On being Fulham-ish: The past, present and beyond

Just wanted to make a couple of comments about yesterday {the wigan match -ed} and Fulham in general, playing a defensive minded team at home is the mindset of most managers in the English game, if you are in doubt look at the English national team. CC is doing no more than the majority of Premier managers, he managers not to lose every week, which is different to managing to win.

Only the richest and most powerful of clubs can afford to put line ups home and away that are trying to win instead of trying not to lose, and what does it make for, most games in the premeirship are boring dull affairs fought in the middle of the park, and its not surprising why the crowds are dwindling.

Back to our beloved Fulham, I was destined to become a Fulham man long before I was born, my Mothers family lived in a street no longer there about a 1/4 of a mile from Craven Cottage, they were bombed out in the second World war and moved to Chiswick but they were already a Fulham family, and when I came along it was only natural that I become a Fulham Man even though I was born just down the road from QPR.

I was taken to the Cottage for the first time was I was about 5, that was around 53 or 54 i cannot really remember, in the 60.s I became a home and away man, travelled with the lads in the Hammersmith end and my life revolved around Saturday afternoon and the games, being a Fulham fan and once you become one you realize some facts very quickly, the first of which no matter where you may travel and in my case Atlanta you will always be assiciated with the team.

For instance a guy who i grew up with in London 40 odd years ago contacted me last year we had not talked in over 45 years, he was and still is a Chelsea man he now lives in Sydney, do you know what the first thing he wrote down in his email, do you still support Fulham.

For you new guys to the team you must realize it will never now leave you, your weekends will be affected for the rest of your life, no matter how much you try and get away from it, the first result you will always look at will be theirs. Next you must realize Fulham will never be considered a giant of the league, the class system in England is different to everywhere else and believe it or not it even goes into football, and if you follow the team you already realize what I say is true, no matter how good we are doing, no matter what place we are in the league the media will always talk about the big uns first and longest, in the case of fox last week the only team Bobby failed to mention was us, and at that point we were ahead of the mighty Liverpool.

Also you have the heard the term Fulhamish on the web site, this I am afraid to say is very true, take yesterdays game, just when you thought Fulham were actually going to be something more than relagtion fodder this season, they lose a game they should win if they want to be something else than relagtion fodder, but what do they do they lose, not by playing good football and go down fighting they lose in a boring manner and give credence to all the media about Fulham being boring a dull.

Let me take you back again and show you this is not a new thing with the club, the faces have changed the ground as changed but some things like this stay the same, back in the late 60's Fulham won a game at Craven Cottage, it was one of those fixtures between Xmas and New Year, in those days New Year was not an holiday in England so there were no games, and Fulham won and attained their highest ever place in the top division.

We were all over the moon and off we went to the next away game at Sheff Utd, where we were duly dumped 4 - 0 and they literally chased us out of the ground back to the station, and the team began their usual descent down the league.

So as a Fulham man I am pleased you are a supporter of the team i have followed for so long, but just thought you should be aware of what you are letting yourselves in for. For my American cousins the best example I can give you is the Chicago Cubs.

 

RE: Wigan

Im a Cleveland Browns fan so Im used to losing. Its to easy and bring to support a club like Manchester United because your just another United fan. Now if I see yanks supporting clubs like Fulham, Charlton and other mid to bottom table teams then I have a greater respect for them as fans.

 

Re: RE: Wigan

Are you SURE you wont be defecting to Villa?

Hmmm...Should really be tempting and I couldnt blame you...

 

Meanwhile the planks on the offal are showing why changing the messageboard format isnt working... every offended punter {still use that term?} slagging off CC in separate threads, for what IS an admitted mistake in selection and tactics.
Heh... never mind they cannot any longer suggest a better option at the helm because O'Neill is occupied.

Yep, we all suffer, and just look at the Bengals. Illustrates the word Fulhamish for sure.
I'm agonized again, TODAY..and I thought I was over that.

Damn you and your Falcons, John!


:cry: :cry: