Fulham, and their enigmatic striker Dimitar Berbatov, have done enough to secure another season in the top flight, leaving the small matter of revenge over QPR as the main aim for the closing fixtures.
‘Just what is the point of all this?’ is becoming something of a running theme for the Opposition Profile pieces on LFW this season. As each season goes by the Champions League regulars garner ever more cash and power leaving the rest of the division aiming simply to stay in the league, and often deliberately sacrificing their places in the cup competitions to do so. Fulham, like a dozen other teams, know before they even begin their campaign that they’re essentially playing for seventeenth or higher and little more.
It wasn’t always like this down on the riverbank. In the late 1990s and early part of the new millennium Fulham soared through the divisions backed financially by Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed who talked bullishly about becoming the “Manchester United of the south.” Indeed when First Division Fulham pulled United in the FA Cup, and then again for their first ever Premier League fixture, it was billed as some sort of battle between those in possession and the pretenders to the crown. Al Fayed dreamed of a space ship-like mega stadium on the banks of the Thames and threw big money at players like Edwin van der Saar, Steve Marlet and Steed Malbranque. Manager Jean Tigana insisted on a progressive, attractive style of play based on prolonged periods of possession at a time when Swansea were still dying on their arse at the bottom of the Third Division, Barcelona were just very good rather than exceptional and Spain were still the world’s great underachievers at international level.
Over the years the rhetoric has changed in this corner of West London. The basement excavators of SW6 didn’t particularly like the idea of the 5,000 lower division football fans that used to quietly stumble into Fulham’s decrepit old ground suddenly being replaced by 40,000 football tourists flocking to a steel monstrosity and planning permission proved unobtainable. Instead Fulham moved into Loftus Road on a temporary basis while they replaced the two terraces at either end of their pitch with functional, single tier all seated affairs. Only now are plans afoot to expand up to 30,000 by redeveloping the Riverside stand.
The transfer policy has changed too. Fulham are now far more likely to sell a player for big money than spend it themselves and the Cottagers are reliant on the skills of their manager to keep them competitive at the highest level. Lawrie Sanchez put his faith in lower league players who had served him well as Northern Ireland boss and Fulham almost paid with their top flight status. Roy Hodgson performed a miraculous recovery and then led the Whites to a major European final with a strictly regimented outfit drilled remorselessly into the sort of consistency most clubs can only dream about. Mark Hughes’ stay was brief and Martin Jol is now approaching the second anniversary of his appointment.
For Jol the task has been no small one. The team he inherited relied heavily on players much closer to the end of their careers than the beginning – Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora, Andy Johnson – and talented individuals like Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey who were always likely to tempt no-brainer offers from the playground’s bigger boys. A rebuild has been required on a budget while maintaining Premier League status – Fulham are currently squeezing buy with ageing Greek Kiragounis in the centre of midfield with Steve Sidwell who, after a decent first season with Reading, has often struggled at the highest level. When you consider that, and look at how poor they were against QPR in the first meeting between the two this season when they became the first team to lose to the R’s this season in the seventeenth round of the competition, it’s amazing they haven’t struggled more than they have. Jol deserves huge credit.
So what is the point of this? Well, unlike fans of West Brom, West Ham, Stoke and all the others who are neither at the top nor the bottom and set up each season with the explicit aim of achieving a boring midtable finish that effectively ends the campaign as a contest in early March, Fulham do at least have Dimitar Berbatov.
When you watch Stoke City’s turgid team rough house their way to another fourteenth place finish, stringing together as many passes in an entire season as Swansea would do in a fortnight, the ‘what is the point?’ question is valid. When you watch Berbatov play for Fulham he can, at times, make you fall back in love with an increasingly loathsome sport. The Bulgarian plays the game at his own pace and pretty much does as he pleases. It’s an attitude that sits uncomfortably with English football fans brought up on a diet of Stuart Pearce and Terry Butcher and taught to extol the virtues of Jamie Mackie while picking fault with the defensive attributes of Adel Taarabt. I often cite the example of Manuel Pellegrini building his entire Villarreal side around the lethargic but wonderfully talented Juan Riquelme and while you could say Neil Warnock did the same with Taarabt in QPR’s Championship side, the Moroccan was so much better than the level he was playing at that was almost cheating.
