Why are we so slow ??

[Hatch007]

Exactly St Eve

I admire the above posters that could be bothered to explain for the umpteenth time the vagaries of the modern transfer window.

Citing outliers such as Palace signing Johnson are the exception, not the norm.

If only signing players was as easy as grocery shopping ...

[WindyCity]

This topic has been discussed often over past several years.  I think the quandary we find ourselves in might be explained quite simply.  For the most part, we always see the usual reasons, such as lack of trophies and lack of European football.  I won't deny that those are issues, but in my view they aren't the only thing holding back talent from coming to CC.  How about some:

Salesmanship!

How can FFC not be sold to prospects/top talent?  One of the longest and storied clubs in UK football.  Playing in one of the top leagues in all of world football, if not the best league in the world.  And playing and living in a world class city.  Yes, we strive for silverware/Euro play, and that is a challenge.  But what can be offered is playing against some of the very best teams in the world.  What prospect would not welcome the challenge of two games a season against the likes of Liverpool, ManCity, Arsenal et al?   I sometimes question the ability of the recruitment team and MS himself in their abilities to sell FFC.  I know, I know, this is a very simplistic take on an issue that does have many moving parts.  But salesmanship has to figure in to the equation.  Certainly other teams, even some smaller clubs than FFC, can and do attract top talent.  We currently are a mid table club in a top league, why can't this be sold?

[jayffc]

The truth of the matter is quite simple, most fans just live in a bit of a delusional bubble of buy buy buy spend spend spend like that's the answer to everything
Inflated places are out of control , especially in January,
35 million for a mediocre winger etc.

We have a good squad, blowing dough is not always necessarily the answer to all of one's problems

I think the main concern for the khans right now is tying Marco down for the future, Harry too maybe

It's About time people started being grateful for what we have

UTF

Now, now Perry - we won't be having sensible post's on here

I think the issue is not whether it is a good idea to spend spend spend but rather the words our leaders spout about ambition and what we can expect at the time of season ticket sales. If the owner said, no way are we spending money the squad is ok as it is then we would all cope but they lead us to believe they are ambitious but do not follow that through. The issue of marco's contract is proof positive they are not ambitious because a good management team would have pinned him down by now or have somebody lined up ready to go. The wilson issue shows there is total uncertainty.

And just as a final thought, Andy Thomas was probably the difference between success and Failure for Mac, I think we are in a similarish situation now.

Could you not wait 9 days before writing all this to actually see what we manage to do in the market?

Would have "pinned him down?"

What is this over simplification about? that's not how the world works. They want him to stay and have allegedly offered him a very handsomely paid contract, so won't just move on from him too soon if they think they can keep him, but they also can't force him to stay if he chooses otherwise. So they still won't throw money at players without negotiating deals just to placate him, if they have historical proof of saving themselves significant money that way (Which it seems they do)

They also believe we have a good squad (we do) yet they're clearly negotiating with some key targets of a high level (bobb, Pepi, atta) so they're clearly trying to improve things further without being rinsed completely in doing so.

Silvas one of the longest serving managers in the league for Christ's sake so they've kept him longer than most around us manage to keep their managers.

Why are people acting like we're the only club ever where players or managers run down their contracts & seek the best deal before departing or staying on?? Like we're uniquely poorly run in this regard? its total fantasy, it happens all over everywhere. We're often linked to players at the end of their contracts from other clubs. As for Wilson , who the hell knows what Wilsons agents are actually doing regarding contract negotiation and what the real truth is there.

It's narratives like this that have been pushed alongside others in recent years, about how great Palace and Forest etc are run in comparison... Only for them to spaff millions on rubbish signings and/or have their managers completely slate their board or get fired and collapse entirely. It's make-believe frankly that we aren't going about business pretty damn well, or showing ambition for a club our size.

