Felix's letters/thoughts to supporters

dcheather · Aug 28, 2014

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/august/28/thoughts-from-the-manager?

I mentioned recently that it is of great importance for me as Manager to engage with you, our fans. This obviously has not changed and I would like to share with you my thoughts and feelings.

Firstly, I would like to a say a huge thank you for your continued enthusiastic support. The turnout both at Derby and Brentford was exceptional and something that in all my years in football I have never taken for granted. The future of any football club is dependent in large part on a very strong fan base, good communication and the willingness to endorse into a club’s philosophy.

Football is very much a game of opinions, with everybody entitled to voice their own views, but only when the greater majority pull together is success possible. Bearing this in mind, I would like to state that every decision that I make as your Manager is always what I feel is in the best interest of the Club. What we are working to achieve is exactly what you as fans demand from us, thus we welcome a positive approach on your behalf.

I do believe that with you driving us on last Tuesday, it helped us considerably. It was not only the victory against Brentford that was much needed, but more so the manner in which we won. I was very pleased with the fight and commitment my players showed throughout the game. The team spirit was also excellent and, in my eyes, it was a very professional performance.

As you already know during the season 2012-2013, many of the top players, who contributed greatly to the success of the Club were sold. This money was sadly not reinvested into improving the squad, hence the team fell into decline. Investment into the football club has been forthcoming with the arrival of Shahid Khan as Chairman in July 2013, though the slide into the Championship was not avoided. With the support of Mr. Khan, we made the decision to develop a team with much younger players.

This is a process that requires time, but we are convinced that we will be able to compete in the upper echelons of the Championship. I would also like to mention that not only do we have a young team, but a predominantly English team, hence we are very much promoting English talent. One should understand, that we simply cannot irresponsibly buy players at inflated prices, an example of this being the price of 12 million pounds quoted to me for a top Championship goalkeeper.

Our most recent signing Gabor Kiraly is a welcome addition to our squad. He has a world of experience having played here in England, both in the Premier League and the Championship, and also in the Bundesliga. He has been brought in to support and develop our young goalkeepers, thus adding more stability to this position. Having said this, and knowing how ambitious he is, I am sure that he will be fighting to be our starting keeper.

The current position of the team is not dissimilar to the predicament I had in VfL Wolfsburg, where I was brought in to build a new younger team. In the first half of that season we did struggle, but still managed to finish fifth in the division. This rebuilding is a position that other Managers are also finding very difficult, but given the time required they will achieve stability and success in the future.

Contrary to statements made by previous players, we are working with a very positive attitude and a feeling of togetherness exists within our squad. This enables us to work in an environment devoid of selfishness. Having accessed the squad over the past five games, I do believe that we are getting closer to an established starting 11, which will result in more stability.

The support you give the side can never be underestimated and I hope that we are able to repay you with a positive result on Saturday.

All the best!

Felix
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"Contrary to statements made by previous players, we are working with a very positive attitude and a feeling of togetherness exists within our squad. This enables us to work in an environment devoid of selfishness. Having accessed the squad over the past five games, I do believe that we are getting closer to an established starting 11, which will result in more stability."

We'll see. I like that he tries to communicate to supporters, but in the end he's never really going to tell us the whole truth. I guess he always starts out in a lose/lose situation with these letters, especially when the team isn't performing well.

AggieMatt · Aug 28, 2014

You're last sentence nails it. Additionally, trying to convince fans they should be less critical is a fool's errand he can only lose.

That 12M for a keeper bit is horseshit. Not saying it didn't happen, but to use that as justification for buying a 38 yo journeyman to support the youngsters in lieu of getting an experienced starting gk leaves a lot of middle ground unaccounted for.

AggieMatt · Aug 29, 2014

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_yl...h&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1

What an odd man Felix Magath is. I am not talking about the way he jumps around in the technical area when things go wrong on the pitch and then appeals to the dugout as if the physio and team doctor had caused it.
No, what’s strange is that after losing Fulham’s first four games of the Championship season, he has got time to criticize me — someone he has never met — instead of devoting every waking second to putting right his own glaring mistakes.
There is nothing dishonourable about failure, if you face up to it. Mr Magath isn’t the first foreign coach to find the English game hard. What is wrong, and frankly un-English, is to blame someone else instead of taking responsibility for your own actions.
I sold my beloved Fulham on July 13, 2013. If a week is a long time in politics, 13 months is a lifetime in football. Mr Magath was brought in to stave off relegation from the Premier League but instead presided over a meek surrender.
It broke my heart. After 16 years at the helm at Craven Cottage, to see my work destroyed in a season was a bitter experience. To be blamed for that failure, is absurd.
Fortunately, there are 25,000 people who know the truth. The Fulham fans. I am content to be judged by them.
They know that when I bought Fulham, the club had just come out of Division Three. In two seasons, Fulham were champions of Division Two. Two years later, we were champions of Division One with a near record score of points.
Who can forget Louis Saha making goalscoring look easy?
Fulham were in the Premier League for 13 seasons. We played our part in making it the best and most entertaining league in the world. Fulham achieved their highest ever top-flight finish, seventh.
We carried English prestige into the inaugural season of the Europa League, taking Atletico Madrid into extra-time in the final and within five minutes of a penalty shoot-out. What a sight — one end of the stadium in Hamburg black and white. I confess; I was proud.

