Parker has to go...........

[Woolly Mammoth]

Yes TRF, that's the problem Fulham face at the moment - getting  targets to come to Fulham, when they have other offers from established Prem clubs, or even newly promoted club seen as having a greater prospect of actually  staying up.

So, I think we've done well to get the players in we have, and who have  definitely given us a  lot better chance of staying in the Prem league.

The Championship team promoted with the Best Defense seems to be the one best positioned, for example, 19/20 Leeds, 18/19 Sheffield United, 17/18 Wolves, and 16/17 Newcastle. If we go down, Fulham has acquired some good defenders to be the best defense in the championship, and importantly they are young with long careers ahead of them.

I agree with both you Ray and you Rational Fan, the defenders if kept together, have the basis of being a strong and mean defence, although Aina worries me with his positional sense. But overall looking at the whole team/squad apart from a striker and a decent winger the jigsaw is almost complete. I spare a thought for the Captaincy as we lack a leader in that department. I hope Scott Parker stays and is allowed to build the team, and he needs the full support of the owners. Yes we had a good second half v Everton, the trouble is and I understand why is that people will remember from that game the buffoonery of the early opening goal and another missed penalty.
We have to get the basics right, and the starting 11 right and if necessary make subs earlier and be proactive not reactive, and a result at Leicester City back by a solid performance will do the team a power of good.

[colinwhite]

I agree with you Woolley and others. For me ,its not about Parker its about our club. I think hes the best chance weve got of creating stabillity and long term success.People underestimate the value of building when it comes to continuity. A new coach ,relegation anyway . a new philosophy and we are back to minus square 2 .
The players are behind Scott and we arent far off from being a decent team (with a hell of a lot of new players ). We have no "right "to stay in the PL it has to be earned. There are no safe hands,or risk free appointments. Scotts achievment is that the club,players and supporters (apart from a few entitled ,short term thinkers ) are together. That is no mean achievement in my book .

[FulhamStu]

First of all let me say that I am in the Parker stays camp.  The club have obviously invested in him and see him as a long term head coach.  He seems to be well respected by the players and a good man manager.  I still think he was an odd choice for the medium, long term due to his lack of experience and he would appear to be learning on the job.  If he does become an excellent manager you can get a bigger club will take him from us, but that is the name of the game I guess.

One thing regarding our current squad which whilst not perfect and clearly put together very quickly in order to give us half a chance.. would Dyche, Billic or Wilder be getting more out of them ?  Are their squads better than Fulham's ?  My guess is that they would be doing better right now however in the long term I think we stay with Parker and that goes into next season what ever division we are in.  That assumes he continues to improve as a coach and keeps the dressing room.  Parker knows the Championship, he knows his squad, will know better than anyone where we can offload and where we need to recruit and most importantly stands the best chance of keeping our better players at the club.

I think we are likely to be relegated but have a chance to stay up, what we must do if we go down is to come back stronger, not have to re-build so much of the team because the quality is so far from that required.  It's very difficult to keep the best players when relegated but that will be the challenge.

[S.F.Sorrow]

I still don't see how people can defend Scott's player choices: starting Cav and dropping Zambo were two huge calls which evidently backfired. For all of our second half promise (in every game), he's not setting us up right and that's costing us goals early on.

Tony Khan is clearly the more useless of the pair, and has left us with an unbalanced and inadequate squad, but that doesn't mean that Scott is doing even close to good enough.

As a minimum, he needs to start getting it right from the start of games and also begin coaching the players on discipline and positioning - these things (along with penalty misses) are costing us points in every game.

