Diop issue: Hold or Sell?

I can't make any judgements because I didn't see the match yesterday. I will definitely be watching Saturday and then I'll give my opinion on what we need...of course the transfer window will be closed so for now i'm just putting my trust in Cookie and the lads. Sure yesterday sucked big style, but we went 10 straight unbeaten and did so with a lot of injuries and players playing out of position. We still have a great opportunity in front of us to get in the top 10 and I feel very optimistic about this team compared to teams in the past that have managed to avoid relegation. This year I feel more a sense of climbing the table, rather then avoiding the drop.

 

Well Charlton is in London as is Crystal Palace and both have struggled to get players in. Palace had major problems attracting players to them and ultimately, they were relegated. Location is nice, but it is NOT everything in a players transfer.

Also, don't make it sound so simple like we are bigger than West Ham and Aston Villa. WE ARE NOT. That is not to say we are not on a level playing field on the pitch, but the history and success of those clubs is much greater than Fulham's. I would guess part of the sell to these players is telling them they want that player to help him return the club to prominence.

It would be nice to offer more money in wages to get more players, but at this point it does not seem to be happening any time soon. Fulham has shown a propensity the last few seasons to be very careful with their spending and more times than not, they are unable to get the player they want.

However, as Fulham continues to perform well on the pitch and show good team unity in the way they play, it will become a more attractive place for players to come. If the play can continue positively perhaps MAF and the board will offer more money to players in their weekly wages.

Also, remember this, if a player does not really want to be at Fulham, ie Gooch, we do NOT want him here. We want players who play for the badge on their shirt, not the wallet in their pants. If that means we get hard-working players that may not be world-class and we battle for a top-ten finish, so be it. If you do not like that and are continuosly bothered by the money issues that surround Fulham, go support another club.

 

Oh please you are like in bed with the board. Whenever a supporter gets pissed that the club is too damn cheap you lot always question our support. I have a damn good reason to be angry. I along with many other supporters are bored with this cheap spedning ways of the board. People question our support when we speak up about this and that I do not understand. You talk about history like any of these players we miss out on actually know any damn thing about how Villa used to be a good team or how Newcastle were considered one of England's finest clubs. These players want money and this happens in all sports. we need to stop being so damn cheap and start signing quality players if we want to succeed. we will never make profits if we don't perform better than we currently do and we will never build a solid fan base if we don't start winning things or challenge for Europe.

 

Tom, did you come up with that first line yourself? Nice.

I've been down this road with ever so Realistic FFC24. There is need for all types at any decent club. So while I find myself tensing up everytime I read this type of opinion, I gladly allow it as long as it doesn't become nothing but abusive, unconstructive profanity.

He's the Id to many a Fulham Fan's superego.
(or is it just the ego? crap, should have paid more attention in that class.)

 

this thread is getting interesting. (giggle giggle)

 

You better hope the "real" Realistic does not move over from the main FFC board and join up over here.

And to shed a little bit of light on this situation. It isn't always Cookies fault that we don't get the players. I recommend everyone that doesn't really know how a transfer deal works to read this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6314369.stm

 

I realise it isn't always Cookie's fault, but when you seem to miss out on alot of players you are linked to then something is wrong. Other teams don't seem to have this type of problem as badly as we do for some reason.

Anyway I am just trying to be realistic on here. I have nothing against any of you and sometimes it may seem the opposite, but my posts aren't meant to be personal. We should be proud of our club and I am proud to be a part of something so wonderful as I truly believe that this club is the best team in Europe to support.

 

Chairman Mo has invested £120 million pound sterling (approx $235m USD). It is a little harsh calling him cheap.

Fulham has a non-transient home support of approximatly 12,000 season ticket holders in a ground that has a capacity under 25,000. West Ham is a bigger team historically than Fulham. Aston Villa is the main team of Brittains second largest city. In the premier league we are in the bottom teir for players, just above Wigan, Watford and Sheffield United.

What to you want from your team?

 

I am not questioning you support for the club. I, along with you, would love to see the club go out and spend lots of money on players and their weekly wages, but at this point it is just not happening.

The facts are Fulham has a small stadium by Premiership standards (23-24,000) that does not even sell out every match which means compared to a club like Villa and West Ham who average over 30,000 per match, that is money Fulham does not get.

The club does NOT have a very lucrative deal with sponsors like Pipex, Airness and other commerical brands that might allow the club to make more and more cash. I am guessing Pipex has paid less than any other sponsor to get its' name on a Premiership clubs kit.

Fulham is in London and in this case, I am not so sure that is the best thing for them. They are competing with every other London club for supporters and the richest is right down the road. That being said, there are some new fans out there, but most of them flock to the bigger London clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

With that being said, where is Fulham generating the money you so adamantly propose they spend? Ticket sales? NO. Merchandise? NO. Sponsors? NO.

