Thanks for this Dan. Well said. To add, I think even if Silva leaves, we are going to have a hard time replacing him with a manager that is an equivalent talent if we keep the current recruitment system in place (which is not going to be attractive to top managers who are ambitious). We are well - thanks to Marco - beyond our Scott Parker days We need to professionalize our transfer business and infrastructure. It is time to hire and empower someone to lead on transfers. It’ll will result in less chaos and better outcomes (especially for a club that is already willing to spend and be ambitious).
Note - FWIW I don’t think this means drastic changes. Right now, because TK is so busy, Alistair Mackintosh is effectively the head of football operations (as he is the one who needs to close the deals - evidence of this was the Club sending him to try to -unsuccessfully - close the Andre deal). The Club just needs to hire and empower an experienced executive to go out and get and close deals (who is connected in the football world and can make decisions and has a budget).. It’s an attractive job (you get to work closely with a billionaire family that is very connected in sport). There is no reason that this new exec can’t report, work with Tony Khan (as they would to any owner). Tony is the Vice Chairman, Sporting Director and General Manager In addition to being Director of Football Operations. Tony is not going anywhere and he is good at identifying talent. Alistair Mackintosh has a big job already - Fulham need to prioritize increasing revenues with the Riverside, sponsorships, and more. He should focus on that part of his job and, to be frank, does not seem to be successful at closing deals (before the TD). He would - as any club CEO - be intimately involved in setting the budget for transfers.
I really hope that change - after this mess - happens. It’s an easily solvable problem.
Completely agree with regards to Marco and the difficulties in finding a replacement. Very sensible suggestions regarding office structure as well, it has to change
I did want to add a comment on Marco staying at or leaving Fulham. I think that he is more boxed in than our fans believe. Where is he going to go? He is far too ambitious than semi-retirement in Saudi Arabia. He wants to coach a top 6 EPL team but where is there an opening? He has been with other EPL teams and knows that Fulham are a good deal even if Tony Khan is an absent Sporting Director. Maybe he would go to a top team in a top European league but they all come with crazed fan bases and/or crazed owners. So he has far less choice than our fans imagine. Of course, if Pep leaves after this season, he becomes an instant contender for that job. BTW I assume that Marco is smart enough to avoid the permanent mess at Man U. So, it's Marco for maybe a good long time. Hope so.
Agree, two players new to the premiership and a centre forward with potential. All done at the last minute. Solely at the door of our absent DoF. Time will tell
Spot on article. Would add - and Jack and others have said before - we need to get Muniz and Wilson into long term contracts ASAP. I think this window deserves B- .B for all the many positives, a minus for no midfield and one grade reduction for all the delay and stress this has caused . Many fans seem upset to have lost George opportunity but seems Chelsea were asking for 30% sell on and in all honesty we would have had to have sold Wilson ( the fan base would not have liked that ) . COYW - we can finish 6th-8th .
Let’s just talk about Kevin. What if he was unsure about coming and him agents demands were too high. If he was our best option would you move to the next target and let him go? Personally I feel we had our targets and we got them. It meant a lot of pain, especially for Marco but we got there in the end. Far better that than going for the 2nd best, then the 3rd best until we sign a championship level player on inflated wages. We could have got loads of those really early!
one hundred percent agree. I've no doubt a lot of players we will have been trying to sign will have been using our interest in order to coax another more prestigious club to sign them. No doubt TK does seem to like a last min bargain to try and strengthen his negotiating hand, so I suspect our transfer window lies somewhere in between yours and jacks opinion.
Yup, it’s just so naive to think we can sign these sorts of players early in the window. Even if the player’s club agrees to sell, we still have to persuade the player - and it seems Kevin’s agent was still messing us around yesterday by trying to get a bidding war going.
When we have the status of Liverpool, we might be able to pick and choose!
Do YOU have £5million? You say it like it's nothing... Think above how many ticket sales that equates to... We are subject to their methods and their investments, I guess we best just accept it; squeeky bum time every August/ September 😜
Of course, it would be ideal is these deals had got done earlier, and it might take them a couple of games to get used to the Premier League and Marco's tactics, but all the players brought in are up to full speed in terms of fitness.
