Monday Fulham Stuff (22/09/14)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Scott Parker covered £20,000 fines for young Fulham duo as he clashed with Felix Magath

The emerging pair are among the lowest earners at Craven Cottage and felt the wrath of Magath when they showed up late for club duties


Christopher Lee
Disagreement: Parker told Magath he didn't agree with harsh line on fines
Scott Parker spent a staggering £20,000 covering fines handed out to two teenage players during Felix Magath's reign of terror.

The manager was sacked this week after a disastrous spell in charge of the London club.

And as details emerge of his hard-line leadership style People Sport has learned of the harsh way he disciplined players.

The emerging first team pair are among the lowest earners at Craven Cottage and felt the wrath of Magath when they showed up late for club duties.

The boss issued whopping £10,000 fines to the duo - who were left distraught by the punishment.

Captain Parker raised the issue with Magath and explained to the German chief that while he agreed with the principle of the fine, it was totally disproportionate to their wages.

It is understood neither player earns more than around £2,000-a-week.

But Magath told Parker it did not matter - and refused to back down.

Fulham's generous skipper then decided to pay the fines himself to put the players minds at ease and bring an end to the awkward situation.

It is just another example of Magath's time in charge, where his harsh personality affected staff behind the scenes aswell as those on the pitch.

Owner Shahid Khan admits he only pulled the trigger once it became clear he was not going to turn the situation around though.

Khan said: "I am reminded of a quote from Bill Parcells, the legendary Hall of Fame head coach in American Football, who once said: "You are what your record says you are."

"That's an unfortunate and unacceptable reality of our season to this point, which is why I made the decision on Thursday to make a managerial change and part ways with Felix Magath."



http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/scott-parker-covered-20000-fines-4294663#ixzz3E1ZEq4Ix
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[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham say farewell to Magath and the crazy world of Felix the madcap
For Fulham's players it was a bewildering world during the German's reign but perhaps he would have survived if he had proved himself a brilliant tactician or motivator

You might be aware of that scene from I'm Alan Partridge and the little piece of comedy gold when he is informed he isn't getting another series of his chat show and, one by one, all the ideas he pitches as alternatives – potential classics such as "Monkey Tennis" or "Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave" – are rejected until he finally snaps, jabs a fork into a block of Stilton and thrusts it into the face of Tony Hayers, the BBC's head of commissioning.

That little sketch – "D'ya want some cheese?" – comes to mind now Felix Magath has left Fulham and one of the stories that suggests he, too, had some strange ideas of his own before everything unravelled. Again, it involves a large mound of cheese and, much like Alan, it is difficult to know where it leaves him professionally.

It goes back to last season when Brede Hangeland, then the Fulham captain, was diagnosed with a slight thigh injury and the club's doctor, Stephen Lewis, with more than a decade of working in elite sport, put together a recovery programme to try to get him fit for the weekend. Except Magath thought he knew better. There was another way to treat the problem, he said. So he sent the kit-man to the Tesco in New Malden, a short drive along the A3 from Fulham's training ground, to buy a large block of cheese.

Hangeland was then told to perch on the end of a massage table and spend the afternoon in that position with a slab of cheese carefully positioned on the sore spot. The cheese, according to Magath, would have soothing effects. Hangeland was a sceptical patient and, funnily enough, Lewis decided a few months later he would rather stick to more orthodox practices and left to join Brighton and Hove Albion. Hangeland could not wait to get away either and has been a frequent critic of Magath ever since. Others, I suspect, will start to be more forthcoming now he is gone because it is clear, speaking to some of the people who have now left Fulham, that his regime was even more bewildering and unpleasant than previously thought.
 
It is certainly difficult sometimes to remember that the man Fulham sacked on Thursday, bottom of the Championship and dropping like a stone in a well, had won two Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and another with Wolfsburg in the previous decade.