We established ourselves again as a prem team, regularly beating top sides. This squad won more games than ever in our club history last year and was added to in the summer, with our promising youth also secured. Were 3 points off 6th currently despite key injuries and AFCON...and people are still on here moaning. Again. Like Fulham's is a club in some mess of a place or in disarray...what are we even talking about at this point?

Sorry you're getting the brunt of this but I'm so tired of it. If people think this is dissaray I dread to think how suicidal and toxic they'll be when we actually have an inevitable next period of adversity. That's football. It's cyclical & managers and players come and go for many reasons, with agents doing their best to get best deals for their clients, often taking things to the wire for max leverage.

Silva wants to be backed by some key additions before possibly signing on? Fine. Clearly we're in the market for them. But how about we just wait till the market closes to see what plays out before jumping the gun on accusing the club of ' tricking season ticket holders into thinking we're being ambitious.' Cos frankly I'm shocked we're even being linked to spending nearly 100m on players in January.

Our owners do plenty to back their ambition talk - they built a giant bloody new stand for untold millions to help us sustainably compete and build towards revenue streams to help that goal, they broke our transfer record on hotly tipped talent in ESR and Kevin in back to back windows, signed long term targets like chuk who's been brilliant. Are clearly pushing for big money moves for big talents in Bobb and Pepi who Marco wants. All without ever running into ffp trouble etc.

What terrible club management

Im tired boss.

[jayffc]

https://x.com/i/status/2014725437096677560

https://x.com/i/status/2014720823093756167

https://x.com/i/status/2014721526612763133

https://x.com/i/status/2014720946448355524

https://x.com/i/status/2014730779499110719

Total uncertainty sounds like we're a real mess behind the scenes 😏

[H4usuallysitting]

The truth of the matter is quite simple, most fans just live in a bit of a delusional bubble of buy buy buy spend spend spend like that's the answer to everything
Inflated places are out of control , especially in January,
35 million for a mediocre winger etc.

We have a good squad, blowing dough is not always necessarily the answer to all of one's problems

I think the main concern for the khans right now is tying Marco down for the future, Harry too maybe

It's About time people started being grateful for what we have

UTF

I couldn't agree more. Look at the big spenders- Liverpool £430m to go backwards, Chelsea £300m to be 3 points ahead of us. Now look at the two lowest spenders- Fulham and Aston Villa.

Spend spend spend guarantees nothing at all.

Do you see what you've done Perry... you've now got people agreeing with you....this will never do....please, somebody stop these sensible posts

[perry geyton]

The truth of the matter is quite simple, most fans just live in a bit of a delusional bubble of buy buy buy spend spend spend like that's the answer to everything
Inflated places are out of control , especially in January,
35 million for a mediocre winger etc.

We have a good squad, blowing dough is not always necessarily the answer to all of one's problems

I think the main concern for the khans right now is tying Marco down for the future, Harry too maybe

It's About time people started being grateful for what we have

UTF

Now, now Perry - we won't be having sensible post's on here

I think the issue is not whether it is a good idea to spend spend spend but rather the words our leaders spout about ambition and what we can expect at the time of season ticket sales. If the owner said, no way are we spending money the squad is ok as it is then we would all cope but they lead us to believe they are ambitious but do not follow that through. The issue of marco's contract is proof positive they are not ambitious because a good management team would have pinned him down by now or have somebody lined up ready to go. The wilson issue shows there is total uncertainty.

And just as a final thought, Andy Thomas was probably the difference between success and Failure for Mac, I think we are in a similarish situation now.

Sorry not buying that, regarding ambition well that new stadium looks rather ambitious to me, regarding signings 40 million on Kevin was rather ambitious and a loan move for chuck which may well become a new signing in the summer works for me
Muniz is back soon and the Nigerian boys are back, Kenny's back too
Peachy Creamy as far as I'm concerned

[St Eve]

This topic has been discussed often over past several years.  I think the quandary we find ourselves in might be explained quite simply.  For the most part, we always see the usual reasons, such as lack of trophies and lack of European football.  I won't deny that those are issues, but in my view they aren't the only thing holding back talent from coming to CC.  How about some:

Salesmanship!

