Expectations

[ScalleysDad]

For many, many years I have almost lived off the fact I wear a Fulham top at times. People I haven't seen in years will comment " your lot are doing well" and a couple of weeks ago somebody lent out of a van and yelled "Reeeeeddddooooh". It's a special club to be in but.
My expectations are few. Good to watch, the odd cracking result, perhaps a five nil from time to time and a buzz as I stroll through Bishops. Alas it hasn't been that way for quite a while and I feel we might have fluked mid table at the moment even with the Liverpool and Chelsea results. I was bored to tears at the Brighton game and may have actually nodded off in the Forest game. It's a bit tricky getting round Devon at the moment so I gave Everton a miss and at way past 3pm remembered it was on. I am not sure what path Silva is on but at the moment I just get frustrated with the style of play and the mistakes, often the same ones over again on the pitch and from the dug out. Hopefully it will all be put right by the Burnley game. I intend getting a seat at the top of The Riverside and I would hate to nod off up there.

[St Eve]

Agree with Eton White and petty much all of the responses. I have been a supporter since the 1960's. A lot of lows but some great highs. I love Craven Cottage and that walk through Bishops Park. This is the best we have ever been. Great owners, great manager and a good team that will only get better. Another European venture or a cup win would be the icing on the cake

[jayffc]

Seeing the reactions of certain posters on this forum whenever we win or lose a game, it made me realise that Fulham fans clearly have very different expectations of where they think we should be as a club.

Personally, I'm quite happy with the way things are going. To be in the position we're currently in - a stable Premier League club, playing (mostly) attractive football, able to pretty much beat (or lose against!) any team on our day, with an owner who genuinely seems to want the best for the club and a manager who has developed a close-knit, harmonious squad and is able to develop players and get the best from them - as a Fulham fan, I have to admit I'm very happy with how things are going.

However, it's clear not everyone thinks the same way - so what are your expectations for Fulham?

Are you happy with us being a stable top half Premier League club or does not qualifying for Europe represent failure to you?

Do you think we should be winning Cups and titles or are you just happy to support Fulham, regardless of what division we're in?

We all obviously have different views on this, so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Personally I would like to see a much more defined stratagy from the owners as to where the club intends to be, and that we work towards that, I expect the fans have varying expectations because the club are not exactly clear about its stratagy. Have been going since 1994, so expectations of winning something are quite muted, but languising as a top of the bottom half premier league team is sometimes a bit boring. I often think that I enjoyed the Championship far more

What do you mean by a defined strategy? They've been very clear about what they want to achieve imo? Unless you've missed the interviews and articles on it over the years which is possible.

It's been outlined across interviews about "the project" from player interviews to manager pressers, to articles with our owners for years now.

The plan alongside Silva, according to him and them, was to stay in the prem with a cohesive squad this time first and foremost, then establish ourselves there securely. To do that we opted for solidifying around a core of established experienced players with a couple younger sprinkled in ✅
Once achieved the plan was to then buy younger players with high ceilings to help secure our future (this is where we've been heading since last summer with the moves for ESR, Sess Cuenca... and now Kev,Chuk,JKA Bobb and Pepi) lowering the squad age with the comfort now of having an established core, and being in a position to take some risks to push for top 10

Last year it was stated that was the goal clearly. We narrowly missed but set a record for points in a season that would more often than not see us in the top 10 almost any other year.

This season we obviously go again, and the rumblings from Silva and players is to push to achieve top 10 and hope that puts us in the hunt for a European place and compete for a cup if possible.

