Tony Khan Interviews

Tony Khan gave a couple of interviews over the past few days. One was with FFCTV the other was with the Times of London.

The FFCTV video is available to everyone here (no subscription required): https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2020/august/08/tony-khan-speaks-to-ffctv

The Times of London is a subscription site, but the HammyEnd recounted the interview here: https://hammyend.com/index.php/2020...-100m-again-fulham-have-the-squad-to-stay-up/

Between the two there were a number of things to note. From the FFCTV interview:

• Says that he "learned from failing" in 2018. He said that they did not want to be dependent on loan players again.
• Mentioned that prices at the beginning of the transfer window are much bigger than the end, so he's waiting to make deals. Says that Fulham will be making additions, not building a new squad.
• Spoke highly of Parker's leadership in getting the team out of their post-relegation funk and shepherding the team through the restart. Says Parker has been participating in scouting and recruiting meetings, which had me thinking of the strained recruitment relationship with Jokanovic. Hopefully this is a sign of something different.

From the Times interview:

• Feels this squad is better than in 2018, so there is no need for another big spending spree. I disagree with the first point, but hopefully there will be smarter spending.
• Had some interesting background on the Hector deal. It seems like he considered making the deal back in the summer window, but was worried about Financial Fair Play rule violations, so he waited. He worried all season that decision would come back to haunt him. I appreciate that they didn't take financial risks, because as we've seen with Wigan that is nothing to mess around with. I'm also glad that everything worked out in the end. That would have been a hard pill to swallow if Fulham had ended up in the Championship again.
• Says Anguissa and Seri are returning to camp and may play with Fulham in the PL. I have a hard time believing they will play for Fulham and I think this is just an effort to increase their value.
• Despite saying nice things about Anguissa and Seri, he had no interest in Sessegnon. Said that he didn't do enough to keep Fulham up. I thought that was a bit harsh.
  
• Confirmed the £8m clause in Reed's contract and says he wants to exercise it. I hope this is true.

 

He comes across like such an entitled ass. Lots of "I's", not enough "us's".

 

Way too many mentions of ‘I’m your director of football operations‘ on Twitter as well. Best way to earn respect is to stay humble, work your arse off, and don’t act defensive when supporters bring up how you got that lofty position. Fingers crossed he indeed has learned from the last failure.