(Some) Praise for TK?

[TXWhite]

Before I get shouted down, I wanted to pose a question:

Who would you rather have - Kebano, Kamara, and Ayite or BDR, Cav, and Knockaert?

Kebano/Kamara/Ayite all came from foreign leagues and cost ~10M combined. BDR, Cav, Knock are "tried and tested" and are rumoured to have cost more than 3x that sum.

Now, maybe Parker is hampering BDR, Cav and Knockaert (they've all done well for previous clubs), but if most believe Kebano/Kamara/Ayite are more impactful for Fulham, surely Tony deserves some credit here...

[ByTheRiver]

Before I get shouted down, I wanted to pose a question:

Who would you rather have - Kebano, Kamara, and Ayite or BDR, Cav, and Knockaert?

Kebano/Kamara/Ayite all came from foreign leagues and cost ~10M combined. BDR, Cav, Knock are "tried and tested" and are rumoured to have cost more than 3x that sum.

Now, maybe Parker is hampering BDR, Cav and Knockaert (they've all done well for previous clubs), but if most believe Kebano/Kamara/Ayite are more impactful for Fulham, surely Tony deserves some credit here...

I would 100% agree. But I'd also give him credit for this year for bringing in those players mentioned (every player he brought in had championship experience after the potential lessons of last year with Seri, Vietto, Fabri et all). Leeds, WBA and Brentford would have been happy getting any one of those players (before a ball was kicked! Don't go on form over the season as the reasons for it are debatable!) and yet TK managed to bring in all three!

I think he gets a rough ride tbh.

[ALG01]

He brought them all in.
I never thought much of ayite, kebano is a lovely lad and started to do well, at last. Kamara is wild.
Bdr is brilliant but drifts out the game too much and cav and knock are a class up but mis firing.
TK has spent loads you have named 6 similar players, we needed proper full backs and center half that is fit...he signed two that are injured, and a bigugly physical prescence in central midfield...as well as a center forward.... but we do have loads of hit and miss lightweight wingers.

TK does not deserve any praise for being the consummate amateur too arrogant to step aside.

[MikeTheCubed]

I'd have thought that the spending of ~£30 million on the latter players demonstrates that Tony Khan did not have faith in the former players to be starters this season.

The relevant budgets and expectation levels were also very different; we spent ~£15 million on the former players in seasons where there was a lower budget and we weren't as highly expected to be challenging for automatic promotion; whereas this season there were higher parachute payments available and having come down from the Premier League we were expected to make an immediate return.

In Kebano & Kamara it's fair to say Tony has identified talented players, but both took a while to get going (you tend to hope for players that hit the ground running with the kind of money we spent on them) and have for whatever reasons not been favoured by the managers.

In Knockaert, Cavaleiro & Reid it's fair to say Tony has identified players who are "proven" at this level and ought to have hit the ground running. Their failures this season however does not necessarily mean they aren't good players; I think it has a lot more to do with the system we play not being suited to playing all of them in conjunction with our other players.

I wouldn't group Ayite with Kebano & Kamara either. For me he'd work hard off the ball and do something brilliant in the final third once or twice a season, but then offer very little offensively for a long stretch of games much in the same way as Knockaert. In fairness though he was purported to have cost significantly less than Kebano and Kamara.

[Statto]

He certainly did well this year IMO and I agree those older signings you name have aged well and clearly had some latent quality. The caveat I'd add is that whilst Ayite was a relative bargain (£1-2m IIRC) Kamara and Kebano weren't cheap given our budget at the time, neither made much of an impact when we actually needed them, and they were also signed around the same era we spent big money on Jozabed, Sigurdsson and Rui Fonte. So it's a bit like saying, "look, TK may have spent most of our budget back then on expensive flips like Rui Fonte, but a couple of his signings actually went on to justify their price tag a few years later." Which is better than nothing I suppose, but hardly a ringing endorsement.

[The Rational Fan]

Largely media hype that we spent so much money last year for 2018/19, operating expenses including amortization places us about 16th when it comes to spending on players last year.

Shahid Khan made £100m commitment over three to five years and Cardiff made £46m commitment spread over one to three years, so both made about £26m per year commitment only our club's invesment will last longer.

My estimate of operating costs including amortization of transfer fee, based on official government registered documents rather than media releases. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

9   West Ham   £227,388k
10   Southampton   £204,821k
11   Wolves   £197,944k
12   Crystal Palace   £193,743k
13   Watford   £175,929k
14   Newcastle   £161,555k
15   Bournemouth   £161,271k
16   Fulham   £160,470k
17   Burnley   £139,981k
18   Brighton   £129,351k
19   Cardiff   £122,988k
20   Huddersfield   £117,679k

Burnley and Brighton have the advantage of more quality players with zero-book value, reducing amortization. Fulham had Betts, Odoi, Sessegnon and Cairney whose book value was near zero, but most other teams had more reducing their amortization costs significantly compared to us. Well done, Burnley for having players at the club a long time that are still performing, Fulham lacked players at the club that had been here beyond their original contracts.

