Twenty Years Ago

[Mince n Tatties]

I was down the side,they had to give it up to us because
of how many we took there...
What a noise we made,me living just down road in Newmarket
made it extra special as a lot of my friends support Cambridge Utd.
So I ruled the roost at work the following week..

Definitely my favourite away game

[/quote] My best away game that season was Carlisle United. I treated myself to a 'Director for a Day' package. It meant that we travelled up to Prestwick on the Friday, spent the afternoon at the Prestwick pitch training, the night with the lads, stayed up and had a few beers with Micky Adams & Alan Cork.  Next day after breakfast, I went with Corky to the ground to set out the players kit. 
(I even gave Super Micky Conroy's shirt a little kiss!!). Then back at the hotel, we got the coach to the ground and the home fans were throwing stones at the coach.  Sat in the 'Directors' box in amongst the Carlisle fans :(
One down at half time, we went on to win 2-1.  Fantastic day and the abuse shouted at Jimmy Hill was crazy, but he just smiled and waved at them.  And the journey home, when we stopped for Fish & Chips, made it a wonderful memory.  "Who stuck the ball in the Carlisle net?".  Not only do I know the answer, but I was sat next to Michael Knighton at the time.  He was not happy.  Fantastic memories :)
COYW
[/quote]

Great Time for you...And Kissing Super Mickeys Shirt...Coyw.

[f321ffc]

And FFC didn't have pot to pee in , one year later along came Sir Mo of Al Fayed who  funded all things FFC and gave us season after season In the premiership, made us stable premiership club and even a European  final (little old Fulham in a European final ) never.
And still some slate him. 090.gif

[The Cravenette]

Micky Adams promotion season is still one of my favourites. I can still remember results from that season like they were yesterday but if you asked our result against Arsenal, man city etc from our last year in the premiership, I'd probably have to look it up.

I was at this one, brilliant atmosphere, could hardly see a thing though and didn't see much of the goal but didn't mind!

I think my favourite game that season was the last of the season away at Cambridge. We took about 5,000 fans that day when the total crowd was about 7,500. Our fans were all down one side & behind the goal.

Can you remember the score at Cambridge ?

0-1 to us. Darren Freeman with the goal after about 20 mins

[The Cravenette]

I was at this game, unforgettable atmosphere. Could hardly see a thing, and saw practically nothing of our goal but it didn't matter. Can't believe it was 20 years ago.

[Dr Know]

And FFC didn't have pot to pee in , one year later along came Sir Mo of Al Fayed who  funded all things FFC and gave us season after season In the premiership, made us stable premiership club and even a European  final (little old Fulham in a European final ) never.
And still some slate him. 090.gif

Because he approached chelsea before us and he calls himself a lifelong Fulham fan  ! ! !

[Peabody]

And FFC didn't have pot to pee in , one year later along came Sir Mo of Al Fayed who  funded all things FFC and gave us season after season In the premiership, made us stable premiership club and even a European  final (little old Fulham in a European final ) never.
And still some slate him. 090.gif

Because he approached chelsea before us and he calls himself a lifelong Fulham fan  ! ! !


And your evidence for that is?

[Dr Know]

Its common knowledge to many ffc fans

[f321ffc]

And FFC didn't have pot to pee in , one year later along came Sir Mo of Al Fayed who  funded all things FFC and gave us season after season In the premiership, made us stable premiership club and even a European  final (little old Fulham in a European final ) never.
And still some slate him. 090.gifh

Because he approached chelsea before us and he calls himself a lifelong Fulham fan  ! ! !

If that's true or not I don't know and I wonder do you know for sure or is it something you heard, what I do know is he gave FFC the best years I have seen and I've been going since 1963.

[f321ffc]

Its common knowledge to many ffc fans

It's common knowledge to many FFC fans that " we're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen" don't make it true.

[Dr Know]

Fayed approached chelsea before us . I have no reason to make this up.

[Peabody]

Well I am a Fulham fan and until you produce cast iron evidence, sorry, but I don't believe you.

