Jok's post game interview..most revealing insights

[WayneKerrins]

I see some more positive interpretations near the end of the thread.

Toodles you and I rarely agree but I appreciate your comments on accuracy.

Brede I don't think I've ever agreed with you and I find your interpretation risible in its uber rosey specness but each to our own.

Lighthouse I think you're on to something in your second post. Culturally what Jok said and the way he said it is a big deal for most Brits. It is significant and it is unparalleled in recent times. Brookes would know that if she was involved. As would Mac and Rigg. I don't know who approves the content and as I and others have said the fact it's been posted is in itself noteworthy.

My interpretation is that as well as being frustrated and disappointed with a number of specifics Jok is sending a message up the line generally and definitely to Khan ('ambition'..'top 6' references ). Clearly one or more of the rest of the day to day management team have decided to let it be posted...

In any event ignoring my interpretation which at a stretch could be labelled a conspiracy theory. The 5 things he said and the way he said them are very noteworthy. As Toodles says the next 6 weeks will be instructive and could be anything from the Khan custodian ships nadir to the start of something good.

FairPlay to Jok for putting a bit of pressure on for it to be the latter.

[Whitesideup]

I personally feel SJ's comments are a bit too negative. FFC have brought in more players than most other Championship clubs, plus have one of the most sought-after strikers in their squad. Add to that the fact we've had a perfect preseason thus far with no goals conceded. If we'd signed hardly anyone and lost all of our matches over the last few weeks then I'd say SJ has a point, but at the moment I don't really see what else the Club can do. I'm by no means suggesting the current squad is a credible case for finishing in the top 6, by the way.

The valid point is here is why should SJ expect  a club like Fulham to be in a position to buy the best players available to Championship clubs? We have to compete with the likes of Newcastle, Aston Villa ... Notts Forest, Sheff Weds ... all bigger clubs than us. Why should an owner "invest" tens of millions of his own money every year? Surely there should be some financial stability which means spending within our means. Of course a manager will say he needs to buy bigger to get success.

Look at Eddie Howe's history with Bournemouth. Build a better team with committed players, good strategy and good training, and it need not cost a fortune. His team that was promoted cost less that Ross McCormack.

[Carborundum]

Two things struck me

No rational manager is going to say they are happy with their squad with seven weeks of the transfer window to go.  Spending money that isn't his has no downside.  Doesn't tell me anything.  This tug of war surely goes on between every owner and every manager.  Just a question of how publicly it is played out.

Some of the most wonderful people I know are gloomy pessimists.  Whether he's a wonderful person or not, by now it's clear that any jokes are going to be of the deadpan variety and every silver lining has a cloud for SJ.  But he gave me no option but to laugh when, on the back of a 3-0 win he came out with: "we are still on zero points".  In July.  Brilliant.

[FulhamElite]

I personally feel SJ's comments are a bit too negative. FFC have brought in more players than most other Championship clubs, plus have one of the most sought-after strikers in their squad. Add to that the fact we've had a perfect preseason thus far with no goals conceded. If we'd signed hardly anyone and lost all of our matches over the last few weeks then I'd say SJ has a point, but at the moment I don't really see what else the Club can do. I'm by no means suggesting the current squad is a credible case for finishing in the top 6, by the way.

The valid point is here is why should SJ expect  a club like Fulham to be in a position to buy the best players available to Championship clubs? We have to compete with the likes of Newcastle, Aston Villa ... Notts Forest, Sheff Weds ... all bigger clubs than us. Why should an owner "invest" tens of millions of his own money every year? Surely there should be some financial stability which means spending within our means. Of course a manager will say he needs to buy bigger to get success.

Look at Eddie Howe's history with Bournemouth. Build a better team with committed players, good strategy and good training, and it need not cost a fortune. His team that was promoted cost less that Ross McCormack.

Plus the fact the year FFC went down they bought the division's top scorer that season. As I said, we've already brought in 8 players this window and SJ had come out and said he wants up to 5 more - that's a starting 11 and 2 subs! Kit had us at mid table and the league's top scorers, so something was clearly working with the squad SJ inherited; they just couldn't seem to get the consistency. After SJ came in FFC won less than 30% on their matches, with the manager stating the squad needs a complete overhaul. It can't all be down to the players and hierarchy.

