a forward short of a win

[jayffc]

Yes , we need a new striker but it has to be one better than Reid, Kamara ,Cav and Kebano and one prepared to face a relegation battle with us as well as not to demand top six club wages . Of course the transfer fee must not be excessive and he must be fit, premier league proven and ready to hit the ground running.
I wonder how many players we have on our short list that meets our requirements and whether these players have not been identified by other clubs.

It is not easy and when you remember some of the big money failures we have had in transfer dealing there is always a risk involved.
Make no mistake it is best to make certain that you hold on to your top players, replacing them is not easy No way do we want to lose Mitro, we just couldn't replace him.

Yes I did, and I discounted it. The notion that you are in a position to able to assess TK's ability strikes me as unlikely. And your last sentence re 'marginalising' him is strange - what do you mean by that?  Ignore what he says?  Ostracise him in some way? He is an integral and important part of Fulham FC.

Then the questions you ask of me are for you to answer and resolve for yourself. It is your choice to discount anything but that means to me that you do not wish to engage with me in a sensible dialogue.

Well, I shall not attack you personally, beyond acknowledging not for the first time that you are adept at criticising others with (almost) cleverly disguised snide remarks.  I reiterate that I don't see how you are in any position to assess TK's abilities.

I agree. If we lose the next 22 matches and not signed a quality striker in this window, I wonder if his stance will change, that Khan Jr has done a rubbish job.   

If we lose the next 22 games (!!) having shown that these players are more than capable of much more, I suspect well be saying Parker should lose his job, and that would be a fair assessment...if TK fails to sign a striker and that happens, yeah....I think most reasonable thinking humans would happily say he f***ed up by not signing one. I don't even need us to lose 22 games to say that. I think we need attacking options, and I'm expecting something to be done about it. That said, I think this team is capable of staying up as it is, I just think it will be infinitely tougher, and needn't be so tight a struggle. If we stay up, I'll be giving Parker and TK the round of applause they deserve, as statistically as the 3rd place promoted team, it's far from expected.

[rebel]

Yes , we need a new striker but it has to be one better than Reid, Kamara ,Cav and Kebano and one prepared to face a relegation battle with us as well as not to demand top six club wages . Of course the transfer fee must not be excessive and he must be fit, premier league proven and ready to hit the ground running.
I wonder how many players we have on our short list that meets our requirements and whether these players have not been identified by other clubs.

It is not easy and when you remember some of the big money failures we have had in transfer dealing there is always a risk involved.
Make no mistake it is best to make certain that you hold on to your top players, replacing them is not easy No way do we want to lose Mitro, we just couldn't replace him.

Yes I did, and I discounted it. The notion that you are in a position to able to assess TK's ability strikes me as unlikely. And your last sentence re 'marginalising' him is strange - what do you mean by that?  Ignore what he says?  Ostracise him in some way? He is an integral and important part of Fulham FC.

Then the questions you ask of me are for you to answer and resolve for yourself. It is your choice to discount anything but that means to me that you do not wish to engage with me in a sensible dialogue.

Well, I shall not attack you personally, beyond acknowledging not for the first time that you are adept at criticising others with (almost) cleverly disguised snide remarks.  I reiterate that I don't see how you are in any position to assess TK's abilities.

I agree. If we lose the next 22 matches and not signed a quality striker in this window, I wonder if his stance will change, that Khan Jr has done a rubbish job.   

If we lose the next 22 games (!!) having shown that these players are more than capable of much more, I suspect well be saying Parker should lose his job, and that would be a fair assessment...if TK fails to sign a striker and that happens, yeah....I think most reasonable thinking humans would happily say he f***ed up by not signing one. I don't even need us to lose 22 games to say that. I think we need attacking options, and I'm expecting something to be done about it. That said, I think this team is capable of staying up as it is, I just think it will be infinitely tougher, and needn't be so tight a struggle. If we stay up, I'll be giving Parker and TK the round of applause they deserve, as statistically as the 3rd place promoted team, it's far from expected.

I've predicted a 8th or higher finish, that was before the season started, I've continued to post that. 14 goals in 16 matches is one of the lowest in the Prem league. If we don't remedy that, we are going to struggle big time. This is going by our finishing since the season has started.

[jayffc]

Yes , we need a new striker but it has to be one better than Reid, Kamara ,Cav and Kebano and one prepared to face a relegation battle with us as well as not to demand top six club wages . Of course the transfer fee must not be excessive and he must be fit, premier league proven and ready to hit the ground running.
I wonder how many players we have on our short list that meets our requirements and whether these players have not been identified by other clubs.

