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Tony Khan interview

Started by Fernhurst, August 12, 2019, 08:45:45 AM

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Fulham 442

Quote from: fulhamphil on August 12, 2019, 10:38:52 AM

Sarah is the best interviewer we have ever had. We have missed her over the last couple of years.

What a truly preposterous thing to post. Based on what exactly? The woman is toxic - ask any staffer at Motspur Park.

Thought she conducted the interview well and isn't she also a Fulham fan? Why do you describe her as being toxic out of interest?

Dr Quinzel

Quote from: Sting of the North on August 12, 2019, 01:44:42 PM
Quote from: Tabby on August 12, 2019, 01:35:09 PM
Quote from: Dr Quinzel on August 12, 2019, 01:17:21 PM
Quote from: Tabby on August 12, 2019, 12:53:24 PM
If we are to take him at his word, Scott Parker was pretty happy with the defense and wanted attacking players first and foremost.

Then the question is, should he listen to his manager or should he ignore their input like he supposedly did with Joka?

Didn't Scott recently have a public quote where he wanted defenders? We only hear bits and pieces, and it obviously changes as time goes by I'm sure, but that would seem to fly in the face of that. All a bit confusing.

I can't recall Scott ever saying that we needed defenders. He has said that we need "reinforcements", but that is it as far as I know.

I am fairly sure he mentioned that we still (after reinforcing the attack) needed to strengthen in midfield and defense. This is also what TK stated in the interview, but expanded on this that according to SP our priorities had been attack and midfield first, defense last. And for defense he wanted a CB, not RB. Therefore, had we gotten Hector over the line we had acquired all our top targets (according to TK). No obvious contradictions at all.

Thanks for that.

The Rational Fan

Quote from: toshes mate on August 12, 2019, 11:38:53 AM
Quote from: Ordar on August 12, 2019, 11:29:40 AM
Are people seriously complaining about paying £5 a month, or £45 per year for the FFTV service.... wow.... Thats the price of 1 beer a month. People need to get a grip.
The cost of FFCTV is irrelevant to the argument that an interview with our co-owner, vice chair, and DoF should be free to all including those who don't wish to purchase FFCTV.  What happens/ed in transfer windows should be accessible to all who support FFC although I do understand why the Offal hasn't transcribed what TK said, or provided subtitles or closed captions with the video/audio - it would take a month of Sundays.

Any financial accounts released to the public that may affect the credit rating of the club are not allowed to be behind a pay-wall, surely interviews with the owner, co-owner and CEO should be in the same category. Only entertainment such as player inteviews or past games etc should be behind a paywall.


Dr Quinzel

Quote from: Fulham 442 on August 12, 2019, 01:52:24 PM
Quote from: fulhamphil on August 12, 2019, 10:38:52 AM

Sarah is the best interviewer we have ever had. We have missed her over the last couple of years.

What a truly preposterous thing to post. Based on what exactly? The woman is toxic - ask any staffer at Motspur Park.

Thought she conducted the interview well and isn't she also a Fulham fan? Why do you describe her as being toxic out of interest?

Probably best left off of the board for the sake of the mods/board owners tbh.

SG

Quote from: Robbie on August 12, 2019, 01:17:43 PM
Virtually no EPL club is financially self sustaining without a subsidy or benign owner.

TV revenues are probably maxed out, particularly for the EPL.

The only way out of this is:

1) A wages cap for the industry
2) Ticket prices to go up massively (i.e. double)

So, be very careful what you bellyache about.

Interesting article in todays Times about Stevenage. Their owner saying that their income is maximised as they cannot increase ticket prices any further, the players are paid at the going rate and the entire model is unsustainable as it stands. In that sense we are fortunate to have the owner we have.

Statto

#65
The posts treating this as a victory for anyone who's defended TK in recent months seem pretty boorish and misguided to me. TK essentially confirms that most of what the "TK haters" have been saying lately is indeed true, despite those on the other side of the argument always saying "we don't know what happens behind the scenes." For example, it seems we did indeed fail with a last-minute move for Hector, and hold out for every penny of our asking price for Sessegnon. So I think a lot of questions remain, not least, why was signing a CB our lowest priority according to TK when almost every poster on here thought it should be our #1 priority?

In fairness, it did also contain some positive (albeit unsurprising) information, eg, Steven Sessegnon is expected to break into the first team this year, Parker is properly involved in the recruitment process, we made good use of creative structures on several transfers this summer, Mitrovic was persuaded to choose us over more money in China, etc.

