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

[Moltobueno]

Parker has improved massively.

All the goals conceded are from personal errors (mostly by defenders) and nothing to do with manager. I doubt he told BDR to pass the ball to Richarlison in dangerous area in the 1st minute of the game just to wake everyone up

[sunburywhite]

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.

We just need that one little bit of luck and the season could well turn round

[blingo]

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.

We just need that one little bit of luck and the season could well turn round

and if my aunty had a pair of nuts she'd be my uncle

[sunburywhite]

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.

We just need that one little bit of luck and the season could well turn round

and if my aunty had a pair of nuts she'd be my uncle

These days that is quite possible

[fulhamben]

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.

We just need that one little bit of luck and the season could well turn round

and if my aunty had a pair of nuts she'd be my uncle

These days that is quite possible

its always been possible, Hermaphrodites have existed since the dawn of man, they would still be your aunty though

[Fernhurst]

A slightly different view but I see Norwich are riding high in the Championship which makes the point that maybe consistency is something to factor in! Should we go down we will have a better squad and SP would get us up imo. I still think we can survive.

All the teams that went down this year largely kept their squads together (all only lost a couple of starters). If we go down most of our team will leave - Areola, Anderssen, Aina, Lemina, RLC and Lookman will all go back to their parent clubs, and we'll probably lose a couple of others.

Looks like Norwich, Bournemouth and Watford may come back up and Fulham, WBA and one other will go back down.
So it kinda looks like this six, too good for Championship and not bloody good enough for Premier League!
These six need to fight t out in a different league? Championship plus?????

[Fernhurst]

Don't want Fulham to come up again until we have a right and proper Premiership team at the ready. 

[Gezza]

I was right about last year and Parker but swallowed my words because he got us promoted, but he has to go. A quarter way into the season and 4 points.

If there is a rescue plan, start it now!!!!

So by this logic West Brom and Sheffield Utd should sack their managers as well  ? Perhaps we should have a swap round.

[The Rational Fan]

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.

If when the winter transfer window opens we spend MASSIVELY BIG (e.g. £70m-120m) and Parker gets the new players to be cohesive (which is very optimistic), then we could go into the second half of the season being favourites in eight games [WBA-A, SHU-H, BUR-H, BHA-A, LEE-H, NEW-H, WOL-H and WHU-H], but if we win 60% of those games that's only 15 points and we need a dozen more.

No amount of spending may allow us to get many points from Mid-Table Away Games (at EVE, CRY, AVL, and SOU) or Top of the Table Home Games (against the Big Six and Leicester), and we may need 10-15 points from these games (which is not achievable). 

The "Yo-Yo Plan" requires winning 60% of games in the Championship, which is an achievable goal although still very hard especially as we need to build a solid defense in the championship that can stay up in the premier league the following season.

The "Yo-Yo Plan" is so fantastic that even a below-average DOF and a below-average coach can execute correctly, the key is bringing players in six months earlier than we currently have been doing, so we can go into the Championship as the best team from the first game.

Frankly, any other plan requires either an above-average DOF or a brilliant coach, we have neither but we must not sack them because our owners will probably replace below-average people with worse people (as our main owner knows much less than TK).

[St Eve]

Don't want Fulham to come up again until we have a right and proper Premiership team at the ready. 

why? It still makes financial sense

[The Rational Fan]

Don't want Fulham to come up again until we have a right and proper Premiership team at the ready. 

why? It still makes financial sense

We have a right and proper Premiership team at the ready, we just need time for them to gel.

This season, time is something we don't have, but if we plan we could keep these players next season.

[3 Cherries]

Having watched the Fulham games this season and restrained from swearing at the monitor, have decided to take the plunge and join. So thank you Friends of Fulham: here's my rant

Lemina - wtf
Sorry to Areola as our centre backs have gone AWOL (again!?)
SP looked visibly upset post-match Everton
Mitro is finished
There are plenty of positives about the team but to be honest we look pretty much screwed
(Unless a fresh breeze blows though the January window - as if...) 049:gif

   

[S.F.Sorrow]

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.

If when the winter transfer window opens we spend MASSIVELY BIG (e.g. £70m-120m) and Parker gets the new players to be cohesive (which is very optimistic), then we could go into the second half of the season being favourites in eight games [WBA-A, SHU-H, BUR-H, BHA-A, LEE-H, NEW-H, WOL-H and WHU-H], but if we win 60% of those games that's only 15 points and we need a dozen more.

No amount of spending may allow us to get many points from Mid-Table Away Games (at EVE, CRY, AVL, and SOU) or Top of the Table Home Games (against the Big Six and Leicester), and we may need 10-15 points from these games (which is not achievable). 

The "Yo-Yo Plan" requires winning 60% of games in the Championship, which is an achievable goal although still very hard especially as we need to build a solid defense in the championship that can stay up in the premier league the following season.

The "Yo-Yo Plan" is so fantastic that even a below-average DOF and a below-average coach can execute correctly, the key is bringing players in six months earlier than we currently have been doing, so we can go into the Championship as the best team from the first game.

Frankly, any other plan requires either an above-average DOF or a brilliant coach, we have neither but we must not sack them because our owners will probably replace below-average people with worse people (as our main owner knows much less than TK).

So what you're saying is that we're already relegated and it was always unavoidable? If that's the case, what is the benefit of all the loans instead of building a Championship squad for next season? I'm genuinely interested because I fail to see any kind of plan or long term thinking in our recruitment. We're not investing enough (or clever enough) to stay in the Premier League and we rely too much on short term solutions to build a Championship squad for next season. It seems to me that we've ended up with a sort of "worst of both worlds" scenario: A squad that is nowhere near strong enough for the PL but with too many players that will leave at the end of the season, forcing us to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season. In other words: No lessons learned from previous mistakes.