It is not easy and when you remember some of the big money failures we have had in transfer dealing there is always a risk involved.
Make no mistake it is best to make certain that you hold on to your top players, replacing them is not easy No way do we want to lose Mitro, we just couldn't replace him.

Yes I did, and I discounted it. The notion that you are in a position to able to assess TK's ability strikes me as unlikely. And your last sentence re 'marginalising' him is strange - what do you mean by that?  Ignore what he says?  Ostracise him in some way? He is an integral and important part of Fulham FC.

Then the questions you ask of me are for you to answer and resolve for yourself. It is your choice to discount anything but that means to me that you do not wish to engage with me in a sensible dialogue.

Well, I shall not attack you personally, beyond acknowledging not for the first time that you are adept at criticising others with (almost) cleverly disguised snide remarks.  I reiterate that I don't see how you are in any position to assess TK's abilities.

I agree. If we lose the next 22 matches and not signed a quality striker in this window, I wonder if his stance will change, that Khan Jr has done a rubbish job.   

If we lose the next 22 games (!!) having shown that these players are more than capable of much more, I suspect well be saying Parker should lose his job, and that would be a fair assessment...if TK fails to sign a striker and that happens, yeah....I think most reasonable thinking humans would happily say he f***ed up by not signing one. I don't even need us to lose 22 games to say that. I think we need attacking options, and I'm expecting something to be done about it. That said, I think this team is capable of staying up as it is, I just think it will be infinitely tougher, and needn't be so tight a struggle. If we stay up, I'll be giving Parker and TK the round of applause they deserve, as statistically as the 3rd place promoted team, it's far from expected.

I've predicted a 8th or higher finish, that was before the season started, I've continued to post that. 14 goals in 16 matches is one of the lowest in the Prem league. If we don't remedy that, we are going to struggle big time. This is going by our finishing since the season has started.

Wait...so you predicted an 8th or higher finish? As in that was your expectancy of where we would finish this season?

No wonder you're disappointed if that's what you were expecting. How many times in premier league history has the playoff winning side done that the following year?!

And yes again, we are back pointing out the blindingly obvious, we need a striker, the club has made it clear they are aware of that (see Parkers recent interview on what we need in this window)

So now well see what they come up with. If they fail, let's all gather round and agree that was at best a very risky decision.
It's not a breeze signing notoriously prolific scorers in the January window, let alone mid covid and Brexit dramas, but let's just see what the window brings.
We are capable of winning games, but even if we keep drawing we wont ge cut adrift by the end if the window.

We have 4 games to come before the end of the season...2 against chelsea and man utd are tough, 2 very winnable games against Brighton and WBA....even if we lost the next 2, but got 4 points from the latter (in line with our previous games against them) I'd hazard an educated guess wed still be well in the hunt and hopefully with a decent new forward option or 2 to really start racking up points I'm the second half of the season.

Well see

[YankeeJim]

Can't believe this thread. Do people really expect any DOF to entirely replace a team in one window? We were so bad defensively at the start of the season that Messi and Reynaldo wouldn't have  kept us up. Regardless of how entertaining 4-5 matches are, they are still losses. In a matter of weeks the club became competitive in the league. Some here seem to thing that all a DOF has to do is ring up another DOF and say hey, send over so-and-so and his 20 goals a season and I'll pay what ever you want. Clearly, those people have never met a payroll or turned a business profitable and furthermore don't understand how wealth works. Also, why so damn negative? We have gone toe to toe with 4 of the best teams in the world in the last few weeks and have gotten a result in three of them.

[ALG01]

Can't believe this thread. Do people really expect any DOF to entirely replace a team in one window? We were so bad defensively at the start of the season that Messi and Reynaldo wouldn't have  kept us up. Regardless of how entertaining 4-5 matches are, they are still losses. In a matter of weeks the club became competitive in the league. Some here seem to thing that all a DOF has to do is ring up another DOF and say hey, send over so-and-so and his 20 goals a season and I'll pay what ever you want. Clearly, those people have never met a payroll or turned a business profitable and furthermore don't understand how wealth works. Also, why so damn negative? We have gone toe to toe with 4 of the best teams in the world in the last few weeks and have gotten a result in three of them.

actully, yes it is his job to assemble an appropriate squad. I cannot believe how many people defend the fact the DoF failed miserably to get a forward that we needed desparately. it was as obvious as the nose on your face. evben the defenders seemed a panic. But to be clear, that is his job to make it so, I do not think it would have been that hard to bring in at least one center forward. It may not have worked out but at least get them!

defending this inactivity is not of any use to our future well being.

