harsh, but it's my honest opinion.

However, he always gave 100%, visibly cared, whether it be on the back of a loss or defeat, and for that reaqson I would wish him well, and only good luck in the future.

Hughes - a solid performer over the years, who has just come to the end of his Premier League ability due to his age.

In contrast to Senderos, he was a proper defender, with great positional sense (which always made up for a slight lack of pace), and his partnership with Brede up until a couple of years ago was very assured.

Again, I'd wish him all the best, but just disappointed that would mean helping the muppets from W8. Just want to say thank you Aaron for the great service.

Berbatov - was over the moon when he signed, but ever since (apart from a few moments of brilliance) have been hugely underwhelmed. Not by his talent, which is undebateable, but his work rate (which, I know comes with his game), but mostly his attitude, which has been demonstrably and visibly disgusting.

In fact a complete p***-take of his employers, team-mates and us, the fans.

Regrettably then my send off to Berbatov would be good riddance!

[Fulhampete]

 064.gifGive me a Senderos or Etuhu any day over a Ruiz. Neither were a waste of money and both gave maximum effort to Fulham. Compare them to the players some style fascists drool over like Dembele and Berbatov. I know mentioning Dembele will rile some devotees but I think he is greatly overrated.

[Julius Geezer]

Senderos was already carrying a bit of a calamitous reputation before he joined us - so fans were always sceptical.

He had a good attitude and he was resilient. He had to be after the flack he used to get!

But in truth, he was always a mistake waiting to happen. He often looked nervous and I think other teams targetted that.

This season was probably his best in Fulham colours.

The Sheff Utd game last week exposed Senderos and Hughes for the standard they really are now, and thats not PL standard unfortunately.

Hughes has been a great servant to the club, and in fairness to Aaron Hughes - he shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Senderos.

Aaron was Mr Reliable for a number of years and a top professional.

Him and Hangeland had a great partnership and it's sad that it's the end of an era there.

But this club is in transition and it's time to let our young prospects through and clear out the 'dead wood'.

[Rudolph]

Even by sugarcoating it with praise for two players, people still feel the need to trash Phil.  He is a very capable defender and this highlighted by the amount of interest he gets from big clubs past and present.  He'll do well and will enjoy his time in Spain, along going to the world cup.  I cannot image what it is like playing against the crowd at home, must be an awful feeling and hopefully he gets a fairer ride in Valencia.

Nice words Pluto and well said.  Hopefully it is a watershed moment for our new manager to kick on with his own team and establish new "fan favourites", although I fear for Richardson in the wake of Phil's departure.

[Nero]

Got to feel sorry for all of our back for when your put under pressure for 70% of a game and the rest of team mates are half way up the pitch your more then likely to make a mistake

[rusty shackleford]

He was never the same after Barton came in his face

Seriously though, he seems like a top guy. I wish him well, and i felt sorry for him a lot of the time getting poo from our fans. But in fairness, he was a terrible football player.

[Texas White]

well said!  065.gif :clap_hands:

Agreed 100%
Good luck Phil

[Pluto]

Great to see so many nice comments and that people appreciate the work ethic and attitude these two put in. :54:

This is a tribute thread for those who appreciate the commitment these players gave us so if you do want to trash talk then kindly head elsewhere.

[Shredhead]

Someone (the landlord of my local - a Cardiff fan) just told me that the club that bought Senderos thought they'd got  Hangeland. To the extent of posting a picture of BH on their website.  True?

[Rudolph]

Someone (the landlord of my local - a Cardiff fan) just told me that the club that bought Senderos thought they'd got  Hangeland. To the extent of posting a picture of BH on their website.  True?

The way Hangeland played yesterday, I wish they'd have bought him instead of Phil. 

[copthornemike]

Nice one Pluto - my take as follows:

Senderos - First of all, being objective imo he was not, and never has been a good defender. He is one of the modern types who gives more regard to jostling with his attacker, rather than concentrating on his positional sense in relation to the ball, and actually attacking it.

When he signed, I sighed, and although he had one or two good, isolated  moments, he never built up a consistency (even 2 games on the trot) where I could be confident in his ability.

Might sound harsh, but it's my honest opinion.

However, he always gave 100%, visibly cared, whether it be on the back of a loss or defeat, and for that reaqson I would wish him well, and only good luck in the future.

Hughes - a solid performer over the years, who has just come to the end of his Premier League ability due to his age.

In contrast to Senderos, he was a proper defender, with great positional sense (which always made up for a slight lack of pace), and his partnership with Brede up until a couple of years ago was very assured.

Again, I'd wish him all the best, but just disappointed that would mean helping the muppets from W8. Just want to say thank you Aaron for the great service.

Berbatov - was over the moon when he signed, but ever since (apart from a few moments of brilliance) have been hugely underwhelmed. Not by his talent, which is undebateable, but his work rate (which, I know comes with his game), but mostly his attitude, which has been demonstrably and visibly disgusting.

In fact a complete p***-take of his employers, team-mates and us, the fans.

Regrettably then my send off to Berbatov would be good riddance!

Pretty good summing up.

Lets be realistic, few of our signings unfortunately will be 'world class' but as a supporter we want to feel that the club has players who will give 100% and really care every time they are on the pitch. Big Phil & Aaron were such players, I hope they have happy memories of the club and truly wish them all the best of luck - they deserve it.

The great shame about Berba is that despite the slogans on his shirt we never really felt he was 100% committed, ever. He had it in him to become a legend but he just never appeared to be bothered.