How can FFC not be sold to prospects/top talent?  One of the longest and storied clubs in UK football.  Playing in one of the top leagues in all of world football, if not the best league in the world.  And playing and living in a world class city.  Yes, we strive for silverware/Euro play, and that is a challenge.  But what can be offered is playing against some of the very best teams in the world.  What prospect would not welcome the challenge of two games a season against the likes of Liverpool, ManCity, Arsenal et al?   I sometimes question the ability of the recruitment team and MS himself in their abilities to sell FFC.  I know, I know, this is a very simplistic take on an issue that does have many moving parts.  But salesmanship has to figure in to the equation.  Certainly other teams, even some smaller clubs than FFC, can and do attract top talent.  We currently are a mid table club in a top league, why can't this be sold?

For you and me and all other Fulham fans it's simple, but the reality is we have limited money for both the transfer and salary. We have a ground capacity of less than 30,000 which doesn't help out revenue. We are not in any European competition and have never won the Premier league, FA cup, League cup or any European competition. Currently we are a solid mid table team, with a great manager who may not stay. Let's be honest, the highlight of our season is beating a top 4 club, which until recently hardly ever happened.
You can't for one minute think that ownership doesn't want success on their investment. For all of the reasons above it's not easy and I'm sure their "sales" team is as good as most in the premier league.
We seem to be talking to a few players and hopefully we will land at least one. Couple that with keeping Marco and Wilson I for one will be happy

[LBNo11]

Why are we so slow to sign players? We are now into the last week of the transfer window and still haven't done any business. Who do we blame for this?

We knew we needed a striker and a midfielder at least, those deals could of been done a lot earlier but yet again it looks as though we are going to wait until the last day to try and penny pinch and sign whatever is left over.

Who is responsible for this? Just sack them and get somebody else.

Let me think, when was Alistair 'Teflon' Macintosh made CEO..?

[Somerset Fulham]

The truth of the matter is quite simple, most fans just live in a bit of a delusional bubble of buy buy buy spend spend spend like that's the answer to everything
Inflated places are out of control , especially in January,
35 million for a mediocre winger etc.

We have a good squad, blowing dough is not always necessarily the answer to all of one's problems

I think the main concern for the khans right now is tying Marco down for the future, Harry too maybe

It's About time people started being grateful for what we have

UTF

You might need to sit down here (I certainly did!), but I could not agree with you more here. 

Well bloody said, Perry.

[Andrew]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

[ArcticOctopus]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

I'd be curious what positions you think lack quality and depth. The way I see it, we're probably lacking 1 CM. Could maybe say striker as well but we all know that's only temporary.

Every where else I'd say we're pretty much 2 deep in quality PL players.

[jayffc]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

That's fine, you're welcome to disagree, I just don't find the argument compelling.

You'd think you'd just wait 9 days rather than put yourself out there with such statements about not signing anyone. We shall have to revisit I guess.

What more follow-through do you want on the riverside? It's running now, it has a working restaurant, a riverside market with 10 working kitchens, a hotel you can reserve now,live events, jazz nights,comedy shows, a roller disco event, flippin yoga, barre and puppy health classes for christs sake 😂...and of course a bloody spa with rooftop pool on the way 😅
 
And that's outside of matchdays - on game days it has high-quality matchday experiences getting good reviews with fancy corporate packages. It already functions and so will be bringing in extra revenue than it was? So what are you saying here? It's inclusion clearly also makes Craven Cottage a more suitable venue for other events which could bring in new revenue streams. And having built it Shahid has written off hundreds of millions of debt to help the clubs books?! . Any additional revenue, benefits the budget constraints for acquisitions.

