What on earth has gone wrong at Fulham? by Seán Fay

[Bedford White]

A good article buy Eurosport Supervising Editor Seán Fay: https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/pitchside-europe/earth-gone-wrong-fulham-103848717.html?

On Wednesday night, while watching Fulham crash to their third consecutive Championship defeat, I, like most in the home end, was screaming at the team to get to the ball to Patrick Roberts.

If you haven't heard of Roberts, you will soon enough. He's is an immensely gifted attacking midfielder who moves with a smooth grace that is a joy to behold. His balance and diminutive stature call to mind the Messis and Maradonas of this world and while it would be ridiculous to hype him up alongside those immortals, there is no doubt he is destined for bigger and better things than the Championship.

He was also born in February of 1997 – which means he was probably conceived sometime around Euro 96'. A scary thought for those of us who remember that tournament so well!

Roberts did not see as much of the ball as most of us would have liked but he did at least play the 90 minutes. After the game, outside the ground, I spotted a 'not-as-familiar-as-it-should be' face taking photographs with kids. It was Greece international striker Kostas Mitroglou, who had been signed for £12.4m last January, but who has started only one game for Fulham.

"Why weren't you playing tonight?" the surrounding crowd asked him. "Ask the manager", he replied with a wave of his hand, "ask the manager."

At the start of last season Fulham were one of the most experienced teams in the Premier League; packed with seasoned internationals like Damien Duff, Brede Hangleland and Dimitar Berbatov, few were predicting them for the drop.

Now they are pointless in the Championship, their best player is a 17-year-old, and their club record signing is literally out on the street – seemingly little more than a smiling prop for fans' selfies.

How did it come to this?



I first purchased a Fulham season ticket in 2008. I had been in London in couple of years, missed going to football (I used to have a season ticket with Dublin club Shelbourne) and Fulham were affordable, local, inoffensive and in the Premier League.

What's more, I jumped on the bandwagon at just the right time. My first season was also Roy Hodgson's first full season in charge and Fulham finished seventh. The next season was even better; the club only finished 12th in the league but the run to the Europa League final was one of the most exhilarating sporting journeys I've ever felt a part of. I can only imagine how magical it must have been for those fans who have supported Fulham all their life and can remember the dark days in the lower divisions before Mohammed Al Fayed's money shot them into relevancy.

After those successes, Hodgson moved on to Liverpool, but he was ultimately doomed to fail at Anfield and I suspect his spell as England boss won't end well either.

The reason why Hodgson was so good at Fulham (and later West Brom) is because he can turn average into good. He puts in place a system that players can be moved in and out of easily and works on getting the simple things right.

Most teams in the bottom half of the Premier League are there because they are disorganised. The structures Hodgson puts in place means his teams can pick off these more chaotic fish regularly and be the best of the bunch below the bigger teams.

Where Hodgson struggles is with better players. Players whose unpredictability is a strength and not a weakness. Systems and structures need to be adapted to fit with such talents and that's, I suspect, why Hodgson has found it more difficult at bigger jobs.

Mark Hughes came in next and tweaked Hodgson's system while leaving the team's spine very much in place. It was evolution rather revelation. The signing of Mousa Dembele added an element of class to the team but Hodgon's ideas still echoed around the place and after a rough start Fulham finished a credible eight.

Hughes then felt he was bigger than the club and decided to walk. Fulham's team was ageing but there was still the meat of a good outfit there which could be freshened up with young talent if the club made the right appointment. Instead they appointed Martin Jol – and the club's current woes can be traced back to that day.

For Jol is the exact opposite of a manger to Hodgson. He is a gambler not a conservative; and he decided to bring in a new type of player to Craven Cottage. Expensive, expressive players like Dimitar Berbatov and Bryan Ruiz. Players that can thrill, excite, make you 'ooh and ahh'; unpredictable players, anti-Hodgson players.


It started okay, but the problem with such players is they have to be on-form to be effective, and if they are not, they quickly become dangerous liabilities. It is very exciting when such talents arrive at middling clubs but you should always question why the bigger boys no longer or indeed never wanted them.