[Baszab]

Can't believe that people seriously think that Tony Khan has an in depth knowledge of football in UK and Europe and has "assembled" the squad
The idea is laughable
Behind the scenes is a team of scouts and statistical analysers
TK involvement is to check out the stats and say yes or no
Well done to SP and the team

[YankeeJim]

AlGO1, don't what happened in your life to make you so negative. If you reread what I posted, you'll see that I don't expect and no one should expect any DOF to completely fix a team in one window. We had and have the Golden Boot winner in the Championship already on the team. Why would that be more important than a back line that couldn't defend in a lower league? It would seem that while an upgrade at forward was desirable, it wasn't first on the list.

Baszab. What exactly did the Khan's do to you? If they brought in Messi, you'd bitch about bringing in old guys. If it wasn't Tony Khan, who was the brilliant hireling that unbeknownst to Tony assembled a competitive back line? 

[ALG01]

AlGO1, don't what happened in your life to make you so negative. If you reread what I posted, you'll see that I don't expect and no one should expect any DOF to completely fix a team in one window. We had and have the Golden Boot winner in the Championship already on the team. Why would that be more important than a back line that couldn't defend in a lower league? It would seem that while an upgrade at forward was desirable, it wasn't first on the list.

Baszab. What exactly did the Khan's do to you? If they brought in Messi, you'd bitch about bringing in old guys. If it wasn't Tony Khan, who was the brilliant hireling that unbeknownst to Tony assembled a competitive back line?

you are an amazingly poor judge of character.
I am the most positive optimistic person i have ever met. when we lost to torquay(I do hope I do not need to explain the import of the reference) I said that I believed there was no reason we could not rise like a phoenix and reclaim our rightful place in the top league and even get into europe. and despite being told that was all a pipe dream, MAF came along and all my dreams came true. the sky was the limit, more or less. under that administration everything was not always perfect but we did have full time profesionals in charge rather than a likeable amateur that belives his own rhetoric.

clearly the current leader did a bit better this time but he overlooked a fundamental part of building a proper team and that was decent forwards. Yes of course he should have done that last transfer window, you have to be pretty short sited not to know that. and if you read the generality of my posts it says we are a forward short of being a genuinely very good team. now the leader may have overlooked getting such a player in summer, but surely he sees it now and we need somedoy sooner rather than later and then who knows what we might be capable of.... a top half finish for sure. that is optimistic, a positive outlook.
what you call being negative is actually a massive show of frustration at the brilliant opportunities we are missing out on once again.... not negative, just unhappy the leader, and of course i mean the DoF, has not understood we need a forward right now, not lsast minute on deadline day.

[jayffc]

Can't believe that people seriously think that Tony Khan has an in depth knowledge of football in UK and Europe and has "assembled" the squad
The idea is laughable
Behind the scenes is a team of scouts and statistical analysers
TK involvement is to check out the stats and say yes or no
Well done to SP and the team

What the actual hell is going on with people on here?

TK owns and helped design and put in place a stat based program designed to identify targets for us to sign. His job is quite literally to manage transfers. How we goes about doing that is completely bloody irrelevant - he ultimately is in charge of how we choose to identify and negotiate with, our transfer targets. Hes chosen to to that by balancing his stat teams work, with the work of a scouting team he appoints and the ideas of his manager.

Hes a director...No ones expecting him to be out scouting individual players by himself, hes the manager of our transfer system for gods sake. Literally no one said well done Tony for individually, single handedly doing every single part of the transfer process....but he is the one in charge of our transfer system....so when it does well, he deserves praise. What is so hard to understand about that? Well done Scott for doing well with a good set of players...and well done Tony for running our transfer system in a way that saw those players sign....let's not forget he also has to do the negotiating part.

What is going on here? If you are not trolling I'm lost for words genuinely at this point. Some odd stuff posted on here

[YankeeJim]

AlGO1, don't what happened in your life to make you so negative. If you reread what I posted, you'll see that I don't expect and no one should expect any DOF to completely fix a team in one window. We had and have the Golden Boot winner in the Championship already on the team. Why would that be more important than a back line that couldn't defend in a lower league? It would seem that while an upgrade at forward was desirable, it wasn't first on the list.