I think BANG ON! Putting Marco through the ringer every year is just not good for his health, the supporters or the club. We were a Dewsbury-Hall away from a great window (on paper). But let's be honest, it was a frantic mess! (That could have gone badly wrong). Maybe there is a good FREE AGENT out there without a Club for a midfield role! Any suggestions?? COYW!! We go again!!
Cant talk about transfers without mentioning PSR. Saving money on deals, however much, gives us wiggle room. Not a fan of late business either but Kevin (or his agent) got Sporting sniffing around at the last minute when his contract was still being negotiated. May be that he wanted more money rather than the club haggling over his transfer fee?
Thanks Dan. I heard rumours that SK might be interested in selling up. The early focus on extending deals seemed to be consistent with selling a steady ship. Now they’ve invested in another record transfer on quite a speculative option by recent standards. I don’t know what this means.
Very good article on Fulham's transfer problems, mainly self-inflicted. I just read The Athletic's rating of all 155 transfers and ours are very far down the list. (BTW The Athletic is the New York Times' sports paper and has writers covering all EPL teams.) The No. 1 best transfer, better than Isak and the other big name ones, is Palhinha. They rate it No. 1 because it cost Spurs so little and because they think that he will have a major impact. My question : why didn't we try to bring him back? Had he burned all bridges when he left? Had Marco had his fill of him even though they are countrymen? I've never seen this explained. Personally, I don't rate him a No. 1 : he is too prone to injury and red cards, and misses lots of games as a result. But he will definitely help most midfields.
£5m savings is not to be sniffed at. A couple of years' ago that got us Adama and Raul. If savings are there, in a world of PSR, it makes sense to achieve them.
Balanced and very well written. I think you are spot on in your assessment.
Thanks Paul!
Thanks for this Dan. Well said. To add, I think even if Silva leaves, we are going to have a hard time replacing him with a manager that is an equivalent talent if we keep the current recruitment system in place (which is not going to be attractive to top managers who are ambitious). We are well - thanks to Marco - beyond our Scott Parker days We need to professionalize our transfer business and infrastructure. It is time to hire and empower someone to lead on transfers. It’ll will result in less chaos and better outcomes (especially for a club that is already willing to spend and be ambitious).
Note - FWIW I don’t think this means drastic changes. Right now, because TK is so busy, Alistair Mackintosh is effectively the head of football operations (as he is the one who needs to close the deals - evidence of this was the Club sending him to try to -unsuccessfully - close the Andre deal). The Club just needs to hire and empower an experienced executive to go out and get and close deals (who is connected in the football world and can make decisions and has a budget).. It’s an attractive job (you get to work closely with a billionaire family that is very connected in sport). There is no reason that this new exec can’t report, work with Tony Khan (as they would to any owner). Tony is the Vice Chairman, Sporting Director and General Manager In addition to being Director of Football Operations. Tony is not going anywhere and he is good at identifying talent. Alistair Mackintosh has a big job already - Fulham need to prioritize increasing revenues with the Riverside, sponsorships, and more. He should focus on that part of his job and, to be frank, does not seem to be successful at closing deals (before the TD). He would - as any club CEO - be intimately involved in setting the budget for transfers.
I really hope that change - after this mess - happens. It’s an easily solvable problem.
Completely agree with regards to Marco and the difficulties in finding a replacement. Very sensible suggestions regarding office structure as well, it has to change
I did want to add a comment on Marco staying at or leaving Fulham. I think that he is more boxed in than our fans believe. Where is he going to go? He is far too ambitious than semi-retirement in Saudi Arabia. He wants to coach a top 6 EPL team but where is there an opening? He has been with other EPL teams and knows that Fulham are a good deal even if Tony Khan is an absent Sporting Director. Maybe he would go to a top team in a top European league but they all come with crazed fan bases and/or crazed owners. So he has far less choice than our fans imagine. Of course, if Pep leaves after this season, he becomes an instant contender for that job. BTW I assume that Marco is smart enough to avoid the permanent mess at Man U. So, it's Marco for maybe a good long time. Hope so.