The thing is I just don't see the point in sacking the manager if TK stays as DoF. It's like responding to a leaky pipe by continuously putting new towels around it.

the point is a new manager would try something different. we know we arent good enough under parker thats just a fact. one win is nine is shocking, absolutely shocking. how bad does it have to get

Out of the frying pan into the fire you reckon, that is not very bright.
As Statto has clearly stated, no point in sacking the manager if the real culprit stays as D of F.
Also as Crave mad has said, TK is the more useless and has left us with an inadequate unbalanced squad......again, yet you never mention him, he is the catalyst in all that is wrong.
The next six matches we really need a minimum of 10 out of 18 points to keep in touch with the rest of the herd. A big ask maybe, but a reasonable target all the same. If the owners son abandons Scott Parker in the January transfer market, then you need to go for his neck first before anyone else.

whats the point in mentioning Tony. He doesn't pick the tactics, formation or team. The squad isn't going to change anytime soon, so what can he do now other than get us an average/ to good manager. And the bit about the transfer market makes no sense as you blame Tony for the poor performances, so how will more of his players help Scott if he can't manage the players Tony has already given him. I actually think we have good enough players to stay up, but not good enough to play Parker ball and stay up. And let's be honest if we don't make a change soon, we will be cut well adrift for the 17th spot making good January acquisitions neigh on impossible.

To a certain extent a manager is only as good as the players he has at his disposal. It is a brand new defence which was conceived due to the owners sons scatter gun approach, with no consideration as usual for the type of character needed. Aina is already identified as not premier standard, too many players far too late brought in and not a striker amongst them, how incompetent can a so called D of F can get, and yet he was still signing defenders almost up to the last minute when it was bleeding obvious we needed another striker. Too little too late again and again, and once again some of these players were not fit and or injured, we have been here before, TK is a laughing stock amongst agents as well as supporters while he impersonates a D of F.

We tried to buy Matt Cash (RB), Bertrand Traoré (RW), and Ollie Watkins (CF) early in the window, but teams promoted through the playoff never get to sign players of their quality. Any Playoff promoted Club has to buy the players other premier league teams reject, and frankly, there is not much premier league quality left. Norwich's plan is the best to follow if we want to stay in the premier league.

If we wanted to follow Norwich's plan we shouldn't have gotten 6 players on short term loans: Areola, Lookman, Lemina, Aina, Andersen, Loftus-Cheek. All of them will be gone next season if we're relegated. Probably a couple more too. With our clueless recruitment we will have to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season if we're relegated. With TK in charge this probably means that the majority of our transfer business will be last minute panic deals and loans. Too little and too late seems to be his "plan".

I've said for years now that I dreaded the day when our squad would be 100% TK players. I think it's only Cairney left from the pre-TK era now? At least from our regular starters (although I seem to remember TK taking credit for signing Cairney too even though he was clearly a Rigg signing...).

I have no faith in the "yo-yo" plan. If we go down this season I don't think we will see Premier League football at the Cottage for a VERY long time.

[Jim©]

If we wanted to follow Norwich's plan we shouldn't have gotten 6 players on short term loans: Areola, Lookman, Lemina, Aina, Andersen, Loftus-Cheek. All of them will be gone next season if we're relegated. Probably a couple more too. With our clueless recruitment we will have to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season if we're relegated. With TK in charge this probably means that the majority of our transfer business will be last minute panic deals and loans. Too little and too late seems to be his "plan".

I've said for years now that I dreaded the day when our squad would be 100% TK players. I think it's only Cairney left from the pre-TK era now? At least from our regular starters (although I seem to remember TK taking credit for signing Cairney too even though he was clearly a Rigg signing...).

I have no faith in the "yo-yo" plan. If we go down this season I don't think we will see Premier League football at the Cottage for a VERY long time.

Therein lies the issue- how does a club, who needs to re-establish themselves as a Premier team, attract the players to do so? Loans is the obvious one- I doubt Areola, Lookman, RLC, Andersen would have come here on a full contract as they'd not want relegation on their CV or chopping into their earnings potential. Easy route is to get them on loan with the ability at least to buy three that you mentioned: Areola, Aina and Lemina.
There's no yo-yo plan, that's entirely misquoting our slightly misguided Head of whatever he calls himself. Problem is, bouncing between the divisions makes forward planning a bugger.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I still don't see how people can defend Scott's player choices: starting Cav and dropping Zambo were two huge calls which evidently backfired. For all of our second half promise (in every game), he's not setting us up right and that's costing us goals early on.