Baszab. What exactly did the Khan's do to you? If they brought in Messi, you'd bitch about bringing in old guys. If it wasn't Tony Khan, who was the brilliant hireling that unbeknownst to Tony assembled a competitive back line?

you are an amazingly poor judge of character.
I am the most delusional person i have ever met. when we lost to torquay(I do hope I do not need to explain the import of the reference) I said that I believed there was no reason we could not rise like a phoenix and reclaim our rightful place in the top league and even get into europe. and despite being told that was all a pipe dream, MAF came along and all my dreams came true. the sky was the limit, more or less. under that administration everything was not always perfect but we did have full time profesionals in charge rather than a likeable amateur that belives his own rhetoric.

clearly the current leader did a bit better this time but he overlooked a fundamental part of building a proper team and that was decent forwards. Yes of course he should have done that last transfer window, you have to be pretty short sited not to know that. and if you read the generality of my posts it says we are a forward short of being a genuinely very good team. now the leader may have overlooked getting such a player in summer, but surely he sees it now and we need somedoy sooner rather than later and then who knows what we might be capable of.... a top half finish for sure. that is optimistic, a positive outlook.
what you call being negative is actually a massive show of frustration at the brilliant opportunities we are missing out on once again.... not negative, just unhappy the leader, and of course i mean the DoF, has not understood we need a forward right now, not lsast minute on deadline day.

[jayffc]

8

Can't believe that people seriously think that Tony Khan has an in depth knowledge of football in UK and Europe and has "assembled" the squad
The idea is laughable
Behind the scenes is a team of scouts and statistical analysers
TK involvement is to check out the stats and say yes or no
Well done to SP and the team

What the actual hell is going on with people on here?

TK owns and helped design and put in place a stat based program designed to identify targets for us to sign. His job is quite literally to manage transfers. How we goes about doing that is completely bloody irrelevant - he ultimately is in charge of how we choose to identify and negotiate with, our transfer targets. Hes chosen to to that by balancing his stat teams work, with the work of a scouting team he appoints and the ideas of his manager.

Hes a director...No ones expecting him to be out scouting individual players by himself, hes the manager of our transfer system for gods sake. Literally no one said well done Tony for individually, single handedly doing every single part of the transfer process....but he is the one in charge of our transfer system....so when it does well, he deserves praise. What is so hard to understand about that? Well done Scott for doing well with a good set of players...and well done Tony for running our transfer system in a way that saw those players sign....let's not forget he also has to do the negotiating part.

What is going on here? If you are not trolling I'm lost for words genuinely at this point. Some odd stuff posted on here

AlGO1, don't what happened in your life to make you so negative. If you reread what I posted, you'll see that I don't expect and no one should expect any DOF to completely fix a team in one window. We had and have the Golden Boot winner in the Championship already on the team. Why would that be more important than a back line that couldn't defend in a lower league? It would seem that while an upgrade at forward was desirable, it wasn't first on the list.

Baszab. What exactly did the Khan's do to you? If they brought in Messi, you'd bitch about bringing in old guys. If it wasn't Tony Khan, who was the brilliant hireling that unbeknownst to Tony assembled a competitive back line?

you are an amazingly poor judge of character.
I am the most positive optimistic person i have ever met. when we lost to torquay(I do hope I do not need to explain the import of the reference) I said that I believed there was no reason we could not rise like a phoenix and reclaim our rightful place in the top league and even get into europe. and despite being told that was all a pipe dream, MAF came along and all my dreams came true. the sky was the limit, more or less. under that administration everything was not always perfect but we did have full time profesionals in charge rather than a likeable amateur that belives his own rhetoric.

clearly the current leader did a bit better this time but he overlooked a fundamental part of building a proper team and that was decent forwards. Yes of course he should have done that last transfer window, you have to be pretty short sited not to know that. and if you read the generality of my posts it says we are a forward short of being a genuinely very good team. now the leader may have overlooked getting such a player in summer, but surely he sees it now and we need somedoy sooner rather than later and then who knows what we might be capable of.... a top half finish for sure. that is optimistic, a positive outlook.
what you call being negative is actually a massive show of frustration at the brilliant opportunities we are missing out on once again.... not negative, just unhappy the leader, and of course i mean the DoF, has not understood we need a forward right now, not lsast minute on deadline day.