Overall I think it was a really good video (personally I don't care about the paywall) because it showed a bit of humility. He admitted that there was nothing (or almost nothing) positive we could take from last season. He referred to certain criticisms I've read on here, suggesting he pays attention to this forum and/or what other fans are saying on social media. Even his clothes (no tie or glasses) and body language seemed very different to what I've seen before - very humble and sincere. This is all reinforced by our change of approach this summer (specifically, signing players with Championship experience, and making sure we've an option to make loan signings permanent) which suggests TK is admitting, and learning from, previous errors.

Much different to the FST meeting back in March - perhaps the minutes of that meeting misrepresented him slightly.   

Let's see how the next few months go.


Statto

Quote from: Dr Quinzel on August 12, 2019, 01:54:12 PM
Quote from: Sting of the North on August 12, 2019, 01:44:42 PM
Quote from: Tabby on August 12, 2019, 01:35:09 PM
Quote from: Dr Quinzel on August 12, 2019, 01:17:21 PM
Quote from: Tabby on August 12, 2019, 12:53:24 PM
If we are to take him at his word, Scott Parker was pretty happy with the defense and wanted attacking players first and foremost.

Then the question is, should he listen to his manager or should he ignore their input like he supposedly did with Joka?

Didn't Scott recently have a public quote where he wanted defenders? We only hear bits and pieces, and it obviously changes as time goes by I'm sure, but that would seem to fly in the face of that. All a bit confusing.

I can't recall Scott ever saying that we needed defenders. He has said that we need "reinforcements", but that is it as far as I know.

I am fairly sure he mentioned that we still (after reinforcing the attack) needed to strengthen in midfield and defense. This is also what TK stated in the interview, but expanded on this that according to SP our priorities had been attack and midfield first, defense last. And for defense he wanted a CB, not RB. Therefore, had we gotten Hector over the line we had acquired all our top targets (according to TK). No obvious contradictions at all.

Thanks for that.

This is the Parker quote you may be thinking of:

"I think that I would probably need some more in that area [defence], and probably in midfield as well, where we're a little bit thin," the Whites boss said.

"We all realise that this game is a team sport and you need to rely on your squad, so we certainly need to add a bit more in those areas. I'm sure we will over the coming 10 days.

"I feel like we've done some good business in the front half of the pitch."

https://www.westlondonsport.com/fulham/parker-predicts-more-fulham-signings

Dr Quinzel

Yep, that was the comment I was thinking of - thank you. If it was 10 days prior to the window closing/season starting (not sure when), then it does ring true with TK's comments.

Matt10

Quote from: SG on August 12, 2019, 12:13:57 PM
I do have some sympathy with the view that such an interview should be available to all and not behind the paywall. However I found it rather refreshing to hear some things first hand rather than via social media and the press. My main gripe though is his use of the word 'I' all the time. The team behind transfers are just that - a team. I would expect to see the word 'we' used, even if it were TK having the conversations. For the record imho it was very pleasant listening to Sarah's voice again after all this time.

He said "We" a lot, if not more than "I". Think it's a non-issue personally. Good interview overall.


snarks

Good points Statto

With regard to the CB clearly SP thought with a fit Mawson, Ream in a division in which he is comfortable,  and Denis having proved he's OK as a CB in the Championship, not to mention MLM who should be OK (similar level to the French league) we should be OK.

He can obviously see that KMac has dropped a level so that was a priority and Ayite has never been fit for a full season. I can see why support for Mitro was/is a higher priority.

Fulham1959

Good, lengthy interview and even better to know that Sarah is back (apparently).

Incidentally I thought the Chairman's page in Saturday's programme was first class, too.  I also don't think it was written by a PR team.  It is well-written, lucid and sincere and reflects exactly the personality that comes over in his filmed interviews.  Therefore I think it's written by the man himself.  We are lucky to have him.

I don't know why people baulk at paying £5 per month (or whatever) for FFC TV.  In the great scheme of things it's a pittance.  To not do so, even on principle, is just cutting off your nose to spite your face.  It's for dedicated Fulham fans and it's a good service, much improved this season (teething problems notwithstanding).

I'm very happy with things at Fulham at the moment and excited for what lies ahead.  Good to hear from TK himself, too.  It's only the dedicated moaners that I'm not happy about.

Sting of the North

Quote from: General on August 12, 2019, 01:49:47 PM

...
As a director of Football you can still use your own brain and realise that 6 (max seven including steven sessegnon) is not a strong enough defence and backup to keep going in this league unless you're very lucky. To say Scotty prioritised Midfield and Attack may be true, but it doesn't make any mention of Scotty not wanting Defence and the fact he's acknowledged Hector being on the books for January, shows to me that there was an intention to recruit a defender - where they haven't and subsequently leaves us in a potentially vulnerable place in defence.

