Fulham Match Thread

[Josef Svejk]

I can't speak for the other poster, but I'd have done my best to make sure that we had adequate cover for when Torres inevitably gets injured. As it is, we've got one injury-prone world class striker, and some others who'd do well to make Sunderlands first 11.

 

I was behind Rafa come the end of last season but, despite him acknowledging how dependent we were on him to get goals, and obviously aware of his injury record and lack of cover, he spunks 18m on a defender and 20m on another sicknote midfielder.

 

That, and his reversion to negative tactics after the great winning football we played towards the end of last season, is why I want him gone.

 

I'd say I agree with that entirely.

[Sandman]

Fuck off and try supporting the club.

 

Crass response to an articulate post. I'd watch out for the thunderbolt if I were you.

[Dougie Do'ins]

I missed the game live but I see that we had 9 chances on target... another hard working but weak finishing performance from N'Gog?

 

How was Pacheco?

I can assure you, today's performance was a lot of things, but "hard working" wasn't one of them.

[zigackly]

Caught much today Kevin?

 

[Code]

It's not like they rocked the world with that side today. Btw, Hangeland was about £4 million.

 

Not so sure about that, it says so on the Norwegian version of Wiki, but I think £2,5M is closer to the truth, anyway it does not really matter, he could cost £20M and the point would still stand.

 

The money aregument is cringeworthy, especially on Rafa`s behalf considering the amount he has wasted on absolute dog shite, which he now seems to try to shift on Macia.

 

Somethingt that I believe 100%, but what does that tell you about the manager, it tells me he is not fit to manage such a "business".

[Liquid football]

Reina - 6 mil

 

Johnson - 20 mil

Carragher - Free

Kyrigiakos - 1.5 mil

Agger - 5 mil

 

Maxi - Free

Mascherano - 20 mil

Aquilani - 20 mil

Babel - 13 mil

 

Gerrard - Free

Ngog 1.5

 

Bench:

Cavalieri 3 mil

Degen free

Ayala - fuck knows

Benayoun - 6 mil,

Lucas - 10 mil

Kuyt - 12 mil

 

And 30 mil Torres, 12 mil Riera, 6 mil Skrtel injured or not used.

 

Is money really an issue?

 

 

Just at a quick glance

 

glen johnson 17 to 18 million

Kuyt 10 million

Lucas 5 to 7 million depending what you read

Babel 11.5 to 12 million

 

 

Why do you need to bump up the transfer fees of our players?

[Guest PurpleNose]

Just at a quick glance

 

glen johnson 17 to 18 million

Kuyt 10 million

Lucas 5 to 7 million depending what you read

Babel 11.5 to 12 million

 

 

Why do you need to bump up the transfer fees of our players?

 

Think he was just unsure of a few. Agger I think was 6m rather than the 5m NWT put down.

 

Not sure the £15m-£20m difference would make an enormous difference to our squad/season. Especially if the approach remained the same.

[Liquid football]

Everyone knows Mascherano wasn't 20 million to be fair.

[zigackly]

Everyone knows Mascherano wasn't 20 million to be fair.

 

No he was £18.6M including a loan fee. Here's some sauce.

[Guest PurpleNose]

Everyone knows Mascherano wasn't 20 million to be fair.

 

He cost £17m/£18m.

 

Clutching at straws to suggest the difference is of much relevance.

 

My view on Benitez' transfer record at our club appears to be quite different to most. I actually think he's bought quite well. First few seasons he had to buy in bulk because we had about five decent players at the club. The "ladder" effect seemed to work, and we improved. Sissoko became Mascherano, Josemi - Arbeloa, Bellamy - Torres etc (I'm aware these weren't direct chronological replacements).

 

In the last 18-24 months a net (apologies) transfer budget of around £15m p/a has become nothing, possibly even making a slight profit. This simply isn't good enough for a club expected to challenge for major honours. We've ended up scratching around trying to find free transfers, or buy players from clubs that owe us money.

 

There have been a few shockers, quite a few infact. But all managers have signed shite. Infact the restoration like project that Benitez faced almost dictated a situation where we would see a lot of duds. In an ideal world we wouldn't have had to sign so many players in a relatively short space of time. But the expectations of being the most succesful club in the country made this impossible. Added with the constant instability at board level, lack of transparency regarding control of transfers, and shifting of blame.

 

Despite all of this, we still have a good squad. We still have four players that could easily grace a world XI. Unfortunately we also still have a mentality that isn't suited to the Premier League.

[RedKnight]

Dunno what everyone is whinging about? I got a boss tan, caught up on some podcasts and saw the King is his motor on the way back. Can't remember the match like.

[Liverpool lad]

Dunno what everyone is whinging about? I got a boss tan, caught up on some podcasts and saw the King is his motor on the way back. Can't remember the match like.

 

Recommend us a good one then.

[RedKnight]

Recommend us a good one then.

 

Podcasts?

[King Emlyn]

Dunno what everyone is whinging about? I got a boss tan, caught up on some podcasts and saw the King is his motor on the way back. Can't remember the match like.

I never went the game today.............arf

[RedKnight]

I never went the game today.............arf

 

If you needed to top on your tan then you missed out, Paul.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

 

Yep, I think that's the match covered.

