This squad overhaul is long overdue!

[Wimbledon_White]

I have seen a lot of negativity on Twitter towards the aledged "decline of Fulham FC", of how Felix is "ripping out the heart and soul of the club" and so on and so on.

Maybe I am being too overly positive but to me this is the most exciting pre-seasons we've had in ages!

Barring a few good results the "team" last year was utterly awful; our defence looked like five strangers, our attacks looked toothless and our midfield looked lackadaisical. Very few players came out of that season deserving any credit whatsoever.

Furthermore, going down to the Championship, there is a certain amount of realism that we have to accept. Players won't want to drop divisions. Simple as that. No matter how pants they were last year (hello Mr. Kasami), they simply don't want to drop down.

So, in my mind, this overhaul is necessary and frankly long overdue.

Yes we still need a few players to come in...CB & CM for sure, but otherwise our purchases look like decent prospects. If we can keep the obvious team spirit that we have right now, I fancy us to compete for the league this season.

Felix is doing a tough job, but it is one I trust him to do.

In your heart of hearts, how does everyone else feel about it all?

Apologies if I have rambled on a bit.

[leonffc]

The overhaul is well over due but my concern is doing it all at once. Its obviously not magaths fault, he needed to do it but the club should have acted years ago on the turn over of players, bringing in the youth or younger transfers sooner (Jol!!).
Too many players at once can be dangerous IMO.

[SadOldGit]

I think Wimbledon White is correct.  It could seem like ripping the heart out, but looked at from another angle we were long overdue for a root and brach clear out.  It IS painful,and a bit unsettling, but, although I haven't been much of a Felix fan, I believe he's doing the right things now.
We had no purpose or direction last season.  Now we have a target and goals have been set.  It requires a completely new frame of mind to achieve this, and it seems we're getting it.

[jms]

Must admit I was very skeptical at the size of the 'clear out' but at last we seem to have 2 well balanced teams, with players competing for a 1st team start, a shape and formation; an organised defence; 2 excellent midfielders in David and Eisfield and lots of decent enough strikers, of championship and above standard.
Joined again as a member, and am beginning to look at which fixtures I fancy. Last season I was so depressed about the Jol era and what inevitably followed that I couldn't raise an ounce of enthusiasm for any of it. Feeling really optimistic now, with fingers tightly crossed.

[JBH]

It had to be done and getting rid of all of the under perfomers from last season in my mind is a positive, the club has to move forward and this is the only way it can.

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[Wimbledon_White]

The overhaul is well over due but my concern is doing it all at once. Its obviously not magaths fault, he needed to do it but the club should have acted years ago on the turn over of players, bringing in the youth or younger transfers sooner (Jol!!).
Too many players at once can be dangerous IMO.

I agree but sadly we can't turn back the clock and start a gradual transition of youth coming through.

We are where we are and, with the new squad displaying unity and camaraderie the likes of which we didn't see last season, for me it looks like Magath is doing a good job.

The deadwood needed to go, it is time to rebuild.

[Riverside]

Anyone watching last year saw that there was no heart to rip out . So I am unconcerned to see last years players go .

I do recognise though to build a new team is not easy but am excited by the youth approach

[Lighthouse]

Well the point is surely that we need the overhaul but the problem is we haven't had one. All we have done is move those that wanted to go on, few more left to go, but haven't replaced them. We have brought in a forward a full back on loan, a few others that we don't know that much about and some youngsters. For a club that talked over promotion, we seem to have  a long long way to go before looking like a side that can achieve that.

Still time and until we see the side in action in the Championship it will be hard to make any conclusions. But the overhaul had to happen, players wanted to leave, but we await to see the calibre of players we have brought in.

[Whitesideup]

Wimbledon White - I hope you are right. Clearly our squad needed change and we can argue about how much, but at least some change was required, even if it meant that certain of the youngsters break into the squad, and I hope we do see the likes of David, Roberts and Dembele given a chance. And yes, some players were past their best (though we cannot persuade anyone to take Parker off our hands) and others would not be happy with the drop so our chances of holding on to some were not that good.

However my concern is that this is just Magath's style, and the style that has led more than one German team to dispense with his services. I now feel that it has gone too far, that the clear-out was almost just for the sake of it, or personal. If the incoming do not represent an improvement, what will the purpose have been? Why bring in players that don't really look like an improvement on what we had, or the young players we have already eg Taggart and Woodrow ?

Magath, I hear, brings in a raft of new players but then fails to maintain the team's ethos or progress. His team selections are capricious (we have evidence of this already) which unsettles players and the squad.

Now that is all in the past, and I hope that he knows now what he is doing, that the set-up will deliver a team of quality with a positive ethos and team spirit ...Palace showed the value of the latter last year. This is now Magath's team, and my fingers are firmly crossed. It will be different, but I hope for only positives.  

[Delboy]

Quite right WW. This needed doing and Felix seems to be the man for the job. He had no real history with any of the players and therefore no allegiance to any of them which obviously made things easier for him. Felix is a tough cookie and is probably not worried about upsetting personnel. Make no mistake, this needed to happen, and not piece meal. We are now starting from scratch and it may take a few games to blend the team and I feel this will happen. Felix knows that this is now his team and will be judged by his results up until Christmas by which time we will know if promotion is a possibility. I for one have confidence in Felix and expect to be pushing for the top places. COYW

[filham]

When (not if) Mitroglou, Ruiz and Dejegah and Lovebite leave only Parker will remain from last season's recognised premiership squad, this will not be an overhaul but a complete team replacement.

