How not to build a team

[MJG]

here is an article i posted on http://www.vivaelfulham.co.uk/articles/how-not-to-build-a-team-7-404.html#sthash.CzPqfXKn.dpuf

Where the seeds were sown for relegation

Or

How not to build a team

It's May 2013 and Fulham have just finished their 12th season in the premier league. The 2012-13 had not been a classic season and in fact after reaching 40 points in Mid-April with a draw away to Aston Villa, the team seemed to pack their bags and sit on a beach for the next 5 games as we lost 4 homes and the obligatory away game to Everton.

By beating Swansea 3-0 away on the last game of the season we somehow finished 12th, 7pts clear of relegation. Without that win only Sunderland would have been between us and the relegation zone.

My feeling at the time was I could not care less if Martin Jol left or stayed. I had lost faith in him around Christmas time, and his treatment of younger players and his almost god like adulation Berbatov had worn thin.

But anyway we had survived, we had another season to look forward to and before we even had time to lay back and enjoy another wet British summer we went and signed three players in May.

Sascha Riether (30) Signed a permanent deal after his successful years loan £1M and a 2 year contract.

Derek Boateng (30) Joined us after having his contract cancelled by Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. There is some confusion on his contract, is it one year with an option or two years till the summer of 2015?

Boateng had been chased by Fulham and Martin Jol for at least 3 or 4 transfer windows. To get him on a free was good and it looked as if we had got our man to hold that midfield together

Fernando Amorebieta (28) Joined on a free and 4 year contract. I would admit to not knowing anything really about him, apart from one photo of him kicking Messi in the head.

With these 3 signings it looked as if we had plans in place and acting fast to get who we wanted. All experienced but also at low cost. With Amorebieta coming in I felt we would now lose one of the other central defenders. We already had Hangeland (31), Hughes (33) and Senderos (28) and thought this would be the chance for Dan Burn (21) to become the 3/4th choice centre back and add some youth to the defence. Early July Burn was sent packing to Birmingham for a season long loan.

Back to the conveyor belt of transfers, next in a world cup finalist. The Dutch keeper Maarten Steklenburg (30) signed for a figure in the region of £4-5M and on another 4 year contract. The fans reaction was a bit mixed; he had injury problems in the preceding season, but most recognised he was a good goalkeeper. At the time I felt it was a bit harsh on David Stockdale, for me he had done nothing wrong when he had played and I felt that the fee could have been used for another position. But hey we had a world cup goalkeeper

It was about now you start thinking, ok we have the experience but we still need to get the age of the squad down. Must be looking at some guys in their mid 20's.

2 weeks before the season starts and we have him...a player under 25. Adel Taarabt(24) jumped onto the bus at Shepherds Bush, got off at the stop opposite Finlay Street and found himself on loan at Fulham for the season. Once again greeted with mixed views, but a player with talent and one of the few in the squad not with a free bus pass.

The excitement is building, 2 days to go to the season and behold Darren Bent(29)..one of the top Premiership goal scorers in recent years signs also for a season long loan (Take note only 2 domestic loans are allowed..we think, I'm not sure, try reading the FA rules on it..impossible to know). £2m season long loan fee and £40-50K maybe a week. £4M package for the season, surely he's worth it? With Berbatov and Bent up front, who needs the S&S when you have the B&B?

We kick the season off and it's a great start (if not performance) a 1-0 away win at Sunderland. Its 3 pts in the bag and we overlook the performance and await Arsenal in a weeks time. But before that we have one more major signing..enter that 1950's looking straight laced, not a hair out of place, Scott Parker (32). Having fought off the mighty QPR of the championship (That's Division 2 for the oldies) for his signature, Scott continued his trip around London football clubs.Charlton to Chelsea to West Ham to Spurs and now Fulham (with a couple of years hard labour in the North East at Newcastle).

Penning a 3 year deal on reputed wages of £40-60K a week and a transfer fee in excess of £3m, the total package for Mr Scott Parker if he stays 3 years at Fulham will be in the region of £9-12M (not taking into account his relegation clause which I'm sure he has)

Last but not least is Elsad Zverotic(26), signed on deadline night for a few hundred thousand and a 2 year contract with a 3rd as an option. The natural replacement for Chris Baird and although not under 25 it was close enough.

So let's recap, who have we signed:

Sascha Riether (30)

Derek Boateng (30)

Fernando Amorebieta (28)

Maarten Steklenburg (30)

Adel Taarabt(24)

Darren Bent(29)

Scott Parker (32)

Elsad Zverotic(26)


8 players signed, around £10M in fees which does not include the Free transfer signing on fees and an average age of 28.63. The question is how's that's going to help bring the age of the squad down. A squad which already has 8 players over the age of 30.

Of course I forgot to mention the resigning of Giorgos Karagounis (36), He stayed on in July to bring his duracell bunny all action energy to the squad and team. I love his all action style, but he was past it at the end of last season.

So there we are, Martin Jol has made his signings, He's built his team, how could it go wrong?

Well quite early actually.

Boateng played at Sunderland and was subbed, on the bench for a couple of games and then 2 more league appearances and gone. Nowhere to be seen. Martin why is he not on the bench? "He's not versatile enough to be on the bench" has to be one of the must stupid comments I have ever heard from, a manger. Here is a player that Jol had chased for 2 years, and 1 game into his Fulham career Jol realises he's not versatile enough. Did he ever watch him?

Stekelenburg, the worries of him being injury prone hit us right in the face first game. Subbed and misses next 6 games. He comes back and lacks confidence and stuck to his line. To be fair I don't think any goalkeeper would have enjoyed playing behind our defence. But I stand by the view that it was £5M wasted when we needed a player in midfield.