[Juan Galonso]

Dunno what everyone is whinging about? I got a boss tan, caught up on some podcasts and saw the King is his motor on the way back. Can't remember the match like.

 

So the rumours are true, Elvis is alive and well.

[RedKnight]

So the rumours are true, Elvis is alive and well.

 

He is, quiff looks like shit now though.

[zigackly]

Yep, I think that's the match covered.

 

Think that's pretty much everything covered.

[Liverpool lad]

Podcasts?

 

Yes

[RedKnight]

Yes

 

Depends if you like some of the sports involved. The current rotation is:-

 

ESPN Football (NFL) Today

ESPN NBA Today

ESPN Baseball Tonight

ESPN First Draft

The BS Report

Guardian Football Weekly

Mark Kermode's Film Podcast

Broncos Nation

TLW Podcast.

[Liverpool lad]

Cheers lads, I have the footy ones on my phone now, just haven't got round to listening to them all, I like the BBC World one.

[Carra_is_legend]

Out of the title race by October and out of the top 4 by beginning of April.

 

What a season we are having!

 

Fucking nightmare.

 

I see Rafa has said he needs 3 x £20m players. Whatever happened to his "the squad is good enough argument" at the beginning of the season, eh? Now that he has FAILED miserably, the money argument pops up again. Bollocks.

[Liverpool lad]

I owe you some rep lads

[zico]

He cost £17m/£18m.

 

Clutching at straws to suggest the difference is of much relevance.

 

My view on Benitez' transfer record at our club appears to be quite different to most. I actually think he's bought quite well. First few seasons he had to buy in bulk because we had about five decent players at the club. The "ladder" effect seemed to work, and we improved. Sissoko became Mascherano, Josemi - Arbeloa, Bellamy - Torres etc (I'm aware these weren't direct chronological replacements).

 

In the last 18-24 months a net (apologies) transfer budget of around £15m p/a has become nothing, possibly even making a slight profit. This simply isn't good enough for a club expected to challenge for major honours. We've ended up scratching around trying to find free transfers, or buy players from clubs that owe us money.

 

There have been a few shockers, quite a few infact. But all managers have signed shite. Infact the restoration like project that Benitez faced almost dictated a situation where we would see a lot of duds. In an ideal world we wouldn't have had to sign so many players in a relatively short space of time. But the expectations of being the most succesful club in the country made this impossible. Added with the constant instability at board level, lack of transparency regarding control of transfers, and shifting of blame.

 

Despite all of this, we still have a good squad. We still have four players that could easily grace a world XI. Unfortunately we also still have a mentality that isn't suited to the Premier League.

 

I pretty much agree with all of the above, but my grievance with Rafa in the transfer market is that he still has not been able to solve the problems in the wide areas and to buy a decent playmaker to use in the hole when our opposition park the bus in front of goal. (And don't give me this crap about Gerrard being able to fill this void in the side, in such games he is a much bigger threat when he is comming from the deep ripping defenses apart).

 

Riera/Bellamy/Babel/Kuyt/Maxi/Pennant/Gonzalez have been tried and mostly failed. I can see the argument for using Maxi or Kuyt in tight away games as we would like to focus on the defensive end and try to nick a goal, but in games against inferior opposition and at home we should attack and I'd like to see som players who can beat a man in direct contrast to the ones who only cut inside....

 

For next season we need a Torres partner/back-up, and there are two ways of solving this; either you spend money and buy player like Villa/Aguero, or a cheaper alternative in C.Cole or Negredo, or you spend money on a young player, which most likely would be cheaper, that you think can cut it and become a world star, such as Lukaku...

 

We need one, or preferrable two wide player (Right(priority) and left... Riera/Babel can be used to finance one! I'd like to see Eljero Elia on the left and perhaps we could get Quaresma on a loan from Inter on the right? It would be a cheap alternativ and give us something different than Kuyt and Maxi! Alternatives could of course be D.Silva, Riebery aso. I also like the look of Louis Garcia of Espanhol, not an out and out winger, but a leader with great vision and passing abilities.

 

A play-maker should be a priority, that way we could get Gerrard back into midfield and have a player better equipped to this role. (In games where we sit back the Gerrard Torres combo works fine, but in games we try to dominate he is constantly forced to play with his back to the goal, which is not his strength at all... Diego of Juventus would be my favourite, but Joe Cole or David Silva could play in this position, or a cheaper alternatives could be Douglas Costa/Zarate aso.

 

For the left back it is clear we need cover/replacement for Insua and I'd go for Belhadj, as he has a great cross, likes to go forward and would also be quite cheap I recon.

 

In an ideal world I'd trade Lucas for Banega, but I don't think Valencia would go for that trade :)

 

Hopefully, Pancheco, Nemeth, Della Valle, Amoo, Spearing, Ecclestone, Mavinga, Darby and Kelly make a giant leap in their development over the summer as we need as much competition as possible to play in the team..

 

But clearly Rafa does not trust the youngsters as Kuyt has been very poor this season (Although he has improved lately/ seems like a player who plays well in a team on form, but is not able to influence when things are not working), but has still played the most minutes of football at the club.

 

Now, let's get rid of the yanks before it is to late...

 

YNWA