At Fulham, Ruiz's good days started off rare and got even rarer and while Berbatov was adored on arrival, his performances went on an downward spiral before settling on erratic and frustrating.

Near the end of Jol's second season, the Dutchman's increasingly unpredictable team were becoming predictable in the one way you never want to be – they were losing every week. If the season had gone on two more weeks they have would have been relegated. The mood in the camp was clearly poisonous and Jol should have been sacked there and then.

Instead he was kept on until December of last season which only served to cement the losing culture at the club. He was finally put out of his misery and by the end he looked as disinterested as the team.

Fulham's managerial merry-go-round last season was roundly mocked as Rene Meulensteen came in only to be replaced by Felix Magath after a couple of months. It was undoubtedly a club, with a new owner, who were in panic mode, but if Meulensteen or Magath had been given the full season and not been thrown into a firestorm, then Fulham might have had a chance of survival. However, trying to sow together the wounds opened by Jol in the middle of the season was a fool's errand for anyone.

Meulensteen was treated particularly ruthlessly and harshly. This summer's relegation clear-out of the club's high-earning deadwood and the refocus on youth was a necessary step and Meulensteen, who made his name as a youth coach at Manchester United, might have been the ideal man for that task.

Instead, Fulham are stuck with Magath, a man of strict principles who imposes militaristic standards on players which, if not met, will see you frozen out. Hence why Mitroglou was watching from the stands as the far more limited young striker Cauley Woodrow was running his socks off up front in an exercise of futility against Wolves.

The Fulham fans have been given a completely new set of players to try and get used to. The path that the club, and Magath, have gone down seems unprecedentedly radical and it is jarring to watch, especially after three successive defeats.

Already, chants of 'Felix Out' are being heard from the Hammersmith End which are understandable but misguided. A fourth manager in nine months is surely not the answer for a club that has enjoyed its best success when its principal qualities were structure, organisation and stability.

While he is going about it in a highly unconventional way, this at least seems like the type of culture that Magath is trying to implement at Craven Cottage.

It is going to take Fulham longer than their fans would like to return to Premier League relevance, and patience will be tested. But at least the club's big earners and bigger egos appear to be either out, or on the way out.

And with players like Patrick Roberts and other young talents now playing the roles of protagonists, the hands of time are for once moving in Fulham's favour, even if the results are not.

[domprague]

He makes good points but I disagree with the end.

[Bedford White]

The wait-and-seers did for us last season. My gut tells me FM isn't right for Fulham, but my head is telling me don't be so quick to judge. For sure we've lost three games but we've still time on our side. However, its the chopping and changing of the squad that irks me the most, that and the fact that some of our best players, in particular Dan Burn, our most experienced Championship defender and probably one of the best in this division last season, appears to been ostracised.
For me it's a nobrainer Burn would start most of our games this season. The tall centre back would understand what is expected and organise the defensive line, something we desperately need to happen now Stockdale isn't with us anymore.

[the nutflush]

He gives us the title "What on Earth has gone wrong at Fulham"  and then says we should stick with him.  Unreal.

[Pluto]

Good article except the last two lines - Magath needs to go now.

[Neil D]

Interesting analysis of Hodgson though.  But if he is a good manager of mediocre players then why are England performing so poorly?

[Moussa Dembele the 3rd]

What on Earth has gone wrong at Fulham?

Simple. Kahn bought the club.

[Robbie]

I don't agree with this at all. I don't think Roberts is physical enough. He has that young player thing of trying to dribble past everyone and not pass.   AND - I think to do a Michael Owen on him (over played and burnt out at 23) would be a shame/crime for English football.   TOTAL B*LL*CKS of a comment

[Jimmy Hill]

You say the club needs stability but he is not providing that the team changes on a game by game basis and no one wants to play for him. Better he goes now so we still have a chance of promotion. The Players are good enough the manager has just frozen them all out and is stuck with the under 18s whose confidence he is destroying. OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT

[Fulham1959]

"Most teams in the bottom half of the Premier League are there because they are disorganised. The structures Hodgson puts in place means his teams can pick off these more chaotic fish regularly and be the best of the bunch below the bigger teams."

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"before rigorous mortise sets in"  -  classic.  Neil Tenon as manager, I say !