The Strange Case of the (Craven) Cottage Cheese is one thing but the stories about Magath are multiple and it would not be any surprise here if Fulham, despite losing their first game with Kit Symons as caretaker manager, begin climbing the league once a bit of common sense returns to the club and now they have started to bring back some of the ostracised players.

The list of outcasts featured Bryan Ruiz, who you may recall featured in many people's World Cup XIs because of his performances for Costa Rica, and previously included the club's £11m record signing, Kostas Mitroglou, now on loan at Olympiakos, and Fernando Amorebieta, formerly of Athletic Bilbao. Every day they would be left to mundane exercises on the next pitch to where the first-team squad were going through their sprints. Maarten Stekelenburg used to be with them, too, until he moved to Monaco on loan, and the Magath way was very much to close them off as if they did not exist. Another player was seen talking to Stekelenburg and one of Magath's coaches ran over to tell him it was not permitted.

Perhaps none of this would have mattered too much had Magath shown he was a brilliant tactician or motivator. Yet this was the man who played Dan Burn, a 6ft 6in centre-half, at right-back in the 4-1 defeat against Stoke City last season that tagged their toes for the relegation morgue. Burn found out on the day of the match and the poor bloke put in a performance that can be accurately measured by the Stoke Sentinel's post-match interview with Oussama Assaidi. "I felt very sorry for their defender," the winger said. "He was a nice guy. He asked me to change sides, he didn't want to play against me any more." After that game, Magath turned on Burn in the dressing room. When Burn pointed out he had never played that position in his life he, too, was sent into a form of isolation (though, unlike others, he was eventually brought back).

As for Magath's training methods, the stories are alarming. After one defeat, the German cancelled a day off and brought in everyone to play a full 90-minute match. At other times there have reputedly been three sessions in one day, some purely devoted to running the players until they were close to dropping. It was punishing and primitive and, slowly but surely, the Fulham players came to realise why Magath was known behind his back as "Saddam" at one of his former clubs.

Fulham can hardly say they were unaware of what he was like when his other nickname from Germany was Quälix, a mix of Felix and the verb quälen (to torture). Magath does have a record of achievement behind him but it is an outmoded style and now Fulham probably have a better idea now why Lewis Holtby, on loan from Tottenham, immediately asked to return to White Hart Lane when he found out that Magath, formerly his coach at Schalke, was taking over. In Germany, the joke is that Magath stopped winning matches because the opposition always included some of his former players – who disliked him so much they would give everything to beat him.

Magath had not been in work for 18 months when Fulham's owner, Shahid Khan, offered him a way back in February and the only conclusion to draw is that his old-school style of boot camp management just does not work in modern-day football. Players don't want to run until they fall or operate in an environment where they hardly dare utter a word. When they have been made to run through woods for 45 minutes, they don't want to find the manager has emptied their water bottles for reasons only he knows.

One story has emerged of Magath calling players into his office and then just staring at them for two or three minutes without saying a word. Another comes from this season when two of Fulham's first-year pros turned up late for training and Magath fined them so heavily it led to a meeting of the club's senior players to decide how to take him on.

Eventually, the captain, Scott Parker, went to see him and tried to argue that the amount of money involved was not really fair for two teenagers on relatively low salaries. Parker explained there was a legitimate reason why they had been late and did his polite best to make it clear the punishment was disproportionate to the crime. Magath refused to budge. "They need to be taught a lesson," he said. Parker – a class act – ended up paying the fines.

The theory here is that Magath brought through so many of Fulham's academy-produced players because it better suited his control-freakishness, on the basis they were less likely to argue and more likely to fall in line, like Daleks. There is a difference, though, between being a manager who wants power and rule and one who is unreasonable and dictatorial to the point that it alienates everyone. Magath, to put it bluntly, was an unpleasant man and the trail of ill feeling he has left behind him brings to mind what Jefferson Farfán of Schalke once said about his former manager. "All the managers at Schalke in the last few years gave something to the club," Farfán said. "The only coach who didn't leave anything positive behind was Magath. All he left behind were fines."

