What is Fulham Football Club’s strategy? What does it want to achieve in the next five years? 10 years?
Yes, we know priority number one is becoming “sustainable”, as Shad Khan often touts. But that isn’t what I want to know. I want to know what we want to achieve on the football pitch.
Looking at our transfer window, I have no idea. On the face of it, we want to give the bare minimum requested by our best manager of the last 15 years, and we want to block the pathway to the first team for our academy strikers by bringing in an unknown from abroad. (Aaron Loupalo-Bi must be wondering what he’s done wrong.)
My theory is we simply want to exist between the realms of 10th and 15th. Never in any real danger of relegation, and never in any real contention for anything more. All the while we can build our non-footballing revenue, hike up matchday prices and creep slowly towards that mythical “sustainability”, which – to be frank – is probably unachievable for a club our size in an industry like football.
Yes, I’m probably a bit of a grump. It’s a fairly prominent strand of my personality. But there are some pockets of the Fulham fanbase that are so terrified of criticising the club, or reading any criticism from elsewhere, that they aggressively jump to its defence. Maybe it’s the fear of being punished by the powers-that-be, or maybe it’s good old-fashioned Stockholm Syndrome. Either way, it’s important to remember that criticism isn’t just healthy – it’s essential.
Deadline day was a repeat of the past decade for Fulham fans. The club scurried around and made deals left, right, and centre. If only the window was longer than a day, etc. But at the end of it, with our two long-term targets through the door (better late than never, eh?), plus a head-scratching forward option, the overall mood online seemed to be… positive.
Personally, I just can’t praise the club for what is clearly a negligent lack of strategy. Marco Silva openly stated that we had a plan in May, and that plan fell through. He added, plainly, that it was our fault for not being active. And yet you’ll have people on X patronising you with lines like “have you considered PSR?” and “it takes time to do these sorts of deals”.
Is Marco Silva a liar? And what regulations are the other clubs in the Premier League circumventing? Many of which are smaller in stature and located in far less attractive areas of the country, yet doing much better and faster business than us. I’d love to know.
The Khans are such yellow-sticker merchants that they have become caricatures of themselves. Lying inert until deadline day before saving a million or two here on a player who could have helped in our first three games, and a million or two there on someone who might need a preseason to acclimatise to his new surroundings.
It’s diminishing returns. Five years ago we might have got enough bargains for the tactic to be worth it. But this year you cannot argue that is the case. I say tactic because “doing sod all until the final day” isn’t a strategy, it’s a tactic – and not a particularly smart one long-term.
Then, of course, there is the possibility that clubs will simply refuse to deal with us because they can’t be bothered with the brinkmanship and the boring games of cat-and-mouse from a club that should probably behave with a bit more integrity. Tyrique George, anyone?
Ultimately, football is meant to be fun. And one of the most exciting times as a fan is the summer window where you look for your club to strengthen its squad or re-invigorate it after a tough season. Fulham sucked the fun out of the summer, with no activity and no communication. Full disclosure: I’m a wrestling fan, but even I’m sick to the back teeth of Tony Khan tweeting about everything other than what should be his absolute priority between the months of May and September, if nothing else.
Communication is just as important as action. If there is a strategy for the footballing side of Fulham FC, why can we not tell the fans? If nothing else, it would buy TK et al a bit of time and goodwill during the windows.
But this particular window has closed, and now reality is hitting. We are in the bottom three for the first time since our Premier League return under Marco. Yes, it’s three games in – I am not an idiot – but a fast start is usually crucial for a club like us targeting the heady heights of 10th. If results go wrong early, things like cup runs become less of a priority and the campaign quickly turns into a war of attrition.
I’d love nothing more to be proved wrong, and this piece be screenshotted and featured on Worst Fulham Takes.
But right now? Yep, I’m concerned.
I have got a bit fed up on telegram today about people moaning. I am all for us having different opinions and debating, but it seems to me a certain %, and I suspect relatively low % are just constantly looking at the negative. By the way, I have been going to games at the cottage for 65 years and it’s never been this good on the pitch.