Now - he's playing a game of risk and luck with our defence. Mawson on his day is a premiership level defender but has historically been a sick-note. That leaves us back with the defence that is worse than our defence that got us promoted. Plus we kept a clean sheet against blackburn who are already rooted to the bottom of the table and so gives no genuine gauge of how our defensive unit is. Their only saving grace is being able to train against Mitro, Bobby Reid, Knockaert and Cavaleiro who will all test them.

...

The reason why I'm critical of TK, apart from his inability of lack of desire to genuinely take on board criticism as a means by which to improve himself is because he always tends to make similar mistakes or leave jobs half complete.

...

Just a few comments on parts of your post (cut out the rest in order to not take up a full page):

- It is very clear from the interview that Steven Sess should be counted and that he tried to acquire another central defender (he stated this outright very clearly). That would have left us with 8 first team defenders (not counting Djalo), which I would argue is about what you can reasonably expect to afford. Hopefully some of the youngsters can make up the numbers in case we get many injuries/suspensions at the same time.

- To describe any team as "rooted to the bottom of the table" after 2 out of 46 games is not really strengthening your argument in my opinion.

- Do you not think that working closer with the head coach as well as signing only players with experience of the Championship might be a sign of TK improving himself?


David Allen Crankshaw

An excellent and informative interview. Also great to hear Sarah's voice again.

YoungsBitter

Quote from: Matt10 on August 12, 2019, 02:15:03 PM
Quote from: SG on August 12, 2019, 12:13:57 PM
I do have some sympathy with the view that such an interview should be available to all and not behind the paywall. However I found it rather refreshing to hear some things first hand rather than via social media and the press. My main gripe though is his use of the word 'I' all the time. The team behind transfers are just that - a team. I would expect to see the word 'we' used, even if it were TK having the conversations. For the record imho it was very pleasant listening to Sarah's voice again after all this time.

He said "We" a lot, if not more than "I". Think it's a non-issue personally. Good interview overall.
I have to agree he said "I" way too often. It's almost as if he reads this Board and Twitter and listens to the Podcasts as a lot of this seemed to be very specifically addressing criticism of TK and the lack of signings in defense. I think he is relatively sensitive and wants to be liked, he wants people to think he has done a good job. Yes, he mentions the scouting and stats team and Parker but all the actions are described as "I did this, I did that". The whole FFP compliance saga seemed overblown, they knew they had the money coming Reed was already done as a loan so he had 3 hours to get Hector done, asusming they had at leats done some of the contingent work like medical and contracts, 'subject to' etc.
Quark, strangeness and charm

I Ronic

In my opinion TK has got better with each window. We now have a majority of players in the squad that have played in this league and been promoted out of it. If we're successful a fair few of them will have Premier league experience as well. I thought we'd lost the chance to get a meaningful amount of cash for Sess given he only wanted to go to Spuds and there was almost nothing on his contract (if the roles and clubs were reversed TK would be getting some serious grief on this board currently)  He and his team held their nerve and Levy buckled. We've held on to most of the players that came in last year. So there's a good chance the Club will re-coup most of what they spent at some point in the relative near future.


Sting of the North

Quote from: Statto on August 12, 2019, 02:06:52 PM
The posts treating this as a victory for anyone who's defended TK in recent months seem pretty boorish and misguided to me. TK essentially confirms that most of what the "TK haters" have been saying lately is indeed true, despite those on the other side of the argument always saying "we don't know what happens behind the scenes." For example, it seems we did indeed fail with a last-minute move for Hector, and hold out for every penny of our asking price for Sessegnon. So I think a lot of questions remain, not least, why was signing a CB our lowest priority according to TK when almost every poster on here thought it should be our #1 priority?

...

Didn't he answer this very clearly stating that the priority was according to SP (Attack/midfield first, defense last)? It may not be true, but I am fairly certain he claimed this to be the case. I hope it is true, because I rather he listens to SP than to fans.

Matt10

Quote from: YoungsBitter on August 12, 2019, 02:26:56 PM
Quote from: Matt10 on August 12, 2019, 02:15:03 PM
Quote from: SG on August 12, 2019, 12:13:57 PM
I do have some sympathy with the view that such an interview should be available to all and not behind the paywall. However I found it rather refreshing to hear some things first hand rather than via social media and the press. My main gripe though is his use of the word 'I' all the time. The team behind transfers are just that - a team. I would expect to see the word 'we' used, even if it were TK having the conversations. For the record imho it was very pleasant listening to Sarah's voice again after all this time.

He said "We" a lot, if not more than "I". Think it's a non-issue personally. Good interview overall.
I have to agree he said "I" way too often. It's almost as if he reads this Board and Twitter and listens to the Podcasts as a lot of this seemed to be very specifically addressing criticism of TK and the lack of signings in defense. I think he is relatively sensitive and wants to be liked, he wants people to think he has done a good job. Yes, he mentions the scouting and stats team and Parker but all the actions are described as "I did this, I did that". The whole FFP compliance saga seemed overblown, they knew they had the money coming Reed was already done as a loan so he had 3 hours to get Hector done, asusming they had at leats done some of the contingent work like medical and contracts, 'subject to' etc.