For Fulham, it could take some while to repair the damage. Yet Symons, I'm reliably informed, is one of football's good guys and already working to make Craven Cottage a happy place again behind the scenes. The chalk to Magath's cheese.


http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/sep/20/fulham-farewell-magath-felix-madcap?

[WhiteJC]

 
Paul Konchesky enjoying the fast lane again 17 years after his debut
Leicester full-back happy to be back in the top flight and relishing the chance to face Wayne Rooney and company on Sunday


Paul Konchesky played his first game for England on the same night in 2003 that Wayne Rooney made his debut. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for The Observer

As Paul Konchesky looks back over a career that stretches across three decades, there is a reminder of just how much football has changed. The former England international made his professional debut 17 years ago, back in the days when central defenders wore black boots and refuelling after matches meant swigging something alcoholic rather than isotonic. "There used to be a crate of beer on the coach for away games," Konchesky says, smiling. "You wouldn't be seen dead with that now."

It is testament to the way that Konchesky has looked after himself that, as well as playing at the highest level at the age of 33, he is still sprinting up and down the left flank to set up goals, as he did at the Britannia Stadium last Saturday, when his cross was turned home by Leonardo Ulloa to give Leicester City their first Premier League win of the season. "I couldn't move after that though!" Konchesky says, laughing.

He is joking. Konchesky is holding his own in the Premier League, in decent shape physically and, with the exception of one obvious change in appearance, looks no different to the player who made his England debut on the same night as Wayne Rooney. "My hair!" Konchesky says, laughing. "Well, my wife and little girl are behind that. My wife made me grow it last summer and now my little girl won't let me cut it – she cried her eyes out when I said I would. I get a bit of stick from the lads, saying: 'Have you had a hair transplant?' But it's all natural. Natural and grey!"

Konchesky is clearly enjoying his football at Leicester and, at the same time, trying to make a difference off the field. On Thursday, he met Stacey Mowle, an eight-year-old girl who is suffering from cancer and whose parents are trying to raise £500,000 for treatment abroad. Konchesky accepted an invitation to be one of the appeal patrons some time ago but this was the first time he had spent any time with Stacey.

"I went to school with her mum but that was probably the last time I'd seen her," he says. "To be honest, I was a bit worried in the morning, I didn't really know what to say or expect, but Stacey's a happy girl and I'm so glad that I went to see her. It was one of those days that puts everything into perspective. She's told me a few things she would like, so I'm going to get her a Leicester kit and try to get her to one of the home games and on the pitch beforehand."

The King Power Stadium will not be short of big occasions this season, arguably none more so than Sunday's visit of Manchester United. Konchesky admits he still gets excited about the prospect of coming up against stellar names. It will also be a chance for a reunion with Rooney, more than 11 years after they both pulled on an England shirt for the first time, in a 3-1 defeat by Australia at Upton Park.

For Konchesky, who grew up supporting West Ham United, it is an occasion that he looks back on with immense pride and a tinge of regret. "Obviously it was a bad result but it was a dream to play for your national team at senior level, in front of all my family, and at the ground I loved," he says.

"I don't think I could take it all in at the time, I was still learning the game. People like Beckham, Scholes and Gerrard were in the squad, so to be at dinner with them was a bit nerve-racking. I was sat in the corner and didn't really want to say anything, it almost felt like your first day at school.

"Also, I do think quite deeply about games, probably not as much now, but especially then as a kid. I was a baby going into the England squad, thinking: 'How about if I do this wrong? I need to do this, I need to do that.' Whereas looking back now, I should have gone and been myself, but you obviously learn through experience."

As well as winning a second England cap, against Argentina in 2005, Konchesky has racked up 325 Premier League appearances across spells with Charlton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Fulham, Liverpool and now Leicester. He played and scored in the 2006 FA Cup final, when West Ham lost to Liverpool, and was in the Fulham team that were beaten by Atlético Madrid in the Europa League final in 2010.

