The Curious Case of Fulham – A scouting or management failure?

[Friendsoffulham]

The Curious Case of Fulham – A scouting or management failure?



'What the fcuk is the neutral stand?' the first response when I mentioned I'd be writing my first post on Fulham to my group chat. Probably not the first time this has been questioned by a football fan, yet little negative press is harboured on the stand itself. However, it does seem strange a club who played in a European final a decade ago allocates seats to so called 'neutrals'. In fact the general consensus suggests this is actually a stand dominated by away fans especially for clubs with a larger following.

Craven Cottage itself is widely considered a 'proper' ground still retaining the character of stadiums built in the 19th/ early 20th century. This begs the question what the hell is going on with Fulham? Since the glory of the 2010 win over Juventus and the heartbreak of losing in the final Fulham seem to have lurched from one strange move to another, on and off the pitch. I've decided to look into the past decade at Fulham and work out who's at fault for their fall.

The less said about the Michael Jackson statue around Fulham the better, in reality though it was the start of a long line of poor and controversial decisions throughout the club. Post UEFA cup Fulham were able to establish consistent top ten and mid table finishes for the following couple of seasons. No one expected Fulham to transform into European contenders every season and on the surface securing mid table consistency seemed a good legacy.

Digging deeper into this era behind the scenes it seems clear poor management led to their eventual relegation in 2014- Mohamed Al Fayed's first season as owner. The deadline sales of Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey to Tottenham in 2012 were just about covered up by the signing of Berbatov as Fulham finished 12th but despite the clearly obvious fact that Berbatov was never a long-term solution, Fulham rarely placed any trust in youth.

Their 2014 relegation masterminded by Felix Magath, who may or may not be the strangest manager in premier league history, led to stories of players standing in their positions for 45 minutes because they didn't run enough in the game coupled with the disastrous signing of Kostas Mitroglou meant Fulham went down without a whimper.

We know since then Fulham have come back up and then down, however, every step of this journey has been riddled with poor transfer decisions. Jokanovic will be remembered fondly for his role in promoting Fulham with the style he imposed, sadly the 2018 summer transfer window ruined any chance he had of Premier League success. Fulham's key issue in their decline has revolved around poor signings but more importantly this stems from scouting issues or potentially lack of scouting.

Rumours of Mitroglou being overweight and not match fit have been confirmed by various sources in recent times, so why did they sign him? In fairness every club has dud signings but to spend on a record transfer who only ends up starting two games before leaving is poor planning at best and woeful negligence at worst. Not to mention Bryan Ruiz signed in 2011 for over £10 million who despite flashes of genius clearly wasn't ready or good enough for top-flight football.

Fulham's lack of clear transfer strategy (Scott Parker and a couple others aside) was epitomised by the 2018 window, having won the play off final with a relatively young squad we'd all have forgiven Fulham for bringing in a few shrewd additions to consolidate premier league football the following season. Instead they decided to chuck money at players who I can only assume they expected to be good because they used to be aka Andre Schurrle or players linked with other clubs.

Making Mitrovic permanent was the only genuine smart signing and even then, they had the benefit of watching him bang in goals for 6 months. I could spend a few pages on picking apart every signing individually and in Fulham's defence I would be doing so with the benefit of hindsight. Yet, that's the issue I'm not a full-time payed scout and I don't have access to the data they do but even I knew they'd fucked up during that transfer window.

I believe the 2018 summer embodies the transfer and scouting issues at Fulham. We can rule out Mitro and Chambers as failures now whilst I won't focus on the two keepers signed. The signing of Zambo Anguissa I'll never understand, from early on he clearly struggled at the base of the midfield alone and couldn't cope with the premier league – for nearly £30 million did not one scout propose he might not be ready?

Moving on, Alfie Mawson a decent centre back in a relegated side in a way made sense especially as a ball playing centre back. Yet he was injured, another wasted purchase for a side needing defensive stability instantly. A player I sympathise with is Joe Bryan who genuinely earned his premier league shot and had it not been for injury may have had a more successful stint in the prem and I'm glad he's starting to find a consistent run of form this season.

Le Marchand and Fosu-Mensah were obviously just not good enough to be premier league starters – in Le Marchand's defence being thrown in at left back early on did not help his development. Andre Schurrle may have been the biggest scouting let down of them all he was clearly not a player to lead a premier league side, in many ways he was luxury player in a team unlikely to be facing anything but a relegation dogfight. He may have scored a few goals but Liverpool 'legend' Ryan Babel who effectively replaced him in January proved to be far more useful outlet and had he been signed instead of Schurlle Fulham may have had a better chance.