Agree, two players new to the premiership and a centre forward with potential. All done at the last minute. Solely at the door of our absent DoF. Time will tell
Spot on article. Would add - and Jack and others have said before - we need to get Muniz and Wilson into long term contracts ASAP. I think this window deserves B- .B for all the many positives, a minus for no midfield and one grade reduction for all the delay and stress this has caused . Many fans seem upset to have lost George opportunity but seems Chelsea were asking for 30% sell on and in all honesty we would have had to have sold Wilson ( the fan base would not have liked that ) . COYW - we can finish 6th-8th .
Let’s just talk about Kevin. What if he was unsure about coming and him agents demands were too high. If he was our best option would you move to the next target and let him go? Personally I feel we had our targets and we got them. It meant a lot of pain, especially for Marco but we got there in the end. Far better that than going for the 2nd best, then the 3rd best until we sign a championship level player on inflated wages. We could have got loads of those really early!
one hundred percent agree. I've no doubt a lot of players we will have been trying to sign will have been using our interest in order to coax another more prestigious club to sign them. No doubt TK does seem to like a last min bargain to try and strengthen his negotiating hand, so I suspect our transfer window lies somewhere in between yours and jacks opinion.
Yup, it’s just so naive to think we can sign these sorts of players early in the window. Even if the player’s club agrees to sell, we still have to persuade the player - and it seems Kevin’s agent was still messing us around yesterday by trying to get a bidding war going.
When we have the status of Liverpool, we might be able to pick and choose!
Do YOU have £5million? You say it like it's nothing... Think above how many ticket sales that equates to... We are subject to their methods and their investments, I guess we best just accept it; squeeky bum time every August/ September 😜
Of course, it would be ideal is these deals had got done earlier, and it might take them a couple of games to get used to the Premier League and Marco's tactics, but all the players brought in are up to full speed in terms of fitness.
I think BANG ON! Putting Marco through the ringer every year is just not good for his health, the supporters or the club. We were a Dewsbury-Hall away from a great window (on paper). But let's be honest, it was a frantic mess! (That could have gone badly wrong). Maybe there is a good FREE AGENT out there without a Club for a midfield role! Any suggestions?? COYW!! We go again!!
We do still have another player who could play more centrally - Harry Wilson. That's where he plays for Wales.
Cant talk about transfers without mentioning PSR. Saving money on deals, however much, gives us wiggle room. Not a fan of late business either but Kevin (or his agent) got Sporting sniffing around at the last minute when his contract was still being negotiated. May be that he wanted more money rather than the club haggling over his transfer fee?
Thanks Dan. I heard rumours that SK might be interested in selling up. The early focus on extending deals seemed to be consistent with selling a steady ship. Now they’ve invested in another record transfer on quite a speculative option by recent standards. I don’t know what this means.
Very good article on Fulham's transfer problems, mainly self-inflicted. I just read The Athletic's rating of all 155 transfers and ours are very far down the list. (BTW The Athletic is the New York Times' sports paper and has writers covering all EPL teams.) The No. 1 best transfer, better than Isak and the other big name ones, is Palhinha. They rate it No. 1 because it cost Spurs so little and because they think that he will have a major impact. My question : why didn't we try to bring him back? Had he burned all bridges when he left? Had Marco had his fill of him even though they are countrymen? I've never seen this explained. Personally, I don't rate him a No. 1 : he is too prone to injury and red cards, and misses lots of games as a result. But he will definitely help most midfields.
£5m savings is not to be sniffed at. A couple of years' ago that got us Adama and Raul. If savings are there, in a world of PSR, it makes sense to achieve them.
Finally SCR and FFP massively hold us back from doing what Marco would ideally like.
Well written though Dan and good points made, just think it’s so much more difficult than some of the bits you have written.