Does Tom Cairney deserve a statue at Craven Cottage?
After his feature-length documentary, TC10, debate around whether our captain should be immortalised has been reignited.
“Build the statue” is a phrase that’s been integrated into the modern football lexicon in recent years, alongside “we go again” and “one of our own”.
And it’s a phrase that’s increasingly used among Fulham fans for Tom Cairney. However, as that campaign begins to gather more steam (fuelled by newfound FFC ITK Francis on X), opposition appears to be rising, too. Not everyone thinks TC is worthy of joining Johnny Haynes and George Cohen in being immortalised at Craven Cottage.
Reasons for
I’ve never hid the fact that I’m fiercely pro-TC and staunchly pro-statue. And, if I’m honest, I’m yet to see a strong enough reason to oppose it.
It’s not just his tenure; while Tom sits in the top 10 in terms of years spent in SW6, there are others above him, including Haynes and Cohen, along with Bobby Robson, all-time tops scorer Gordon Davies, and more.
For me, the main reason for is the impact he has made, and the moments he has been there for, in one of the most significant decade-long periods of change we have had as a football club.
Three promotions - two of which were secured at Wembley. And, lest we forget, he scored the winner in the first one!
That moment alone, for me, is worthy of building a statue. Our first Wembley win. The White Wall. A perfect day for so many of us. A major trophy is the culmination of half-a-dozen high-stakes games. Our play-off final win was the crescendo to 40 - not to mention the four years of rebuilding before that. What is harder to achieve?
Sure, there are the two relegations, but that is where his legend grows. We won and lost together. You can see the pain in the failures, like dropping down to the Championship and that play-off semi-final defeat against Reading. TC is Fulham, like all of us. And we know it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
It’s that context that solidifies Tom’s position. Long-term relationships like TC and Fulham don’t occur often in the modern game. And they’re unlikely to again. Just look at players like Alexander Isak; not even top-level success is enough to relieve player’s itchy feet nowadays.
Reasons against
I’ve seen a few arguments against, and while I don’t necessarily agree with them, I’ll list them here.
Haynes captained his country and Cohen won the World Cup, while Cairney has made just two appearances for Scotland.
Sure - but Haynes and Cohen don’t have statues outside Wembley and no one is asking for a TC statue at Hampden Park. This is about a player’s contribution to their football club, not to their country.
TC’s been injured a lot and hasn’t been as crucial a player in the last three or four years.
In his 10 full seasons at the club, there are only three in which Cairney appeared fewer than 30 times - his injury-hit 2020/21 campaign (10), the following Championship-winning year (26), and finally last term (25). And, 20/21 aside, he had an impact in the other two - bagging our 100th goal against Luton in 2022, earning us a point against Spurs last term, and who could forget that goal at the Gtech?
TC’s never been about sustained periods of dominance, he’s been about moments. And, as the man himself puts it in TC10, that’s what football is all about.
Perhaps the biggest stick to beat TC with is that he’s not helped us win a major trophy. Spoiler alert: neither has anyone else. So, do we take the two statues we have down? A club our size doesn’t judge impact by major trophies. We can’t - we operate on a level below that. At least for now.
I think, deep down, we’re all still scarred a little bit from the Michael Jackson statue. But, hey - we lived through it.
The most compelling argument I’ve seen against this is not even necessarily against it: it’s that statues should be built when the player’s career is over. I get that - and probably agree with it.
But ultimately, I think it’ll happen. Not least because I think it’s telling that the club allowing players like Ryan Sessegnon say it on TC10 and bring it into the public discourse.
For now, though, Cairney has one final season to end the debate for good - and that mission continues against Cambridge United this month.
If he - and we - succeed, then we really will “build the statue”.
Not seeing it. Solid player and hopefully he'll be able finish his career here on a high note, but a statue? C'mon.
I’m a huge TC fan, love the man, but this debate is weird. Name a pitch at the training ground after him, a lounge in the new stand or something. Cohen and Haynes were generational talents. Given how the game has evolved it’s unlikely that such a player will be at Fulham long enough to be ‘statue worthy’ but let’s not lower the bar, for no other reason than to preserve the legacy of the aforementioned.