It's baffling that anyone in the club concluded that these players were fit for purpose and even more strangely did anyone point out 12 new signings (even with 2 keepers that's 10 new outfielders) might be hard to gel.

Some of you may have noticed I didn't mention Michael-Seri, the only reason for this is I do believe he was/is a good enough player, I find the main issue was he was the type of player who needed to be integrated slowly and into a more settled side than Fulham. I'd even argue if Fulham had kept the exact same side as the championship season replaced the loan players and bought Mitro, then Seri probably could've come in slowly and been a success.

So, is this a scouting issue or a management one? I sadly don't know enough of the workings inside Fulham, normally I'd blame poor scouting but on this occasion and from hearing Mohammed Al-Fayed speak I'm inclined to point fingers at an owner who wants to have it all too soon and buy players he thinks can bring this. A lot of their signings have proved poor at best and have come at a cost greater than just transfer fees, Fulham now need to rebuild and if Scott Parker does bring them back up, he should be backed financially but this time with better planning.

The signings made last summer in my opinion were a step in the right direction, two top level championship wingers and the brilliant acquisition of 'Virgil' Van Hector especially. They still realistically made too many signings, but this was a result of previous poor management and they were in need of a rebuild.

Other clubs should take note from Fulham's poor transfer strategy, Aston Villa showed how not to do it but luckily have the brilliance of Grealish to give them a shot at redemption. Sheffield United proved you don't need to throw money around and before them Bournemouth proved it was possible – although they are also at fault for shocking spending in recent times.

I for one hope Fulham come back up and stay there, they have great fans who are enjoyable to talk to and form a loyal away backing. Fulham also have the advantage of being a facing less pressure than say a Leeds United and fans will allow Scott Parker and co a chance to rebuild. With the fire power of Mitro, return to form of Cairney, defensive prowess of Michael Hector and the brilliant talent of Stephane Sessengnon(I hope to discuss him in detail in a later post) there is a genuinely good team already in place.

Whatever happens next Fulham need to sort out their scouting and transfer policy be it the scouts themselves or the management team holding up their hands and getting out the way. Maybe the neutral stand is a good thing, the truth is it shouldn't matter, time to learn from past mistakes and maybe one day they'll be beating Juventus at the Cottage again.

https://camelfootball.co.uk/the-curious-case-of-fulham-a-scouting-or-management-failure/

[MikeTheCubed]

'Virgil' Van Hector - I like it.

[Twig]

" eventual relegation in 2014- Mohamed Al Fayed's first season as owner."  Do you mean last? 

BTW I too liked the Virgil van Hector.

[Milo]

Interesting.

The author states early he is "writing with the benefit of hindsight".. as if to excuse himself from an "I told you so" article. However, goes on to effectively claim he knew all along things were going to go wrong. That may be true, but it's not what the majority thought at the time ... and I think the article would have benefited from recognising that.

I also think more could be said of TK's response to his failures. I like, for instance, the loan to buy deals we've had this year that have worked really well. Also, going after the proven "player of the season" types eg Cav, Knockaert that mostly have come good again - a nod to Mike Rigg's reign.

All in all, interesting read. However, needed to show a bit more humility and recognise we as fans didn't quite see the failures in the Prem coming as crushingly as they did.

[alfie]

I said right at the beginning that it was all going to go wrong, actually I didn't, but it is so easy for anyone to say they did.

[Penfold]

" eventual relegation in 2014- Mohamed Al Fayed's first season as owner."  Do you mean last? 

BTW I too liked the Virgil van Hector.

I think he means Shad Khan's first as that's what it was. Poorly edited piece to be honest.

[FulhamKC]

I might take his opinion more seriously if he knew who our owner is.

[Andy S]

I started reading it but I got bored. In football mistake# are made. Move on.

[SP]

Gave up at the comments about the neutral section, fans from overseas must make up a percentage of premier league attendance these days.

[Wolf]

How long since there was a neutral stand?

[Carborundum]

"The less said about....." and "some of you will have noticed I didn't mention"........then fills whole paragraphs on the particular topics.  Not so much an article as a drive-by shooting fuelled by the benefit of hindsight. 

