Rene Meulensteen not sacked..faces fight for payoff

[LillieBoy]

From the Guardian [so it must be true!]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/16/rene-meulensteen-fulham-pay-off

René Meulensteen faces a fight to secure a pay-off from Fulham as the club also prepare to dismiss Ray Wilkins from the coaching staff. The Dutchman was relieved of his duties as the manager last Friday, with Felix Magath recruited in his place to lead the battle against relegation from the Premier League.

Meulensteen, under contract until June 2015 at the club, has seen his position rendered untenable by the move for Magath, who took his first training session . The German has brought his trusted fitness coach, Werner Leuthard, with him to west London.

The Dutchman knows that he has been elbowed to one side and he did not report for duty on Sunday . He said last Friday night that he had been "released" but to all intents he has been sacked. He will not come back.

But Fulham, pushing a hard line in semantics, maintain that he has not been sacked, merely relieved of his first-team duties and they are exploring whether they have to give him a pay-off. It is unclear whether Fulham expected him to come in . Meulensteen would appear to have a case for constructive dismissal.

Wilkins, whose appointment as the assistant head coach Meulensteen had pushed for shortly after Christmas, is on his way out, although the club have yet to confirm this. His methods have failed to impress the players or the hierarchy.

The future for the first-team technical director, Alan Curbishley, is less clear, although the early indications are that he could be retained. He was brought in over Christmas by the chief executive, Alastair Mackintosh, who had long harboured doubts about Meulensteen's ability to lift the club out of relegation danger.

Curbishley was to provide Meulensteen with the benefit of his experience but, Mackintosh reasoned, he could also prove an option to take over if results continued to be poor. In the end, though, Mackintosh and the owner, Shahid Khan, turned to Magath.

The former Charlton manager is respected within the club for the highly detailed scouting dossiers that he compiles on opposing teams while he pushed, during January, for the recruitment of a defender and a holding midfielder, arguing that Meulensteen had to make the team more solid and harder to beat. Curbishley met Magath at the training ground on Sunday afternoon.

Magath worked with Fulham's full squad, with some of them having had to fly back to London on Saturday from short holidays – Meulensteen gave them four days off after last Wednesday's defeat by Liverpool. "If the players, staff and fans support us 100%, I am sure we have the potential to avoid relegation," the new manager said.

[DUKE]

4 days off???.... hmmmm and we wonder why we are at the bottom.

[General]

HE WAS NEVER OUR OFFICIAL MANAGER!?!?! WHERE HAS ALL THIS COME FROM!?  people have just jumped onto this bandwagon and it has inflated his ego. He isn't and has never been our manager.

[MJG]

He was manager in all but name.

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[Jack Fulham]

His contract only runs for another 4 months. I guess he will be on gardening leave. Like Jol haha. 5 Managers on our books right now.

[Bronaldinho]

Whilst I loved Rene, I just don't he'd come back to be a number two under Magath.

Magath is mental case who demands serious training slogs, Rene makes a camp happy with the Coevaer Philosophy, however you spell it. Their ideas would not be similar :/

[Bronaldinho]

Anyone else get the feeling that Ali Mc simply didn't like Rene?

The ole 'Head Coach' title was a load of rubbish. Magath walks through the door and is given Manager xD

[SG]

Anyone else get the feeling that Ali Mc simply didn't like Rene?

The ole 'Head Coach' title was a load of rubbish. Magath walks through the door and is given Manager xD

I suspect that Magath demanded the title before he would walk through the door

[JBH]

Anyone else get the feeling that Ali Mc simply didn't like Rene?

The ole 'Head Coach' title was a load of rubbish. Magath walks through the door and is given Manager xD

I suspect that Magath demanded the title before he would walk through the door

Thats because he is a Manager not just a coach like Rene

[Skatzoffc]

Taxi for Mr Mackintosh pls!

[TonyGilroy]

Interesting to know what assurances Rene had from Khan/Mackintosh over his future.

He was never named manager and was simply in charge of first team affairs. Have the club been actively looking for a new manager since Jol was sacked or is this a reaction to January's results.

It's possible that Rene assumed a permanancy that was never actually spelt out.

Piss poor (lack of) communication of course.

[Skatzoffc]

Rene has clearly had the final say in picking the team and deciding upon the tactics since Jol was sacked. Irrespective of his title having remained as 'head coach' throughout this period, I fail to see how the Club could have bought in Magath without RM feeling that it reflected upon his performance - because, obviously, it does. Even if the Club made it clear to Rene that they wanted him to stay on in the role for which he was originally appointed, it's not surprising that he reacted badly to the news.

