Wow, this is Fulham

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...h-blasts-mediocre-landon-donovan-for-comments

Our manager has no clue what he is talking about and I don't think he had a clue about Fulham when he came in. Neither does Khan. Jol was what Aggie and Don accused him of being and he initiated the downturn of this club's character. Fulham is not what it was when I got hooked. Numerous good, hard working, talented players have left unhappy and disgruntled. I think I'm pretty much done until Fulham can resurrect itself.

 

Mo, the odds of Magath being the Fulham manager at this time a year from now given his history are slim at best, no matter what happens this season (good or bad). I'm not sure about Khan myself yet. He was sold a bill of goods, was probably told at the time of purchase that the team was set up for a mid-table finish w/minimal investment when the opposite was true. From what I have seen at what he's doing in Jacksonville with the Jags I'm encouraged because I think he has them pointed in the right direction and building it the proper way. English football is a different kettle of fish however so it will be interesting to see what transpires. I do believe Khan didn't get in this to own a lower tier team.

As far as the Magath comments, I would be curious to know how the question was posed. Unless Felix had been in the US and had heard/read all of LD's comments (the vast majority of which were positive) then it's hard to take anything he says on the subject seriously.

Mo, you of all people (what other city in America even comes close to Cleveland in the last 50 years in terms of professional sports heartbreak or disillusionment?) know what it's like to support teams that go through rough patches and dealing w/coaches you're not fond of. I'm hoping that the kids coming up through our excellent academy will re-infuse the club's supporters and you'll be along for the ride, hang in there with us.

 

Joe, I'm not sure any question was posed to Magath. He took it upon himself to post it on his Facebook page. Donovan, however, was asked for his opinion by the media and his response was very reasonable, as you have pointed out, and in agreement with what pretty much half of the soccer pundits in this country were saying. So Magath chooses to take the criticism of Klinsmann out on Donovan by ridiculing the USA's all time greatest player (in terms of numbers) as "mediocre". Ok fine, by Felix's superior German standards maybe Donovan is a mediocre player, but does he even know who Brad Davis is or realize that in the US we have freedom of speech, even when it comes to critiquing the performance of the national team coach? I'm guessing no. The Raul comparison is clueless too. After that Spanish coach dropped Raul, they rebounded in EURO qualifiers, went on to win Spain's first european championship in decades, and became the best team in the world. In comparison, the US did no better in this World Cup than they did in 2010, even with our superior German reinforcements. We did not have a David Villa replacing Landon Donovan. When you don't improve, people are going to theorize as to why.

And as far as being a Cleveland fan, I'm just a casual fan of our teams and support them to support the city. If I cared about the Cavs the way I cared about Fulham, I don't think I could have weathered the stupidity of the Mike Brown days. I grew up a Dodger fanatic, but when they were sold to Murdoch, I left them in the rear view mirror. It wasn't the same organization anymore and it only got worse when McCourt came in so that is a decision I never regretted. It's just different when you support a team from afar than when it's your local team.

Khan seems to be a nicer person than Murdoch or McCourt, but the team has been a complete mess since he took over. The decision to hire Magath was insanity. He went out and found a guy who apparently specializes in avoiding relegation. Soccer is not the NFL where you have a specialist for every aspect of the game. It is one, simple game and most importantly a team sport. You win as a team not with a relegation specialist. Maybe they sold Khan a bill of goods, but that is his fault. All you had to do was some reading and talking to people to find out what Fulham's state was at the time.

 

No Mo this is not Fulham this is Magath expressing his personal opinion in his personal forum. You are of course entitled to disagree with the opinion but to then assume the man and the club by association have no clue is certainly a bridge to far.

 

It is also a forum which he uses to address Fulham supporters and upon which he describes himself as a public figure

Perhaps the bridge too far is trying to make it look like my claim that Magath and Khan have no clue is based solely on one Facebook post after I referred to the number of disgruntled players, the Jol days, and hiring Magath as a relegation specialist. No I did not rehash everything we all witnessed this last season like three managers (five if you count Curbishley and Wilkins), head scratching transfers, playing players out of position, an underperforming team, etc because the dismay over these sorts of things has been widely discussed on this site so I made the assumption people knew in general what I was referring to when I said "Fulham is not what it was. . ."

 

True, it is not the same club as in the clip below for myriad reasons set forth above. Time to turn the page in the Championship, but we'll always have this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTzAGhiyg3A[/youtube]

 

It's a fact that Donovan didn't do well in Germany. All this means to me is that Magath is part of a (very) long line of Europeans who undervalue American players. He should know better.

 

He SHOULD know better. And I bloody well guarantee you he'd take Deuce back in a heartbeat, or any of a number of our 23 that went to Brazil. But he won't sniff any of them in the Championship, I don't expect him to be around long if we're slow out of the gate this season. Khan's spending more money on players than he did in the PL, and he'll expect immediate results...as will I.