Konchesky says that he "loved being at Fulham" and, with the benefit of hindsight, accepts that it proved to be a mistake to follow Roy Hodgson to Liverpool that summer. Hodgson was sacked after six months and Konchesky played his last game for a struggling Liverpool team not long afterwards.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard for me," he recalls. "It opened my eyes to how big the club was – being there every day seeing people who live and breathe football. The expectation was so high. They're good pressures, don't get me wrong. But from where I'd been, it was a completely different pressure. I knew I was going to a big club, but I don't know if I doubted I shouldn't be going because of where I'd been before. Probably like the England thing, I should have been myself."

An already difficult time on Merseyside was exacerbated when Konchesky's mother responded to criticism of her son's performances by launching a tirade against Liverpool fans on her Facebook site. "She regrets that 100%," Konchesky says. "She didn't like what she was hearing and she was trying to stick up for me, like I think a lot of mums would stick up for their kids. But obviously when I saw it, I thought: 'I'm in a bit of trouble here.'

"Going back to Liverpool this season will be hard for me, because that is obviously going to come up, but I've got to try and rise above it. I will go back and hold my head up high. All I can say is that I tried my hardest there, and I'm proud I played 18 times for Liverpool, probably one of the greatest clubs in the world."

After leaving Anfield, Konchesky joined Leicester in 2011 and is one of very few survivors from the Sven-Goran Eriksson days. He admires the work ethic that Nigel Pearson has brought to the club, as well as the manager's attack-minded approach, and talks excitedly about the impact Esteban Cambiasso has had on a team that he believes will survive this season. "Wow, what a player," Konchesky says.

For Konchesky, there is also a quiet sense of satisfaction about the fact that the grey-haired thirtysomething at left-back can still cut it at this level. "At the end of the season, you hear: 'We might need this, we might need that.' Some people wanted maybe a younger player with fresh legs. But, as Cambiasso has said, it ain't all about running. I knew it was going to be a big year to try and prove people wrong. Hopefully my form so far has done that. And long may it continue."


http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/20/paul-konchesky-leicester-manchester-united-interview?

[WhiteJC]

 
And the stories begin: Magath was every bit as bad as former players suggested

So no, Brede Hangeland wasn't just bitter.  Read this.  I'll post it all actually, as it's important.  Good work, Daniel Taylor.

You might be aware of that scene from I'm Alan Partridge and the little piece of comedy gold when he is informed he isn't getting another series of his chat show and, one by one, all the ideas he pitches as alternatives – potential classics such as "Monkey Tennis" or "Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave" – are rejected until he finally snaps, jabs a fork into a block of Stilton and thrusts it into the face of Tony Hayers, the BBC's head of commissioning.

That little sketch – "D'ya want some cheese?" – comes to mind now Felix Magath has left Fulham and one of the stories that suggests he, too, had some strange ideas of his own before everything unravelled. Again, it involves a large mound of cheese and, much like Alan, it is difficult to know where it leaves him professionally.

It goes back to last season when Brede Hangeland, then the Fulham captain, was diagnosed with a slight thigh injury and the club's doctor, Stephen Lewis, with more than a decade of working in elite sport, put together a recovery programme to try to get him fit for the weekend. Except Magath thought he knew better. There was another way to treat the problem, he said. So he sent the kit-man to the Tesco in New Malden, a short drive along the A3 from Fulham's training ground, to buy a large block of cheese.

Hangeland was then told to perch on the end of a massage table and spend the afternoon in that position with a slab of cheese carefully positioned on the sore spot. The cheese, according to Magath, would have soothing effects. Hangeland was a sceptical patient and, funnily enough, Lewis decided a few months later he would rather stick to more orthodox practices and left to join Brighton and Hove Albion. Hangeland could not wait to get away either and has been a frequent critic of Magath ever since. Others, I suspect, will start to be more forthcoming now he is gone because it is clear, speaking to some of the people who have now left Fulham, that his regime was even more bewildering and unpleasant than previously thought.

