At last, a reasonable, well judged, rational article unlike the nonsense that Drew Heatley was spouting on Fulhamish yesterday. I agree with everything that Sammy says. Those of us who witnessed the 80s and 90s (I wasn't in London for the 70s) are delighted to be a mid ranking EPL club, playing wonderful football and with a fantastic manager. As Sammy says, recent windows have been superb and brought us fabulous players. We don't know the PSR position but we do know but we do know that last year's wages were the highest ever. Do we really need another midfielder with Tom, Harrison etc in the wings? They never let us down. Anyway, be very careful what you wish for if you are criticising the Khans. Not everything is perfect but we have a great new stand, a brilliant team...and we are not Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Morecambe or many others I could mention. Can those doom and gloom merchants just enjoy the football they are witnessing every week and stop trying to outdo one another with excessive negativity. It's exhausting! .
There goes Sammy “Ends Justify The Means” James again…
Kidding, sorry, couldn’t help it!
The test of whether Sammy or Drew are right won’t be graded until/if Marco signs a new deal, and, if he doesn’t, why. If his baseline frustration level could have been avoided by paying £10 more for Kevin a month ago, and he decides not to sign a new deal over any continued or future frustrations with admin, then we’ll look back on this through Drew’s bifocals. If, come December, he re-ups for two years then we’ll all be repeating Sammy’s take.
Fair. But we know we’s been sounded out by Spurs and United, and Saudi clubs, all of which would pay more than us. To me that shows he counts the likelihood of a working relationship leading to success as part of the “betterness” of an offer.
At last, a reasonable, well judged, rational article unlike the nonsense that Drew Heatley was spouting on Fulhamish yesterday. I agree with everything that Sammy says. Those of us who witnessed the 80s and 90s (I wasn't in London for the 70s) are delighted to be a mid ranking EPL club, playing wonderful football and with a fantastic manager. As Sammy says, recent windows have been superb and brought us fabulous players. We don't know the PSR position but we do know but we do know that last year's wages were the highest ever. Do we really need another midfielder with Tom, Harrison etc in the wings? They never let us down. Anyway, be very careful what you wish for if you are criticising the Khans. Not everything is perfect but we have a great new stand, a brilliant team...and we are not Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Morecambe or many others I could mention. Can those doom and gloom merchants just enjoy the football they are witnessing every week and stop trying to outdo one another with excessive negativity. It's exhausting! .
Spot on, Sammy. And the moaners should also remember we have tied down Josh King, kept hold of Seth Ridgeon, and have a chance to say goodbye properly to TC.
The doom and gloom merchants seem to be having a total meltdown, which is totally irrational when we are only 3 games into the season and played, generally, quite well, in addition to be shafted by VAR against both Utd and Chelsea, turned down a large fee for Muniz in the last year of his contract, secured the services of valuable squad players and up-and-coming youngsters, brought in two wingers, which Marco was clamouring for, and a third striker who, despite his relative inexperience, is likely to be at least as good as Vinicius! On top of that we've unload Pereira, someone who is already being outshone by an 18-year-old Josh king, robbed of his first Premier League goal, away at Chelsea, by an over-zealous VAR official and a ref who didn't have the balls to uphold his initial decision. If we still haven't won after the Leeds and Brentford games, then we might start to have something to worry about! The only area we are still a bit light in is midfield and as for Marco, he knows the score - no pun intended. If he gets itchy feet towards the end of this season, and is wooed by, on the face of it, greener pastures, then I'll say good luck to him. He'll leave having done a fantastic job of stabilising a mid-tier club in the Premier League. The only relative failing is that we never seem to finish a season strongly, which is frustrating and could be attributed to a relatively small depth. Also, if we look at the only other similar clubs in London, Brentford and Palace, they are both performing better than we are based on last season, even though we doubled Brentford. Both Palace and Brentford have punched above their weights, and Silva may be irked somewhat by Palace's recent cup success.
