Friday Fulham Stuff (07/07/17)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Semis Within Sight

Ryan Sessegnon and Tayo Edun each played the full 90 minutes as England Under-19s all but progressed to the Semi-Finals of the European Championship with a game to spare.

Following their opening day win, the Young Lions knew victory over the Netherlands would effectively secure their spot in the last four, and a late winner from Nottingham Forest striker Ben Brereton did just that as it finished 1-0.

The nations shared chances in the opening stages of the game, and Sessegnon went close midway through the first half, only to be denied by a fine save from the Dutch goalkeeper.

But the Fulham man had a big hand in the decisive goal in the closing stages of the game. After he was picked out by Tottenham Hotspur's Marcus Edwards, he rifled in a dangerous low strike which ricocheted off two Oranje defenders before dropping kindly to Brereton who applied the finish.

A draw between Germany and Bulgaria in Thursday's late kick-off would cement England's place in the Semis. However, two consecutive wins for Germany or Bulgaria would see three teams tied on six points, and the group would then come down to goal difference, minus results against the team not on six points.




http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2017/july/06/semis-within-sight

[WhiteJC]

 
Journalist delivers worrying Fulham update

Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic is likely to walk away from the job, according to a reliable journalist.

Dean Jones is reporting that problems behind the scenes are brewing at Craven Cottage and he has added that he is "not convinced" that Slavisa Jokanovic will stay.

Jokanovic enjoyed a successful season with Fulham last term, guiding them to the Championship play-offs where they were narrowly beaten over two legs in the semi-final against Reading.

This consigned them to another year in the second tier but the future still looked bright.

Slavisa Jokanovic agreed a new contract last season and key duo Ryan Sessegnon and Tom Cairney resisted offers from the Premier League to remain at the club.

However, there has been an ongoing dispute behind the scenes which is threatening to reach boiling point.

Slavisa Jokanovic has reportedly told Fulham that he wants more control over the transfer policy.

Data analyst Craig Kline has tried to pioneer a "moneyball" approach to transfers, refusing to buy players over the age of 28 so that he can get players (like Marcelo Djalo) with a sell-on value.

This means that he has rejected some of Jokanovic's suggestions, such as Norwich City striker Cameron Jerome.

The Serbian gaffer is getting increasingly frustrated with this and has clashed with Craig Kline.

This latest update from Dean Jones suggests that Slavisa Jokanovic might walk away from the Fulham job soon if things do not improve.



https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/journalist-delivers-worrying-fulham-update/

[WhiteJC]

 
Premier League Memoirs: Former Manchester United and Fulham forward Erik Nevland relives his English career

Joining Manchester United was a bit of a coincidence really, I went over for a training camp to enjoy myself and I think I did well whilst I was there. It was only supposed to be a week but it turned into two weeks and then a month. After that the club offered me a contract, I'd scored a few goals in a few friendly games and that was enough for them to offer me a deal.

It was a huge honour because United were a top side at the time, I was a big United fan too so it was a dream come true for me. I knew I was young and I was going to develop rather than play regularly and knew when I left home it was going to be difficult to breakthrough at Old Trafford.

The likes of Beckham, Neville and Scholes had broken through a few years before, but to train among those kinds of players daily — and players I had posters of on the wall back home in Norway — was special and it was a fantastic experience for me as a player.

It's still a special moment to look back at when I scored at Old Trafford [against Bury]. I came close to being part of the team on a weekly basis but I was unlucky with a few injuries. They came at exactly the wrong time for me during those years but I still have some amazing memories and I can say I played for one of the biggest clubs in the world – I'm proud of that.

It was a mutual decision for me to move on. You have to start playing first team football and when I turned 21 I decided I had to find regular football to develop. I knew it would be hard in Manchester, so I decided to move back to Norway to start playing games.

Then eight years later I came back. I didn't expect it myself to ever come back to the Premier League, but I went to Holland [with Groningen] in 2004 and had three and a half good seasons there. The turning point for me was Roy Hodgson. He was my manager in Norway [at Viking] and I had a good relationship with him. When he became manager of Fulham he brought me in and it was a dream to come back.

You always want to play in the Premier League so it was an easy decision. I knew the risk of being relegated was pretty high, but I thought even a half year in the Premier League would be as good as playing in Holland.

I had faith in Roy and in what I could bring, so it made it an easy decision and luckily, we stayed up. It all changed when we played Reading away and won our first away game in something like 18 months, but at half-time at Manchester City we were losing. Our objective was just to go out and win the second half, we did that, we won the game and we never looked back.

From there we kept going and my last game in English football turned out to be a European Cup final. I didn't think that would be possible when I signed for the club, the main target each year was just to stay up. But we had a great team and we had a united team that worked for each other – it was a good bunch of guys.

We had a good manager too, he knows what to expect from his players and he knew how to get the best out of us. That gave us belief, but nobody ever expected that we would do that well over three or four seasons and beat a team like Juventus.

I did end up playing against Manchester United again. I only came on as a late substitute but it was a good experience to play against them before I left England.




https://offsiderulepodcast.com/2017/07/06/premier-league-memoirs-former-man-united-and-fulham-forward-erik-nevland-relives-his-english-career-457/

[WhiteJC]

 
Robins could be poised to sign Fulham keeper

Bristol City could be on the verge of completing the signing of want-away Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli according to the Bristol Post.