Again...we signed 9 (9!) Huge upgrades on our starters... That's a massive ask and not many teams that can say that if any this season.

It's our first season back in the prem- and we are a now a competitive team when we were dead certs for relegation prior to that...thats a huge change around...Almost every team in the league will have last pieces of the puzzle to fill this january were a long way from the only ones and we had a harder task that most...next year...that task will be much smaller...

I was gonna say spare us all this until the end of the window now but whatever, whinge away man. At least most people in here seem to realise how insanely spoilt and blinkered this all sounds considering the reality of the clubs situation.

Weve been a competitive team without new forwards, if it weren't for awful VAR decisions wed be a number of places higher in the table, we missed a plethora of penalties too...its fine margins , well sign a forward and hopefully even you might have to give some credit to our board
Good night and you do whatever makes you happy...if that's slagging of a DOF who's transfer policy has seen us massively upgrade 8/9 of 11 of in one window with plenty of time now to assess the other 2 positions and stay up this season comfortably...go right on ahead I guess. I'll take some solice in the fact the majority of people seem as bewildered as I do

[Jim©]

Can't believe this thread. Do people really expect any DOF to entirely replace a team in one window? We were so bad defensively at the start of the season that Messi and Reynaldo wouldn't have  kept us up. Regardless of how entertaining 4-5 matches are, they are still losses. In a matter of weeks the club became competitive in the league. Some here seem to thing that all a DOF has to do is ring up another DOF and say hey, send over so-and-so and his 20 goals a season and I'll pay what ever you want. Clearly, those people have never met a payroll or turned a business profitable and furthermore don't understand how wealth works. Also, why so damn negative? We have gone toe to toe with 4 of the best teams in the world in the last few weeks and have gotten a result in three of them.

actully, yes it is his job to assemble an appropriate squad. I cannot believe how many people defend the fact the DoF failed miserably to get a forward that we needed desparately. it was as obvious as the nose on your face. evben the defenders seemed a panic. But to be clear, that is his job to make it so, I do not think it would have been that hard to bring in at least one center forward. It may not have worked out but at least get them!

defending this inactivity is not of any use to our future well being.

Sorry ALG01, but you're rewriting history all through this thread.
We "desperately" needed a better defence, none of us thought we "desperately" needed a new starting forward as we had Mitro. Hindsight is a magical thing and you clearly possess good amounts of it, but we didn't know Mitro was going to struggle as he had. TK does deserve praise for his management or overseeing of the incoming defenders and for my mind the keeper who has been incredible. We saw in the first few games how much the back 5 needed revamping. We got a very very good wide player in Lookman (that we needed perhaps more at the time than a CF).
i think your criticism is unfair as any clubs fans could point at positions they'd like more players in, just like us.

[AnOldBrownie]

if TK would get off sitting on his hands we could win games we have been drawing like this one tonight.

spurs were there for the taking, if we got a proper forward we would give ourselves a brilliant chance of racing up the table.

I hope TK knows he is playing russian roulette once again.

Or...the other side of the coin.

Tony Khan isn't in complete control of transfers.   Owning club, agent and incoming player are just as palpable as Tony Khan when it comes to getting the job done.

Going in on TK without knowing all of the behinds the scene actions is short sighted imo.

Obviously we need one or two new attacking players.    What we DON'T need is to simply blindly throw money at the problem and get it wrong.

If TK hadnt not been sat on his hands all summer we wouldnt have stood a chance of coming close to a point tonight. The fact he brought in 8 fantastic players this summer (Areola, Tete, Aina, Anderson, Tosin, Robinson Lemina and Reed)  plus kept hold of Anguissa (our best player in years). Literally the only potentiall "dud" so far is RLC who shows glimmers of promise here and there and may yet go on to turn it around.

That's an alarmingly good window... but people are still moaning that hes not done enough or acted early enough for their liking....like hes deliberately swanning about unaware that we might need a striker and telling teams that hes enquired with not to bother rushing through the sales of their players as wed rather just wait till the last day of the window ya know,  just cos .

No credit given to him for the fact he absolutely smashed the summer window out the ball park. 8 out of 9 signings an overwhelming success- 1 that could still come good so could yet be9 out of 9!How often do playoff promoted clubs make that sort of level of consistancy in their signings. 

