Have we got any chance to reach Premiership in next 5 years?

[filham]

Very good post indeed. Only this morning on my drive in to work it hit me that this summer we sold Roberts, had a parachute payment and signed Cairney. Everything else was pretty much a freebie right? And yet we still fell short of FFP? How depressing is that? So basically, we fall short of FFP just by existing as us.

Am I right in thinking the club's wage bill comes into it, ours must be high we have so many players, we have used 27 already this season, Surely we can operate with a squad of no more than 24.

[Barry White]

Any chance - yes. A good chance... probably not.

This season is obviously gone so we'll see how SJ gets the team shaping and we'll know a bit more at start of next season I guess.

[ffcannom]

I'd say yes - 5 years is a long time, even if we lose both Mussa and Ross, I think in 2/3 years we should be up. Sounds optimistic but I am hopeful that our Wizard looking chairman will give us all the financial backing we need and Joka strengthens our team with singing new players.

Faith In Fulham!

[BedsFFC]

I'd say yes - 5 years is a long time, even if we lose both Mussa and Ross, I think in 2/3 years we should be up. Sounds optimistic but I am hopeful that our Wizard looking chairman will give us all the financial backing we need and Joka strengthens our team with singing new players.

Faith In Fulham!

But that is my point with the post. If we do not go up in 2 - 3 years, our crowds will be about 13000, no parachute money, reduced sponsorship income.
A multi billionaire owner is an irrelevance. He can't spend the money to push us on and we are then competing against relegated clubs who have just won the lottery from the premiership

[Slaphead in Qatar]

losing faith in this ownership - was quite excited when khan took over - but little has gone right since then

[Hoppus]

Sure, but then we need to be patient and give Joka time.

[FPT]

Yes we do, plus the FFP is 'loosened' a little after this season, from £6m of allowed losses to £13m - which extends to a total £39m over three years. So in theory, the summer window could see us push a little more financially, especially if we do release/sell/get rid of Scott Parker, Maarten Stekelenburg, Fernando Amorebieta and Kostas Mitroglou finally. Even more leeway were we to sell one of the three most wanted at the football club.

Also in theory, we could all help. We can do our part by filling out the Cottage, by buying merchandise, by purchasing a programme on match days etc etc. Every little helps, right?

In five years time, a big group of our squad will be entering excellent ages barring being sold to sides in the Premier League. Bettinelli will be 28, Jazz Richards 29, Ryan Fredericks 28, Dan Burn 28, Tom Cairney 29, Alex Kacaniklic 29, George Williams 25, Ryan Tunnicliffe 28, Lasse Vigen Christensen 26, Emerson Hyndman 24, Cauley Woodrow 26 and Moussa Dembele 24.***

*** Of course that's based on all of those players staying in five years and us not being promoted, but it shows we've got a squad now that can grow together but needs the seasoning in the right places to take promising young players to a promotion pushing unit.

I think I'll leave you with this, Slavisa Jokanovic's assistant at Watford who joined up with Fulham this week posted this on Twitter after Watford were promoted, "There was no secret only change a group of good players for a team with a strong mentality." I feel that rings true here, we have a group of good players, it's not perfect and sure there's certain player types/positions we need to recruit but the core is there. I don't think we should look at time lines, lets see how we do for the remainder of this season - recruit in the summer and evaluate.

[jarv]

Yes, all depending on some decent management decisions. However, the second division isn't so bad. I really enjoyed the seventies (Mullers, Moore Best etc). We saw some outstanding football and Fulham was a GOOD second division team, just missing promotion on 2 or 3 occasions.  Just look back at our cup final 11, what a team. Happy days.

Of course I would prefer the premier because, living in USA I would get to see every Fulham match on NBC sports, live.

Until that day, 082.gif

[Reznor]

I had a long chat with a Middlesborough fan the other day and the long and short of it was that it had taken Middlesborough a good 5 years to recover from relegation from the Prem and only in years 6 and 7( this season) are they looking a great bet for promotion. Add this to the massive new Premiership tv deal meaning even relegated teams go down with a massive 100 000 000 in their pocket it will be a huge achievement to gain promotion. As long as we are competing and look organised I don't mind a long stint in the championship and this is probably where we will be for a good few years.

[RPhillips]

In a word: No.

[SG]

Next season - you read it here first  049:gif