Was Felix McGath mis-understood

[Andy S]

Was the cheese a tongue in cheek comment? How did he get the players and training so wrong? He wasn't a rookie after all. If he was so bad why did we ever employ him?

[Woolly Mammoth]

Just one of a profusion of mistakes and errors of judgement that this club has made in recent seasons, and the frustrating part about it is that it could and should have been avoided, but it continues to be compounded because it has not got the best people running the Club.
How many managers have we had since Alfayed sold the club, that indicates that they have a lot to learn.
To employ Felix Wolfgang Magath to ensure he took us down, they then as a reward kept him on to ruin the start of the next season. How unforgivable and stupid is that, Buffoons is the nicest description I can think of, as for Magath, he was a Corner Flag short of a football pitch.
He damaged Fulham like the Charge of the Light Brigade damaged army recruitment.

[RaySmith]

Magath had a record of rescuing teams from relegation, though in Germany, and in the past. He was also famed for his tough training regimes, and I remember  people saying on here that our pampered players  needed a bit of extra tough training.

But his appointment does seem to have much in common with  other mistakes in our recent history -

1 his experience was all in Germany, and not recent either, and his training methods  possibly out of date. His appointment  reeked of panic by those in charge.

2 He was made manager at an extreme time, when  results were urgently needed to save the club from relegation, with no experience of English football. We needed someone to hit the round running -who knew the  league, and what was needed.

3 He immediately seemed to alienate everybody - the players with his extreme methods of training, the fans, with inexplicable  formations and tactics, and   by not turning our fortunes round at all, but  just presiding over our  demise - but with players possibly  knackered after the week's training.

4 Then, he was kept on as manager in the Championship. What responsibility did he have in selling nearly all the experienced players, and replacing them with  inexperienced youngsters? Don't know how much he was, but it was his  policy to pick teams of youngsters, leaving out the few experienced  players still at the club, apart from Parker - whose efforts as captain helped keep us from going completely under until Kit took over. Magath ddin't seem to realise just how tough the Championship was.

5 All in all, a  b... up  typical of Fulham in recent  seasons.

[hovewhite]

Just one of a profusion of mistakes and errors of judgement that this club has made in recent seasons, and the frustrating part about it is that it could and should have been avoided, but it continues to be compounded because it has not got the best people running the Club.
How many managers have we had since Alfayed sold the club, that indicates that they have a lot to learn.
To employ Felix Wolfgang Magath to ensure he took us down, they then as a reward kept him on to ruin the start of the next season. How unforgivable and stupid is that, Buffoons is the nicest description I can think of, as for Magath, he was a Corner Flag short of a football pitch.
He damaged Fulham like the Charge of the Light Brigade damaged army recruitment.

he was more the nutty professor😀

[Mince n Tatties]

I think he mis - understood me when I asked for an autograph, as he pulled from his pocket a lb of cheddar,and 8oz of Red Leicester and gave them to me.😵

[Milo]

For me it was a joke and the senior, over the hill players who didn't like his wholesale changes to the status quo and the sudden move towards intense fitness twisted it and other things against him.

[Bassey the warrior]

No. He was arrogant and overly strict, from the same mould as Capello. Still, if he had decent players and not the likes of Mark ruddy Fotheringham, he may have been different. We'll never know.

[Dr Know]

I think he mis - understood me when I asked for an autograph, as he pulled from his pocket a lb of cheddar,and 8oz of Red Leicester and gave them to me.😵

Did you get a photo with him ? If so , did he say " say cheese "  ?

[Andy S]

Ver good Dr Know

[Mince n Tatties]

I think he mis - understood me when I asked for an autograph, as he pulled from his pocket a lb of cheddar,and 8oz of Red Leicester and gave them to me.😵

Did you get a photo with him ? If so , did he say " say cheese "  ?

lol

[Bracken White]

Quite simply Magath was the worst Fulham appointment ever, make no mistake. Terrible rationale - hadn't the faintest idea about motivation & endeavoured to rule the whole of the Club through fear. A total control freak whose rationale has nothing to do with the Fulham ethic. And look where we ended up under his fatally flawed dictatorship. Worse than abysmal ... not even mentioned his atrocious team selection.
Any misunderstanding was appointing him in the first place.