I really don't know how you can possibly suggest that doesn't show ambition? Even if it failed and no one went there (which isn't the case) - clearly the very building of it for untold written off millions is an ambitious one. Genuinely baffling to suggest otherwise. "The riverside will be nothing without a team or a manager".... eh? What? we have and will continue to have both, our current ones are 3 points off 6th. And the riverside improving the clubs books will mean more room for things like SCR? That's one of the major points for doing it in the first place - to help the on-pitch situation and ability to recruit by giving us more financial room to manouvre.

As for squad - the main position we're not really catered overly deeply for is CM - which was less of but still a possible issue before AFCON. Otherwise the squads very good generally and clearly capable of doing well alongside good management? Again, last year it was good enough to win more games in a season than any other fulham team in history . Striker we sadly lost our main CF for months, but not really their fault Silva refuses to give JKA more than 5 minutes with the full team.

The squad is thin on quality? maybe when half of em are out injured and 3 away for Afcon, yeh it gets tough for most teams that go through that that arent the top 4. Sorry, Marco is a very good manager but it's so deeply biased and frankly comletely disengenious to give zero credit to the squad they've assembled for him, when we have a ton of key injuries AND 3 big players at AFCON and they STILL manage to get points. The very fact we can beat the teams we have on a consistent run isn't just cos Marco is some magic man. I love him, he's very good, but he still needs a team capable of delivering what he wants and quality to work with, and he has it. It's in large part good management but also because, contrary to your painting of it, maybe we actually have a stronger squad than you give credit for.

We have to work within a strict SCR and FFP budget due to the clubs size and current revenue, that means we can't just endlessly sign high wage players even if they wanted to, but they still have pushed that as far as they can, and broke transfer record again to sign Kevin this year. Honestly I can not fathom suggesting they aren't ambitious.

[The Rational Fan]

Fulham should wait until the right player comes along. The last time we signed four players in the middle of a window was 2018, when we got Fabri, MLM, Seri and Schulle. I am sure in 2018 we could have got better players by waiting. TK learnt his lesson and now waits til the right player comes along (eg Palhina) or gets a loan at the end.

[iansthailand]

The truth of the matter is quite simple, most fans just live in a bit of a delusional bubble of buy buy buy spend spend spend like that's the answer to everything
Inflated places are out of control , especially in January,
35 million for a mediocre winger etc.

We have a good squad, blowing dough is not always necessarily the answer to all of one's problems

I think the main concern for the khans right now is tying Marco down for the future, Harry too maybe

It's About time people started being grateful for what we have

UTF

Now, now Perry - we won't be having sensible post's on here

I think the issue is not whether it is a good idea to spend spend spend but rather the words our leaders spout about ambition and what we can expect at the time of season ticket sales. If the owner said, no way are we spending money the squad is ok as it is then we would all cope but they lead us to believe they are ambitious but do not follow that through. The issue of marco's contract is proof positive they are not ambitious because a good management team would have pinned him down by now or have somebody lined up ready to go. The wilson issue shows there is total uncertainty.

And just as a final thought, Andy Thomas was probably the difference between success and Failure for Mac, I think we are in a similarish situation now.

Andy Thomas that takes you back. Bring back Jim Hicks i say. There's a trier.

[KJS]

Once again a transfer thread where know one on here has a clue about the club's approach and the reason for it in a transfer window, I gave up long ago 2nd guessing our approach because I have no actual knowledge of our fiscal status which is something that under PSR, governs all transfer activities

[KJS]

The club has no intention of signing anyone now we are relatively safe.

They do not want to make a realistic charge for a european place so leave it as it is.

We will get a last minute dodgy loan.

It's not slow, it's not interested.

I remember a last minute loan that wasn't dodgy, a certain player called Mitro came in and as far as I remember did a pretty decent job

[Andrew]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

That's fine, you're welcome to disagree, I just don't find the argument compelling.

You'd think you'd just wait 9 days rather than put yourself out there with such statements about not signing anyone. We shall have to revisit I guess.