Tony Khan is clearly the more useless of the pair, and has left us with an unbalanced and inadequate squad, but that doesn't mean that Scott is doing even close to good enough.

As a minimum, he needs to start getting it right from the start of games and also begin coaching the players on discipline and positioning - these things (along with penalty misses) are costing us points in every game.

The thing is I just don't see the point in sacking the manager if TK stays as DoF. It's like responding to a leaky pipe by continuously putting new towels around it.

the point is a new manager would try something different. we know we arent good enough under parker thats just a fact. one win is nine is shocking, absolutely shocking. how bad does it have to get

Out of the frying pan into the fire you reckon, that is not very bright.
As Statto has clearly stated, no point in sacking the manager if the real culprit stays as D of F.
Also as Crave mad has said, TK is the more useless and has left us with an inadequate unbalanced squad......again, yet you never mention him, he is the catalyst in all that is wrong.
The next six matches we really need a minimum of 10 out of 18 points to keep in touch with the rest of the herd. A big ask maybe, but a reasonable target all the same. If the owners son abandons Scott Parker in the January transfer market, then you need to go for his neck first before anyone else.

whats the point in mentioning Tony. He doesn't pick the tactics, formation or team. The squad isn't going to change anytime soon, so what can he do now other than get us an average/ to good manager. And the bit about the transfer market makes no sense as you blame Tony for the poor performances, so how will more of his players help Scott if he can't manage the players Tony has already given him. I actually think we have good enough players to stay up, but not good enough to play Parker ball and stay up. And let's be honest if we don't make a change soon, we will be cut well adrift for the 17th spot making good January acquisitions neigh on impossible.

To a certain extent a manager is only as good as the players he has at his disposal. It is a brand new defence which was conceived due to the owners sons scatter gun approach, with no consideration as usual for the type of character needed. Aina is already identified as not premier standard, too many players far too late brought in and not a striker amongst them, how incompetent can a so called D of F can get, and yet he was still signing defenders almost up to the last minute when it was bleeding obvious we needed another striker. Too little too late again and again, and once again some of these players were not fit and or injured, we have been here before, TK is a laughing stock amongst agents as well as supporters while he impersonates a D of F.

We tried to buy Matt Cash (RB), Bertrand Traoré (RW), and Ollie Watkins (CF) early in the window, but teams promoted through the playoff never get to sign players of their quality. Any Playoff promoted Club has to buy the players other premier league teams reject, and frankly, there is not much premier league quality left. Norwich's plan is the best to follow if we want to stay in the premier league.

If we wanted to follow Norwich's plan we shouldn't have gotten 6 players on short term loans: Areola, Lookman, Lemina, Aina, Andersen, Loftus-Cheek. All of them will be gone next season if we're relegated. Probably a couple more too. With our clueless recruitment we will have to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season if we're relegated. With TK in charge this probably means that the majority of our transfer business will be last minute panic deals and loans. Too little and too late seems to be his "plan".

I've said for years now that I dreaded the day when our squad would be 100% TK players. I think it's only Cairney left from the pre-TK era now? At least from our regular starters (although I seem to remember TK taking credit for signing Cairney too even though he was clearly a Rigg signing...).

I have no faith in the "yo-yo" plan. If we go down this season I don't think we will see Premier League football at the Cottage for a VERY long time.

I share your concerns, and the key has to be stability. I also agree with everyone's points, suggestions and comments on here. The grass is not always greener on the other side.
We have some real testing games coming up and we must play without fear, but at the same time we have to be mindful that grinding out results is no sin. If we have to park the Double Decker to get a result then do be it. But goals change games, and on this League scoring first does have a huge bearing on how the game will pan out.