I honestly can't see any kind of sensible strategy or long term planning here AT ALL. Everything seems very haphazard and stinks of emergency panic deals because our recruitment team failed to get their initial targets.

[mrmicawbers]

Some of the loan deals can be made permanent should we stay up.Makes financial sense to me.

[Statto]

Re. Loans...

TK made a prat of himself as usual by giving the 'big cheese' talk in the Sessegnon interview and saying we weren't going to develop other clubs' players... then making several signings where we'll be doing just that

However, putting that aspect of it to one side, I've no problem with the deals themselves

Any club going up, down or back up again is going to have a turnover of 5 or 6 first team players each time, that's unavoidable, and it makes sense therefore to utilise the flexibility of the loan market to the fullest possible

Actually the fact we got long-term options into half the loan deals is very respectable IMO

[Sting of the North]

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.

If when the winter transfer window opens we spend MASSIVELY BIG (e.g. £70m-120m) and Parker gets the new players to be cohesive (which is very optimistic), then we could go into the second half of the season being favourites in eight games [WBA-A, SHU-H, BUR-H, BHA-A, LEE-H, NEW-H, WOL-H and WHU-H], but if we win 60% of those games that's only 15 points and we need a dozen more.

No amount of spending may allow us to get many points from Mid-Table Away Games (at EVE, CRY, AVL, and SOU) or Top of the Table Home Games (against the Big Six and Leicester), and we may need 10-15 points from these games (which is not achievable). 

The "Yo-Yo Plan" requires winning 60% of games in the Championship, which is an achievable goal although still very hard especially as we need to build a solid defense in the championship that can stay up in the premier league the following season.

The "Yo-Yo Plan" is so fantastic that even a below-average DOF and a below-average coach can execute correctly, the key is bringing players in six months earlier than we currently have been doing, so we can go into the Championship as the best team from the first game.

Frankly, any other plan requires either an above-average DOF or a brilliant coach, we have neither but we must not sack them because our owners will probably replace below-average people with worse people (as our main owner knows much less than TK).

So what you're saying is that we're already relegated and it was always unavoidable? If that's the case, what is the benefit of all the loans instead of building a Championship squad for next season? I'm genuinely interested because I fail to see any kind of plan or long term thinking in our recruitment. We're not investing enough (or clever enough) to stay in the Premier League and we rely too much on short term solutions to build a Championship squad for next season. It seems to me that we've ended up with a sort of "worst of both worlds" scenario: A squad that is nowhere near strong enough for the PL but with too many players that will leave at the end of the season, forcing us to rebuild the squad AGAIN next season. In other words: No lessons learned from previous mistakes.

I honestly can't see any kind of sensible strategy or long term planning here AT ALL. Everything seems very haphazard and stinks of emergency panic deals because our recruitment team failed to get their initial targets.

I thought the overall strategy was not that hard to see? We can't spend the amount of money needed to sign high quality PL players permanently (and many wouldn't want to come here), so we took those on loan instead to at least give us a fighting chance to stay up (but wouldn't have to take on the wages next year if we are relegated). We also managed to acquire several cheaper young players that are likely to stay with us if we do get relegated. Decent enough strategy, and some good players and quality prospects acquired without putting us in FFP trouble. Other than the timing of transfers I don't really see any need to criticize the strategy, and I don't understand how someone cannot see that there is indeed long term planning.

But that is just my opinion.

[AnotherVicHalomLoveChild]

Having watched the Fulham games this season and restrained from swearing at the monitor, have decided to take the plunge and join. So thank you Friends of Fulham: here's my rant

Lemina - wtf
Sorry to Areola as our centre backs have gone AWOL (again!?)
SP looked visibly upset post-match Everton
Mitro is finished
There are plenty of positives about the team but to be honest we look pretty much screwed
(Unless a fresh breeze blows though the January window - as if...) 049:gif

   
Interesting post

It was the first time I had seen 90 minutes of Fulham this season

A frantic, frenetic pace to start with & Everton straight out of the blocks whilst we looked fast asleep.

A dreadful first touch by BDR to gift them the first goal in 42 seconds!

An improvement second half following the substitutions who did much better

No leader for us on the pitch, no point in everyone hand on hip looking @ the ground. No point in players quoting on the OFFAL that they will respond, try harder blah blah & continue to fail to deliver. Find a leader!

Cav (what a clown) Lemina & Aina all hopeless, no contribution whatso ever. I couldn't believe how poor they were.
Who sanctioned these signings & why? Get rid of them & replace in the January window.

Agreed about Mitro. What has happened to the guy? He looked shattered, disinterested, no motivation. He has lost the plot. 

Tete to return so some hope exists.
Play Bryan somewhere to freshen it up. He is intelligent, knows where the goal is, can shoot & cross, play him!

We must believe we can rescue the situation but more fresh blood required & time is running out.

Little point in dumping Parker, who else with any appropriate skills & experience would want to join us in this scenario?

Continued mistakes of selection, tactics etc with some signs of improvement that must be corrected so we start a match the right way.

We been here before suggest Scotty reads a book or two by Fergie & Clough, gets fired up & let's the players know what they are to do.
No more pretty kind stuff, throw a teapot or cup, whack a few head together & play as a team, one for all & all for one!

Rant over, go to Leicester & finish them guys!