What more follow-through do you want on the riverside? It's running now, it has a working restaurant, a riverside market with 10 working kitchens, a hotel you can reserve now,live events, jazz nights,comedy shows, a roller disco event, flippin yoga, barre and puppy health classes for christs sake 😂...and of course a bloody spa with rooftop pool on the way 😅
 
And that's outside of matchdays - on game days it has high-quality matchday experiences getting good reviews with fancy corporate packages. It already functions and so will be bringing in extra revenue than it was? So what are you saying here? It's inclusion clearly also makes Craven Cottage a more suitable venue for other events which could bring in new revenue streams. And having built it Shahid has written off hundreds of millions of debt to help the clubs books?! . Any additional revenue, benefits the budget constraints for acquisitions.

I really don't know how you can possibly suggest that doesn't show ambition? Even if it failed and no one went there (which isn't the case) - clearly the very building of it for untold written off millions is an ambitious one. Genuinely baffling to suggest otherwise. "The riverside will be nothing without a team or a manager".... eh? What? we have and will continue to have both, our current ones are 3 points off 6th. And the riverside improving the clubs books will mean more room for things like SCR? That's one of the major points for doing it in the first place - to help the on-pitch situation and ability to recruit by giving us more financial room to manouvre.

As for squad - the main position we're not really catered overly deeply for is CM - which was less of but still a possible issue before AFCON. Otherwise the squads very good generally and clearly capable of doing well alongside good management? Again, last year it was good enough to win more games in a season than any other fulham team in history . Striker we sadly lost our main CF for months, but not really their fault Silva refuses to give JKA more than 5 minutes with the full team.

The squad is thin on quality? maybe when half of em are out injured and 3 away for Afcon, yeh it gets tough for most teams that go through that that arent the top 4. Sorry, Marco is a very good manager but it's so deeply biased and frankly comletely disengenious to give zero credit to the squad they've assembled for him, when we have a ton of key injuries AND 3 big players at AFCON and they STILL manage to get points. The very fact we can beat the teams we have on a consistent run isn't just cos Marco is some magic man. I love him, he's very good, but he still needs a team capable of delivering what he wants and quality to work with, and he has it. It's in large part good management but also because, contrary to your painting of it, maybe we actually have a stronger squad than you give credit for.

We have to work within a strict SCR and FFP budget due to the clubs size and current revenue, that means we can't just endlessly sign high wage players even if they wanted to, but they still have pushed that as far as they can, and broke transfer record again to sign Kevin this year. Honestly I can not fathom suggesting they aren't ambitious.

Due to a format error i was disagreeing with a different poster but your response is valid and interesting.

There are loads of teams, well a few anyway, that have invested in the stadium, such as Bolton for one, languishing because of lack of investment in the playing staff. Bolton did well because of Alardyce, when he left they collapsed. We do well with an obviously thin squad because of Marco, if he went our chances of survival would be massively reduced with this squad.

Our central midfield is awful with Lukic and Berge not being good enough. We do not have a proper centre half that can pass the ball properly, Cuenca is the best of them in that respect. Our second choice keeper is dreadful, Castagne has gone right off,kevin is very poor , ESRunderwhelming though he does have an eye for goa. At the front we rely on an ageing Raul and no understudy for Muniz.

Marco is a genius and with a proper investment policy bringing players in early, we could be so much higher up the table. BUT I could cope with all this but when it is time for season tickets the owner tells us of his ambition and support for the manager but season after season it doesn't happen.

If he would just we will aim to survive, and tick over mid table problem solved.

The new stand has nothing whatsoever to do with ambition for the first team. As I said the same was saidvwhen miller built the old riverside. I'm  sure it's  a lovely 'day out' for toiurists, but i am a long term inmate that just wants to see my team play well, i do not care what the view of the river is like or how many functioing kitchens there are if the winger cannot cross a ball acurately.

Experience suggests no proper signings in january, but good to see the Afcon boys back.

[jayffc]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

That's fine, you're welcome to disagree, I just don't find the argument compelling.

