New season

Several things happen to this long time fulham fan at the start of August, I somehow get one year older, the football league put on a pointless encounter between to of the big uns, and this Fulham fan starts to wonder what the new season will bring.
The past few seasons have seen us up with the big guys, but never in their league, the premier league as most certainly developed into a league of three groups, the teams that have a chance, the teams you could deem as pretenders, who think that with a bit of luck one way or the other they may have a chance, and the rest of the teams who are just there to be canon fodder for the big guys, and try to avoid the dreaded drop, with the catastrophic loss of revenues that follow.
Fulham to my chegrin as settled into the latter, we are never thought of a team that might make Europe, but a team who would have had a good season if we avoid the drop. Now here we are and pundits and experts are givng their predictions on what Fulham might do with their new team and new manager, and by all accounts we look like finishing just above relegation, in other words where we did last year.
Before I talk about this season, I have a few thoughts about last season, we just avoided the drop, but we beat Liverpool and Arsenal, and we drew with Chelsea at the Bridge, in any normal Fulham year those results would have been enough, but to often we played boring lifeless football, a team who was not playing to win, but a team who was trying not to lose, and oh so many times when we did go behind the tatics were such we could not recover.
There was the blame game, CC was to blame, the defense was to blame ETC. ETC. I think it was a combination, I think CC was partly to blame sometimes, he seemed to pick line ups who were boring, playing brian M up front on his own was useless and a waste, he is much more dangerous when feeding off of other players, he proved that against Watford. CC was a good manager and will become an even better one on that I am sure, but only time will tell, he was also very unlucky, Bullard getting injured so soon was a critical blow, Bullard was already proving his worth and importance when he got injured, and all us Fulham fans should hope he comes back the player he was then.
My thoughts differed from most last season, my biggest concerns were with our totally ineffective mid field, in a season where one of defenders scored a combined total of goals that all of our midfield scored, its surely a recipe for relegation, just think and you can check the records if I am wrong its not by much, our top goalscorers in midfield last season were Jensen and Bullard, how many games did they play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and now for this season.
The new signings are just that new signings, a new managers way of making his mark on the team, players who will follow him and play the way he likes, they will be comfortable with him and him with them, are they good players, or more importanly are they good players for Fulham, only time will tell. As a player s davis as always impressed me, he will become if injury free a top premier player, Hughes as been picked up to marshal the defenders and give them his experience, Konchesky because he is much better than FQ, who was quite honestly not that good last year, even his free kicks did not work. The others I cannot comment that much on as I have not seen a lot of them, but they appear to be full of potential, a forward with pace who will surley compliment McBride, a midfielder who will hussle and make things happen, Brown hussled but what did he create? For me Brown was a thug, a stupid player with no talent and as old fashioned as it might seem to the younger generation, an embarrassment wearing a Fulham, one incident can sum him up, we are playing Liverpool at the cottage, we got a break playing a very weakened reds team, everybody and their brothers realized this was a must win for us, what does he do, and remember he is captain, he lets his blood and temper boil over and jeopadizes the whole season and the ones to come because of handbags at 10 paces, simple glad his gone.
Our midfield this season could be a classic, we will have pace, fire and above all some innovative players, which is what you have to have these days to ride above the crowd. If Bullard comes back fit and ready to go, we will create the chances for our front men, and they will score goals, our defensive problems will also lessen if we have players who control the middle of the park, and play football instead of rugby.
As for LS as manager, again only time will tell, how he handles the bad times, the injuries and the press, he as the making of a good one, hopefully he will become one at our club, I hope he does not sell Liam, for me with the right guidance he will be a really top right back, he as the pace, he just needs the experienced hand taking him under his wings and laying the law down, Diop as never realized his potential under CC, if not sold I hope LS can do it, again the ptotential is there, it just needs to come out, and for all the knocks he takes Zat Knight as all the tools he just needs to apply them, and if as I think our mid field this year controls more games, his games will get a lot easier.
This season for me is the most exciting for a few, this team could well surprise the pundits, Fulham proved last season when they put their minds to it, they could compete with the big uns, if you agree with me that the new boys have improved the squad, then we should get much better results against the lesser lights in the division, then this could be our best season in the top flight, to use a horse racing analogy, this team as scope for improvement, this Fulham fan for one is looking forward to it.