It may be worth noting that it could be argued that i) Southampton spent their money worst last year than we did given their league position, and both ii and iii) West Ham and Bournemouth spent their money worse this season than we did last season.

Also note, Jean Tigana's team would have had an operating cost of around £280m based on the inflation in turnover revenue, they got 44 points and only came 13th, this proof that coming up often needs more money than an existing premier league team or a promoted team that stays together without additions.

In conclusion, we didn't spend so much more than others especially when you consider Cairney, Anguissa, Mawson and others spent with a fair amount of time missing due to injuries in important games against teams that spent less than us (i.e. Burnley, Brighton, Cardiff, and Huddersfield).

[The Rational Fan]

He certainly did well this year IMO and I agree those older signings you name have aged well and clearly had some latent quality. The caveat I'd add is that whilst Ayite was a relative bargain (£1-2m IIRC) Kamara and Kebano weren't cheap given our budget at the time, neither made much of an impact when we actually needed them, and they were also signed around the same era we spent big money on Jozabed, Sigurdsson and Rui Fonte. So it's a bit like saying, "look, TK may have spent most of our budget back then on expensive flips like Rui Fonte, but a couple of his signings actually went on to justify their price tag a few years later." Which is better than nothing I suppose, but hardly a ringing endorsement.

Studies have shown the average DOF is only successful with 40% of their signings, while no way 40% of Tony Khan's signings have delivered instant value, but he may starts to get close to that value if players like Kamara and Anguissa get sold marginally above the price we bought them; if Knockaert/Reid/Cav have four seasons better than their first, and if Kebano scores a £130m goal in the playoff then leaves on a free.

[rebel]

Before I get shouted down, I wanted to pose a question:

Who would you rather have - Kebano, Kamara, and Ayite or BDR, Cav, and Knockaert?

Kebano/Kamara/Ayite all came from foreign leagues and cost ~10M combined. BDR, Cav, Knock are "tried and tested" and are rumoured to have cost more than 3x that sum.

Now, maybe Parker is hampering BDR, Cav and Knockaert (they've all done well for previous clubs), but if most believe Kebano/Kamara/Ayite are more impactful for Fulham, surely Tony deserves some credit here...

Kebano/Kamara/Ayite, I'd add Aluko to the mix. But they were utilized to their strengths by Slav. BDR, Cav and Knockaert aren't being utilized to their strengths.

Everything is so slow.We rarely catch opposition players out of position, we are so easy to defend against. 

[Maidstone Lee]

TK does not deserve any praise for being the consummate amateur too arrogant to step aside.

&

Kebano/Kamara/Ayite, I'd add Aluko to the mix. But they were utilized to their strengths by Slav. BDR, Cav and Knockaert aren't being utilized to their strengths.

Everything is so slow.We rarely catch opposition players out of position, we are so easy to defend against. 

Sums up my feelings in general.

[toshes mate]

Kebano, Kamara, Ayite, Decordova-Reid, Cavaleiro, and Knockaert are all good 'players' in the common sense use of the word, and would all be on the lists of anyone looking in the market place to strengthen a squad, regardless of method use. 

A key member of personnel with responsibility for recruitment, retention, and contract bargaining, would be happy to gain any of their interests in joining a club provided that club's head coach feels they can be adapted into whatever philosophical range of team organisation s/he is competent at.  Kebano, Kamara and Ayite all did well under Jokanovic, and I was surprised FFC let Ayite go.  Parker was consulted about Decordova-Reid, Cavaleiro and Knockaert, and didn't pass up the opportunity because all of them would be good fits for a promotion challenging team.  However, Parker is less well experienced in team philosophy, doing what is necessary to adapt players, and finding his way around issues.  If the team has failed to deliver to expected or anticipated standards then it would be churlish to blame players, recruiters or management separately and be wiser to say that there is at least one thing wrong in the way the club is set up.

How you address that last point is where you find the difficulties arising when people do not own up to their shortcomings.  How each component did is then a matter of unbiased analysis and reasonable study to identify how each unit can be better made.   In victory or defeat there are always lessons to be learned.  Praise is a short term encouragement which isn't required when people know they are doing what is necessary to deliver what they all want to deliver.  A good machine can be heard to be running good by a good mechanic.