If Roy Had Stayed

[White Noise]

Where do you think he would have taken the club this season and beyond?

I ask because we now have a slightly different perspective on his departure having been able to watch his efforts at Liverpool and the way the division and our squad has gone this season?

There is a possible view that Roy had peaked at Fulham in several ways and that he would be struggling at least as much as Sparky has done with our injuries etc. I don't think he would have spent big in the Summer and I doubt he would have gone for Dembele and Salcido.

Might it have been the case that he would have managed a steady decline (as so many briefly successful managers often do) as he kept faith for too long with an ageing squad and struggled to adapt to the evolution of the other sides in the division?

Was he still building at Fulham or had he done as much as he thought he could do, given the financial constraints at the club?

Is it possible that, having seen his departure as a blow to our prospects, getting a new manager of Sparky's calibre is actually exactly what Fulham needed at this point in its development.

Roy managed something like 9 defeats in 19 league games at Liverpool and you have to think they were not quite that bad when he joined. Is he a fairly one dimensional manager who had reached the height of what is possible with his methods and capabilities?

Might we look back in a few years and see Roy as a much more limited manager than we thought he was when he was with us?

[Lighthouse]

The squad needed to be strengthened. Roy had brought in players but some were no where near good enough in this league. I have a feeling we would have found ourselves in a not disimilar position to the one we find ourselves. Still looking for a forward but playing far more as we did do last season. I believe our lack of goals would have found us out.

I believe Roy may have left if things were not going well. Maybe a seaosn later. He would have gone to a post at International level or a bigger club in time. Who knows what would have happened? Point is we do have a new manager now and if we win against Wigan we will think he has turned the corner. If we don't all the same doubts will surface.

If Roy had stayed, I doubt we would be much better off. I would still complain that we were dull to watch.

[CULTUREVULTURE]

The big difference would have been that with Roy we would have had a manager in place for the whole close season. One of our big problems has been the lack of time for Hughes to prepare as a result of Hodgson's prolonged departure. Roy would have had time to balance the squad in a way that Hughes couldn't. After Europe this year was always going to be a transitional experience.

[Tom]

Who cares! He chose to leave and look who is out of a job.  :dead horse:

[MJG]

I do think if he had stayed we would have seen about 4 or 5 players come in during the summer, I mean two of them are here already.
As to where we would be now, I suspect we would have at least another 6-8 pts on our home form only.

I do not blame him for one minute for going to Liverpool but he could have handled it better.The mistake he made was that he could have built something here from the youth team upwards, i mean all the coaching and teams were primed to play like the first team. Thats why lesser quality squad players fitted into the sytem so well but maybe this season look out of their depth.

[WhiteJC]

I think he (Roy) thought we would be in the position we are, after his experience at Blackburn, and that he had done as much as he could with the team, new players or not.

Could Roy have got AJ and Kamara to score goals week in week out, he didn't before. Bobby only "hit form" when he was considered "the number one" striker after AJ was crocked, we're all now keeping our fingers crossed for Bobby to come back as the number one!

How many times did we need a plan B in games? Roy didn't appear to have one, if his 87th minute substitutions were anything to go by and we've needed a Plan B since the Wolves game, it looks as if we've now got plan B in place, plan A will be back once Bobby is fit?

If Roy had stayed and we were in the relegation zone there would be reams of talk about how this had happened at Blackburn and how none of the pundits were expecting this to happen.

[Burt]

I have to admit that when I was in Hamburg I had the feeling that this was the pinnacle of Roy's time with us.

He would still have the same challenges - ageing squad, limited budget - so were he still here I reckon we would be in a similar situation, albeit perhaps with a more drilled squad.

[SuffolkWhite]

I think we would be in the same position ish, I think we could have had maybe another 4-5 pts purely because the players would be playing in a system they are used to. But this season is a funny one and there are many teams who could be vying for a place the Europa league as well as Relegation. It's great in it!

[epsomraver]

I think he (Roy) thought we would be in the position we are, after his experience at Blackburn, and that he had done as much as he could with the team, new players or not.

Could Roy have got AJ and Kamara to score goals week in week out, he didn't before. Bobby only "hit form" when he was considered "the number one" striker after AJ was crocked, we're all now keeping our fingers crossed for Bobby to come back as the number one!

How many times did we need a plan B in games? Roy didn't appear to have one, if his 87th minute substitutions were anything to go by and we've needed a Plan B since the Wolves game, it looks as if we've now got plan B in place, plan A will be back once Bobby is fit?

If Roy had stayed and we were in the relegation zone there would be reams of talk about how this had happened at Blackburn and how none of the pundits were expecting this to happen.

Good points John, totally agree, I think Sparky is more positive about the away games and we will see more of them, starting today?

[cebu]

Presumably neither Salcido nor Dembele would have signed. Konch would have stayed and Sidwell would have come in the summer already. I don't think our league position would be better under Hodgson. The team's play under him was just as dependent on BZ as it is under Sparky. So yes, we would be roughly where we are now.

[ImperialWhite]

I think we would be in a slightly better position, for reasons that have already mentioned.

We would have had much longer to bring in new players - we don't know who Roy would have brought in, but I suspect he knew better than anyone how chronically dependent on Zamora we were and would have brought in an adequate understudy.

We'd probably be roughly where Stoke are now ~10th-12th, with a few of our draws/losses as wins (Sunderland, Birmingham, West Ham, etc) but probably without our win over Stoke.