As a newer fan, the frustrating thing is that Fulham looked Europe-bound on St Patrick’s Day last year and now, less than six months later, like they could be relegated. I’m happy they kept the team intact and think they can improve on last year’s results but if they get passed by lower table teams because of transfers, that will be really disappointing. I’m also frustrated because FFP/PSR seems to keep teams like Fulham in this limbo which stifles competition rather than promoting it. Because of it, you get the same four teams competing for the Prem in 99/100 seasons and someone like Leicester City winning in that 100th year. What makes a sport like US football so great is that it’s not the New York or Los Angeles teams winning the Super Bowl every year because every team, including Shad’s Jaguars, get the same amount of money to spend as the big market teams.
The lack of transparency from the club leaves us all in the dark. Fact is, the Khans and Ali don’t feel the fans matter. And as a supporter of 50-plus years, that hurts.
Odds are Marco won’t be here this time next year, and we will be in rebuilding mode again. Maybe that’s why he too seems to be kept in the dark, at least judging by his public comments.
I always liked Sammy on The Morning Kickoff pod. He never hid the fact that he was a very serious Fulham fan. I also like his work on Fulhamish and this article makes a lot of sense. Some of the fans seem to forget that football is a team game and whoever assembles the best team on Sept. 2 has, by definition, won the transfer period. If you start with a good, well-balanced team like we did and you add a few good players, then you are ready for the long hard season. And yes, Marco's moanings throughout were self-serving and Sammy nailed it there. Good work. Sorry that Rog pulled the plug on The Morning Kickoff.
The Khan's don't play the "Sky media show" so it always appears that there's nothing going on. They play their cards close to their chest and the impatient pessimists ( we have so many) go into panic mode. Seriously believe we've got the best squad we've ever had and it's just got a bit better. All we need now is a fair crack of the whip from incompetent officials and I envisage another decent season.
At last, a reasonable, well judged, rational article unlike the nonsense that Drew Heatley was spouting on Fulhamish yesterday. I agree with everything that Sammy says. Those of us who witnessed the 80s and 90s (I wasn't in London for the 70s) are delighted to be a mid ranking EPL club, playing wonderful football and with a fantastic manager. As Sammy says, recent windows have been superb and brought us fabulous players. We don't know the PSR position but we do know but we do know that last year's wages were the highest ever. Do we really need another midfielder with Tom, Harrison etc in the wings? They never let us down. Anyway, be very careful what you wish for if you are criticising the Khans. Not everything is perfect but we have a great new stand, a brilliant team...and we are not Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Morecambe or many others I could mention. Can those doom and gloom merchants just enjoy the football they are witnessing every week and stop trying to outdo one another with excessive negativity. It's exhausting! .
There goes Sammy “Ends Justify The Means” James again…
Kidding, sorry, couldn’t help it!
The test of whether Sammy or Drew are right won’t be graded until/if Marco signs a new deal, and, if he doesn’t, why. If his baseline frustration level could have been avoided by paying £10 more for Kevin a month ago, and he decides not to sign a new deal over any continued or future frustrations with admin, then we’ll look back on this through Drew’s bifocals. If, come December, he re-ups for two years then we’ll all be repeating Sammy’s take.
If Marco leaves, it won’t be because of the club’s transfer policy. It will be because he gets a better offer - which he eventually will.
Fair. But we know we’s been sounded out by Spurs and United, and Saudi clubs, all of which would pay more than us. To me that shows he counts the likelihood of a working relationship leading to success as part of the “betterness” of an offer.
At last, a reasonable, well judged, rational article unlike the nonsense that Drew Heatley was spouting on Fulhamish yesterday. I agree with everything that Sammy says. Those of us who witnessed the 80s and 90s (I wasn't in London for the 70s) are delighted to be a mid ranking EPL club, playing wonderful football and with a fantastic manager. As Sammy says, recent windows have been superb and brought us fabulous players. We don't know the PSR position but we do know but we do know that last year's wages were the highest ever. Do we really need another midfielder with Tom, Harrison etc in the wings? They never let us down. Anyway, be very careful what you wish for if you are criticising the Khans. Not everything is perfect but we have a great new stand, a brilliant team...and we are not Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Morecambe or many others I could mention. Can those doom and gloom merchants just enjoy the football they are witnessing every week and stop trying to outdo one another with excessive negativity. It's exhausting! .