We are 2 points off safety with 2 games in hand and then game against the team above us coming up, give it a rest man.
The club knows we need a striker, they're not thick and I've no doubt they'll be mid enquiries and offers with a number of targets. I'm confident well get one come the end of the window...but for now were competing really well against top teams, no need to rush and buy our 6th or 7th choice target when we could land someone much more likely to do what we need whi may not be available till late in the window- and if the summers anything to go by well be doing our best to make sure it's one on the level of those we have already signed.

Congrats to the board, they have assembled a team more than capable of staying up, now they just need to add the final piece or 2, Rome wasnt built in a day. And congrats to Scott Parker who'm I had doubted for a while given the many underwhelming performances wed seen last year...the team look in good shape, finally have a semblance of fight and quality about them,and our defence is extremely solid,...Also we have the best keeper weve had since Van Der Sar and just drew with Spurs away and all you got to say is.....Bloody Tony Khan .... beggars belief

082.gif 049:gif 049:gif

[rebel]

Yes , we need a new striker but it has to be one better than Reid, Kamara ,Cav and Kebano and one prepared to face a relegation battle with us as well as not to demand top six club wages . Of course the transfer fee must not be excessive and he must be fit, premier league proven and ready to hit the ground running.
I wonder how many players we have on our short list that meets our requirements and whether these players have not been identified by other clubs.

It is not easy and when you remember some of the big money failures we have had in transfer dealing there is always a risk involved.
Make no mistake it is best to make certain that you hold on to your top players, replacing them is not easy No way do we want to lose Mitro, we just couldn't replace him.

Yes I did, and I discounted it. The notion that you are in a position to able to assess TK's ability strikes me as unlikely. And your last sentence re 'marginalising' him is strange - what do you mean by that?  Ignore what he says?  Ostracise him in some way? He is an integral and important part of Fulham FC.

Then the questions you ask of me are for you to answer and resolve for yourself. It is your choice to discount anything but that means to me that you do not wish to engage with me in a sensible dialogue.

Well, I shall not attack you personally, beyond acknowledging not for the first time that you are adept at criticising others with (almost) cleverly disguised snide remarks.  I reiterate that I don't see how you are in any position to assess TK's abilities.

I agree. If we lose the next 22 matches and not signed a quality striker in this window, I wonder if his stance will change, that Khan Jr has done a rubbish job.   

If we lose the next 22 games (!!) having shown that these players are more than capable of much more, I suspect well be saying Parker should lose his job, and that would be a fair assessment...if TK fails to sign a striker and that happens, yeah....I think most reasonable thinking humans would happily say he f***ed up by not signing one. I don't even need us to lose 22 games to say that. I think we need attacking options, and I'm expecting something to be done about it. That said, I think this team is capable of staying up as it is, I just think it will be infinitely tougher, and needn't be so tight a struggle. If we stay up, I'll be giving Parker and TK the round of applause they deserve, as statistically as the 3rd place promoted team, it's far from expected.

I've predicted a 8th or higher finish, that was before the season started, I've continued to post that. 14 goals in 16 matches is one of the lowest in the Prem league. If we don't remedy that, we are going to struggle big time. This is going by our finishing since the season has started.

Wait...so you predicted an 8th or higher finish? As in that was your expectancy of where we would finish this season?

No wonder you're disappointed if that's what you were expecting. How many times in premier league history has the playoff winning side done that the following year?!

And yes again, we are back pointing out the blindingly obvious, we need a striker, the club has made it clear they are aware of that (see Parkers recent interview on what we need in this window)

So now well see what they come up with. If they fail, let's all gather round and agree that was at best a very risky decision.
It's not a breeze signing notoriously prolific scorers in the January window, let alone mid covid and Brexit dramas, but let's just see what the window brings.
We are capable of winning games, but even if we keep drawing we wont ge cut adrift by the end if the window.

We have 4 games to come before the end of the season...2 against chelsea and man utd are tough, 2 very winnable games against Brighton and WBA....even if we lost the next 2, but got 4 points from the latter (in line with our previous games against them) I'd hazard an educated guess wed still be well in the hunt and hopefully with a decent new forward option or 2 to really start racking up points I'm the second half of the season.

Well see

The season isn't over, so I'm not 'disappointed', I'm very optimistic, such is my posting history each week since the start of the season. I'm disappointed in the number of goals we have scored. 14 in 16 isn't good, considering we are approaching the half way mark in the season. So I understand you're 'carry on as we are' approach, but it's a simple fact that teams need to score goals to win matches. We aren't at a stage where we can say the 'defence' are air tight, if we score one goal, and make an error, the opposition score, then we need more goals. So that is exactly where I am.