You'd think you'd just wait 9 days rather than put yourself out there with such statements about not signing anyone. We shall have to revisit I guess.

What more follow-through do you want on the riverside? It's running now, it has a working restaurant, a riverside market with 10 working kitchens, a hotel you can reserve now,live events, jazz nights,comedy shows, a roller disco event, flippin yoga, barre and puppy health classes for christs sake 😂...and of course a bloody spa with rooftop pool on the way 😅
 
And that's outside of matchdays - on game days it has high-quality matchday experiences getting good reviews with fancy corporate packages. It already functions and so will be bringing in extra revenue than it was? So what are you saying here? It's inclusion clearly also makes Craven Cottage a more suitable venue for other events which could bring in new revenue streams. And having built it Shahid has written off hundreds of millions of debt to help the clubs books?! . Any additional revenue, benefits the budget constraints for acquisitions.

I really don't know how you can possibly suggest that doesn't show ambition? Even if it failed and no one went there (which isn't the case) - clearly the very building of it for untold written off millions is an ambitious one. Genuinely baffling to suggest otherwise. "The riverside will be nothing without a team or a manager".... eh? What? we have and will continue to have both, our current ones are 3 points off 6th. And the riverside improving the clubs books will mean more room for things like SCR? That's one of the major points for doing it in the first place - to help the on-pitch situation and ability to recruit by giving us more financial room to manouvre.

As for squad - the main position we're not really catered overly deeply for is CM - which was less of but still a possible issue before AFCON. Otherwise the squads very good generally and clearly capable of doing well alongside good management? Again, last year it was good enough to win more games in a season than any other fulham team in history . Striker we sadly lost our main CF for months, but not really their fault Silva refuses to give JKA more than 5 minutes with the full team.

The squad is thin on quality? maybe when half of em are out injured and 3 away for Afcon, yeh it gets tough for most teams that go through that that arent the top 4. Sorry, Marco is a very good manager but it's so deeply biased and frankly comletely disengenious to give zero credit to the squad they've assembled for him, when we have a ton of key injuries AND 3 big players at AFCON and they STILL manage to get points. The very fact we can beat the teams we have on a consistent run isn't just cos Marco is some magic man. I love him, he's very good, but he still needs a team capable of delivering what he wants and quality to work with, and he has it. It's in large part good management but also because, contrary to your painting of it, maybe we actually have a stronger squad than you give credit for.

We have to work within a strict SCR and FFP budget due to the clubs size and current revenue, that means we can't just endlessly sign high wage players even if they wanted to, but they still have pushed that as far as they can, and broke transfer record again to sign Kevin this year. Honestly I can not fathom suggesting they aren't ambitious.

Due to a format error i was disagreeing with a different poster but your response is valid and interesting.

There are loads of teams, well a few anyway, that have invested in the stadium, such as Bolton for one, languishing because of lack of investment in the playing staff. Bolton did well because of Alardyce, when he left they collapsed. We do well with an obviously thin squad because of Marco, if he went our chances of survival would be massively reduced with this squad.

Our central midfield is awful with Lukic and Berge not being good enough. We do not have a proper centre half that can pass the ball properly, Cuenca is the best of them in that respect. Our second choice keeper is dreadful, Castagne has gone right off,kevin is very poor , ESRunderwhelming though he does have an eye for goa. At the front we rely on an ageing Raul and no understudy for Muniz.

Marco is a genius and with a proper investment policy bringing players in early, we could be so much higher up the table. BUT I could cope with all this but when it is time for season tickets the owner tells us of his ambition and support for the manager but season after season it doesn't happen.

If he would just we will aim to survive, and tick over mid table problem solved.

The new stand has nothing whatsoever to do with ambition for the first team. As I said the same was saidvwhen miller built the old riverside. I'm  sure it's  a lovely 'day out' for toiurists, but i am a long term inmate that just wants to see my team play well, i do not care what the view of the river is like or how many functioing kitchens there are if the winger cannot cross a ball acurately.

