Locked: Summer 2007 ins and outs

I am not of the belief that all of these players are mediocre. I would say mediocre players are ones past their prime in their early 30's. I am extremely happy that the oldest player we have signed this summer is 27. That means that this squad will be around together for a while to grow and learn together. That is a big thing.

Additionally, Fulham needs depth. When injuries occurred last season, we were gutted and had to play defenders in midfield. This season that will NOT be the case. We will have cover in most every position and good cover at that.

Finally, I would love to see us add some big names as JMH is suggesting, but now is not the right time. We added quantity and depth instead of straight quality. I would guess next summer might be the time for us to get that big name. All the money we had to spend was needed to shape the squad and provide stability and depth in all positions. Sanchez has done a good job. Perhaps one of these players will make a big step up and surprise us all and the rest of the league.

 

I still think Bouazza is rubbish, but I will give a chance. He did show some good things for Watford, but not enough to splash that kind of money.

If O'Neil is available then we should jump in before the rest of the league does. I really like this player and he would start right away. He is quality and even if this means selling somebody like Diop to get him then do so.

 

I would trade Diop for O'Neil in a heartbeat. I think Diop has done very little outside of his first season at Fulham. He is injury prone, has disciplinary problems on the pitch picking up far too many yellow cards and his passing is not that great for a midfielder. I have said for some time that I think Papa would be better served making the transition to defensive center back.

O'Neil has pace, creativity and is a proven Premiership player. I am not sure why Pompey wants to get rid of him, but if it is a straight swap I would take O'Neil.

As for Bouazza, I am NOT too keen on him either, but I will give him a chance. I think we paid a bit too much for him, but in this day and age of high transfer fees, I have to give him a chance to prove himself. I like the fact that he is only 22. He has plenty of good years ahead of him.

 

Diop is essentially a poor man's Sissoko. He his a midfield destroyer that often times leave supporters a bit deflated. If Diop can stay healthy and regain his form then I will be more than happy to see him feature in the Fulham midfield.

O'Neill on the other hand is quality in every aspect of the word. A hard working midfielder that links up well with strikers. Would love to see him at Fulham and 5 million is not a bad asking price. Maybe LS should of been in for him earlier.

I wasn't overlly impressed with Bouazza, but then again there wasn't very many bright spots on Watford this past season anyways. He has a good physical presence and is more a move for depth than a signing to go straight into the starting XI.

 

There are more Mido rumors. How much money does Fulham have? Seriously there are lots of rumors about quality players and it seems as though these rumors have some truth in them. I like Mido, but think that O'neil or a CB would be a better buy.

 

The problem with Fulham bringing in "non-mediocre" players is that it is a small club. Fulham's wage bill can't just all go to a couple of players, and Fulham won't ever have the kind of money that Sven-Goran Ericksson is throwing around in the transfer market (30 million more pounds than Sanchez got). Even Roy Keane at Sunderland apparently has a larger transfer budget than Sanchez does.

More important than the money though is that Fulham just isn't a big time club. If you are an ambitious player from outside of England you don't dream of playing for Fulham; you dream of playing for Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, or Chelsea. Fulham isn't even a potential top 4 club like Tottenham, Newcastle, or Manchester City. So it is just difficult to bring in "star" players who are also wanted by top 10 Premiership clubs.

I like what Sanchez and Les Reed have done so far. I think they recognize Fulham's limitations.

 

OK, that's a fair point. I suppose I was overly pessimistic earlier in the day for some reason. To LS' credit, he's done a good job of bringing in younger players who have the potential to improve. Maybe a 21-year-old from Australia will pan out and maybe he won't, but it's worth a gamble to see if a guy like that can BECOME an elite player. None of the guys LS has signed are old, none of them are on the down-slide of their careers, and I guess that's important too.

 

Yep.

 

Name sounds familiar. Irish comedian??

Young Irish comedian-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Lafferty

 

Burnley Rejects Fulhams offer:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 935473.stm

and Frank Queuedrue joins Birmingham for 2.5M pounds:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 927836.stm

 

Lafferty is absolute quality. From what I have seen I really think he will be better than Nugent. The bidding should go up and if we are in the hunt for Mido we should take all of that money and spend it on Lafferty. If Lafferty is a no go then at least sign a damn CB. If Baird is gonna play RB then we are still only alright at CB if that. If Baird made the switch to CB then I would be much more comfortable with that position.

 

Just out of curiousity where have you seen Lafferty play? More on the club level or international scene?

 

I watched him more on the international scene. He looks to be quality even though his goal record is not as good as Nugent. He has decent pace,good touch and is tall. Also he is very young and is already a regular for his country.

 

Thanks FFC24. I figured it was for country. He sounds like a good player for us, although I reckon he would be one for the future in a year or two. Perhaps a replacement for McBride if he is tall as you say he is. Just a thought.

But, where's the experienced center back? We NEED ONE FAST!!

 

I had a quick go at trying to compare our centre halves with the pairings at the middle of the defence of our peers in the PL....

I got this far:

Manure - Ferdinand and Vidic
Chavs - Carvalho and Terry
Ars - Gallas and Toure and Senderos
Plod - Agger and Carragher and Hyppia

I could also do Pompey (Distin and Campbell) the lucky barstewards.

Other than that - I managed to recall Dawson at Spuds, Mellberg at Villa, Nelsen at Blackburn, Dunne at Citeh, Ferdinand at Wet Spam, Woodgate at Boro.... and then I ran out of names (maybe 1 or 2 more - but all rubbish by this stage like Gabbidon)

From that I deduced 2 things; Firstly that I am rubbish at remembering centre halves, and secondly that most teams outside the top 4 have at least one centre half (and mostly both) who I don't know so there can't be that many superstars of the game floating around in that position.

So why do we slug down 50-60 goals as season and sit in the bottom 3 defensive records each year for the last few years if our centre halves are only as poor as our peers?

I suspect it is a combination of the fact that our centre halves are mediocre even by comparison to those around us BUT also that we have for a few years put our defence under very long periods of pressure for many games by our inability to sustain possession in the middle AND our lack of pace and threat up front which has allowed teams to leave 3 back against us when they attack and push their midfield onto our centre halves.

Maybe in a world short of decent central defenders, the plan from LS is to bring in players who can offer more threat and possession and therefore alleviate the pressure on our defence to at least the level where our mid-table quality defensive lineup can at least expect to see the ball away from our half for decent periods of the game.

Maybe the likes of Cook, Dempsey, Davis, Healy, Kamara, Bouazza (?), Smertin, Davies, Diop etc are being bought/coached as a means of solving our defensive issues by giving opponents some problems to deal with in their half rather than spending 90 minutes probing for the inevitable slip in our box......

Perhaps there is something to this "defend from the front" business after all.

 

Excellent and thought-provoking analysis, Mike! I think the best way to defend is to maintain possession and control midfield. Let's hope this group can do a better job of that this season. Last year it seemed like two passes then a turnover every time.

That said, I would still love to get Knight off the pitch...

 

Nicely summed up Mike. I agree that the more possession the midfield maintains the less pressure the defense will ultimately come under. It isn't a difficult tactic to utilize in theory, but to have it actually achieved is another matter all together.

If total team football can be achieved and limit the goals conceded, Fulham will have a far better season and achieve a higher spot in the table. Here is to hoping...