[toshes mate]

If we wanted to follow Norwich's plan we shouldn't have gotten 6 players on short term loans: Areola, Lookman, Lemina, Aina, Andersen, Loftus-Cheek. All of them will be gone next season if we're relegated. Probably a couple more too. With our clueless recruitment we will have to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season if we're relegated. With TK in charge this probably means that the majority of our transfer business will be last minute panic deals and loans. Too little and too late seems to be his "plan".

I've said for years now that I dreaded the day when our squad would be 100% TK players. I think it's only Cairney left from the pre-TK era now? At least from our regular starters (although I seem to remember TK taking credit for signing Cairney too even though he was clearly a Rigg signing...).

I have no faith in the "yo-yo" plan. If we go down this season I don't think we will see Premier League football at the Cottage for a VERY long time.

There are two very good reasons why this is well thought out and argued.  Only a club without confidence would employ a manager fit for any eventuality especially a demotion (it's a harsher word in the circumstances than relegation).  Only a club without confidence would chase unrealistic signings and not have a fully prepared dossier of likely signings upon a season finishing fit for any eventuality e.g. loss of star players, contracts/loans ending, coaches leaving, managers seeking better things, owners getting restless etc.  Is FFC a club wthout confidence because key people within it are not fit for purpose???

FWIIW I do believe SP would like to think he can succeed where others have failed because he will not want a sacking to follow his promotion success, and I will not write him off as a failure whatever the outcome of this season. There are much bigger issues that need dealing with a FFC and until they are dealt with the uneasiness and lack of confidence will continue.  IMO.   

[mrmicawbers]

I would keep Parker for the season even if we get relegated.We will have a better squad in the Championship should that happen from the last time we were there.We haven't spent all the Prem money and should again be able to add quality to the side.I think we can stay up this season but i am forever optimistic.Personally i think our recruitment this season has been decent and Tony Khan is learning and  hope he continues  going forward.

[sonnyjim]

I really do like Parker as a person and you can tell he really wants to win but something just isn't working. Whether or not it's the tactics or the coaching team, I don't know, but why not try something different? Employ new coaches. If not, drop players who don't perform well. I.e Aina was terrible, two of their goals came from him being out of position and not marking anybody.

[Whitesideup]

Re Loan players - fair point about them leaving and weakening the team. Clearly a couple of these may be loans with just a view to keeping us up, eg Areola and RLC, maybe Andersen and Lemina.

But we have also made some solid permanent signings: Tete, Tosin, Robinson, Reed, and Kongolo - all of them could be pretty awesome players for the Championship, or we recoup substantial sums to re-invest. And of the rest of the squad, Rodak - excellent Championship keeper, probably good enough for Premier League as well. In my book Cairney and Anguissa are definitely of Premier League quality, Mitro - yes (even if I wish he had a bit more pace) and BDR - yes, especially if he can finish chances a bit more regularly, Caveleiro maybe borderline, Kamara - impact sub in Premier ?  probably ok in Championship.  So yes, we could lose some good players, but as it stands the rest are very good by Championship standard even if as a team we are struggling in the Premier. But I think things will get better and I'd stick with Parker now.

[We Are Premier League]

Re Loan players - fair point about them leaving and weakening the team. Clearly a couple of these may be loans with just a view to keeping us up, eg Areola and RLC, maybe Andersen and Lemina.

But we have also made some solid permanent signings: Tete, Tosin, Robinson, Reed, and Kongolo - all of them could be pretty awesome players for the Championship, or we recoup substantial sums to re-invest. And of the rest of the squad, Rodak - excellent Championship keeper, probably good enough for Premier League as well. In my book Cairney and Anguissa are definitely of Premier League quality, Mitro - yes (even if I wish he had a bit more pace) and BDR - yes, especially if he can finish chances a bit more regularly, Caveleiro maybe borderline, Kamara - impact sub in Premier ?  probably ok in Championship.  So yes, we could lose some good players, but as it stands the rest are very good by Championship standard even if as a team we are struggling in the Premier. But I think things will get better and I'd stick with Parker now.