 

Let's try it like this


"Several things happen to this long time fulham fan at the start of August, I somehow get one year older, the football league put on a pointless encounter between to of the big uns, and this Fulham fan starts to wonder what the new season will bring.

The past few seasons have seen us up with the big guys, but never in their league, the premier league as most certainly developed into a league of three groups, the teams that have a chance, the teams you could deem as pretenders, who think that with a bit of luck one way or the other they may have a chance, and the rest of the teams who are just there to be canon fodder for the big guys, and try to avoid the dreaded drop, with the catastrophic loss of revenues that follow.

Fulham to my chegrin as settled into the latter, we are never thought of a team that might make Europe, but a team who would have had a good season if we avoid the drop. Now here we are and pundits and experts are givng their predictions on what Fulham might do with their new team and new manager, and by all accounts we look like finishing just above relegation, in other words where we did last year.

Before I talk about this season, I have a few thoughts about last season, we just avoided the drop, but we beat Liverpool and Arsenal, and we drew with Chelsea at the Bridge, in any normal Fulham year those results would have been enough, but to often we played boring lifeless football, a team who was not playing to win, but a team who was trying not to lose, and oh so many times when we did go behind the tatics were such we could not recover.

There was the blame game, CC was to blame, the defense was to blame ETC. ETC. I think it was a combination, I think CC was partly to blame sometimes, he seemed to pick line ups who were boring, playing brian M up front on his own was useless and a waste, he is much more dangerous when feeding off of other players, he proved that against Watford. CC was a good manager and will become an even better one on that I am sure, but only time will tell, he was also very unlucky, Bullard getting injured so soon was a critical blow, Bullard was already proving his worth and importance when he got injured, and all us Fulham fans should hope he comes back the player he was then.

My thoughts differed from most last season, my biggest concerns were with our totally ineffective mid field, in a season where one of defenders scored a combined total of goals that all of our midfield scored, its surely a recipe for relegation, just think and you can check the records if I am wrong its not by much, our top goalscorers in midfield last season were Jensen and Bullard, how many games did they play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and now for this season.

The new signings are just that new signings, a new managers way of making his mark on the team, players who will follow him and play the way he likes, they will be comfortable with him and him with them, are they good players, or more importanly are they good players for Fulham, only time will tell. As a player s davis as always impressed me, he will become if injury free a top premier player, Hughes as been picked up to marshal the defenders and give them his experience, Konchesky because he is much better than FQ, who was quite honestly not that good last year, even his free kicks did not work.

The others I cannot comment that much on as I have not seen a lot of them, but they appear to be full of potential, a forward with pace who will surley compliment McBride, a midfielder who will hussle and make things happen, Brown hussled but what did he create? For me Brown was a thug, a stupid player with no talent and as old fashioned as it might seem to the younger generation, an embarrassment wearing a Fulham, one incident can sum him up, we are playing Liverpool at the cottage, we got a break playing a very weakened reds team, everybody and their brothers realized this was a must win for us, what does he do, and remember he is captain, he lets his blood and temper boil over and jeopadizes the whole season and the ones to come because of handbags at 10 paces, simple glad his gone.

Our midfield this season could be a classic, we will have pace, fire and above all some innovative players, which is what you have to have these days to ride above the crowd. If Bullard comes back fit and ready to go, we will create the chances for our front men, and they will score goals, our defensive problems will also lessen if we have players who control the middle of the park, and play football instead of rugby.

As for LS as manager, again only time will tell, how he handles the bad times, the injuries and the press, he as the making of a good one, hopefully he will become one at our club, I hope he does not sell Liam, for me with the right guidance he will be a really top right back, he as the pace, he just needs the experienced hand taking him under his wings and laying the law down, Diop as never realized his potential under CC, if not sold I hope LS can do it, again the ptotential is there, it just needs to come out, and for all the knocks he takes Zat Knight as all the tools he just needs to apply them, and if as I think our mid field this year controls more games, his games will get a lot easier.

This season for me is the most exciting for a few, this team could well surprise the pundits, Fulham proved last season when they put their minds to it, they could compete with the big uns, if you agree with me that the new boys have improved the squad, then we should get much better results against the lesser lights in the division, then this could be our best season in the top flight, to use a horse racing analogy, this team as scope for improvement, this Fulham fan for one is looking forward to it."