Experience suggests no proper signings in january, but good to see the Afcon boys back.

I don't think comparing Boltons stadium, in Bolton, to Fulham pier - a high luxury venue outside of football, offering events spaces, restaurants, a luxury hotel and spa on the River Thames, in the capital city, is a reasonable one. As I say I think that is a completely disingenious place to start from. And again, the point was about wether it's ambitious or not. It remains an ambitious move to improve revenue streams by making the riverside a tourist location. This is not about just adding seats or facilities to a stadium. Even if it doesn't work out perfectly with different managers - The ambition is evidently and clearly there to improve Fulhams books, which has been stated is in major part, to improve the revenue the club makes, so that we have more room to operate with things like SCR.

Funnily enough by pure chance this morning I saw an instagram story from someone I know who isn't a fulham fan, or football fan at all, with a video saying "wow they smashed it" @fulhampier as shes walking around the new stand. Just visiting it in free time with her family (have followed up with a dm saying they should come to some games as a fam with me ha!) These are people that would never have even walked past the ground before this stand was invented. Now they're paying for a family meal on Friday day time there recommending it to others.

Lukic and Berge were terrific last year together. Pretty much everyone here was very happy with them, so completely reasonable for the board to assume that could continue. Granted this season they haven't been at the same level, but they aren't "awful" by any stretch. Having made wing acquisitions we've seen Iwobi move there as the fans all knew he could (whilst Marco was more resistent btw).

We do not have a Centre half who can pass the ball properly? Sorry, but that's an absolutely terrible take. Anderson is consistently ranked as one of the highest percentage distributors in the league at CB, especially for long balls. Then yes we also have Cuenca who's very good. Bassey and Diop thats less their game, but that's why tactically we pass it to anderson to pass out, and Bassey excels in ball carries instead.

ESR has been way better this season, and even last year his output was pretty good. Him taking a while to adjust doesn't make the move less ambitious at the time. Hotly tipped youngster at Arsenal who many rated highly on a significant fee is showing ambition.

Up front - Rauls a very good player as is Muniz, but yes, they took a roll of the dice on a youngster from Bayern Munich...there's still a chance that ends up being a better deal than it looks currently. He needs minutes which Silva sadly isn't giving him when Raul is knackered.

Marco is a brilliant manager for fulham. But he also makes plenty mistakes too, he isn't some perfect demi-god.

Again, it's been stated clearly by those involved in the build that it is designed to improve cash flow outside of matchdays, cash flow that can help with things like recruitment and making fulham sustainably competitive. It seems you either haven't read that, or have and are just willfully ignoring it or saying they are lying. to each their own I guess.

As for accurate crossing wingers - We literally just bought Chukwueze and Kevin from AC milan and Shaktar, champs league experienced players, both ambitious moves, and are heavily linked to Bobb from Man City🤷🏻

Again I appreciate ya welcome to see it differently but I don't think the conclusions stand up to objective scrutiny.

[perry geyton]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

Negative Negative Negative Negative

[jayffc]

Sorry to not entirely agree with you.
The new stand will be nothingcwithout a team and manager... when Miller built the Riverside stand people said the same thing, namely it showedlong term ambition, but it had no follow through. The £20m kevin signing is a bit of a bad joke and money flushed down the pan so far, He doesn't look the right quality to me,

A loan move for chuka was goid, but so late and still left us without so many positions not properly catered for.

The squad is very thin on quality, marco the magician holds it together, if he goes the new stand will be a white elephant in the lower leagues.

The owners do not, in my opinion, show any proper ambition for the playing side to kick on. There will be no big signings this window or summer, they are not that interested.

That's fine, you're welcome to disagree, I just don't find the argument compelling.

You'd think you'd just wait 9 days rather than put yourself out there with such statements about not signing anyone. We shall have to revisit I guess.