It is certainly difficult sometimes to remember that the man Fulham sacked on Thursday, bottom of the Championship and dropping like a stone in a well, had won two Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and another with Wolfsburg in the previous decade.

The Strange Case of the (Craven) Cottage Cheese is one thing but the stories about Magath are multiple and it would not be any surprise here if Fulham, despite losing their first game with Kit Symons as caretaker manager, begin climbing the league once a bit of common sense returns to the club and now they have started to bring back some of the ostracised players.

The list of outcasts featured Bryan Ruiz, who you may recall featured in many people's World Cup XIs because of his performances for Costa Rica, and previously included the club's £11m record signing, Kostas Mitroglou, now on loan at Olympiakos, and Fernando Amorebieta, formerly of Athletic Bilbao. Every day they would be left to mundane exercises on the next pitch to where the first-team squad were going through their sprints. Maarten Stekelenburg used to be with them, too, until he moved to Monaco on loan, and the Magath way was very much to close them off as if they did not exist. Another player was seen talking to Stekelenburg and one of Magath's coaches ran over to tell him it was not permitted.

Perhaps none of this would have mattered too much had Magath shown he was a brilliant tactician or motivator. Yet this was the man who played Dan Burn, a 6ft 6in centre-half, at right-back in the 4-1 defeat against Stoke City last season that tagged their toes for the relegation morgue. Burn found out on the day of the match and the poor bloke put in a performance that can be accurately measured by the Stoke Sentinel's post-match interview with Oussama Assaidi. "I felt very sorry for their defender," the winger said. "He was a nice guy. He asked me to change sides, he didn't want to play against me any more." After that game, Magath turned on Burn in the dressing room. When Burn pointed out he had never played that position in his life he, too, was sent into a form of isolation (though, unlike others, he was eventually brought back).

As for Magath's training methods, the stories are alarming. After one defeat, the German cancelled a day off and brought in everyone to play a full 90-minute match. At other times there have reputedly been three sessions in one day, some purely devoted to running the players until they were close to dropping. It was punishing and primitive and, slowly but surely, the Fulham players came to realise why Magath was known behind his back as "Saddam" at one of his former clubs.

Fulham can hardly say they were unaware of what he was like when his other nickname from Germany was Quälix, a mix of Felix and the verbquälen (to torture). Magath does have a record of achievement behind him but it is an outmoded style and now Fulham probably have a better idea now why Lewis Holtby, on loan from Tottenham, immediately asked to return to White Hart Lane when he found out that Magath, formerly his coach at Schalke, was taking over. In Germany, the joke is that Magath stopped winning matches because the opposition always included some of his former players – who disliked him so much they would give everything to beat him.

Magath had not been in work for 18 months when Fulham's owner, Shahid Khan, offered him a way back in February and the only conclusion to draw is that his old-school style of boot camp management just does not work in modern-day football. Players don't want to run until they fall or operate in an environment where they hardly dare utter a word. When they have been made to run through woods for 45 minutes, they don't want to find the manager has emptied their water bottles for reasons only he knows.

One story has emerged of Magath calling players into his office and then just staring at them for two or three minutes without saying a word. Another comes from this season when two of Fulham's first-year pros turned up late for training and Magath fined them so heavily it led to a meeting of the club's senior players to decide how to take him on.

Eventually, the captain, Scott Parker, went to see him and tried to argue that the amount of money involved was not really fair for two teenagers on relatively low salaries. Parker explained there was a legitimate reason why they had been late and did his polite best to make it clear the punishment was disproportionate to the crime. Magath refused to budge. "They need to be taught a lesson," he said. Parker – a class act – ended up paying the fines.