Perhaps, having had time to reflect upon the situation - and maybe even meet with Magath - Rene will decide that it is not worth letting his pride put him out job when he still has so much to offer our Club.

He was offered a demotion at Man Utd too.

If he didn't fancy that then I can't see him dropping down here.

Would love him to but don't blame him if he goes - the club have treated him like a leper.

Agreed!
Very poor treatment.

[Fulhampete]

Don't care how confused the 'managers', supporters or press are. What worries me is how all this confusion is effecting the players. Some of these players have just arrived and far from integrating as they should be they are left in turmoil. How do our young players feel? How do those out on loan? This change and insecurity can be nothing but damaging. To condone the actions of the club is most stupid. If we are going down it would surely be better not to go down in this disarray. We are not only descending fast we are looking at a very leaky parachute.

[andyk]

Rene has clearly had the final say in picking the team and deciding upon the tactics since Jol was sacked. Irrespective of his title having remained as 'head coach' throughout this period, I fail to see how the Club could have bought in Magath without RM feeling that it reflected upon his performance - because, obviously, it does. Even if the Club made it clear to Rene that they wanted him to stay on in the role for which he was originally appointed, it's not surprising that he reacted badly to the news.

Perhaps, having had time to reflect upon the situation - and maybe even meet with Magath - Rene will decide that it is not worth letting his pride put him out job when he still has so much to offer our Club.

He was offered a demotion at Man Utd too.

If he didn't fancy that then I can't see him dropping down here.

Would love him to but don't blame him if he goes - the club have treated him like a leper.

Agreed!
Very poor treatment.

I don't get this sympathy for these multi millionaire prima donnas. Oh, my pride is hurt, it's disrespectful, oh how can they do this to me, blah, blah, blah.
If Rene is really that proud, then he can quit, without compensation and go find someone else to pay him tens of thousands of quid a week to do whatever it is he does. In the meantime his bank account is still being filled on a regular basis by Fulham Football Club, his employer. In this regard the employer can ask the employee to do whatever it says in the contract he signed. If that means helping to coach the team then that's what he should do or else resign.

This happens all the time in the real world, a project starts under x, but after a few weeks it becomes apparent that x is not suited to that task, so y is brought in to finish the project. Meanwhile x is still employed on the project and assigned to whatever task y decides he can fulfill. If the employer decides to get rid of x then he is entitled to the contractual pay agreed, but if he simply wants to sulk and slag off his employer to the national press he would be sacked without compo.

[Barrie]

From the Guardian [so it must be true!]

The former Charlton manager is respected within the club for the highly detailed scouting dossiers that he compiles on opposing teams while he pushed, during January, for the recruitment of a defender and a holding midfielder, arguing that Meulensteen had to make the team more solid and harder to beat. Curbishley met Magath at the training ground on Sunday afternoon.

What about this part about Curbs being the driving force behind the Heitinga and Qvist transfers, though.  Doesn't exactly put Rene's judgement in a favourable light if true.

[LillieBoy]

From the Guardian [so it must be true!]

The former Charlton manager is respected within the club for the highly detailed scouting dossiers that he compiles on opposing teams while he pushed, during January, for the recruitment of a defender and a holding midfielder, arguing that Meulensteen had to make the team more solid and harder to beat. Curbishley met Magath at the training ground on Sunday afternoon.

What about this part about Curbs being the driving force behind the Heitinga and Qvist transfers, though.  Doesn't exactly put Rene's judgement in a favourable light if true.

The crying need was for a creative mid.  We've got defensive mids.  The defenders we need are full-backs.

[Barrie]

And we got neither of those either.  But we won't be arguing that Qvist and Heitinga were not vitally needed, will we?  We do look much more solid with them in the team, Qvist particularly.

[General]

He was manager in all but name.

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Which forgive me if I'm wrong, means he wasn't our manager - I think that's the point in having the name part.

[LillieBoy]

He was Head Coa

He was manager in all but name.

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Which forgive me if I'm wrong, means he wasn't our manager - I think that's the point in having the name part.

He was Head Coach - a quite deliberately ambiguous title if you ask me.

Typical of the whole mess.

[west kowloon white]

Yep, a strong manager needed as the last roll of the dice.Liked RM but the laid back "chumminess" of the the interview with SB  and Wilkins now makes me feel uneasy.An air of complacency towards the clubs plight and then knee jerk reaction of RM in pandering naively to the media again ,makes the poor management of this fiasco a little easier to understand.
Onwards and upwards to quote Reither...one can only hope.