[mrmicawbers]

\\we clearly need some more signings.I'm sure we are talking to other targets.But lets face it we can't make people sign for us even if we are offering the best contracts.There are players who will use us to stay were they are and in effect get better deals and not have the upheaval of moving away.There are people saying he will be going before the season starts Really?This man has been sitting across the table and asked these players to come and buy into our team and his philosophy would he go and leave them in the poo.Not as far as i'm concerned.So far i for one can see what he wants pace, strength, athleticism things we have been missing for a long time.Looking forward to this season.

[WayneKerrins]

We must be unique in how so many of our supporters would tell a manager to think himself lucky that we haven't yet sold Ross from under him and that an array of cheapies, frees and out of contract players is a commensurate with "doing what it takes'...'not always about balancing the books'..."giving him the tools"..."our ambition and target is top 6"...
3 of the incomers were respectively
Hulls' 16th
Cardiiff's 12th and
Boro's 10th best players per Sqwuaka.com's performance ratings.

[RaySmith]

He  seems really p....d off. Promises made to him  and not kept?

[Roberty]

I think J was clearly saying he was disappointed at how slow getting the new players in has been and at the relative lack of ambition - so far - in the signings. He knows what he was told by Khan, and there is no way I can interpret what he said as other than conveying a sense of having been let down.

Obviously the speed of signings isn't now capable of being rectified, and the first proper game is coming fast. But a couple of "big" signings over the next week or two and he (and we) may feel re-assured that Khan is serious.

You could insert the names Jose, Manure & Pogba into this comment - it is how life is - good signings take time because a good player will have lots of offers to choose from.

[Chutney]

Those questioning Khan's obligation to invest would do well to remember his mismanagement had cost us about £500 million of missed premier league revenue over the last few years.

A manager isn't just playing a computer game. He has to have some sort of skill to make a team play over and above its level.

Sorry the odd manager like Howe, Ranieri and Hodgson will have one season in their career where they over achieve but the vast majority of the time good management just involves meeting reasonable expectations.

This squad has finished 20th the last two seasons, and as someone who was at the 5-2 Birmingham game i can tell you we were on course to do that even had we kept Symons in charge.

The squad hasn't been substantially improved since then so the only reasonable expectation is that we'll finish 20th again this season.

If you'll be happy with that then fine but if you expect more then you have to accept the team needs substantial investment and quickly.

This.

We need to start signing quality, and we need 5 or 6 quality players in before the season starts.

[GloucesterWhite]

I wonder if there's an element of Joka protecting his own back. Symons was obviously told at the beginning of last season that the team had to achieve top 6 or he was out. If Joka is under the same pressure is he not saying the target is unachievable unless real money is spent?

[MJG]

It was a very interesting interview and one that I felt could be taken many different ways given his broken English and overall manner.
He was certainly being honest in that he felt we were not there yet and five players short of what he wants would be about right by my reckoning. Two weeks ago we were all worried about the squad and he would be right in saying that most coaches would want 80% of the squad in place at start of training. It wasn't but you could argue two weeks later it is. So its finding that other 20% (4 or 5 players if you take a squad being 25). I dont believe there is a manager in the country 2 weeks from the start of the season and 5 weeks from the window closing who would say 'that's it I dont need anyone else'

Was it a message to the board or whoever? As someone said earlier its a case of maybe covering his back with us (hence the comment to Sarah about not wanting to say in January about not being ready) and if its also a bit of push/dig at Rigg etc then so be it. But a lot of managers play that game, Bruce was doing it with Hull a week or two ago.

The downside of the interview is that both here, twitter and other forums it has burst that bubble of optimism many had for less than a day after Tuesday night. Everything was looking good without going too much overboard, but now we are back to being downhearted a bit.

As it stands today I'm ok with the signings made, lots of room to bring in more and I'm sure we will.

[Lighthouse]

Other than the WUMS I think this has been very interesting. I think we are all in agreement that investment is still needed. I wonder if we will ever really know what Joka meant and if the feelings attributed to him were accurate.

I guess we will know if he is allowed time to build a squad. By time I mean longer than a season. Or if he walks having failed to get the backing or is sacked because the club have lost patience again because they haven't leaned the lessons from the previous seasons in the Championship.

All we can say is that it has been so far so good. Every season we hope the team to be up and running from the first game. But that never happens. It is as usual all down to expectations.

[colinwhite]

To me there was one really significant thing that he said  near the end of the interview and that was that some may be happy with the squad ,but he believed we needed to sign more players. It was up to the club to show its ambition was the main point i thought he was making.