The theory here is that Magath brought through so many of Fulham's academy-produced players because it better suited his control-freakishness, on the basis they were less likely to argue and more likely to fall in line, like Daleks. There is a difference, though, between being a manager who wants power and rule and one who is unreasonable and dictatorial to the point that it alienates everyone. Magath, to put it bluntly, was an unpleasant man and the trail of ill feeling he has left behind him brings to mind what Jefferson Farfán of Schalke once said about his former manager. "All the managers at Schalke in the last few years gave something to the club," Farfán said. "The only coach who didn't leave anything positive behind was Magath. All he left behind were fines."

For Fulham, it could take some while to repair the damage. Yet Symons, I'm reliably informed, is one of football's good guys and already working to make Craven Cottage a happy place again behind the scenes. The chalk to Magath's cheese.


http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/and-the-stories-begin-magath-was-every-bit-as-bad-as-former-players-suggested/?

[WhiteJC]

 
Next Fulham manager: Jean Tigana angling for Cottagers return after Felix Magath sacking

The Frenchman led the Cottagers to the title the last time they played at Championship level in 2001 was but was sacked two years later


Coming home: Tigana wants to return to Craven Cottage
Jean Tigana wants to make a shock return as Fulham manager after Felix Magath's sacking.

Representatives of the Frenchman have made contact with Fulham owner Shahid Khan and hope to hold talks about the Craven Cottage legend making an emotional comeback.

Khan is being advised to plump for a candidate with more recent experience of English football — but Fulham insiders say all bets are off as the American is determined to personally lead the search for Magath's successor, with little input from chief executive Alastair Mackintosh.

Tigana led Fulham to the title the last time they played at Championship level in 2001, but was sacked by former owner Mohamed Al Fayed after a spectacular fall-out, centring on the ill-fated £11million club-record signing of striker Steve Marlet.


Christopher Lee
Dumped: Magath was sacked after a horrific start to the season
The former France midfielder won a court case against Al Fayed for wrongful dismissal, earning a £2m settlement — but has told friends he has hankered after a return to the Cottage, since the Egyptian sold up to Khan last year.

Tigana, now 59, was loved by Fulham fans for his team's attractive brand of football as he led them to promotion and Premier League survival — but he has since had a patchy record with Turkish club Besiktas, French side Bordeaux and Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua.

Caretaker boss Kit Symons is a serious candidate to take over on a full-time basis.

However, he faces competition from Neil Lennon, Tim Sherwood, Chris Hughton, Steve Clarke and former Fulham skipper Danny Murphy.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/next-fulham-manager-jean-tigana-4298275#ixzz3E1bFi3CH
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[WhiteJC]

 
Symons Up for Both Jobs
   
With Magath gone we were hoping the results would immediately improve, sadly they didn`t, Fulham lost 1-0 to Blackburn Rovers.

But there were bright signs and we`re hoping that Kit Symons is given the chance to do his own thing and t try and change things around.

As for Kit himself, he`s looking to cope with the added responsibility whilst also fulfilling his duties with the Welsh job.

Speaking to the media, Kit has remarked,

"It`s something that has to be addressed if I get the Fulham job on a permanent basis. I love the Welsh job. I really enjoy it."

"I have learnt a lot working with Wales. The Welsh set-up and the way it is done is fantastic. That`s what I want to implement at Fulham now."

Whilst it is still early days as to whether Kit will get the job on a permanent basis, he can`t do any worse than Felix can he?


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=371225#ixzz3E1bd1umP

[WhiteJC]

 
Mackay linked with Fulham job

Malky Mackay has been linked with the vacant manager's position at Fulham.

The Daily Mail reports that the 42-year-old was seen at Craven Cottage for the Londoner's 1-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers.

Mackay has been without a job since being sacked as the manager of Cardiff City in December.

Struggle

Fulham sacked Felix Magath after seven games with the Cottagers rooted to the bottom of the Championship.

After seven matches the club had picked up just one point, a 1-1 draw with Cardiff, and the German's tenure culminated in a 5-3 loss away to Nottingham Forest.