Taarabt was there or there abouts in the team. Didn't really produce anything but actually had a couple of good games under Rene. But Jol again spoke about how do I fit him, Ruiz, Berbatov and Bent all into the team. Seems to have found Italy more to his liking, gifted but just does not seem to know how to use the skill he has.

Parker started the season well and was clearly our best player up till Christmas and New Year. But he and Sidwell in the middle produce nothing. They have no creativity about them, no pace and age is against them both. The replacement for Murphy was not Parker, why did Jol sign him when he was clearly not what we needed.

I'm going to finish (something he could not do all season) on Bent . From day one he looked unfit, slow and not sure what he should be doing. I blame Jol completely for this. Once again he signed a player and did not know what to do with him. "I have to find ways to play Berbatov and Bent together"

Now it's true that you never know if partnerships will work, but Jol is an experienced manager, he knew these players. He must have had a plan in place?

Well no he never. You can talk about MAF & Khan not giving him money to spend. And ok I agree we needed to invest more. But last summer with wages and fees we spent quite a bit for a club of our size. The £8M spent on Stekelenburg & Parker was a waste. Who signed off those contracts?

Where was the plan for the team? You can't just sign players because they are there, you must have a strategic plan behind what you're doing.

We had a team with 3 no 4 players who effectively are left backs. Richardson, Riise, Briggs and Amorebieta.

4 players who play centre back none of which are under 28.

All this without even touching on how to get the best out of Ruiz

The failure last summer to get the right players in, both in age and positions is why we find ourselves relegated. While writing this I seem to have got angrier as it's gone on. Bringing back all the thoughts of last summer it was a car crash waiting to happen.

But that's then and this is now, we look forward to a season ahead with a fresh vitality to the team. We have seen the future and they are U21 and raring to go.


Mike

[Admin]

Absolute quality post  065.gif

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

very good

[jarv]

Good comment. Without so much detail I said as much the same to a mate of mine. I go back to the spurs game at whl. If we had not, somehow, stolen 3 points we would have HAD to win at Swansea in the last game.
Personally, I blame Jol for the demise. He is just about the most useless numpty and put him above Sanchez as the worst manager we have had. It was clear he not only had no idea, but was on a final payday jolly at Fulham. He clearly could not care less in his press statements.

[Robbie]

At least 50% of our current squad will leave over the summer - that is how it is ... it will include lots of the kids.  The reality is getting out of the Championship is a coalition of the willing !

[JDH101]

Very good post but why did you not careless if Jol stayed or went at the end of the 2013 season? Surely you mean you wanted him gone?  I know I did. The most frustrating part to this whole awful season for me, has been that the writing has been on the wall since Christmas of last season. We have been in free fall. Maybe the unimportant Swansea result saved Jol his job. Or maybe MAF didn't want to pay him out on his last year and find someone new, knowing that he was close to flogging the club. But before a ball was kicked this season, I knew we were doomed with Jol in charge.

Then the total shambles in the way we were run after we let him go with RM in charge, then the 3 man committee, then firing them all AFTER the window had closed to bring in a new man. Utter shambles that Ali Mack should lose his job over in my opinion.

Other than that I agree with the excellent post. Just think, the 5 million we spend on Steklenberg, could have been 5 million on Huddlestone, and in my opinion, we stay up.

We have only ourselves to blame... Or Ali Mack...

[Moussa Dembele the 3rd]

good piece

[Denver Fulham]

Worth mentioning ...

Entering January, it was apparent to anyone who watched five minutes of Fulham this season that the club needed to upgrade at CM, CB and LB, at bare minimum. Complicating things were Berbatov wanted out and no one had any use for Ruiz. Also complicating things were we had used our two domestic loan spots, so one or both had to be cancelled to take anyone on a loan deal.

So what happened ...

Fulham went after the passing CM desperately needed in Steven Defour, and whiffed. Plan B was William Kvist, a cheap loan and totally not the type of player we needed, since he had no passing range, either.

We wanted Holtby, but that required termination of a loan, so out went Taarabt. We got a CB in Heitinga. We never addressed any of the problems at LB or LM/LW, leaving that flank a total mess (even though Richardson ended up playing well at LM when he was healthy).

We closed the window by adding two Man Utd youth prospects and signing off on the 12m transfer of a crocked striker, only after media reports had us desperately angling for an alternative which didn't come off. We shipped out Berba and Ruiz and had very few players left with any skill whatsoever. We also dumped Senderos (arguably our best CB for the first half of the season) and Hughes (a thank you to QPR for letting us undo the Taarabt loan).

Then we undermined all of that by firing the manager two weeks later and bringing in Magath, who played no one from that window but Heitinga and Holtby, who was played out of position 2/3 of the time.

Somehow, after a crucial January window where needs were screaming for a fix, we ended up with a roster that was way worse than the one we had entering the window. THAT's how you get relegated.

[Holders]

I think the above piece is a good summary of events upon which MAF could usefully have reflected before rounding on Felix.

Add to that the utter waste of time in Dempsey's short-term loan.

[MJG]

Very good post but why did you not careless if Jol stayed or went at the end of the 2013 season? Surely you mean you wanted him gone?  I know I did.

its a fair question.
I remember at the time just not giving a sod about him. If he had been sacked I'd have been ok with that and as it happened he stayed on. I think it was a bit of loyalty to him that I wasn't calling for him to be sacked. I was quite happy with his appointment and I'm a strong believer that when a manager starts their 3rd year you are watching his team, he's bought, sold and re signed players. I was hoping he would sign some younger players. But as we saw over the summer that did not happen.
So I was neither in the out or keep camp at the end of last season...I was in the fed up with football camp.

[MJG]

I take the points on the January window and I could do a piece on that as well. It was a combination of factors which got us relegated and in the end the last 18 months have been mismanagement from the boardroom down.