I agree with a lot of this.

The odds dont lie, we are likely to go down but have a decent chance (but less than 50%) of staying up. If we do go down, i think we coudl have a very strong team to challange for promotion straight away. I actually think we woull have an almost complete starting 11 but we would probably need a few new players. Glass half full!

                    Mitro
          Cav    Cairney    Reid
              Onomah Reed
Robinson  Kongolo    Ado   Tete
                    Rodak

Bryan, Odoi, MLM, Kamara, Kebano

[fulhamben]

Re Loan players - fair point about them leaving and weakening the team. Clearly a couple of these may be loans with just a view to keeping us up, eg Areola and RLC, maybe Andersen and Lemina.

But we have also made some solid permanent signings: Tete, Tosin, Robinson, Reed, and Kongolo - all of them could be pretty awesome players for the Championship, or we recoup substantial sums to re-invest. And of the rest of the squad, Rodak - excellent Championship keeper, probably good enough for Premier League as well. In my book Cairney and Anguissa are definitely of Premier League quality, Mitro - yes (even if I wish he had a bit more pace) and BDR - yes, especially if he can finish chances a bit more regularly, Caveleiro maybe borderline, Kamara - impact sub in Premier ?  probably ok in Championship.  So yes, we could lose some good players, but as it stands the rest are very good by Championship standard even if as a team we are struggling in the Premier. But I think things will get better and I'd stick with Parker now.

I agree with a lot of this.

The odds dont lie, we are likely to go down but have a decent chance (but less than 50%) of staying up. If we do go down, i think we coudl have a very strong team to challange for promotion straight away. I actually think we woull have an almost complete starting 11 but we would probably need a few new players. Glass half full!

                    Mitro
          Cav    Cairney    Reid
              Onomah Reed
Robinson  Kongolo    Ado   Tete
                    Rodak

Bryan, Odoi, MLM, Kamara, Kebano

yes that a decent championship.

[mrmicawbers]

I'm afraid my computer skills won't allow sadly but it would be interesting to see on a pie chart what we all think re Parker.

[sunburywhite]

I'm afraid my computer skills won't allow sadly but it would be interesting to see on a pie chart what we all think re Parker.

Chicken and leek for me

[Penfold]

Re Loan players - fair point about them leaving and weakening the team. Clearly a couple of these may be loans with just a view to keeping us up, eg Areola and RLC, maybe Andersen and Lemina.

But we have also made some solid permanent signings: Tete, Tosin, Robinson, Reed, and Kongolo - all of them could be pretty awesome players for the Championship, or we recoup substantial sums to re-invest. And of the rest of the squad, Rodak - excellent Championship keeper, probably good enough for Premier League as well. In my book Cairney and Anguissa are definitely of Premier League quality, Mitro - yes (even if I wish he had a bit more pace) and BDR - yes, especially if he can finish chances a bit more regularly, Caveleiro maybe borderline, Kamara - impact sub in Premier ?  probably ok in Championship.  So yes, we could lose some good players, but as it stands the rest are very good by Championship standard even if as a team we are struggling in the Premier. But I think things will get better and I'd stick with Parker now.

I agree with a lot of this.

The odds dont lie, we are likely to go down but have a decent chance (but less than 50%) of staying up. If we do go down, i think we coudl have a very strong team to challange for promotion straight away. I actually think we woull have an almost complete starting 11 but we would probably need a few new players. Glass half full!

                    Mitro
          Cav    Cairney    Reid
              Onomah Reed
Robinson  Kongolo    Ado   Tete
                    Rodak

Bryan, Odoi, MLM, Kamara, Kebano

I think Tete would want away, even if it's just a seasons loan. Purely because he's been part of the Dutch squad (when fit).