Despite spending £11 million on Ross McCormack from Leeds United the side have scored just six goals with their only win being a 1-0 victory in the Capital One Cup against Brentford.

Scandal

Mackay left Cardiff in acrimonious circumstances after an apparent falling out with Chairman Vincent Tan.

The Scot had been the favourite for the vacancy at Crystal Palace but was ruled out of the running it was revealed that he had exchanged offensive text messages with former head of recruitment Iain Moody.

The messages in question were of a racist, sexist and homophobic nature and Mackay is nder investigation by the FA.

Search

Fulham owner Shahid Khan has declared that he will personally search for a new manager.

The naturalised American has refused to rule out giving the job to current caretaker manager Kit Symons on a permanent basis.

It is believed that Fulham fans are keen for Symons to take the job given his connections to the club, he made over 100 league appearances for the club as a player.


http://www.touchlinetalk.com/mackay-linked-fulham-job/105677/?

[WhiteJC]

 
Patrick Roberts wanted by Premier League trio

Fulham winger Patrick Roberts is reportedly a transfer target of Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City.

The 17-year-old has made seven appearances for the Cottagers in the Championship this season.

He signed his first professional contract with the club earlier this year that will keep him in West London until the summer of 2016.

However, according to The Mirror, Fulham will be willing to accept an offer in the region of £10m for the teenager in the January transfer window.

Roberts won his first cap for the England Under-19 side in August.


http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/man-utd/transfer-talk/news/roberts-wanted-by-premier-league-trio_178208.html

[WhiteJC]

 
Kit Symons puts hope and optimism back into Fulham even in defeat
• Caretaker manager gets standing ovation at Craven Cottage
• Blackburn Rovers forced to fight to hold on to victory


Kit Symons shows his appreciation as Fulham supporters give him a standing ovation at Craven Cottage. Photograph: David Field/Action Images
As Kit Symons walked across the pitch to the dressing rooms after yet another Fulham defeat, he received a standing ovation from the home supporters.

Not the usual reaction towards the man in charge after a team have lost for the seventh time in eight matches and sit bottom in the Championship. Jeers and derision would be the norm.

But the fans had spotted a glimmer of hope, a possible return to sanity after the madness, and their response to Symons, Fulham's caretaker manager of only three days, was warm and genuine.

Felix Magath had gone and taken with him a bizarre regime that included random team selections, triple training sessions and heavy fines for trainees.

If a smile had not returned to the faces of the players, not quite yet, there was already a sense of relief and optimism. Symons – Fulham's under-21 coach and former defender, one of their own – had swiftly freed them from Magath's dictatorial shackles.

"It's been great," Dan Burn, the centre-back, said. "I get on really well with Kit, he's a good guy and loved by all the fans. He'll make us a lot more organised and get us back enjoying our football."

Fulham were competitive throughout and also capable of overcoming adversity when, previously, they would have collapsed in a heap.

After the defender Shaun Hutchinson was dismissed just before half-time on Saturday, for a wild challenge on Lee Williamson, Fulham dug in. Jordan Rhodes may have poached a fourth goal of the season, from Corry Evans' double-deflected shot in the 58th minute, but Blackburn were hanging on as the clock wound down.

The Symons effect was obvious and will need to continue if he is to fend off the many rival contenders queuing up alongside him to get the nod from Shahid Khan, the Fulham owner.

Gary Bowyer, the Blackburn manager, knows all about caretaker duties, having filled the role at Ewood Park during the club's manic revolving-door policy during the 2012-13 season until his permanent appointment in May last year.

"Full credit to Kit," Bowyer said. "He got the players playing for him and the crowd behind him. Being a caretaker is a hard job but you could clearly see that the Fulham players responded to him.

"They could have downed tools at 1-0 behind but they didn't and that shows what a good job Kit's done already. They kept going and kept us under pressure.

