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How Fulham masterminded their return

Started by millsy, August 10, 2020, 03:59:56 PM

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millsy

Article in the Times tomorrow apparently on how we plotted our way back.

WindyCity


Steeeeeeeeeed

I guess that Step One was convincing Mitrovic to stay.


Dougie

#3
"Masterminded" seems generous. We benefited from a small wage bill coming down because of how many loan signings we relied on in 18-19, which was perhaps an error in itself given how disappointing they all were.
We shifted some deadwood off on loan to generate space to bring in new players - but again if these signings had the right attitude they could have played a part in the campaign.
We signed three attacking players at the absolute peak of their market value (for more than it cost for Brentford to assemble their entire team), all of whom are skillful but flatter to deceive, made possible in part because we were required to sell our most valuable asset for a lower fee than we otherwise would have received, because we allowed him to enter the final year of his contract instead of negotiating a new deal in the summer of 2018.
And we were pretty average up to January when a player we ought to have had available in August was finally eligible to play.

paulbrookersmazydribbles


Tony Khan: 'We don't need to spend £100m again – Fulham have the squad to stay up'

by Dan | Aug 10, 2020 | Uncategorized | 7 comments

Fulham director of football Tony Khan says he won't be splashing the cash this summer and backs his squad, with a few sensible additions, to be strong enough to stay in the Premier League.

Khan, speaking in an interview with the Times' football correspondent Alyson Rudd, feels that some of the additions made over the course of this past season will prove pivotal in the months ahead. He also says that the club's statistically-based transfer model will remain in place, praising manager Scott Parker's 'proactive' approach to recruitment and rules out a Craven Cottage return for Tottenham winger Ryan Sessegnon.

Following Fulham's dramatic play-off final win over Brentford in extra time last week, Parker was quick to admit the club needed to learn lessons from their last promotion, when a summer of free spending disrupted the harmony of a tight-knit dressing room. Khan feels Fulham's decisions to trigger the options to turn loan deals for Bobby Decordova-Reid, Anthony Knockaert and Ivan Cavaleiro leave the club handily placed – even though there is only a month to go until the start of the new season.

"We won't spend £100m again, I don't think we need to. The best players we bought are still with us. I feel better about the club, it's not as if we have to build again. I have already exercised most of options on loan payers and I expect the squad to look very similar to the one that got promoted."

"The investment we made was a big reason we got promoted. I hope we can be more competitive this time. We spent on the future. I am very happy with the players I bought in the summer of 2018. If we didn't have camaraderie then, we have it now. We didn't stay up but Mitro and Bryan were key to us getting back up."

Khan highlights the importance of signing Michael Hector from Chelsea, a deal that was completed last summer, even if a delay in processing the paperwork following Sessegnon's switch to Spurs meant the commanding centre half couldn't actually make his debut until January.

"I needed to get that deal across the line. I didn't have the money to make the bid until right before the deadline. I'd really wanted Michael the whole season but because of FFP I had to be careful. I spoke to Marina [Granovskaia, the Chelsea director] and told her we'd try to get the paperwork done before the deadline, but we weren't able to."

"I couldn't get past this thought: 'what if Michael makes a huge difference and we fall just short?,' then I'll always wonder what would have happened if we had been able to get him in sooner. A part of me was very scared we'd fall short at the end. I knew he was going to be an important player, but I didn't feel comfortable paying the fee until Ryan's deal had balanced the books."

Khan also revealed that both Andre-Franck Zambo Anguissa and Jean Michael Seri, big money signings last year who spent this season on loan at foreign clubs, will return to Fulham for pre-season and could play a part in the Whites' Premier League campaign.

"I love both players. The plan now is for them both to return to train with us in a couple of weeks. If the right bid came in, I'd have to consider it but right now they're aiming to come back to Fulham. Zambo is under contract for three more years and I believe in him. They like him a lot in Spain. Nobody is going to get Frank cheap. He's a great asset."

The Fulham vice-chairman also revealed that a lengthy Zoom call with Parker before the play-off final largely focused on how to use Aboubakar Kamara in the absence of Aleksandar Mitrovic, who was recovering from an untimely hamstring injury.

"The call was about tactics and players and how to deploy them. A lot of it was about Abou, who played as a striker in France and was a striker when he signed for Fulham and then we fell into this dilemma when we signed Mitrovic and we started playing him on the wrong. One thing we talked about at length was Abou and Scott agreed with me and he used Abou as a striker. He was one of our heroes at Wembley."