Now, regarding your piece about lack of club strategy. I have posted many times on different forums including telegram, my conversation with a board member of FFC about what our plan is for the close season. It was a chance meeting in a pub before Man City last game of the season and resulted in a very open and good chat for about 15 minutes between the both of us. We both go back a long way and we did a few minutes of reminiscing before my question, ‘what are we going to do in the transfer window’. I was told very clearly that the strategy was as follows. 1. keep the squad together esp the real talent that we all know we have. 2. Marco has a long list of players he would like and that is a key start point for recruitment. 3. Strengthen in key positions where it’s felt we need to upgrade, namely: 2 x wingers, a striker, a midfield player and if Tete doesn’t sign as right back. 4. Get ESR fit and able to go 90 minutes. 5. TC is likely to sign and is not going to Wrexham who could not afford him. Overall, there would not be a lot of movement in the market as the club feel our squad is decent but we want to progress and will upgrade in key positions. I asked would we buy Nelson and he said that whilst Marco would like him, they thought his injury risk was too much. That’s the truth, you can believe me or not but I promise you that’s what I was told.
So looking back at what I was told, that is close to being 90% true to what has happened with only the lack of midfield player missing.
IF THAT IS NOT HAVING A STRATEGY, I DONT KNOW WHAT IS. In fact, it’s incredible to me, that we have achieved so close to our targets as we have given we are up against a really tough set of stupid bloody rules with FFP and SCR coming in next season. If you don’t understand them, I suggest you try too as they are fundamental to what we can do and why it’s essential we look for as much value as possible, even if it means doing things late and frustrating the hell out of all of us. As long as we CONTINUE to build as stronger squad as we can then that’s what we will do.
If you know anything about American culture (I lived there for 4 years 1998-2002, then you will know that are not happy to be mediocre, a multi billionaire most certainly will not be.
So, I do get fed up with people bashing the club, especially our own fans. I agree that the ticket prices are too high and I think the club could do much much better with its communications, poor club communications cause a lot of these frustrations. I am certainly not a fan of Mackintosh and feel his leadership style is weak, especially to us the fans, but I don’t know this as I don’t have inside knowledge of that. He could be a brilliant leader but doesn’t allow us to judge that by his lack of transparency.
Sorry for such a big response.
Your piece is passionate and thought-provoking, and its clear many Fulham fans share your frustration. But I think some of the conclusions in your piece might overstate the case and overlook a few key developments that suggest some strategy, even if it’s not being stated up-front. For example, turning down €40M for Muniz, especially with only a year left on his contract, is not the behaviour of a club with no plan. That was an early, firm decision to back a player who is clearly central to Silva’s system and shows the club willing to prioritise footballing continuity over short-term gain.
You mentioned concerns about blocking youth development, but Josh King has started the first three matches of the season and even scored what should have been a goal at Chelsea. That moment aside, it shows faith in the academy, albeit belatedly, and in King in particular, who’s been trusted in high-pressure games from day one. Also, the club tied down promising youth talents like Seth Ridgeon and King himself, losing only Callum Osman to Celtic, due to what appears to be Silva decision.
Yes, Fulham made several late moves again, and that’s frustrating. But the idea that this is unique to us isn’t accurate. Most mid-table Premier League clubs now do significant business late in the window, largely because of the financial regulations (PSR), agent dynamics, and the reality that sellers often hold firm until the final days. It’s far from ideal, but it’s also the market reality now, not just Fulham dithering.
I’d much rather see us hold onto our key players, develop talent, and build sensibly than panic-buy for the sake of noise. A bit more transparency would help fans buy into that, but it doesn’t mean the whole system is broken.
I totally get the frustration, but I’d argue this window, while not thrilling, showed more restraint and structure than it’s getting credit for. Happy to be proved wrong over the course of the season, but let’s at least acknowledge the signs of long-term thinking that are beginning to surface. It would help, of course, if the window closed before the season started!