Just watched the Wembley play off final again.

[bill taylors apprentice]

Can't help thinking we had a proper team and we would have managed to withstand the PL storm in the first season back with the likes of Norwood, Targett and Kalas.

Its all history now but it reinforces to me that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!

I hope we get another chance to do it better soon.

[bog]

One of my proudest moments after 65 years of following Fulham was me and my two daughters being three of the White Wall in the closing minutes then losing it at the final whistle.  049:gif 049:gif 049:gif


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[sunburywhite]

I think we should have kept Norwood

Certainly wouldnt have been worse then the two we signed for loads of money

[ffcne]

It was always going to be tough in the premier league.
the way Slav wants to play.
That is why Roy,Dyche and Wilder have all succeeded.
Not sure he had much say in the signings and i think
some continuity of the promotion team with a few experienced
premier league  players would have been best .
Decent centre back ,decent holding midfielder.
Not 3 signings from the French league and a crocked centre half.
Babel was a good loan signing.   

[filham]

Had we managed to keep the complete Wembley line up, including Fredericks, Targett and Norwood and added Babel earlier along with a top centre back then we certainly would have done better in the premier league.
Mitro apart, that £100m was badly spent but then how many of us said so at the time.

[FulhamStu]

It's never as simple as it sounds.  Fredericks was absolutely key to that team and he had already agreed a pre-contract with West Ham, so he was gone.  We tried hard to sign Target but Southampton just wanted too much money.  So both full backs who were critical to how Slav played were gone.  Players like Mac, Ream, esp were too slow and StefJo, Odoi, Kamara, Kebano etc not really good enough.  We just had too much to do, coupled with not enough time to do it and a coach who wanted to continue with a style that required the very best players.   If we had bought in Big Sam, played more direct and concentrated on some premier league defenders rather than the expensive French players we would have stood a better chance, however did anyone really want that ?

Norwood is really interesting and certainly proved we should have kept him however hind-site is a wonderful thing.  Let's hope the lessons have been learnt and we recruit more suitably if there is a next time.

[FulhamStu]

One thing I noticed watching it all back again was how good Onomah was, sure Fulham were knackered and down to 10 men but he did a lot of good things and was one of the most influential players on the pitch for the last 10 minutes or so.

[Statto]

Agree to some degree with FulhamStu, but still, IMO it would have helped to at least keep Norwood, Kalas and even Button.

If you look at Button as an example, was he good enough for the PL? No, and Rico was indeed an upgrade. But did we also need to bring in Fabri? Bringing in two keepers gave our recruitment this farcical, 'scattergun' character, and when Fabri never played, he got disgruntled, creating negativity and toxicity in the squad. It would have been infinitely better for team spirit never to have signed Fabri and just to have kept Button as 3rd choice keeper.

The same goes for Vietto and MLM. Pointless, opportunistic signings. 30% of our in/out turnover just looked like signings for the sake of signing, TK getting carried away, that diminished team spirit and familiarity without improving the talent available.

[Fulham76]

One thing I noticed watching it all back again was how good Onomah was, sure Fulham were knackered and down to 10 men but he did a lot of good things and was one of the most influential players on the pitch for the last 10 minutes or so.

Was he with us then?

[Barrett487]

One thing I noticed watching it all back again was how good Onomah was, sure Fulham were knackered and down to 10 men but he did a lot of good things and was one of the most influential players on the pitch for the last 10 minutes or so.

Was he with us then?

Played for Villa (on loan)

[bog]

As ah been said Oli Norwood should have been signed. Much better than Seri.

[Fulham76]

One thing I noticed watching it all back again was how good Onomah was, sure Fulham were knackered and down to 10 men but he did a lot of good things and was one of the most influential players on the pitch for the last 10 minutes or so.

Was he with us then?

Played for Villa (on loan)

Cheers. Didn't realise that.

[FulhamStu]

I am sure we only signed MLM to get Seri, at the time, most fans who knew something about Seri and the press as a whole thought we had done amazingly well to capture Seri.  Why did it go wrong? maybe because he was done out of a lot of money due to the way the transfer was handled by his previous club and he was pissed off.

[Sgt Fulham]

They wanted Villa to go up which made our victory all the sweeter. I love Mitro and Slav's reaction to winning, they seem like very genuine friends.

[Statto]

I am sure we only signed MLM to get Seri, at the time, most fans who knew something about Seri and the press as a whole thought we had done amazingly well to capture Seri.  Why did it go wrong? maybe because he was done out of a lot of money due to the way the transfer was handled by his previous club and he was pissed off.

We probably won't ever know the intricacies of that deal. From what I've heard (mostly on here) it sounds like Nice threw in MLM so they could attribute a massive chunk of the total fee to him, which reduced the bonus they had to pay Seri upon his sale. If so, that was obviously an error.

Even if that wasn't the case, given MLM's wages, IMO he wasn't worth signing even if the fee was only a penny. I'd rather we paid £25m for just Seri, than £25m for both of them. 

[filham]

A big point is that Norewood and Cairney in the same team worked where as Seri and Cairney never did and it took each of our premier league managers last season a while to learn that.

[MrFFC]

Our team in that play off final was much better there was a togetherness. We all knew a keeper upgrade was needed but won't be this time if we go up. CB was always another area the signing of Mawson was a good one but unfortunate with injury. Kalas we should have signed I feel & Targett was a must. Norwood I always really liked he should have been signed. When you look at the line up v Palace we had replaced Betts Fredericks Ream Odoi Targett Stef Kamara from the starting 11 at Wembley far too many changes.

Chambers & Babel were good signings so hopefully we learned lessons this time & if we go up we get another 3/4 like them & keep the squad together I feel we would surely have a much better chance

[kiwian]

3 things that stood out for me: Grealish suffering from a lack of balance, Jim's voice nearly giving up, and Ream's class.

[Woolly Mammoth]

As ah been said Oli Norwood should have been signed. Much better than Seri.

I agree with you, there were many errors of judgement and poor decision making by the recruitment department after our promotion which was compounded by slow preseason preparation and organisation during that summer, which inevitably led to Fulham being in poor shape for the commencement of our Premier League Campaign, which cost us our manager who got us there in such style, and due to nepotism somebody had to take the fall in their eyes, and not forgetting how in access of 100 million English pounds can so easily be wasted in a short space of time, and the rest of course is history.

[fluffyninja]

Watched it back too for only the second time last week too , has anyone seen the picture of a beardless Slavisa in the Sun today ? Wow didn't recognise him ! What a guy , he says he thinks he would have done a bit better if he stuck with the 17-18 team that got us up.

Lots of good memories , my favourite one I think is a strange one really it's the block by Norwood near the end from a shot on the edge of the area , just remember thinking "What a tackle that could be so important"