[fulhamben]

Yes , we need a new striker but it has to be one better than Reid, Kamara ,Cav and Kebano and one prepared to face a relegation battle with us as well as not to demand top six club wages . Of course the transfer fee must not be excessive and he must be fit, premier league proven and ready to hit the ground running.
I wonder how many players we have on our short list that meets our requirements and whether these players have not been identified by other clubs.

It is not easy and when you remember some of the big money failures we have had in transfer dealing there is always a risk involved.
Make no mistake it is best to make certain that you hold on to your top players, replacing them is not easy No way do we want to lose Mitro, we just couldn't replace him.

Yes I did, and I discounted it. The notion that you are in a position to able to assess TK's ability strikes me as unlikely. And your last sentence re 'marginalising' him is strange - what do you mean by that?  Ignore what he says?  Ostracise him in some way? He is an integral and important part of Fulham FC.

Then the questions you ask of me are for you to answer and resolve for yourself. It is your choice to discount anything but that means to me that you do not wish to engage with me in a sensible dialogue.

Well, I shall not attack you personally, beyond acknowledging not for the first time that you are adept at criticising others with (almost) cleverly disguised snide remarks.  I reiterate that I don't see how you are in any position to assess TK's abilities.

I agree. If we lose the next 22 matches and not signed a quality striker in this window, I wonder if his stance will change, that Khan Jr has done a rubbish job.   

If we lose the next 22 games (!!) having shown that these players are more than capable of much more, I suspect well be saying Parker should lose his job, and that would be a fair assessment...if TK fails to sign a striker and that happens, yeah....I think most reasonable thinking humans would happily say he f***ed up by not signing one. I don't even need us to lose 22 games to say that. I think we need attacking options, and I'm expecting something to be done about it. That said, I think this team is capable of staying up as it is, I just think it will be infinitely tougher, and needn't be so tight a struggle. If we stay up, I'll be giving Parker and TK the round of applause they deserve, as statistically as the 3rd place promoted team, it's far from expected.

I've predicted a 8th or higher finish, that was before the season started, I've continued to post that. 14 goals in 16 matches is one of the lowest in the Prem league. If we don't remedy that, we are going to struggle big time. This is going by our finishing since the season has started.

Wait...so you predicted an 8th or higher finish? As in that was your expectancy of where we would finish this season?

No wonder you're disappointed if that's what you were expecting. How many times in premier league history has the playoff winning side done that the following year?!

And yes again, we are back pointing out the blindingly obvious, we need a striker, the club has made it clear they are aware of that (see Parkers recent interview on what we need in this window)

So now well see what they come up with. If they fail, let's all gather round and agree that was at best a very risky decision.
It's not a breeze signing notoriously prolific scorers in the January window, let alone mid covid and Brexit dramas, but let's just see what the window brings.
We are capable of winning games, but even if we keep drawing we wont ge cut adrift by the end if the window.

We have 4 games to come before the end of the season...2 against chelsea and man utd are tough, 2 very winnable games against Brighton and WBA....even if we lost the next 2, but got 4 points from the latter (in line with our previous games against them) I'd hazard an educated guess wed still be well in the hunt and hopefully with a decent new forward option or 2 to really start racking up points I'm the second half of the season.

Well see

The season isn't over, so I'm not 'disappointed', I'm very optimistic, such is my posting history each week since the start of the season. I'm disappointed in the number of goals we have scored. 14 in 16 isn't good, considering we are approaching the half way mark in the season. So I understand you're carry on as we are approach, but it's a simple fact that teams need to score goals to win matches. We aren't at a stage where we can say the 'defence' are air tight. So that is exactly where I am.

its even worse when you think 9 of those goals were scored in just 4 games. Meaning we have 5 goals in the other 12. It's shocking, absolutely shocking.

[rebel]

Can't believe this thread. Do people really expect any DOF to entirely replace a team in one window? We were so bad defensively at the start of the season that Messi and Reynaldo wouldn't have  kept us up. Regardless of how entertaining 4-5 matches are, they are still losses. In a matter of weeks the club became competitive in the league. Some here seem to thing that all a DOF has to do is ring up another DOF and say hey, send over so-and-so and his 20 goals a season and I'll pay what ever you want. Clearly, those people have never met a payroll or turned a business profitable and furthermore don't understand how wealth works. Also, why so damn negative? We have gone toe to toe with 4 of the best teams in the world in the last few weeks and have gotten a result in three of them.

