Rene

[HatterDon]

I think it was insane to fire him right after the only time all season we had back-to-back good performances. I liked the infusion of youth, and I liked the attacking instinct. He, like Felix, couldn't fix the defensive shambles Jol created over a season and a half, but I thought he had the right idea about integrating our young players.

I never thought we were staying up anyhow, so it didn't bother me to see Tunnicliffe, Dembele, and the others making mistakes. It was refreezing seeing us take the match to our opponents. And, of course, just when I thought we were going to have Hughes nurture a young Dan Burn through the rest of the season, off goes Senderos AND Hughes, and away goes Rene.

There's a View From South Texas coming on the entire season PLUS, but yeah, right now ... I'd rather have Rene in charge.

[RaySmith]

Well, we went down anyway, so Rene might as well have stayed -and we  did have a couple of positive performances in what turned out to be his last games, after a good start, then some terrible results -with a lot of goals being shipped.

But I see why they got Felix, with his record of escaping relegation, albeit in Germany. It was a desperate last throw of the dice, and we did come close to escaping the drop.

I thought we would do it, after those back to back wins -but bad defending and not closing games out still did for us. At home to Hull was the last straw -that was so gutting for everyone at the club, I think. To let an insipid Hull side back into the game with ten minutes to go spoke volumes about team confidence.

But we now have Felix in place - a man with a great record, in Germany. He was booed by some fans as he walked off on Saturday- clapping the fans, though most clapped him, but he had a tough job really, in the time he had, with an inherited squad.

As I said, he nearly brought it off, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot, and in that fateful Stoke game, just seemed demoralised. But I think the club should give him a chance to rebuild, and ensure continuity, if he still wants to stay

[Bronaldinho]

I strongly believe Rene would have kept us in the Premier League. Okay we conceded 5 goals in the good performances at the end but that's against top teams and we scored 4! The 4-4-1-1 system with Holtby central being a key factor, would have kept us up. The emergence of Dan Burn under Rene was brilliant and Tunnicliffe(played out of position) and Larnell Cole looked to add energy to ancient squad. Brede Hangeland may not have liked it but Rene knew he was past it. Under Rene we wouldn't have seen the car-crash selections under Felix. Okay Rene was inexperienced as an actual manager, but he knew this league inside and out. Felix had never seen Fulham play and talks with the German started on deadline day, if you read into all the comments on his appointment. The point where it all went wrong was not naming Rene Meulensteen as the manager, the players must have been confused. Lastly, Rene used to stand on the touchline, communicate with the players and showed that he cared, I prefer those sort of managers than the ones of the Felix/Jol mould who hide away.

[EJL]

Meh, not too fussed about Rene. Said all the right things, but they rarely translated into an effective strategy. He's always been pretty full of himself, too, but his reputation didn't really take a hit following his sacking, so he should have another chance at management. Whether we would've built on those two games against Liverpool and United is another story, but I'm happier going into next season with Magath in charge.

[FFC1987]

Was hoping I was wrong about the whole scenario when we brought in Felix but the Stoke game about summed it up for me. Bent up top and Sidwell/Parker in the centre about sums it up for me.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

I think it was insane to fire him right after the only time all season we had back-to-back good performances. I liked the infusion of youth, and I liked the attacking instinct. He, like Felix, couldn't fix the defensive shambles Jol created over a season and a half, but I thought he had the right idea about integrating our young players.

I never thought we were staying up anyhow, so it didn't bother me to see Tunnicliffe, Dembele, and the others making mistakes. It was refreezing seeing us take the match to our opponents. And, of course, just when I thought we were going to have Hughes nurture a young Dan Burn through the rest of the season, off goes Senderos AND Hughes, and away goes Rene.

There's a View From South Texas coming on the entire season PLUS, but yeah, right now ... I'd rather have Rene in charge.

+1

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Was hoping I was wrong about the whole scenario when we brought in Felix but the Stoke game about summed it up for me. Bent up top and Sidwell/Parker in the centre about sums it up for me.

