Fulham Summer '06 Transfers

Collins John is apparently in talks with Birmingham City. Not good.

http://home.skysports.com/player.asp?plid=15151&clid=54&cpid=10&channel=championship

 

Why in the hell would Collins want to go to that northern wasteland??!! It would be madness to sell him, he's young and has potential...unless Cookie knows somehting that we don't.

I'd take 5m for him but still not sure that its enough!!

 

While I do not agree with selling him, I am guessing if he does go it is because he simply wants to play week in and week out. He has not gotten that chance at Fulham and perhaps thinks he won't this season as well. I think this would be a bad move for both parties involved.

 

Agree. I would imagine if that comes to pass, it is because John wants to play full time for a team he thinks will make the jump after this season. Then he's a starter for a premiership team. A gamble, but perhaps the people he has been speaking with have told him he needs to do that to get consideration for national team, bigger clubs, and as always, more $.

Hate to see him go, but not a bad move if it helps him out personally. I have way more respect that move than Steed's, who was an established starter for us and could have been for the future. Steed, leave!

 

Monday BBC gossip column: Birmingham have made a £3m bid for Fulham striker Collins John. (Mail)


booo...

 

SELLL CJ!!!!

Again {Some will find it familiar, as I've been saying it over a year} I'm going to bring up the amazing similarities between CJ and Jeff Cunningham.

Almost exactly the same playing style and goal production.

Not as apparently effective when starting v coming in at 70

Plays NO defense

Actually sulks on field when ball is taken away

And there was a large minority of Crew fans upset when he was traded away.

And the next year he he led the league in scoring much of the season..

Yet there were few saying "I told you so".. and he was on the bench as a sub by August. and traded, again, after season was over.

Yep... Tom will testify I have a pretty good handle on Jeff Cunningham... and I see MANY MANY similarities in CJ.

Perhaps with good coaching and mentoring, Cunningham might still change, this season with John Ellinger will tell the tale.

Seeing CJ is like looking at a JC doppelganger for me.

Coleman like the staff of both the Crew and Colorado doesnt have time to mentor problem kids.

SELL HIM if someone offers more than 3 million. And I'm betting in two years only the most idiotic of Fulham fans will be sorry.

 

I agree that you have a handle on Jeff Cunningham from your two-goal prediction at last summer's All-Star game, but I have to disagree with you on selling Collins John.

I do not think he has been given a fair shake. Perhaps his attitude needs some adjusting and his on-field play could use some tutoring, but we all know that John has talent. I do not want to see the club give up on him when he is only 20-21 and he goes on to bigger and better things because we gave up on him so early.

As I mention in my article on the main page, we need to give John a year to prove himself playing week in and week out. If he does not produce, we can let him go. We may not get 3 million for him, but with him still be young next offseason, we will still get a good price for him.

Give him one more chance Petty!

 

Well, the problem has manifested well over just a single season... any progress, so far?

I think not.. and I think it may get worse.

 

It has not gotten better and perhaps there are things behind the scenes we do not know about, but in terms of natural talent, John definitely possesses more than McBride and Helguson combined. That does not mean he will ever fulfill his potential and display his talent for Fulham, but I would like to think he has been given a fair shake.

Isn't a manager's job to get the most out of a player? Why has Coleman let him rot and get the way he is? He should be doing everything in his power to make Collins feel a part of the team and to try and maximize his talent rather than simply selling him off. If Coleman can't handle John, perhaps it is time for him to leave, not Collins.

Oh wait, I will shut up. As I said before, I will support Coleman until I see problems during the upcoming season. I just think Coleman could do more for Collins John.

 

In non-Collins John related news, Fulham is being linked with Crystal Palace center-half Emmerson Boyce. Palace turned down a 1 million pound bid from Wigan last week for his services.

As someone who follows Palace somewhat, I would think we can do better than this guy. At least I hope we could. He is okay, but nothing special.

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid ... ulham+link

In other news, Middlesbrough has joined Fulham and Manchester City in trying to sign Frenchman Sidney Govou.

 

On CJ, still {this didnt post first time}

I'm not excusing CC, but sometimes there's just nothing you can do to modify a player's mindset. He sees a whole different reality.

Note that both were also paired with McBride... while the roles as forwards are much different the 'hard-worker' mindset could be adapted if the CJ/JC were actually TRYING to get better.

JC DID try to improve... when he was obviously challenging too much rather than dishing off, he then started passing too much and at the wrong times... the problem was he never acquired the judgement of when to pass and when to go for goal.

And of course still didnt try to get the ball back when dispossessed.

Nope... it would be CC's fault if he hung on to CJ TOO long.

And this also has a bearing on McBide's future possibilites as a coach. If he had such a bent he would be mentoring CJ and getting into his head. Didnt happen with JC and hasnt with CJ. I believe Brian has no such interest, or talent.. take your pick.

 

According to Clubcall, we have our newest player of the 2006/2007 season ready to go:

Leyton Orient defender Gabriel Zakuani has moved a step closer to completing his move to Fulham - after agreeing personal terms on his move to Craven Cottage, writes Richard Cawley.

 

So does anyone know anything about this guy? It seems we have a good record when buying lower league players, ex. Rosenior, Heleguson, Warner, Nemi(sort of)

 

Some of the facts about Zakuani is that he is 20 years old. He is from the Deomcratic Republic of Congo. He is a center-half. He is 6-1 in height and he weighs around 170 pounds.

He has been a first team regular at Orient the last two seasons.

 

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/football_n ... _7458.html

So does this mean we are no longer making a run at O-O?

Zak and Zat in the middle of the same backfield. Ha!

 

I would hope not. While I like the signing of Zakuani, I am having a hard time believing that he is going to be the answer to our defensive problems this season. I think he can help the team and fill in once in a while, but I think Zakuani will make more of an impact down the road in a season or two.

I believe Onyewu is still on the radar and I think he would be a great fit for Fulham as many others have already said. I am guessing in the next two weeks we will know more about Fulham's plans and where Onyewu ends up.

 

It would actually be, Zak, Zat and Zesh in the middle.

To answer your question, I do not believe we are out of the running for Gooch. I think the plan was to bring in two CB's and a left back...so there is still room for O-O!

 

I just read on t-f-i.com that a Swedish newspaper or two are reporting that Fulham are about to sign Swedish Under-21 International Bjorn Runstrom. He played for Chievo and Bologna in Italy before returning to Sweden in 2004 to play for Hammarby.

He is a striker and has a good scoring record. He was one of the leading scorers in the Swedish league last season and is supposed to be one of the up and comers for the Swedish national team in the next few years.

Other than that, I do not have any other info. I am searching for some more, but as of now I am not having any luck.

Anyone else know anything about this kid Rumstrom?

 

One other question that went under the radar during the World Cup was the exit of left-back Adam Green. I could understand if he was sold to a Championship team or something, but he left Fulham for Grays Athletic, a non-league team.

Thus, he dropped four divisions of football with this move. Was he that bad or was Fulham that far off on their assessments of Green or what?

I was under the assumption that this youngster could potentially play first team football for Fulham. In fact, he had a few appearances in the 2004-2005 season and while he still needed work to be Premiership quality, I thought he was closer to a Premiership player than that of a non-league player.

Was there something else going on here or did Green regress that much in a season? Any insight into this deal would be appreciated.