The worries are that a number of positions still need replacements and it is most unusual for a quickly assembled team to hit form immediately. At the best there will have to be a little juggling and the odd replacement where a new player has not come up to expectation.

We have not yet seen the likely 1st team in action , we await the 1st match with interest and some concern.

[Fernhurst]

You're post is so familiar Filham, with loads of supporters feeling exactly the same.... Currently we have no idea how the team will perform and the next couple friendlies are unlikely bench test us to the standard of  The Championship.
We go into this season blind but with good spirit apparently.... If we have a difficult start, the spirit will quickly dissipate and further changes and reorganisation will then be necessary.

Ipswich will provide a great tester of where our team is , but I am looking forward not with trepidation but with excitement..

A couple of early wins and all will be right the world.

[FPT]

I agree, this needed to happen. We've still got over a month to go before the window closes, so there's plenty of time to go, and we're seemingly set to sell Ruiz, Mitroglou and Dejagah in the next couple of weeks so we'll have some clout behind us.

I can see why people would be so frustrated with the sale of David Stockdale, but I personally don't care that much. He was a very average goalkeeper, and I don't believe the whole "Championship experience" malarkey, experience is experience. We've brought in Ross McCormack who does have Championship experience, as well as Voser and Hoogland who have Champions League experience. Hutchinson has played nearly 150 games in Scotland, which is further experience. Chihi has experience in both the Bundesliga and the German Second Division.

Yes, there is a lot of youth in the squad, but you can see just by watching them that they have quality. Chris David, Lasse Vigen Christensen and Kostas Stafylidis are all good footballers, and blended with Parker, Chihi, McCormack, Rodallega and Hutchinson, it should be enough to win us football matches.

Of course we're not finished in the window, but I don't know why people aren't happy with the business that's being done? We're 3 players (A goalkeeper, a centre back and a central midfielder) from being done in this window, and that's with Ruiz, Mitroglou and Dejagah leaving.

I'm more than happy with how we're shaping up, it's exciting to see our squad have a piece of everything, it's exciting to see our squad full of younger and hungrier players, it's exciting to see the 6 years of Huw Jennings at the helm paying off with a number of academy products in and around the first team.

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

:
Of course we're not finished in the window, but I don't know why people aren't happy with the business that's being done? We're 3 players (A goalkeeper, a centre back and a central midfielder) from being done in this window, and that's with Ruiz, Mitroglou and Dejagah leaving.
:

I would suggest that for most posters the worry is that those are the same three players that we were short of at the start of the window. It is like the situation with the left back position that dragged on over several seasons.

For myself I would have been happy to go with Stockdale and Burn but I am anxiously waiting for a rock at the heart of the midfield.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

Ripping heart out isn't a bad thing if the heart is rotten,a heart transplant was needed and that what has happened bar a couple of players that might appear in the next couple of days- and I have accepted championship football because it was the only way this club was going to be forced to build for the future,COME ON YOU WHITES :clap_hands: 049:gif

[HatterDon]

when a manager inherits a squad that needs thinning, SOMETIMES it's a good thing to maintain a nucleus of veteran players so that the transition is a bit smooth. SOMETIMES.

The thing is that for the past three seasons, Fulham have never had a coherent strategy, philosophy, playing style, formation. The 2013-2014 edition of Fulham FC was a collection of moderately talented individuals who looked on the pitch as if they'd just met earlier that morning.

When your corporate soul is rotten, SOMETIMES it's a good thing to get rid of that nucleus and start from scratch. I will miss some of those, and I believe that we've cut too deeply in some areas, but the last thing we need is somebody in the squad grumbling "We'd never been up to this nonsense with the old gaffer."

If Felix wants all but a small handful out, then so be it.

I think a lot of you are just upset because you've picked a starting XI and finishing position based on the old players and now you have to revisit. Me? I don't EVER want to see Fulham playing like they did the last two seasons, and if you have to discard the wheat with the chaff to ensure there's a significant change, then I'm cool with that.

[AlexH]

We had a bunch of losers last season so I'm pleased with Felix's squad overhaul.

Still a bit peeved at the sale of Stockdale but Felix's making the right calls I think.

[..Kya.ffc..]

Needed to be done and it was way overdue. Only concern is the gel time with so many new players. But the academy players know each other so perhaps it will go smoother that "normal".

[FPT]

:
Of course we're not finished in the window, but I don't know why people aren't happy with the business that's being done? We're 3 players (A goalkeeper, a centre back and a central midfielder) from being done in this window, and that's with Ruiz, Mitroglou and Dejagah leaving.
:

I would suggest that for most posters the worry is that those are the same three players that we were short of at the start of the window. It is like the situation with the left back position that dragged on over several seasons.

For myself I would have been happy to go with Stockdale and Burn but I am anxiously waiting for a rock at the heart of the midfield.

I totally agree that we've been waiting, but so far, I'm happy with what has been done so far, and it's so vital that we get this right, I'm happy to wait until Deadline Day if it means us getting the right man in the middle.

[hovewhite]

I am not that worried and will be glad to see a fresh hungry team.