'Mohamed Al Fayed is to blame, not us' -
Read the interview which prompted Mohamed Al Fayed's response
Mr Magath says I bought only average players? So who were the men playing that night in Germany? I’ll tell you: titans of the game and every one a hero.
In 2008, we flirted with relegation but had fighters like Danny Murphy, who scored the goal at Portsmouth that kept us in the Premier League. In football, you cannot be an absentee landlord, as I fear Shahid Khan is most of the time. I went on the pitch before games. I met the fans. I talked to the players. I encouraged them. Yes, they are paid a lot of money but they are still young men who need inspiration. People work for people, not anonymous boards of directors. I gave the players gold chocolate bars from Harrods. If they needed to try harder, I handed out blue peppermints and said they were Viagra.
Those players never let me down.
The personal touch is important. Managers need encouragement too. Every manager I chose tried to take Fulham forward. Two of them became England managers.
The Football Association literally begged me to release Kevin Keegan to manage England and I considered it my patriotic duty to comply. Roy Hodgson re-established himself in English football at Fulham and gave us our greatest success.
Would they have worked for me if I had starved them of money? Would they have stayed friends with me? No and no. They had to make the case for expensive acquisitions. But none of my managers left my office without getting the cash for the players they really wanted.
We spent £11 million on Steve Marlet and the same on Bryan Ruiz. Neither worked out as had been hoped but those were considerable fees at the time.
But you do not always have to break the bank to buy good players.
Because Roy knew Scandinavia so well, he was able to tempt Brede Hangeland to the club where he became a noble captain.
But Brede left Craven Cottage bitter, claiming he was sacked by e-mail, and the highly respected John Arne Riise says Mr Magath has “flushed everything the club stand for down the toilet”.
Instead of being resentful, Mr Magath should be grateful to me. I set up Fulham’s highly successful Grade ‘A’ Academy. Without it, he would have more trouble putting a decent side out.
During my ownership, there were no scandals at Fulham. There were a few bad headlines. With fierce press critics always ready to let you know when you are wrong, that’s no mean achievement. Fulham were never the biggest club but they were among the best run in the Premier League.
That’s because I brought in first-class people to run the club. Some have been fired but most are still there. They know whether it is fair to blame me for the club’s parlous state. I bought the old Motspur Park stadium and turned it into a first-class football campus.
I cut ticket prices for youngsters and subsidised away travel. I kept the cost of season tickets down in order to rebuild the club’s fanbase. And I am proud that Fulham were one of the pioneers of “Kick It Out!”
After two years as grateful guests of QPR at Loftus Road, I heard the fans and went “Back to the Cottage”. I made Craven Cottage all-seater and put a roof over the enlarged Putney End, arranging hospitality boxes around the old football ground.
And Fulham always played the game in the right way.
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When I handed the club over to Mr Khan, it was debt-free and in first-class condition. Had Mr Khan wanted my help and advice, I would have given it freely. But it was clear that he did not. That is why I have never been back to the Cottage, though I would have loved to have said goodbye to the fans.
No, Mr Magath, blaming other people for your own shortcomings won’t work. Please read a poem called If by Rudyard Kipling. Fulham now need love, devotion and leadership if they are ever to regain Premier League status.
When I was young, there was a cartoon character, Felix the Cat. Whatever happened to him — whether he was run over on the road to Dover or blown up with dynamite — he just kept on walking. If Fulham’s results do not improve, starting with Cardiff tomorrow, perhaps this particular Felix should follow that cat down the road to Dover and then just keep on walking.
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I'm not saying Khan and Magath didn't have a point, but this is why you don't publicly point fingers like that. I don't necessarily blame MAF for the response EXCEPT...now we have a public spat played out in the media and while both sides profess to care about Fulham, neither seems to give a shit about making it look bad.

dcheather · Aug 29, 2014

Yup, if there's one thing that perturbs me greatly is this need for those currently in charge to blame current problems on those who were in charge in the past. There may or may not be anything there to support their claims. But it comes off childish on both parties. Let it go men and focus on the now.

Like I said above...these communications end up being a lose/lose situation. It also just divides some supporters by choosing an opposing camp's arguments. Not very helpful given the predicament the club faces at the moment.

nevzter · Aug 29, 2014

And another article regarding MAF's response. The last paragraph is rich.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/aug/29/mohamed-al-fayed-fulham-felix-magath

astroevan · Aug 29, 2014

These letters have seemed pretty redundant to me. Each one simply states, "we have a plan and it will take time" followed by a bunch of retorts to media (social and professional) articles. It just comes off to me like he's only worried about clearing his name. And I absolutely agree that the back and forth with MAF is junior high childishness.

Felix's letters/thoughts to supporters

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