Khan described Fulham's 'two-boxes' ticked approach to recruitment as 'collaborative' and insisted that it would remain in place.

"The process is not changing. Of all the managers we have had, Scott is the most proactive about coming to meetings. It is a collaborative process and Scott has a lot of input. If I send him a long list of players, he researches them all."

He also confirmed that Fulham were keen to activate the £8m clause in Harrison Reid's loan deal that would secure a permanent move for the combative midfielder from Southampton. Such was Reed's influence in the midfielder over the second half of the season that the news will be warmly welcomed by the Fulham faithful.

"I'm working on it. I have an option to buy and I think he does want to stay."

Khan bluntly shut down any prospect of Sessegnon, who broke into the Fulham first team as a teenager to such dramatic effect, returning to his boyhood club,

"I am not not interested. Ryan already played for us in the Premier League and he didn't do enough to keep us in there. We get two [Premier League] loans and I can't be in the business of developing other people's players when they don't have time to play them. In my statistical system, I actually rated Josh [Onomah] equally with Sessegnon."

https://hammyend.com/index.php/2020/08/tony-khan-we-dont-need-to-spend-100m-again-fulham-have-the-squad-to-stay-up/

Motspur Park

I love the Khans and have not uttered anything derogatory against them but it concerns me when a complete novice at football calls the manager and discusses tactics and the use of a striker. I get that the Khans own the club and it is their millions being pumped in but apart from getting Scott's ideas on tactics, that is all the call should be about. Tony Khan has never played the game, will never fully understand it so leave the technical stuff to those that do. The comments about Scott agreeing with him as if he is some sort of authority on footballing knowledge is somewhat concerning and worrying. Khan senior previously said something to the effect of giving the manager / coach the tools and holding them accountable. This, in my opinion, is a much more sensible approach.


..FOF..

That is it then, we are getting Scott Parker for the EPL.

I will respect the decision, stand by him and as usual not panic mid-season if everything seems to go south:)

Next, there will hardly be any new faces. I am not too keen about this but totally understandable in this bad economic climate. Hopefully at least one more big impact player.

Statto

Quote from: Motspur Park on August 11, 2020, 07:45:02 AM
I love the Khans and have not uttered anything derogatory against them but it concerns me when a complete novice at football calls the manager and discusses tactics and the use of a striker. I get that the Khans own the club and it is their millions being pumped in but apart from getting Scott's ideas on tactics, that is all the call should be about. Tony Khan has never played the game, will never fully understand it so leave the technical stuff to those that do. The comments about Scott agreeing with him as if he is some sort of authority on footballing knowledge is somewhat concerning and worrying. Khan senior previously said something to the effect of giving the manager / coach the tools and holding them accountable. This, in my opinion, is a much more sensible approach.

Agreed
Really thought TK was starting to improve this year
But as observed on other threads, there's a lot wrong with this interview
Ansokute car crash really

Baszab

A very worrying interview

You would have thought that TK's PR team would have toned this sort of stuff down
What an attitude from a man with no knowledge of English football whatsoever other than his Dad having the brains to earn billions

The players and SP must have some very odd views on their owners after reading this boasting load of tosh




bog

I don't want Serri or Aquissa back thank you very much.  :031:

bill taylors apprentice

#10
Khan Jnr really is full of his own self importance, he can'thelp himself when it comes to blowing his own trumpet!

He's probably not done a proper days work in his life and thinks playing the big shot sports director with his dads money gives him an authority in a sport he really knows little about.

Having said all that he does seem to be learning from his errors along the way and when you look around at many, many other clubs we are in a very envious position regards our owners.

If SP has found a way of working with him that others haven't and this keeps his ego massaged I can put up with these kind of statements.

As for Serri & Zambo, the talk about them returning is just good salesmanship, I hope.

Gezza

Well that as put the lid on any return of Sessegnon rumours !


