Our average age of players has dropped

[H4usuallysitting]

 - we now only have 2 players over 30....Parker 33 & Stek 31, and we currently have a first team of 21 players without the likes of Roberts, David, Dembele, Donnelly etc.........I'm assuming Stek will be off and Parker will be captain - I can see Parker maybe playing a Murphy sort of role for us in the Championship but who will be his enforcer.....Tunnicliffe maybe??.....just trying to get a picture of the team at this early stage

[love4ffc]

See nothing wrong with the average age dropping.  Not sure who I would see as the "enforcer".  Actually I am still trying to wrap my head around where everyone will play and who the starting 11 will be. 

[H4usuallysitting]

Same here.....I'm happy the age is in decline...but struggling to work out who's playing where - I suppose it's to early at the moment until we either see the first friendly or when the transfer window closes.....I'm also pleased we are adding new mostly young faces to the first team - Hutchinson 23 Cole and Tunnicliffe 21 (ok they are not new new, but weren't given much of a chance last season) Taggart 21......Hoogland 28 with only a 1 year contract

[FPT]

I don't think Parker is technically good enough to play the Murphy role with such aplomb. Chuck Chris David next to him and we've got a nice partnership. Scott Parker can be the water carrier of the side, breaking up play and keeping the ball moving, so then Chris David has more freedom to ping balls across the pitch and get forward to support the attack.

I am happy that the average age of the squad is decreasing, but now to add the balance. We could still see Stekelenburg, Richardson, Dejagah and Ruiz leave, meaning we lose 4 players in a bracket of 27-31.

Then you also need players experienced of playing in the Championship, Stockdale and Burn are our most experienced at that level at this stage. That's where signing someone like Ross McCormack is ideal.

Anyway, yes I'm happy, I saw on Twitter that something like 18 of the players taking part in pre-season training came from the Fulham U18/U21s.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

I don't think Parker is good enough, but he is still here, and if he does not get sold in the Summer he will be our obvious candidate for Captain. I actually hope he gets sold, and we give the armband to Stockdale.... Tunnicliffe and David in the middle would be good in my eyes.

In response to the OP it is really refreshing to see a lot of the dead wood gone.... We have an exciting year upon us with several very promising youngsters set to feature 

[Craven Mad]

I don't think Parker is good enough, but he is still here, and if he does not get sold in the Summer he will be our obvious candidate for Captain. I actually hope he gets sold, and we give the armband to Stockdale.... Tunnicliffe and David in the middle would be good in my eyes.

In response to the OP it is really refreshing to see a lot of the dead wood gone.... We have an exciting year upon us with several very promising youngsters set to feature 

Exactly. Couldn't add anything else.

[Burt]

I do agree, but as this is clearly the start of a new era I would not bank on the immediate bounce back to the premier league that some seem so confident of when some teams around us (Forest, Derby etc) will have much more settled squads.

[Fernhurst]

I do agree, but as this is clearly the start of a new era I would not bank on the immediate bounce back to the premier league that some seem so confident of when some teams around us (Forest, Derby etc) will have much more settled squads.

Totally agree, last time we were in The Championship we had a team going forward sprinkled with Premiership experienced or Premiership quality players.

This time it's a very different set up..... I'll go first..........7th position.

[Skatzoffc]

I do agree, but as this is clearly the start of a new era I would not bank on the immediate bounce back to the premier league that some seem so confident of when some teams around us (Forest, Derby etc) will have much more settled squads.

Totally agree, last time we were in The Championship we had a team going forward sprinkled with Premiership experienced or Premiership quality players.

This time it's a very different set up..... I'll go first..........7th position.

12th for me.

A tough season against seasoned pros ahead.
Should still be exciting tho, watching our youth.
COYW!

[FFC1987]

Feel Tunnicliffe will be a big player for us next year. Looking forward to him playing more of a central role.

[Frank]

Felix said he wants a mixture of older and younger players. When Richardson, Rodallega and Dejagah also leave nearly all experienced Fulham players are gone and then it' s like a complete new team. I don' t think that is what he wanted.
Now all depends on the youngsters. When they do well the coming season will be a good one. When they don' t do well Felix will be sacked.

[shnlwswlkr]

1st.

[Lighthouse]

Well with this present squad we will struggle to be in the top 19. But as we hope to have quality joining us we will just have to wait and see.

[God The Mechanic]

We haven't got a complete squad yet!  There's gonna be plenty of signings before he first game and I'd imagine even more before the end of the transfer window, so to say we don't have the quality (whilst true at the moment) is so short sighted it's barely worth correcting.

[fulhamben]

I don't think Parker is good enough, but he is still here, and if he does not get sold in the Summer he will be our obvious candidate for Captain. I actually hope he gets sold, and we give the armband to Stockdale.... Tunnicliffe and David in the middle would be good in my eyes.

In response to the OP it is really refreshing to see a lot of the dead wood gone.... We have an exciting year upon us with several very promising youngsters set to feature 

i dont see how he is an obvious contender when most wouldnt even have him in our starting 11. the last thing we need to do is give the arm band to a player who probably shouldnt be in our team, making him undroppable.

[cmg]

I don't think Parker is technically good enough to play the Murphy role with such aplomb. Chuck Chris David next to him and we've got a nice partnership. Scott Parker can be the water carrier of the side, breaking up play and keeping the ball moving, so then Chris David has more freedom to ping balls across the pitch and get forward to support the attack.

Exactly how I see it.

Whatever 'new' stuff emerges, the one essential, to my mind, is Chris David (or a Chris David type player). Parker may be ideal to look after him.

One thing for sure - you won't win the Derby with a stable full of workhorses.

[DukeTyrion]

6th ... we're off to the Play Off finals \o/

[H4usuallysitting]

Just noticed we are linked with Andrei Kramarića who is 23 and a striker.......usually we would be linked with a 32 year old - I'm starting to get excited by all this, should be an awful lot of energy on the pitch come Saturday 09 August.....I'm going for a top 6 finish

[blingo]

1st.

[Fernhurst]

1st.

Would you ever say anything else Bling?

Complete unabashed love and confidence in his team..... Is it the rest of us that are daft?