Mohammed Al-Fayed has spent a good chunk of his own cash on this club. In fact, I think Fulham still owes him in excess of 120,000,000 million pounds from all his doing with the club over the last ten years. Player transfers, stadium reconstruction, etc. are what he spent all his own cash on. He is looking to recoup some of that cash and perhaps he is playing with fire by not spending more of his own cash, but I think he is content to be a middle of the road Premiership team.

That is bothersome in and of itself and I have a problem with that, but that is not for today but for another discussion at another time.

If there is an area Fulham needs to work on improving it is in the marketing of the club. With three Americans playing on the team, you would think the club would reach out and try to make some of the Yankee dollar, but as we saw in Columbus in the Summer of 2005, there was no merchandise for sale and nothing related to the club. ON top of that, the club should try to come up with some creative ways to get Fulham's name out there and such. Billboards, ads on the tube, ads in newspapers, etc. Yes, money is involved to make this happen, but it does not cost 60,000 pounds a week to make this happen throughout the season as it would perhaps to bring in a player.

Once again, I am not questioning your loyalty or your desire to support Fulham. I guess I just feel I am looking at things more realistically. We would all love to see Fulham bring in newer, better players but at the present time and with the owner we have, that does not seem like a possibility. Whether that is good or bad for the club is not really up to us, but to the Chairman himself. As I said before, he might be playing with fire in this approach, but that is his decision. We just get to form opinions about it.

 

damnit!!! i thought we were about to have a pillow fight.

 

I guess the term reality is what is in question here between myself, FFC24 and Don. My view of reality is that Fulham does not have the money to spend based on the club's history and such.

Their view of reality is that Fulham needs to spend money to get better and better.

I agree that more money needs to be spent, but I do not see that as reality more wishful thinking.

 

Yeah I agree with you Don but it all comes back to the money. We cannot get better players on the field unless there is more money to spend. This in essence is where my sense of reality comes into play.

I am not against FFC24 and enjoy reading his posts, but in this instance, I do not agree with what is being said.

To sum it up, getting better players requires more money. At present time under the current ownership, the club is not willing to spend more money and in turn better players do not want to come.

Unless there is an ownership change, I do not see this changing and that to me is the unfortunate reality of the situation. I wish it was different, but it is not.

 

pillow fight...pillow fight!!!!


now that i got that out....i like the idea that someone mentioned earlier in this thread or in another one that i saw earlier this afternoon that said that the club needs to do a better job marketing to raise more money. we have 3 Americans on the team, and with Deuce being one of the more popular American players (to the average fan...McBride would be if he played in MLS...but for those of us who follow admantly, we know how great he is), the club should look to market more in the states. whoever brought that up is on the money.

 

Back on Diop -- there were some rumblings on TFI about a swap deal involving him and Wes Brown of ManYoo. It would have brought a center-back that we were all craving for, but the word is that United turned it down because they thought he wasn't good enough for them.

Wasn't it a year or so ago when Cookie was trying to dissuade United from going after Diop?

 

Money is not the answer. Give Cookie 100m to spend on players and we will still only sit mid-way in the table - or even worse, a bunch of overpaid premadonna's will not play for the club.

We do not have the pulling power to attract big names.

I don't know what sports fans are like in the US, but in the UK fanbases are built over a long period of time, where casual fans become attached, their kids become attached and a swell of fans begin to grow. Gate at Fulham have steadily increased since we have been in the prem.

Chelsea have picked up new fans, some of these are good as they will buy strips, some are just glory seekers, but a lot are dormant fans who have alwasy kept an eye on the results and success has encouraged them to wear the badge again.

In the UK, for the most part, I recon that by the time you are 11 your support for a club will be set, and very little will happen to change that. If something happened to Fulham I would never follow another team, I would probably stop watching football.

IF Fulham can exploit the US then go for it, but apart from you bunch of nutters (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) what kind of person is going to want a fulham jersey for their 8th birthday? You may drum up armchair support, but the efforts and expense of a marketing campaign over such a vast and diverse area to a nieche market would cost more than it would make.

As a quick straw poll, there are now 1100 odd registered members, these are people who have activly take the time to align themselve to Fulham (the hardcore US support?). What is the anual spend on Fulham merchandising? What would you be likely to spend? Even if the entire site bought a Jersey at $80, that is still only $8800, enough to pay a 1st team player for 4 days?

Armchair support does little to increase the clubs finances as TV deals are controlled centrally by the Prem League, so we get the same money regardless of if we have 1 of 50000000 fans outside the UK.

Anyway - Diop stays, John stays. I hope they both play hard to get back in the team so we can play this game again at the end of the season!

PS - omsdogg - what is it with you an pillow fights? I could understand it if we were a bunch of nubile young fillies, but last time I checked I was an out of shape chap who would certainly not grace a cheerleaders outfit

 

I guess it's possible that he means this kind of pillow fights, but I doubt it. 8)

 

that's hilarious!!! no...my thinking was since they're both Fulham supporters, we can't have an all out fist fight...so why not a pillow fight. then they got all apologetic...which is no fun for the rest of us. :roll:


by the way HD...nice win for my Jazz over your Spurs last night. we'll take that as it's only the 4th one in like the last 25, or something like that