What more follow-through do you want on the riverside? It's running now, it has a working restaurant, a riverside market with 10 working kitchens, a hotel you can reserve now,live events, jazz nights,comedy shows, a roller disco event, flippin yoga, barre and puppy health classes for christs sake 😂...and of course a bloody spa with rooftop pool on the way 😅
 
And that's outside of matchdays - on game days it has high-quality matchday experiences getting good reviews with fancy corporate packages. It already functions and so will be bringing in extra revenue than it was? So what are you saying here? It's inclusion clearly also makes Craven Cottage a more suitable venue for other events which could bring in new revenue streams. And having built it Shahid has written off hundreds of millions of debt to help the clubs books?! . Any additional revenue, benefits the budget constraints for acquisitions.

I really don't know how you can possibly suggest that doesn't show ambition? Even if it failed and no one went there (which isn't the case) - clearly the very building of it for untold written off millions is an ambitious one. Genuinely baffling to suggest otherwise. "The riverside will be nothing without a team or a manager".... eh? What? we have and will continue to have both, our current ones are 3 points off 6th. And the riverside improving the clubs books will mean more room for things like SCR? That's one of the major points for doing it in the first place - to help the on-pitch situation and ability to recruit by giving us more financial room to manouvre.

As for squad - the main position we're not really catered overly deeply for is CM - which was less of but still a possible issue before AFCON. Otherwise the squads very good generally and clearly capable of doing well alongside good management? Again, last year it was good enough to win more games in a season than any other fulham team in history . Striker we sadly lost our main CF for months, but not really their fault Silva refuses to give JKA more than 5 minutes with the full team.

The squad is thin on quality? maybe when half of em are out injured and 3 away for Afcon, yeh it gets tough for most teams that go through that that arent the top 4. Sorry, Marco is a very good manager but it's so deeply biased and frankly comletely disengenious to give zero credit to the squad they've assembled for him, when we have a ton of key injuries AND 3 big players at AFCON and they STILL manage to get points. The very fact we can beat the teams we have on a consistent run isn't just cos Marco is some magic man. I love him, he's very good, but he still needs a team capable of delivering what he wants and quality to work with, and he has it. It's in large part good management but also because, contrary to your painting of it, maybe we actually have a stronger squad than you give credit for.

We have to work within a strict SCR and FFP budget due to the clubs size and current revenue, that means we can't just endlessly sign high wage players even if they wanted to, but they still have pushed that as far as they can, and broke transfer record again to sign Kevin this year. Honestly I can not fathom suggesting they aren't ambitious.

Due to a format error i was disagreeing with a different poster but your response is valid and interesting.

There are loads of teams, well a few anyway, that have invested in the stadium, such as Bolton for one, languishing because of lack of investment in the playing staff. Bolton did well because of Alardyce, when he left they collapsed. We do well with an obviously thin squad because of Marco, if he went our chances of survival would be massively reduced with this squad.

Our central midfield is awful with Lukic and Berge not being good enough. We do not have a proper centre half that can pass the ball properly, Cuenca is the best of them in that respect. Our second choice keeper is dreadful, Castagne has gone right off,kevin is very poor , ESRunderwhelming though he does have an eye for goa. At the front we rely on an ageing Raul and no understudy for Muniz.

Marco is a genius and with a proper investment policy bringing players in early, we could be so much higher up the table. BUT I could cope with all this but when it is time for season tickets the owner tells us of his ambition and support for the manager but season after season it doesn't happen.

If he would just we will aim to survive, and tick over mid table problem solved.

The new stand has nothing whatsoever to do with ambition for the first team. As I said the same was saidvwhen miller built the old riverside. I'm  sure it's  a lovely 'day out' for toiurists, but i am a long term inmate that just wants to see my team play well, i do not care what the view of the river is like or how many functioing kitchens there are if the winger cannot cross a ball acurately.

Experience suggests no proper signings in january, but good to see the Afcon boys back.

What a shame "we do not have a proper Centre half who can deliver a proper pass" ay Andrew 😅

Wobble,meet head