Silva press conference for Arsenal

[Lighthouse]

Good grief. The knives already out for MS on this board, or at the very least being sharpened, just 2 games into the season, with a win on the board, and after a top half finish last year!

God forbid what it's going to be like after a week of arsenal, spurs and city losses.

Well I am not sure that is true. Any signing that comes good is down to his coaching while every failure is down to stupid Owners Son. I think Silva has lived a very easy life from the fans. We tend to think that  success means any failure can't be down to him. Even poor team selection and odd tactics and subs. Personally I doubt there are better coaches around. But I have never bought into him being a great communicator or a great tactician.

[Thailand Mick]

I would have loved someone to ask the question have any of the three strikers been sold to other clubs. These players maybe waiting to see if bigger club come calling and will choose Fulham at the end of the window. I would assume they have already been notified of our interest to see if a deal could be agreed.

[filham]

Did anyone else notice the respect Silva was showing to Arsenal.
I bet if Arsenal were in need of a new manager he would be the first to apply.

[hovewhite]

Regarding marco,there's obviously somewhere a problem with a new contract ,think myself that he may walk come end of season,if that's the case so be it .I Will always remember his spell here fondly,but the club will move on and so will we.
What khan does in the meantime may change the direction who knows.

[Southcoastffc]

Hero to zero doesn't take long, does it!  If  after the Luton game we have 6 points from 4 games I bet the MS knocking diminishes.

[Lighthouse]

Hero to zero doesn't take long, does it!  If  after the Luton game we have 6 points from 4 games I bet the MS knocking diminishes.

This is what I never understand. I am a Lonely old sod and I read most of everything that is put on these pages. But have yet to see any knocking of Silva. A few have never hero worshipped him like many but that isn't the same thing. Knocking is what the owner and his son get. Not saying Silva isn't perfect and must take some of the blame for defeats is the same as saying he should take some of the praise for wins.

[Tman77]

Hero to zero doesn't take long, does it!  If  after the Luton game we have 6 points from 4 games I bet the MS knocking diminishes.

This is what I never understand. I am a Lonely old sod and I read most of everything that is put on these pages. But have yet to see any knocking of Silva. A few have never hero worshipped him like many but that isn't the same thing. Knocking is what the owner and his son get. Not saying Silva isn't perfect and must take some of the blame for defeats is the same as saying he should take some of the praise for wins.

I've only recently joined the board, so can't speak for what has been said on here, but generally - circle of fulham friends and other social media - I can't really think of anyone who hero worships Silva or says he doesnt have faults. Most I know, for instance feel that he often makes subs too late - saturday a prime example - it was clear before the penalty incident that we werent really in the game and those subs should have come earlier.

All that said, i think it comes down to credit in the bank. Silva has quite a bit, so people give him leeway. I mean, i was generally happy to overlook the issues with Roy (most of the domestic away games under him were horrendous to watch), because of his overall 'credit'

[General]

I hope I'm wrong, but it looks to me as though Silva might be off if we don't meet his expectations in the transfer market. He'll probably complete his current contract, but the fact that he hasn't signed an extension suggests that he is leaving his options open. He is certainly showing the frustrations that we all share.

Totally agree, he has appeared very solemn in recent interviews and I would not be surprised if he walks away earlier than expected if he does not get the support from upstairs as he deserves.

I mean, if he feels the squad he isn't capable of surviving relegation, he has to walk and I wouldn't blame him. But I doubt this is the case. We're weaker overall (subjective I know) but we're likely at least on par defensively, an argument for better with Bassey. But ultimately, weaker with no Mitrovic or Solomon (again up for debate but that's my opinion) so unless drastic things happen this window, I think he'l simply maintain our survival, and walk without signing a new deal and personally, I wouldn't blame him. The guy has ambitions which I'm not convinced are shown here and they haven't adequately supported in him in building a competitive squad for the start of the season, but hope he can pull it together a few weeks into the season with an unsettled pre season squad.

I appreciate this will trigger the more positive posters on the board but that's my opinion.

Good post and my view on it too.

The khan's I hope will back him properly between now and the end of the window.

We've got at least 50m£, and if you believe twitter financial analysts we could have upto £130m still to spend even with FFP restrictions as a result.

I'm hoping for a flurry of solid activity, with majority being permanent.