[bill taylors apprentice]

Just another jumble of words from a supposed football pundit!
Do people make money from this garbage

[filham]

Nothing new is said in the OP, we are all aware that we have in recent seasons made an absolute mess of transfers and we are questioning the ability of scouts and managers to identify good players. I,for one, was putting the blame on the Stats policy.

There are signs that we may have turned a corner, Hector, Rodak and Mitro have to be the best signings we have made for a long while. Lets hope that Stats now take second place and that Parker's opinion on players is the prime factor on signings for next season.

[ALG01]

I think we have done all this already. we know the signins were dreadful and the kepy players in that debacle remain in situ so I suspect nothing much will change if we do go up. clearly the current team is less good than slav's and would need far greater surgery. the first thing i would do is bring in more top class coaching staff to assist parker and get a proper scounting system in place.

TK is a nice bloke, obviously loves the team but s the wrong man for the job. until that changes we are playing the lottery.

[Fernhurst]

I think we have done all this already. we know the signins were dreadful and the kepy players in that debacle remain in situ so I suspect nothing much will change if we do go up. clearly the current team is less good than slav's and would need far greater surgery. the first thing i would do is bring in more top class coaching staff to assist parker and get a proper scounting system in place.

TK is a nice bloke, obviously loves the team but s the wrong man for the job. until that changes we are playing the lottery.

Ok AL, if we were to win the lottery (which effectively we have with our current owner) who could we attract to replace SP and oversee a sea change in our football tactics and scouting team with instant results?
Not sure we can attract Pochittino.   

[ALG01]

I think we have done all this already. we know the signins were dreadful and the kepy players in that debacle remain in situ so I suspect nothing much will change if we do go up. clearly the current team is less good than slav's and would need far greater surgery. the first thing i would do is bring in more top class coaching staff to assist parker and get a proper scounting system in place.

TK is a nice bloke, obviously loves the team but s the wrong man for the job. until that changes we are playing the lottery.

Ok AL, if we were to win the lottery (which effectively we have with our current owner) who could we attract to replace SP and oversee a sea change in our football tactics and scouting team with instant results?
Not sure we can attract Pochittino.   

I think Scott may well be the best long term oprtion and I would stick with him. But that doesn't mean I am no mighty frustrated at obvious things he is doing wrong and like so many others he clearly has one or two favourites I wouldn't necesarilly play that often. But his inexperience is holding us back and we should be doing better. I think scott is so close to getting it right but needs to get the midfield better balanced and more bodies in the box when we go forward. I think whatever happens he deserves another season, but with more assistance.

Without wanting to start any arguments, if SP were changed my choice would be make peace with Slav and get him back, he is ideally suited. Poch, I do not think is right for us after what happened at spurs and I think he needs a 'bigger' club.

[filham]

I think we have done all this already. we know the signins were dreadful and the kepy players in that debacle remain in situ so I suspect nothing much will change if we do go up. clearly the current team is less good than slav's and would need far greater surgery. the first thing i would do is bring in more top class coaching staff to assist parker and get a proper scounting system in place.

TK is a nice bloke, obviously loves the team but s the wrong man for the job. until that changes we are playing the lottery.

Ok AL, if we were to win the lottery (which effectively we have with our current owner) who could we attract to replace SP and oversee a sea change in our football tactics and scouting team with instant results?
Not sure we can attract Pochittino.   

Parker has yet to be involved with multi million pound signing failures. We need a period of consistency and solidarity and Parker is best retained for at least another season. Hopefully he will manage to retain existing key players and manage to avoid a major turnover of players. Sure the tactics are not that entertaining but points has to be the first priority.

[Jims Dentist]

I think we have done all this already. we know the signins were dreadful and the kepy players in that debacle remain in situ so I suspect nothing much will change if we do go up. clearly the current team is less good than slav's and would need far greater surgery. the first thing i would do is bring in more top class coaching staff to assist parker and get a proper scounting system in place.

TK is a nice bloke, obviously loves the team but s the wrong man for the job. until that changes we are playing the lottery.

Once again agree with you ALG.
I have a theory that last summer TK was so involved with the wrestling venture that he may not have been as involved as previously. Either that or he now listens to advice, as most of that period signings were pretty good.
That said I would not keep Knocky.
It is also good that at last we are now looking at the lower leagues.