I also agree with this.... You did forget to mention Burn at RB though, possibly one of the worst tactical mistakes of the whole season....

[FFC1987]

Was hoping I was wrong about the whole scenario when we brought in Felix but the Stoke game about summed it up for me. Bent up top and Sidwell/Parker in the centre about sums it up for me.

I also agree with this.... You did forget to mention Burn at RB though, possibly one of the worst tactical mistakes of the whole season....

My main argument was he wouldn't play the youth and rely on the experienced heads that got us into this situation....I was trying to omit this  for my arguments sake ;)

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Oh I see..... I agree with you on that as well haha :)

[fulhamben]

we need to fear rene, I hope he doesn't get another job in England anytime soon as you could bet your life on him raiding our youth team at the first possible opportunity

[grandad]

Good coach for a team that had millions beyond belief to spend but not for a penny pinching outfit like us.

[Pluto]

Should never have sacked the man. I strongly believe he would have kept us up and the performances in his last two games were better than anything we've seen under Magath. With Magath we've regressed again to the same tired old passionless no-hopers we were under Jol.

[BishopsParkFantastic]

I cannot understand why people are continuing the debate about Rene. I supported Rene as the Manager after Jol. I did not support bringing in Wilkins and Curbishley alongside Rene who, I understood requested that they be brought in to support / advise him! That is where, in my view, it all went wrong. If we had been relegated under that regime likelihood is Rene and Wilkins would have gone, and Curbishley become the new manager.....

[FFC1987]

I cannot understand why people are continuing the debate about Rene. I supported Rene as the Manager after Jol. I did not support bringing in Wilkins and Curbishley alongside Rene who, I understood requested that they be brought in to support / advise him! That is where, in my view, it all went wrong. If we had been relegated under that regime likelihood is Rene and Wilkins would have gone, and Curbishley become the new manager.....

Thats true. The problem always came down to two things for me. Did Rene leave the squad in better condition than he received it in? And was the problem of old legs tiring after 60-70 mins addressed when Rene left?

I'd argue 1=Yes and 2=No. I was surprised because he did start to play the young uns but when it came to making a bold decision, Felix went for the obvious. That cost us in Felix's run. Obviously the deeper issues permeated from different manager regimes and I'm not blaming our demise heavilly at the feet of Felix.

The feeling I had was Rene was finding his feet, making bold decisions and trying to change things. Those things were thrown out the window when he was sacked. Maybe I'm wrong but regardless, it was a feeling shared by a lot of fans (also not shared I might add) but I never got that feeling again under Felix.

What I will say is, I like Felix and I hope we back him now and he starts to address these things rather than signing the 30+ on bigger wages and reputations like other clubs have done. He's talking a good game, lets hope he lives up to it.

[wolfie]

Imo sacking RM was a disgrace.... we were starting to play good football under him after he had got his players, I think we would have beat west brom away and certainly done a lot better against Cardiff, we certainly would have battled better under him than we did with Magath.... that being said we may not have won our home games, and may not have stayed up. Perhaps he should never have been hired, but he certainly should never have been sacked after giving him the whole of Janaury to buy his players.

Really liked the guy, and hope he gets a chance at another club

:plus one:

[alfie]

I cannot understand why people are continuing the debate about Rene. I supported Rene as the Manager after Jol. I did not support bringing in Wilkins and Curbishley alongside Rene who, I understood requested that they be brought in to support / advise him! That is where, in my view, it all went wrong. If we had been relegated under that regime likelihood is Rene and Wilkins would have gone, and Curbishley become the new manager.....

Thats true. The problem always came down to two things for me. Did Rene leave the squad in better condition than he received it in? And was the problem of old legs tiring after 60-70 mins addressed when Rene left?