I'm not denying that it has proven to be our strategy though to hold off until the end of the summer window, and we've done some good business at that time, but it is a highly risky strategy if it doesn't come off as well as you think it could.

The Moise Kean statement for me either suggests we were in talks for him and Silva didn't want him so made the comment publicly to address this, or we genuinely just weren't in for him.

The khan's have always had a rhetoric around the club of being ambitious, keeping hold of our best players and seeing fulham as a top Premier league club, whilst caveating that with the need to be sustainable.

Having hiked up the ticket prices a significant amount, losing the club a lot of its historical fan base and also having sold mitro they've little excuse that the money isn't there to be spent now.

Mitro being sold was caveated with something they didn't want to do as a club but their hands were forced. I don't know how extreme that was from mitro, but I'm happy to accept that as being true.


That being said, if you're ambitious and sell one of your best assets, then you're in a period of uncertainty and need to make sure that is dealt with quite quickly so it doesn't linger and the ambition of the club isn't questioned by the ambitious players and manager who have all spoken publicly about their aspirations for being ambitious at the club.

Letting mitro go so late in the window means we've got very little time to sort a replacement and we still need 5-6 additional players to come in to have a full squad.

Time is ticking at what is currently a pretty important period for the immediate season and future of the club.

Come on Fulham, come on the transfer team - let's get things going and finish the window on a strong note!

[roberto w6]

We seem to have the same discussion every season about the transfer chaos and late arrivals of new signings.

Our strong mid-table position last season should have made this close-season the year when that changed - i.e. more attractive to better quality players so able to identify and sign them earlier in the window. Instead, it's the same situation.

It's too late to change that now but I would make it an absolute priority during the first few months of this season to sort out (add people/replace people/restructure) the scouting and recruitment function. If Brighton and Brentford can have, what seems to be, a well run and well planned recruitment strategy then so can we.

We will never be able to compete with Real Madrid and Man U in the market but we can sensibly aim to get ahead of Brighton and Brentford. I see this year's chaos as such a missed opportunity as last season's performance gave us a sales pitch to attract better players more quickly than ever before.

[Southcoastffc]

Hero to zero doesn't take long, does it!  If  after the Luton game we have 6 points from 4 games I bet the MS knocking diminishes.

This is what I never understand. I am a Lonely old sod and I read most of everything that is put on these pages. But have yet to see any knocking of Silva. A few have never hero worshipped him like many but that isn't the same thing. Knocking is what the owner and his son get. Not saying Silva isn't perfect and must take some of the blame for defeats is the same as saying he should take some of the praise for wins.

Fair comment - I was a bit lazy in what I typed.   

[Bill2]

Usually find these pretty standard but finding this one today fascinating.

Silva seeming increasingly exasperated.

 - specifically mentioning Kean and saying he's not a solution for us.
 - stating that its harder to do business late in the window
 - saying that we're trying but 'we'll see' - essentially sounding less confident by the day
 - Bassey will start v Arsenal
 - abruptly shutting down Mitrovic questions saying he doesn't want to talk about him now he's gone.


As someone just said to me, it feels like his filter has gone to some extent.

Some of this is blatantly obvious. Of course Bassey will play as Tosin is out and Tim is suspended.
He is quite right Mitro is gone so why keep banging about him.
Of course the later in the window you do business the players who the selling club don't want may become cheaper. Especially if they are on huge wages but have not lived up to the billing But those who are wanted by various clubs become more expensive.
Simple economics.

[RaySmith]

I suppose it must be a pretty stressful situation for Marco, Mitro going, and  what he sees as a thin squad, and knowing that a couple of defeats, against the likes  of Arsenal on Saturday, could have pundits and fans, already speaking of relegation.

I'm sure he'd love the have the players and budget of the Arsenal or City manager, or any of the top clubs, and likely thinks he could  do a good job with such clubs - well, he seems a confident  guy, but he needs to be, and is a very talented manager, who has done very well so far with Fulham.

But he likely feels the stress at the start of a new season, realising that things fell well for us last season, though we played very well too - in fact could have finished higher.

But he'll know how easily things can begin to fall apart at this level, and how if  you lose a few games, and  descend into the relegation zone, the confidence of players can  be undermined: suddenly everything's going wrong, and add a few dodgy ref decisions, injuries and sending off's...
The role of the manager in steadying the ship is very important in these situations.

I also think he really dislikes press conferences, especially now, with all the Mitro stuff, and talk of who we'll sign.