Hangeland--"No work ethic"

same here. It's not the same club that it was so it is pretty hard to care. I guess I care for all those life-long committed fans back in London who couldn't forget about the club if they wanted to, but . . . . :crying-yellow:

wth happened?

 

Without a doubt Brede was poor when compared to his level of play years' previously. I will give him a little bit of a pass since his back issues obviously had something to do with it, he was never that fluid of an athlete anyway, but he looked extra clunky at times before and after the surgery. With a season left on his contract and a replacement at the club already in Dan Burn, expect a club to offer somewhere between 1-2 million pounds and Fulham to accept it and thank Brede for his services.

 

I find this part more interesting. People are giving Felix grief for looking at the players and their failings. Now I admit there were some bizarre management decisions on the pitch, but it always seemed like there was no fight in the team. For all the back office buffoonery, it is still the players on the pitch that need to get it done. And for the last season and a half, it just wasn't there...

Cheers

Steve

 

Hangeland--"No work ethic"

Fulham Supporters--"No Shit"

What does it say about him as captain that he couldn't do anything about it given how early he saw it? Look, it doesn't apply to all of the players, but it does to most of them. All the more reason this long overdue clear-out is needed. Maybe removing Jol sooner would have made the situation reversible. But 2 managers this year came in and both ended their season saying they couldn't turn the attitude around.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20. Everything he says is true, but as captain and a veteran in the squad, shouldn't he have stepped up and tried to fix what he was seeing as "moving in the wrong direction?"

He's getting on in years, has had injury problems, and was never that nimble to begin with, so I'll forgive his performance on the pitch slipping a bit. But where was the performance in the dressing room? On the training ground? With a managers coming and going through a revolving door, you would think the captain would assume more of a leadership role. I have respect for Brede and we've all suspected there was more going on behind the scenes than we knew. But what this team really needed in recent weeks was leadership. I didn't see any.

 

As others mentioned above, he's visibly past it. Also, considering this season and Norway's horribly botched WC qualifying campaign (look at their group!), I'm about done with the Hangeland era.

The "gentle giant" leadership role that flourished under Roy, Sparky and first 1.5 seasons under Jol (yes, we were actually successful then) became detrimental in the club's current situation. Need a new direction.

 

HD's verdict seems harsh to me, as if Hangeland's becoming captain was the source of FFC's decline. Seems to me the decline is attributable to lack of enough good, hardworking players due to lack of investment dating back to MAF's decision to sell. The departures of Murphy and the two Dems were the canaries in the mine, for different reasons. Murphy's grit was never replaced, and the Dems' skills were never replaced, and the club slipped headlong down the slope to the Championship.

That said, Hangers was a poor choice for the armband, not the kind of leader any non-top 7 club requires. But I'll never forget his role in the 2007-08 escape and the march through Europe.