[toshes mate]

Would be very hard to misinterpret a manager who was known as 'Saddam', 'Qualix' (linked to German for torture), and 'the last dictator in Europe' before he even arrived at FFC.  Just a very misguided appointment made in panic by senior executives at the Club who clearly didn't know any better.

[MikeTheCubed]

Perhaps it's fair to say that prior to Magath's arrival at Fulham he was an evil genius. But by the time he'd arrived here he'd gone senile and had lost the genius and kept just the evil.

[Take Me Home MAF]

I think he is like Jose Mourinho, he is a manager that will thrive in a certain landscape and era. Both were wrong for him

I think the club thought bringing in someone who will drive authority and fitness that this would be enough to get us over the line - structure and athleticism. Which is was not, and it was a car crash. I dont think many managers could have kept that group of players up.

He has some fantastic achievements and you can't take those away from him, and by all accounts was a gifted player.

[Statto]

Personally always felt he was treated unfairly by a lot of fans.

The players are professional athletes, earning millions. Expecting them to work hard, get to training on time etc, doesn't make Magath a bad person. I got the impression he was fundamentally a nice guy, trying his best.

And he clearly wasn't an idiot. IIRC he was, in terms of significant trophies won, something like the 4th most decorated manager in England at the time.

I think he, along with the Khans, Mackintosh and everyone else at the club massively underestimated the Championship - not just the quality, but the hyper-competitive, gritty, unpredictable nature of it.

Then of course once things go tits up, all those eccentricities that would otherwise have looked funny or inspired, just look mad or stupid. It happened Tigana with the poetry reading just before we sacked him. And with Biesla last season, with the 2 hour powerpoint presentation, giving a goal to Villa etc. 

[filham]

Best forgotten.
We should be talking about our expectations for Parker not the complete failures of McGath.

[Sting of the North]

Personally always felt he was treated unfairly by a lot of fans.

The players are professional athletes, earning millions. Expecting them to work hard, get to training on time etc, doesn't make Magath a bad person. I got the impression he was fundamentally a nice guy, trying his best.

And he clearly wasn't an idiot. IIRC he was, in terms of significant trophies won, something like the 4th most decorated manager in England at the time.

I think he, along with the Khans, Mackintosh and everyone else at the club massively underestimated the Championship - not just the quality, but the hyper-competitive, gritty, unpredictable nature of it.

Then of course once things go tits up, all those eccentricities that would otherwise have looked funny or inspired, just look mad or stupid. It happened Tigana with the poetry reading just before we sacked him. And with Biesla last season, with the 2 hour powerpoint presentation, giving a goal to Villa etc.

This is, in my opinion, a reasonable assessment. I also believe that by the time they appointed Magath, it was too late to stop the fall. The squad was just too imbalanced with a combination of lack of experience for one half of the squad, and lack of desire for the other older half. Magath's failing was not to get us relegated (since it was not in my opinion his doing) but, as Statto mentioned, to completely underestimate the Championship. 

[Sting of the North]

Best forgotten.
We should be talking about our expectations for Parker not the complete failures of McGath.

I don't think those topics are necessarily mutually exclusive though. I also think it is not uninteresting to look at what happened last time we were relegated. What are the similarities and differences? What would we want to do differently etc? But maybe that deserves its' own topic.   

[gang]

Getting back to the cheese question , yes it was taken too seriously by Hangerland but Felix believed he was swinging the lead.

[Forever Fulham]

The way he just sat there, impassively, during games, staring.  Everything about the man was weird.  Ray's right--Magath alienated players, drove many away, played favourites in a transparent manner, isolating some.  He was the death of team chemistry and joint effort.  I hated him.