[bobbo]

Firstly there's broken English but this is smashed into smitherines English. I listened a couple of times but it's incoherent. Just imagine if you're on a bad run and demotivated and trying to listen to that. He clearly has a direction and a message but it's hard to see if it's being received.

its all good saying he wants experience over youth, but the way he put it he just wants numbers , totally dismissive of the youth, and players like sessegnon are only there until we sign players with experience.

He's clearly frustrated and until his words are backed up with either a warning from above/ or actions to back him, it all looks silly. Like I said in a different thread last night, they're decent signings but nothing to get a top 6 or promotion. He doesnt seem as if he wants top 6, he wants the best, he wants ambition, and the last person to say that was Mark Hughes who got off at the top of the slide.

i love your laste paragraph Aaron but we can't be too critical of his English, he's probably doing his best, maybe the players should learn serbian

[RaySmith]

It was a very interesting interview and one that I felt could be taken many different ways given his broken English and overall manner.
He was certainly being honest in that he felt we were not there yet and five players short of what he wants would be about right by my reckoning. Two weeks ago we were all worried about the squad and he would be right in saying that most coaches would want 80% of the squad in place at start of training. It wasn't but you could argue two weeks later it is. So its finding that other 20% (4 or 5 players if you take a squad being 25). I dont believe there is a manager in the country 2 weeks from the start of the season and 5 weeks from the window closing who would say 'that's it I dont need anyone else'

Was it a message to the board or whoever? As someone said earlier its a case of maybe covering his back with us (hence the comment to Sarah about not wanting to say in January about not being ready) and if its also a bit of push/dig at Rigg etc then so be it. But a lot of managers play that game, Bruce was doing it with Hull a week or two ago.

The downside of the interview is that both here, twitter and other forums it has burst that bubble of optimism many had for less than a day after Tuesday night. Everything was looking good without going too much overboard, but now we are back to being downhearted a bit.

As it stands today I'm ok with the signings made, lots of room to bring in more and I'm sure we will.

I agree with this. It's hard to gauge Joka's full meaning  with his English and his tone of voice and expression, and he could also be covering himself.

He might actually think we have the potential of a decent team, but doesn't want to say too soon. Plus any manager  is going to say he'd prefer more investment in the squad.

But he could also be actually worried too.

But agree, it does burst our bubble of optimism somewhat.

[Jimmy Hill]

Sounds like a winner to me not settling always wanting more.
Its going well but were on nil points no one is slacking on my watch not even the board. Starting to warm to him.

[alexmur]

Blimey...
Slav is criticised for not being able to speak 'proper' English, and yet we find issues in what he says!

Well let's be honest....

people are making assumptions in what he 'tried' to say!

There's nowt like putting words in people's mouths, especially anyone to do with Fulham!

To me I think all he is saying is roughly:

1/ I'm happy with the business we have so far
2/ I'm happy with including youth players and it's good for them and us
3/ we aren't finished in our rebuild

that's exactly what I took from it

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[RaySmith]

Watching it again, he seems to be saying that if we want to challenge for  promotion we need more, quality, players.

But he  said that he is pleased with pre-season so far, and is playing a way that suits the players he has got.

[SuffolkWhite]

Having just watched it,

I think it's a message to everyone involved with Fulham, and us fans to.

I think he is being realistic and just saying in his deadpan way, If you want success this season you will have to put your hand in your pocket and get the players we need and if you don't then don't expect miracles.

He's happy with the 5 youngsters he spoke about and can see potential in them but wants more experience, and the players we have signed are a step in the right direction.

As for the Board they must know that a fair few fans are disgruntled and they need to be seen to be backing the manager. Good pressure from Joka I think!

I will say, I think Joka will leave if he does not get his way or the backing he thinks he should have. Hopefully he'll get at least 3 more players he wants and we can see how he does with his players in the team!

My two penny's anyway.

[davew]

To me there was one really significant thing that he said  near the end of the interview and that was that some may be happy with the squad ,but he believed we needed to sign more players. It was up to the club to show its ambition was the main point i thought he was making.

Agreed, I think it also suggests he perhaps knows whether Ross will be staying with us or not and Joka probably does not have as much say in who he wants to bring into the club as perhaps he thought he would have. Nothing I have seen so far to provide confidence in that we will be a promotion challenging side this season!!