The 25-year-old Camberwell born stopper made just 11 appearances for The Whites last season during a difficult personal campaign for the player at Craven Cottage.

Bettinelli ended the season with the number one jersey as Fulham fell short in the race for promotion from the Sky Bet Championship however it is thought that the keeper could opt to leave the club this summer in search of a greater guarantee of first team football.

A number of rival Sky Bet Championship clubs are being linked with the player including Bristol City and it has been suggested that Bettinelli could be closing in on a move to Ashton Gate.

Bettinelli is a product of Fulham's academy system and the player has gone on to make 68 senior appearances for The Whites. The keeper initially impressed during loan spells with both Dartford and Accrington Stanley early in his career and the player soon forced his way into the Fulham first team upon his return to the club.

The former England Under-21 international has recently been linked with a move to English Premier League champions Chelsea although The Blues have since signed free agent Willy Caballero.




http://the72.co.uk/86705/robins-poised-sign-fulham-keeper/

[WhiteJC]

 
Who is Marcus Bettinelli? The rumoured Bristol City target's stats, plus why he turned down Chelsea

The stopper has been linked with a summer switch to Ashton Gate

Marcus Bettinelli has been linked heavily with a move to Bristol City this summer – but who exactly is he?

After a recent report suggested that he has not travelled with Fulham for their pre-season training camp to Poland, what exactly does the future hold for the goalkeeper?

We've had a little dig through the archives to find out more about Bettinelli.

Name: Marcus Bettinelli

Age: 25

Current club: Fulham

Position: Goalkeeper

Contract: Until 2019 (transfermarkt)


Marcus Bettinelli (Image: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Background: The Camberwell-born stopper joined Fulham in 2011 and went into the under-21 set-up. He made his full debut for then club in 2014 – against Brentford in the Capital One Cup – and he later penned a new deal in 2012 which tied him to the club until 2014.

In 2012, he later joined Dartford on loan and was their first choice keeper until returning to Craven Cottage and heading out on loan to Accrington Stanley, where he eventually spent two spells until 2014.

He signed another new deal with Fulham in 2014 and has since made 68 appearances for the club, holding 13 clean-sheets.


Marcus Bettinelli (Image: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)

Fulham fans once voted him second in a player of the season poll and his father is coach of the academy at Craven Cottage.

This season: Bettinelli played second fiddle to David Button last season but showed some glimpses of his talent in both legs of the Championship play-off semi-finals, where Fulham lost to Reading.

In total, Bettinelli featured in 11 games for the club.

Transfer speculation: Bettinelli has also been with Chelsea this summer – he turned the club down in 2015 after being linked with the Premier League side.

Two years ago he said: "There was always that speculation with Chelsea, but I did not want to be sat on the bench.

"It would have been silly to stop playing now and go and be a number three.

"It was lovely to be linked with Chelsea, one of the biggest clubs in the world, but this [Fulham] was always the place for me," he added.

International credentials: He has one cap for England under-21s which he won in 2015.



http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/who-marcus-bettinelli-rumoured-bristol-175346

[WhiteJC]

 
Derby County's Chris Martin 'can't wait to prove people wrong' this season

Chris Martin "can't wait to prove people wrong" as the striker looks to make a big impression on his return to Derby County .

Martin spent the majority of last season on loan at Fulham, where he scored 11 goals but endured a controversial stay.

The Scottish international reportedly tried to force a move back to the Rams when Steve McClaren was appointed manager for a second time.

Martin missed three games for Fulham over the Christmas period but Whites' boss Slavisa Jokanovic dug his heels in over the saga and kept hold of the forward.

Fulham went on to reach the play-off semi-final, where they were beaten by Reading, however Martin scored just one goal for them from February to the end of the season.

Chris Martin cuts a dejected figure after Fulham are beaten by Reading in the league

That came in a 3-1 home win against Preston.

It meant Martin finished the season with one goal in his last 13 Fulham appearances, and he is determined to prove the doubters wrong on his return to the Rams.

"I feel like I'm in just as good a condition as I have been at any other point so there's no reason I can't replicate or even better (previous Derby form)," the 28-year-old told RamsTV.

"After the disappointment of last season and how it went on the field, this season is big for me personally.

"I can't wait to get started and prove people wrong and prove to myself I can still do it. I know it's in there.

"Once you've had a disappointing season the drive and hunger inside you is to put it right.

"It's a while before we play our first game but between now and then I've got to try and nail down a starting sport which will be difficult with the competition we've got."

Martin added that he left Fulham looking upwards despite the indifferent spell."It's a while before we play our first game but between now and then I've got to try and nail down a starting sport which will be difficult with the competition we've got."

"Ultimately I came out of it in a positive manner," he said. "I can come back to a club I've had success with and hopefully can have even more and can push over the line that we haven't quite managed to so far."




Read more at http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/derby-county-s-chris-martin-can-t-wait-to-prove-people-wrong-this-season/story-30427884-detail/story.html#Vye37fb8r7qwFHYq.99

[filham]

Well, overall there is not much good news today.