Sigh.

Yes, he's done a good job. Parker is pleased, isn't that a good job? Most on here are pleased as well.

I mean, as I always say, the guy can't win. He's up against people on here that will never, ever, be satisfied, who fight against the ones that are realistic about their satisfaction.

The interview was good, and it's down to each of our perspectives on what to take away from it. To me, I took away that he and Parker are linked in their discussions - and on the same page. He addressed the situation with not getting Hector, and why that came about. He also addressed Sess's contract and eventual transfer.

I take it as facts because I am not privvy to the "inner-workings" or tin-foil hat conspiracy theories of behind the scenes that some would love to come to fruition - even if it means the club goes down, but as long as TK is out along with it. Please.

Fulham 442



Sarah is the best interviewer we have ever had. We have missed her over the last couple of years.

What a truly preposterous thing to post. Based on what exactly? The woman is toxic - ask any staffer at Motspur Park.

Thought she conducted the interview well and isn't she also a Fulham fan? Why do you describe her as being toxic out of interest?
[/quote]

Probably best left off of the board for the sake of the mods/board owners tbh.

Okay no worries.


Statto

#78
Quote from: Sting of the North on August 12, 2019, 02:29:11 PM
Quote from: Statto on August 12, 2019, 02:06:52 PM
The posts treating this as a victory for anyone who's defended TK in recent months seem pretty boorish and misguided to me. TK essentially confirms that most of what the "TK haters" have been saying lately is indeed true, despite those on the other side of the argument always saying "we don't know what happens behind the scenes." For example, it seems we did indeed fail with a last-minute move for Hector, and hold out for every penny of our asking price for Sessegnon. So I think a lot of questions remain, not least, why was signing a CB our lowest priority according to TK when almost every poster on here thought it should be our #1 priority?

...

Didn't he answer this very clearly stating that the priority was according to SP (Attack/midfield first, defense last)? It may not be true, but I am fairly certain he claimed this to be the case. I hope it is true, because I rather he listens to SP than to fans.

I'd treat those claims (that SP, rather than TK, decided our priorities) with mild caution for several reasons, but ultimately, I'm not really concerned who's to blame. Contrary to what some (admittedly not you) think on here, I don't really have a personal problem with TK and would just as readily direct this criticism to SP if indeed the prioritisation was down to him.

Generally I agree that senior management should listen to the manager rather than fans, but when all 20,000+ fans consistently and strongly believe the same thing, they're not going to be wrong. So if TK/SP though differently, that would worry me.

The Rational Fan

#79
Quote from: Statto on August 12, 2019, 02:41:21 PM
Quote from: Sting of the North on August 12, 2019, 02:29:11 PM
Quote from: Statto on August 12, 2019, 02:06:52 PM
The posts treating this as a victory for anyone who's defended TK in recent months seem pretty boorish and misguided to me. TK essentially confirms that most of what the "TK haters" have been saying lately is indeed true, despite those on the other side of the argument always saying "we don't know what happens behind the scenes." For example, it seems we did indeed fail with a last-minute move for Hector, and hold out for every penny of our asking price for Sessegnon. So I think a lot of questions remain, not least, why was signing a CB our lowest priority according to TK when almost every poster on here thought it should be our #1 priority?

...

Didn't he answer this very clearly stating that the priority was according to SP (Attack/midfield first, defense last)? It may not be true, but I am fairly certain he claimed this to be the case. I hope it is true, because I rather he listens to SP than to fans.

I'd treat those claims (that SP, rather than TK, decided our priorities) with mild caution for several reasons, but ultimately, I'm not really concerned who's to blame. Contrary to what some (admittedly not you) think on here, I don't have a personal problem with TK and would just as readily direct this criticism to SP if indeed the prioritisation was down to him.

Generally I agree that senior management should listen to the manager rather than fans, but when 20,000 consistently and strongly believe the same thing, they're not going to be wrong. So if TK/SP though differently, that would worry me.

The problem last season was with conceding goals, so naturally fans want new defenders, but what if Parker considers the problem was with lack of defensive cover from midfield and forwards (e.g. Schullre and Mitrovoic). I though at the start of this window what we needed was two top first team wingers, backup centre forward and repalcements for Seri/Anguissa (especially to cover Cairney and Johansen). Another RCB would be nice, but no point buying a defenders if they aren't a major upgrade from Ream and MLM (for example Kalas is an upgrade but a minor upgrade).