[Dr Know]

Your choice pal but i didnt make it up. Also if Fayed is a ffc fan where is he? Im sure he could afford a ticket or has he lost interest ?

[HillingdonFFC]

The real joy of that season was that, unlike this season, none of us really thought that we would do well. The previous season we had struggled and finished very low in the table. We had spent only £70,000 or so on new players and we were playing a funny system with a striker converted to a sweeper.
However it all came together and we headed the table for a lot of the season finishing in a good second place.

A tremendous achievement by manager Micky Adams, the remaining mystery is why he never had great success elsewhere.

I've often thought that about Adams. He was brilliant for us but never really did it anywhere else.
He was a fantastic motivator and showed some real imagine like turning striker Nick Cusack into a classy sweeper.
Not quite sure why he never went on to be a top manager, I think he was very hurt by the manner of his departure.
He'll always have hero status at Fulham though for giving us the first team in years we could be proud of.

[The Old Count]

Your choice pal but i didnt make it up. Also if Fayed is a ffc fan where is he? Im sure he could afford a ticket or has he lost interest ?

A big part of why he sold up was that he got fed up with fickle fans.  If there is one thing that Mr Al Fayed must have it is approval, unswerving loyalty and support.  The Jackson statue was the last straw for him.    We drove him out. That's why he ain't here.

[f321ffc]

Fayed approached chelsea before us . I have no reason to make this up.

Even if true it don't take away from what he did for FFC,  no one can change history and for what he did I am eternally grateful.

[snarks]

A quick Google search reveals one quote from Ken Bates that MAF tried to buy Chelsea before Fulham, the quote is dated 2002.

Given Mr Bates history in football you can make of it what you will

[Peabody]

I have no idea whether MaAF approached them before us, the fact is he came for us and through his investments we got to the Premiership and eventually the Europa Final.

[snarks]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in the Fulham were 2nd choice MAF camp. I will always be grateful for what he did. I was merely commenting on the points made in the thread. As the only source of that rumour appears to be Mr Bates, it's clearly not widely or generally stated.

[Logicalman]

A quick Google search reveals one quote from Ken Bates that MAF tried to buy Chelsea before Fulham, the quote is dated 2002.

Given Mr Bates history in football you can make of it what you will

Thats interesting, what is the source page itself?

I did find the story regarding the negotiations for us to groundshare at the Bridge, with MaF purchasing 9.9% stake in Chelsea Village PLC, that's pretty common knowledge, and that was 2002, could this be the source do you think? Here is the pertinant passage from that story:

The club were offered a permanent tenancy by the Chelsea chief executive Ken Bates a fortnight ago but rejected the proposed groundshare, which would have seen Fulham buy into Chelsea Village plc.
Bates and his Fulham counterpart, Mohamed Al Fayed, discussed the 9.9 per cent purchase – the highest proportion Premier League rules will allow – and the permanent share of Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago at a Harrods lunch. The £15m scheme would have included Fulham taking out a 25-year lease and having their own changing area, board room and commercial facilities.
Fayed has not ruled out a temporary arrangement in the near future should it be necessary.

But as for buying Chelsea outright, would have had to be back in the early 90's I would think following the Harrods takeover debacle whereby MaF was also in dispute with a Chelsea Shareholder, Ashraf Marwan, though it's been difficult to find anything that firms this up.

[ron]

My Christmas present for 1996 was redundancy from my Airline shift work job which allowed me Saturdays off from then. What timing!, and what a state the Cottage was in then....when half the seats were broken in the Riverside stand, and the red warning tape fluttered from stakes which forbade anyone using large areas of the Putney terrace because the concrete steps had failed and were unstable. But the new spirit instilled by Mickey Adams was palpable.

The downside was that I didn't see regular wage packets for a while as I retrained to go teaching....but that was a small price to pay!

Who did you work for Ron ? I started with 4 years with LH at LHR, MUC and BER, then 15 years at QF LHR and 4 years at SR/LX. Great days..

5 years at the long defunct PanAm in terminal three, followed by a run overseas in BAH with GF returning to LHR with MEA until '96. I don't think I could cope with the shiftwork nowadays, but then again, I'm safely retired now !