For years though, the Khans have made clear the plan is focused around sustainable growth. In interviews with the owners about the riverside, this was mentioned to be a large part of what that was all about. Increase revenue streams that give us more room to operate in when it comes to SCR/FFP. This was directly mentioned by one of the Khans in an interview about it. A club like us needs any help it can get given our smaller fanbase and subsequent limited revenue, so it makes alot of sense. "I think it's going to go a long way towards making Fulham competitive and compliant with [financial] fair play rules," - SK

I'm under no illusions of what they're working towards, all seems pretty clear imo. Shahid always said he didn't want to make grandiose explicit claims, like Al Fayed saying we'll be Man U of the South. But he wants Fulham to be a sustainable premier league team, now and after they're gone, who can potentially push up into Europe and/or try and win a cup whilst not relying soley on the pockets of a single owner to do so.

[Logicalman]

Seeing the reactions of certain posters on this forum whenever we win or lose a game, it made me realise that Fulham fans clearly have very different expectations of where they think we should be as a club.

Personally, I'm quite happy with the way things are going. To be in the position we're currently in - a stable Premier League club, playing (mostly) attractive football, able to pretty much beat (or lose against!) any team on our day, with an owner who genuinely seems to want the best for the club and a manager who has developed a close-knit, harmonious squad and is able to develop players and get the best from them - as a Fulham fan, I have to admit I'm very happy with how things are going.

However, it's clear not everyone thinks the same way - so what are your expectations for Fulham?

Are you happy with us being a stable top half Premier League club or does not qualifying for Europe represent failure to you?

Do you think we should be winning Cups and titles or are you just happy to support Fulham, regardless of what division we're in?

We all obviously have different views on this, so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Overall I am quite happy with the current form we are in and the resultant position in the table.

Expectations are somewhat a little different, and have more to do with how we play and whether we learn from mistakes.

The game against the Toffees exposed, yet again, two basic issues I have had all season with how we play (whether we win or lose). I am aware that whatever tactics I would apply are from someplace in the distant past and most would thus dismiss them, though I would counter that they have relevance to our current form, and where we are deficient.
In two cases during the game Everton played long balls forward and all we basically had was Anderson to defend. Both our named full backs were somewhere closer to Pickford than they were to Leno. Other teams have taken note, especially in the second 45 when legs start tiring and those defenders fail to appreciate their base task is defending, with supporting any attack as a very secondary task.

We have enjoyed the use of wing-backs in the past (such as Konchesky), and more recently with Jedi, both of which were/are fast and get back quickly, but neither Cuenca or Castagne are really in that mold. That is not their fault, it is an issue with tactics.
The second is split into two, playing out from the back plus passing at the back. There are teams that can do both very successfully, Arsenal are one such team, even Kew Bridge can, but we never seem comfortable, and oppos therefore tend to press heavily, this leads to rushed, square, passes where we both make little forwards progress and, all too often, lose the ball in our own half.

Do I have the answers? Nope, but then again I am not a trainer or coach, never taken the courses or got the badges, but I feel I should expect (those damn expectations again) that our trained and badged training & coaching staff should have. It sometimes feels that our tactics at the back are a perfect example of Einstein's (or Brown's) theory of Insanity in action.

I appreciate this post has moved away in some degree from the original overall intention of the question, but expectations are often mixed in with both long term and short term, and current form always impacts both.

[WindyCity]

My expectations are fairly basic.  Primarily, want to see FFC in the PL.  Stay in this league, considered by many as the 'best' and toughest league in the world. 

Be careful what you ask for (Euro play).  My fear in that is with a more rigorous schedule and more games, staying in this league may be put in jeopardy.  As long as we can stay up, and ownership/management make necessary investments to protect PL status, then we can have a go at Euro.

Would like to see a consistent presence in PL, around mid table, and a couple of wins/draws v so-called 'top clubs' each season.  And yes, maybe some cup silverware along the way at some point, that cupboard is pretty bare and only collecting dust. 

[SuffolkWhite]

Supported since 1980 and therefore not a lot of expectations.

I will say I think it does depend on the different squads over the years also, for example the squad we have now is better than the squad Parker had! But, that squad was good enough to stay up imo, but then Parker wasn't good enough.

Generally I come to games to meet up with Fulham fans, share a beer and hopefully go home with a result whatever league we're in.

COYW