I'd argue 1=Yes and 2=No. I was surprised because he did start to play the young uns but when it came to making a bold decision, Felix went for the obvious. That cost us in Felix's run. Obviously the deeper issues permeated from different manager regimes and I'm not blaming our demise heavilly at the feet of Felix.

The feeling I had was Rene was finding his feet, making bold decisions and trying to change things. Those things were thrown out the window when he was sacked. Maybe I'm wrong but regardless, it was a feeling shared by a lot of fans (also not shared I might add) but I never got that feeling again under Felix.

What I will say is, I like Felix and I hope we back him now and he starts to address these things rather than signing the 30+ on bigger wages and reputations like other clubs have done. He's talking a good game, lets hope he lives up to it.

I am not 100% on this but when Rene took over we were not in the bottom 3, when he went we were bottom, so i have some reservations about whether he would or wound not have saved us, with or withour wilks/curbs.

[Finnegans Wake]

Rene would not have kept us up. People keep harping on about the Man U and Liverpool games saying there was a big sign of improvement but on any other day United dont spend 90 mins crossing it onto a 6ft 7 centrebacks forehead, Kolo Toure doesn't defy the laws of physics to score that own goal and Suarez puts away two of three of those chances and all of a sudden its a very different story.

[filham]

Jol, Rene and Magath, all three had results that spelt relegation but having three managers in a season is in itself a recipe for disaster. Each manager needed games to learn and try things with the players that the previous manager had tried and discarded. Magath seemed to chop and change players and tactics right up to the bitter end, we never had a settled team.

Lets hope we can now trim our squad and decide on a manager for thewhole of next season.

[FFC1987]

I cannot understand why people are continuing the debate about Rene. I supported Rene as the Manager after Jol. I did not support bringing in Wilkins and Curbishley alongside Rene who, I understood requested that they be brought in to support / advise him! That is where, in my view, it all went wrong. If we had been relegated under that regime likelihood is Rene and Wilkins would have gone, and Curbishley become the new manager.....

Thats true. The problem always came down to two things for me. Did Rene leave the squad in better condition than he received it in? And was the problem of old legs tiring after 60-70 mins addressed when Rene left?

I'd argue 1=Yes and 2=No. I was surprised because he did start to play the young uns but when it came to making a bold decision, Felix went for the obvious. That cost us in Felix's run. Obviously the deeper issues permeated from different manager regimes and I'm not blaming our demise heavilly at the feet of Felix.

The feeling I had was Rene was finding his feet, making bold decisions and trying to change things. Those things were thrown out the window when he was sacked. Maybe I'm wrong but regardless, it was a feeling shared by a lot of fans (also not shared I might add) but I never got that feeling again under Felix.

What I will say is, I like Felix and I hope we back him now and he starts to address these things rather than signing the 30+ on bigger wages and reputations like other clubs have done. He's talking a good game, lets hope he lives up to it.

I am not 100% on this but when Rene took over we were not in the bottom 3, when he went we were bottom, so i have some reservations about whether he would or wound not have saved us, with or withour wilks/curbs.

It's my observation I guess but ultimately, I don't know whether Rene could have saved us. I just liked what he was doing with reducing the age, adding the energy and trying to take on teams. Felix took it another route and we had some shamble performances too so I guess it swings in roundabouts. Rene wasn't perfect, nor was Felix, but the feeling remains as I said before.

[AnotherVicHalomLoveChild]

Rene would not have kept us up. People keep harping on about the Man U and Liverpool games saying there was a big sign of improvement but on any other day United dont spend 90 mins crossing it onto a 6ft 7 centrebacks forehead, Kolo Toure doesn't defy the laws of physics to score that own goal and Suarez puts away two of three of those chances and all of a sudden its a very different story.

& on another day an idiot in a Fulham shirt wouldn't have given a penalty away in the 89th minute which would have seen us get a point from one of the most improved teams in the Premiership

We can all make such observations!

You have a view that Rene wouldn't have kept us up but it is pointless as we will never actually know

What we do know is Magath failed to keep us up - big time - Fact