[fulhamben]

Re Loan players - fair point about them leaving and weakening the team. Clearly a couple of these may be loans with just a view to keeping us up, eg Areola and RLC, maybe Andersen and Lemina.

But we have also made some solid permanent signings: Tete, Tosin, Robinson, Reed, and Kongolo - all of them could be pretty awesome players for the Championship, or we recoup substantial sums to re-invest. And of the rest of the squad, Rodak - excellent Championship keeper, probably good enough for Premier League as well. In my book Cairney and Anguissa are definitely of Premier League quality, Mitro - yes (even if I wish he had a bit more pace) and BDR - yes, especially if he can finish chances a bit more regularly, Caveleiro maybe borderline, Kamara - impact sub in Premier ?  probably ok in Championship.  So yes, we could lose some good players, but as it stands the rest are very good by Championship standard even if as a team we are struggling in the Premier. But I think things will get better and I'd stick with Parker now.

I agree with a lot of this.

The odds dont lie, we are likely to go down but have a decent chance (but less than 50%) of staying up. If we do go down, i think we coudl have a very strong team to challange for promotion straight away. I actually think we woull have an almost complete starting 11 but we would probably need a few new players. Glass half full!

                    Mitro
          Cav    Cairney    Reid
              Onomah Reed
Robinson  Kongolo    Ado   Tete
                    Rodak

Bryan, Odoi, MLM, Kamara, Kebano

I think Tete would want away, even if it's just a seasons loan. Purely because he's been part of the Dutch squad (when fit).

think we would lose robinson too

[bobby01]

Parker 9 games 4 points,
Joka.  9 games 4 points,
Joka lost the next 4 and was booted out, tough 4 for Parker coming up as well.
Just saying as lots of Parker support but a lot of the same people were screaming for joka to go.
Funny old game innit.

[RaySmith]

My memory is that there was general support for  Joka, more than there is for Parker.

Joka had built a lot of goodwill after the way we played to get promotion, with that unbeaten run. whereas Parker has always seemed to have had a lot of critics with 'Parkerball', and many not thinking we'd go up - most seemed to think Brentford would thrash us.
But maybe my memory is wrong.

The game away to Huddersfield was crucial for joka, where we lost 0-1, and  didn't turn up, but i think fans  were still mostly  wanting Joka to stay, and up at Liverpool there were good signs, that many thought showed we'd turned the corner.

When Joka was sacked,  my memory is that many weren't happy about it.

[colinwhite]

Concur with  Ray ,but there is a vital difference for me this time. Parker is nowhere near as charasmatic as Jokanovic,nor has his team played to anywhere near the style and attraction of Slavisa`s side. But this time I believe we will become more solid,harder to beat we have a better squad, and that  we are not far off from being a  proper team with good football values in place. There are lots of negatives but I believe we will get there. To sack parker now would be madness,not because hes the best coach around ,but because it would be harmful to the club and underline that we lack a longterm strategy and  are simply winging it from one situation to another. As long as the team shows togetherness ,fight and signs of devlopment then thats enough for me to suggest he has to be kept in charge.
If we can keep in touch and add to our attack in january I think we will stay up.

[HV71]

Concur with  Ray ,but there is a vital difference for me this time. Parker is nowhere near as charasmatic as Jokanovic,nor has his team played to anywhere near the style and attraction of Slavisa`s side. But this time I believe we will become more solid,harder to beat we have a better squad, and that  we are not far off from being a  proper team with good football values in place. There are lots of negatives but I believe we will get there. To sack parker now would be madness,not because hes the best coach around ,but because it would be harmful to the club and underline that we lack a longterm strategy and  are simply winging it from one situation to another. As long as the team shows togetherness ,fight and signs of devlopment then thats enough for me to suggest he has to be kept in charge.
If we can keep in touch and add to our attack in january I think we will stay up.





+1 - great post