They almost did it again last Summer, signing 11 players (I guarantee they tried to sign 1 / 2 strikers), it's been done twice before, under Laurie Sanchez (2007) signing 14 players and under Slaviša Jokanović (2018) signing 14 players.

[Cornishnick]

Please, please TK, get some of those loan players signed up permanently. No point in speculating about the future whilst we live off loanees so much.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

If TK hadnt not been sat on his hands all summer we wouldnt have stood a chance of coming close to a point tonight. The fact he brought in 8 fantastic players this summer (Areola, Tete, Aina, Anderson, Tosin, Robinson Lemina and Reed)  plus kept hold of Anguissa (our best player in years). Literally the only potentiall "dud" so far is RLC who shows glimmers of promise here and there and may yet go on to turn it around.

That's an alarmingly good window... but people are still moaning that hes not done enough or acted early enough for their liking....like hes deliberately swanning about unaware that we might need a striker and telling teams that hes enquired with not to bother rushing through the sales of their players as wed rather just wait till the last day of the window ya know,  just cos .

No credit given to him for the fact he absolutely smashed the summer window out the ball park. 8 out of 9 signings an overwhelming success- 1 reasonable could yet be90l! How often do playoff promoted clubs make that sort of level of consistancy in their signings. 

We are 2 points off safety with 2 games in hand and then game against the team above us coming up, give it a rest man.
The club knows we need a striker, they're not thick and I've no doubt they'll be mid enquiries and offers with a number of targets. I'm confident well get one come the end of the window...but for now were competing really well against top teams, no need to rush and buy our 6th or 7th choice target when we could land someone much more likely to do what we need whi may not be available till late in the window- and if the summers anything to go by well be doing our best to make sure it's one on the level of those we have already signed.

Congrats to the board, they have assembled a team more than capable of staying up, now they just need to add the final piece or 2, Rome wasnt built in a day. And congrats to Scott Parker who'm I had doubted for a while given the many underwhelming performances wed seen last year...the team look in good shape, finally have a semblance of fight and quality about them,and our defence is extremely solid,...Also we have the best keeper weve had since Van Der Sar and just drew with Spurs away and all you got to say is.....Bloody Tony Khan .... beggars belief

we needed a forward, it was obvious and we didn't get one. what the boards did was scandalous in terms of not assembling a poroper squad. if we don't get a forward soon we are way more likely to go down. to remind you we are sitting in the bottom three and we are fairly toothless in front of goal.

thinking playing without a forward line is a good thing is what beggars belief.

What balderdash!

[Statto]

its even worse when you think 9 of those goals were scored in just 4 games. Meaning we have 5 goals in the other 12. It's shocking, absolutely shocking.

Not that shocking when you see Burnley's goals scored column

(and West Brom and Sheffield United but that goes without saying)

[Lyle from Hangeland]

Can't believe that people seriously think that Tony Khan has an in depth knowledge of football in UK and Europe and has "assembled" the squad
The idea is laughable
Behind the scenes is a team of scouts and statistical analysers
TK involvement is to check out the stats and say yes or no
Well done to SP and the team

What the actual hell is going on with people on here?

TK owns and helped design and put in place a stat based program designed to identify targets for us to sign. His job is quite literally to manage transfers. How we goes about doing that is completely bloody irrelevant - he ultimately is in charge of how we choose to identify and negotiate with, our transfer targets. Hes chosen to to that by balancing his stat teams work, with the work of a scouting team he appoints and the ideas of his manager.

Hes a director...No ones expecting him to be out scouting individual players by himself, hes the manager of our transfer system for gods sake. Literally no one said well done Tony for individually, single handedly doing every single part of the transfer process....but he is the one in charge of our transfer system....so when it does well, he deserves praise. What is so hard to understand about that? Well done Scott for doing well with a good set of players...and well done Tony for running our transfer system in a way that saw those players sign....let's not forget he also has to do the negotiating part.

What is going on here? If you are not trolling I'm lost for words genuinely at this point. Some odd stuff posted on here

Here here Jay! There are certain fans who everything is bad always, and there must some major change. It's so common across English club football fans. It's very sad and unproduction, not to mention mentally unhealthy. It is what it is and these folks aren't going to grow out of it or think themselves out it.