Spot on, Sammy. And the moaners should also remember we have tied down Josh King, kept hold of Seth Ridgeon, and have a chance to say goodbye properly to TC.
The doom and gloom merchants seem to be having a total meltdown, which is totally irrational when we are only 3 games into the season and played, generally, quite well, in addition to be shafted by VAR against both Utd and Chelsea, turned down a large fee for Muniz in the last year of his contract, secured the services of valuable squad players and up-and-coming youngsters, brought in two wingers, which Marco was clamouring for, and a third striker who, despite his relative inexperience, is likely to be at least as good as Vinicius! On top of that we've unload Pereira, someone who is already being outshone by an 18-year-old Josh king, robbed of his first Premier League goal, away at Chelsea, by an over-zealous VAR official and a ref who didn't have the balls to uphold his initial decision. If we still haven't won after the Leeds and Brentford games, then we might start to have something to worry about! The only area we are still a bit light in is midfield and as for Marco, he knows the score - no pun intended. If he gets itchy feet towards the end of this season, and is wooed by, on the face of it, greener pastures, then I'll say good luck to him. He'll leave having done a fantastic job of stabilising a mid-tier club in the Premier League. The only relative failing is that we never seem to finish a season strongly, which is frustrating and could be attributed to a relatively small depth. Also, if we look at the only other similar clubs in London, Brentford and Palace, they are both performing better than we are based on last season, even though we doubled Brentford. Both Palace and Brentford have punched above their weights, and Silva may be irked somewhat by Palace's recent cup success.
The bottom line: the Khans are serving the club well, really well when everything is put in perspective. I look forward to another season.
As a newer fan, the frustrating thing is that Fulham looked Europe-bound on St Patrick’s Day last year and now, less than six months later, like they could be relegated. I’m happy they kept the team intact and think they can improve on last year’s results but if they get passed by lower table teams because of transfers, that will be really disappointing. I’m also frustrated because FFP/PSR seems to keep teams like Fulham in this limbo which stifles competition rather than promoting it. Because of it, you get the same four teams competing for the Prem in 99/100 seasons and someone like Leicester City winning in that 100th year. What makes a sport like US football so great is that it’s not the New York or Los Angeles teams winning the Super Bowl every year because every team, including Shad’s Jaguars, get the same amount of money to spend as the big market teams.
The lack of transparency from the club leaves us all in the dark. Fact is, the Khans and Ali don’t feel the fans matter. And as a supporter of 50-plus years, that hurts.
Odds are Marco won’t be here this time next year, and we will be in rebuilding mode again. Maybe that’s why he too seems to be kept in the dark, at least judging by his public comments.
Who’s right, who’s wrong? Who knows?
I always liked Sammy on The Morning Kickoff pod. He never hid the fact that he was a very serious Fulham fan. I also like his work on Fulhamish and this article makes a lot of sense. Some of the fans seem to forget that football is a team game and whoever assembles the best team on Sept. 2 has, by definition, won the transfer period. If you start with a good, well-balanced team like we did and you add a few good players, then you are ready for the long hard season. And yes, Marco's moanings throughout were self-serving and Sammy nailed it there. Good work. Sorry that Rog pulled the plug on The Morning Kickoff.
Appreciate this Ray! Check out First Up: Football for the replacement to Early Kick Off - basically the same
The Khan's don't play the "Sky media show" so it always appears that there's nothing going on. They play their cards close to their chest and the impatient pessimists ( we have so many) go into panic mode. Seriously believe we've got the best squad we've ever had and it's just got a bit better. All we need now is a fair crack of the whip from incompetent officials and I envisage another decent season.
Well said Sammy.
Pretty much spot on Sammy.
I agree. You are an optimistic enhancer of a journalist.