Bournemouth was terrible, but are we blaming the wrong person?

We've seen this before: be careful what you wish for.

Credit: IMAGO/Pro Sports Images

It’ll take a long time to recover from Saturday.

It was a unique and ultimately disgusting cocktail of circumstances - when Timothy Castagne’s excellent footwork drew the red card tackle from Ryan Christie, I was cheering in the stands, but in the back of my mind I had the most Fulhamish thought of all: “I wonder how we’ll manage to throw this advantage away.”

In my most pessimistic brain, I thought maybe we’d concede a freak Cherries goal against the run of play, and they’d resolutely defend their way to all three points. It would have been horrible, but I could have just about handled it.

But even in my worst nightmares, I never thought we’d Joachim Andersen’s tackle on Adrien Truffert barely 10 minutes later (Adrien Truffert, btw, one goal in 3,200 minutes this season). Potentially the greatest act of stupidity we’ve seen from a Fulham player on the Craven Cottage pitch since Kamara fought with Mitrovic about who’d take a crucial penalty against Huddersfield in December 2018.

There’s almost nothing else to say about the game after that: much like the 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in August, where Josh King’s incorrectly disallowed goal was the only talking point from the game, Andersen’s red card feels like the only thing worth discussing. We looked at the gifthorse and slapped it across the face, and the whole game hinged on that moment. Yes, we could discuss Silva’s baffling substitution of Tom Cairney or the much-awaited return of Kevin, but it all feels a bit secondary.

I don’t want to pile on the negativity, but Europe’s over, isn’t it? Sammy and I spent a long time last week pouring over the permutations in the Thursday Club, but only one permutation ended up being necessary: we had to beat Bournemouth on Saturday to have a chance. The only optimist left in the Fulhamish camp, Joe Sansom, has drawn up the scenario where Fulham can still get into Europe, but even he’s admitted that it’s not going to happen. A 3.8% chance, apparently…

What’s the point of being alive if you can’t dream?

It’s a fractured fanbase as attention turns towards the summer, especially around the future of Marco Silva. For what feels like the first time in five years, the fan sentiment around Silva seems to be leaning into the red; we’re unhappy, let him go. “It’s not like he wants to be here anyway!”. As the action on the pitch peters out for the season, the noise around the manager feels even more heightened.

Last week I spoke on the Thursday Club and the Quick Take about how I feel about Fulham being Marco Silva’s back-up option. Honestly, like a lot of Fulham fans, I’ve found the press conference quotes a little bit galling: on Friday when he was asked about his future, he said “It’s always (about) what is best for the club.” Rightttttt...

But that doesn’t take away from my core belief: yes, I am alright with Fulham being Marco Silva’s back-up option, if I really drill down into it. I’ve spent my life as a Fulham fan - it would be my dream to walk out of the tunnel or stand in the dugout, of course it would be - but that’s emotional and based upon years of my own and my family’s history, and I wouldn’t expect our players or manager to feel the same.

I understand our position in the food chain of the Premier League. We’ve missed out on Europe four years in a row, and not made it to Wembley either. I understand, objectively, wanting to move to a club which has competed for trophies and is regularly in European competitions. In my heart, of course I hate it. I hate to think that our manager's mind is elsewhere, and it makes my stomach churn to think that ‘elsewhere’ might be the wrong half of SW6.

We received a comment about how this mentality - the mentality that, through gritted teeth, I’m alright with Fulham being Silva’s second-choice option - is holding Fulham back massively. I just can’t get on board with that. Firstly, I just don’t think fans’ mentality has any impact on the direction of the club: beyond making a lot of noise in the stands (on that, I try my hardest with my limited vocal abilities), there’s nothing we can really do to impact outcomes on the pitch. Secondly, and this isn’t comfortable, but I think we should be targeting ambitious managers who think that they can do better than a mid-table club like Fulham in the long term.

And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it’s easy to blame the public figurehead at the club, but I don’t think our lack of ambition comes from Silva. Yes, he has made calamitous mistakes during his time as manager, like against Southampton in the cup in March (not on Saturday though - that comes down to Andersen). For me, that doesn’t feel like the whole story. The number of players that have been improved or rejuvenated under Silva - Mitrovic, Kebano, Ream, Odoi, Willian, Jimenez, Lukic, Wilson, even Muniz for a time - doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

Fulham doesn’t have the high-efficiency transfer strategy of Bournemouth, Brighton, and Brentford - I don’t know whether that’s down to lack of elite-quality data-analysts, or ownership interest, or something else. Most of Fulham’s departures have been ageing players who we’ve wrung every last drop out of. Many of our big-money, younger, signings have arrived without a pre-season and sufficient time to embed. With the obvious caveat that he hasn’t always been perfect, we can credit Silva with so much rejuvenation during his time at Fulham - and, arguably, he’s overperformed consistently at Fulham.

When we talk about Fulham’s lack of ambition, I worry that we’re looking in the wrong place.

Yes, let’s talk about Silva, who clearly wants to move elsewhere - and that doesn’t feel good. But let’s also worry about a jumbled transfer strategy and a new manager being thrust into the helm. Apart from Marco Silva, the Khans haven’t got a managerial appointment right since Slavisa Jokanovic.

If I’m being honest, I’m starting to worry…