Gezza

Interestingly this article totally contradicts the previous Times article by Gary Jacob on the 6th August which stated :
New Contract will give SP greater control over transfer business
Fulham have asked Spurs about bringing back Sessegnon
Fulham will try to offload Anguissa

Woolly Mammoth

Quote from: Motspur Park on August 11, 2020, 07:45:02 AM
I love the Khans and have not uttered anything derogatory against them but it concerns me when a complete novice at football calls the manager and discusses tactics and the use of a striker. I get that the Khans own the club and it is their millions being pumped in but apart from getting Scott's ideas on tactics, that is all the call should be about. Tony Khan has never played the game, will never fully understand it so leave the technical stuff to those that do. The comments about Scott agreeing with him as if he is some sort of authority on footballing knowledge is somewhat concerning and worrying. Khan senior previously said something to the effect of giving the manager / coach the tools and holding them accountable. This, in my opinion, is a much more sensible approach.

I agree with what you say. Just shows what an arrogant little boy Khan Junior is. D of F don't make me laugh, and his disrespectful comments about Ryan Sess tells you more about the owners son than Ryan Sess who has always been a dignified player for Fulham, I know which one of the two I would have chosen to keep.
Its not the man in the fight, it's the fight in the man.  🐘

Never forget your Roots.

Mince n Tatties

I wouldn't read too much into this,think Khan junior is putting up a defensive wall for his back,knowing that cock up signings again and Dad might give him the heave ho.
Also the Hammy End in the past have been known to kind off change slightly the wording of articles they've picked up from The Times etc.
As been said by someone else,Scotty wants more transfer input before he signs a new contract,and if he wanted Sess back for instance,I think he would press for that very hard,regardless what Khan jnr has supposed to have said... I'll wait and see before any judgement.


Dougie

Quote from: bill taylors apprentice on August 11, 2020, 08:37:53 AM
Khan Jnr really is full of his own self importance, he can'thelp himself when it comes to blowing his own trumpet!

He really does use "I" in that interview an awful lot, compared to most club directors who would almost certainly us "we" when describing actions taken by the club. In other people I would think that's ego driving it but in Tony's case I think it's insecurity and a desire for validation. It won't be the toughest life being the son of a self-made billionaire but it probably presents its own psychological challenges.

Also when he talks about how we won't spend £100m again, it's because we can't. We are still amortising 18/19's transfers and they are as big a financial commitment this season as they were then (about £24m a year) because we couldn't shift any of them when we were relegated. Plus we have a chunk of the £30-40m we spent buying three attacking midfielders on top of that. From an accountant's perspective, what promotion has given us is two invaluable extra years of runway to pay off 2018's disastrous transfers.

General

#16
Quote from: Gezza on August 11, 2020, 08:51:43 AM
Well that as put the lid on any return of Sessegnon rumours !

No it hasn't, it he says 'I'm not not interested' - implying he would be open to having him back.. what he's saying is he's not interested in taking him on loan.

Re Khan - I've reserved judgement on him but tend to be a critic of his and thought he may have been turning a page, but this squad needs investment - we looked blunt last season and the players he bought in weren't getting proper game time for their parent clubs when we signed them (all of which were in the premier league at the time), so I'd be suprised if they were going to be good enough for us moving forward. I don't think Parker listened to TK's advice and therefore changed the gameplan - which is what he's alluding to when he says it was his idea - the fact that he says it though is a concern, as his role doesn't include attempting to manage the team or even interfering with the management. I thought this process would've grounded him in some human way, but he's still stuck on the statistics - head in the clouds.

I really wish Javier Pereira would just take the DOF role off him. Hopefully that's what he's in the process of doing. We need someone sensible who knows football.

FFCBadger

Quote from: bog on August 11, 2020, 08:30:02 AM
I don't want Serri or Aquissa back thank you very much.  :031:

Thing is, if TK said he wants to off load them he'll have just managed to reduce their price.
Anguissa might have something to offer us but Seri's far too light weight, I dont believe he's done great during his loan either.


MikeTheCubed

Once again get the impression that Tony has made this interview just as much about himself as he has Fulham as others have pointed out, though I do agree with almost everything he's said.

There was a picture of him doing the rounds the other week where he's blatantly had one of his arms photoshopped to appear large & muscly.

bobby01

Quote from: MikeTheCubed on August 11, 2020, 10:18:17 AM
Once again get the impression that Tony has made this interview just as much about himself as he has Fulham as others have pointed out, though I do agree with almost everything he's said.

There was a picture of him doing the rounds the other week where he's blatantly had one of his arms photoshopped to appear large & muscly.


Please find and post it 064.gif 064.gif 064.gif
Watching the ups and downs since 1958, wouldn't have it any other way, what a roller coaster of a club.