"I've been through it myself and it's not easy. You're just not sure how long you're going to be the caretaker. All you can do is do your best and get the team organised. I think Kit did tremendously well."


http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/21/fulham-blackburn-rovers-championship-match-report?

[WhiteJC]

 
Kit Symons keen on Fulham job as owner Shahid Khan begins search for fourth manager in just 14 months
Kit Symons will speak to owner Shahid Khan about Fulham job
Symons is currently caretaker boss after sacking of Felix Magath
Fulham lost 1-0 at home to Blackburn on Saturday
The result keeps them bottom of the Championship table
Malky Mackay, Chris Hughton and Steve Clarke all strongly linked with job
Captain Scott Parker has given his backing to Symons

Kit Symons will speak to owner Shahid Khan on Monday in a bid to convince him to make him the next Fulham manager.

Symons took charge of Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Blackburn following the sacking of Felix Magath and has made no secret of the fact he wants the job on a full-time basis.

Khan has promised to lead the search for what would be his fourth manager in the 14 months he has owned the club and Symons hopes that he finds the right man under his nose.


Kit Symons, in caretaker charge of Fulham following the sacking of Felix Magath, is keen on the job full-time


Fulham owner Shahid Khan is looking for his fourth manager in just 14 months of running the club

Malky Mackay, Chris Hughton and Steve Clarke have all been strongly linked with the job and former Cardiff boss Mackay was in the director's box at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

But Symons is confident he is the right man to turn Fulham's fortunes around and lead them up the table.

He said: 'On Monday morning generally there is a conference call between Alistair Mackintosh (CEO), the owner and the manager, so I'm assuming that's what's going to happen and that'll be the next time I'll talk to him.

'And if I get the opportunity I'll put my case forward then.

'I've told the world and his wife that I want it but I fully expect and want the owner to pick the right person for the job.

'He'll search far and wide to find that person but hopefully he's right under his nose and that's me.'


Felix Magath was sacked last week after a dreadful start to the season that saw Fulham bottom of the table


Blackburn won 1-0 at Craven Cottage on Saturday thanks to a Jordan Rhodes strike


Fulham remain bottom of the Championship after the weekend's results

And Symons has the backing of the players with captain Scott Parker throwing his support behind the former Fulham defender.

Parker said: 'Kit knows the club very well, having played here as well, and hopefully he will do well and we will pick up some results.

'I'm sure over the next few weeks he will put his stamp on things and we will have a better idea of things going forward.

'Kit's been here a long while and has an understanding of what this club is about. At this present moment in time it's something that's needed here.'

Magath was sacked after picking up just one point from the first seven games in the Championship but Parker says the players must take their share of responsibility for the position they are in.


Fulham captain Scott Parker has backed Symons for the job on a permanent basis

Fulham face Doncaster in the Capital One Cup before games against Birmingham, Bolton and Middlesbrough ahead of October's international break.

And Parker says Fulham must start winning games and turn their season around quickly.

He added: 'Managers are the ones that take the flack but we have to look at ourselves as players. As much as Felix has taken the brunt of it we have to take responsibility that we haven't been good enough at times this year.

'We need to pick up some results because games are ticking on now. We've got a good squad but we just need a bit of organisation and hopefully we can turn the corner.

'Every manager has different styles and different philosophies. Felix was different to all the other managers I've had and has left due to the results. But we as players need to take responsibility.'



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Felix Magath recommended 'ridiculous' cheese treatment

Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy describes former Fulham boss Felix Magath's recommendation to use cheese to treat an injured player as "ridiculous".

Former Fulham skipper Murphy confirmed a story appearing in a Sunday newspaper  that Magath recommended defender Brede Hangeland treat an injured thigh with a block of cheese soaked in alcohol.

Murphy says the bizarre story was indicative of the way the German coach lost the faith of his experienced players and explains why the Cottagers fired Magath this week after finding themselves "in a world of trouble".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29302031