Berbatov is talented enough to play for the best team in the country, but even though his goalscoring record while at Manchester United stood up to anybody else’s, people still preferred to pick on his lethargic style on the occasions it didn’t go well. Which means he’s at Fulham – a travesty really – and that gives the Craven Cottage faithful a reason to keep forking over their hard earned. Yes their away record is persistently poor, no they’re not going to trouble the top end of the league, yes they’re eliminated from the cups very early on more often than not – but every now and again Berbatov will do something astonishing, and you’ll remember why you loved football so much in the first place.
We’ve acquired one or two Fulham fans on our message board this season which is nothing to do with gloating about the ginormous cock up Mark Hughes made of his ‘ambitious’ project at Loftus Road I’m sure. Whatever the reason, we decided to put a couple of them to work this week by giving us the latest from Craven Cottage. Thanks to Alex and Konk for their time…
Assess Fulham's season for us overall
Konk: It’s been pretty disappointing and largely forgettable. We started very well, but conceded late goals in a number of matches which saw us draw rather than win and contributed to a poor run of one win in 12. At the end of the year we were four points clear of the relegation spots and looking to be in a bit of trouble. Since then we've arrested the slide and I expect we'll finish somewhere between eighth and twelfth. We went out to Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup and scraped past Blackpool in the FA cup before a fourth round tonking at Old Trafford. Not a vintage year.
Alex: This season has been very mixed in terms of results and performances. We have been uncharacteristically shaky in defence at times, but have also shown a greater degree of offensive flair and fluency spearheaded by Berbatov and his supporting cast of interchanging attacking midfielders. We have been much more solid in the second half of season and, like QPR, have managed an improbable away victory in London. We seem to be on course for a third successive top ten finish which, though not a success in itself, would represent pleasing consistency for a club of our size. The game against QPR is one of the most anticipated by the fans and this one is as difficult to call as ever; it's an important game for QPR, but Brede Hangeland has been quoted as saying he wants 'revenge' for the defeat at Loftus Road.
What is your opinion, and the general mood, towards manager Martin Jol? How do people think he's doing?
Alex: Martin Jol is popular with the Fulham fans primarily because he has made us more entertaining to watch, particularly away from home; the 0-0 snorefests which were Roy Hodgson's calling card and which persisted under Mark Hughes have largely been eliminated. Also, Jol did himself great credit in his handling of Clint Dempsey's unforgivable strike action and seems, like Harry Redknapp, unafraid of letting players know how things stand. The only is exception to this is Berbatov who, frustratingly at times, is immune from substitution and is basically allowed to do what he wants. Without being flippant, in terms of 'general mood' I think Martin Jol resonates well with the slightly tubby element of our fanbase who appreciate the down to earth impression he creates.
Konk: Generally good, but if he’d been sacked in January it wouldn’t have been a universally unpopular decision. Quite a few folk had lost the faith by that point. At Loftus Road and Anfield, Fulham turned in truly abject performances where even the most reliable and committed of players seemed to be going through the motions, and something did look to be seriously wrong. Things have picked-up over the past few games though and I think there’s a general realisation that Jol’s had a pretty difficult job to do. Losing Dembele, Murphy and Dempsey in the summer ripped the guts and quality out of midfield and deprived us of invaluable goals. Of the £21m that came in from Tottenham, Jol has been given relatively little to spend and in a division where you have to run to stand still, we really needed to add a bit of quality. Diarra had been excellent in the second half of last season, and his injury-enforced absence was another big blow to our midfield. An absence of class in midfield has at times seen a frustrated Berbatov unilaterally redefining himself as a centre-midfielder, leaving us with no presence or threat at all up front. But this now looks to have been largely corrected with Berba no longer patrolling the centre-circle quite so diligently. After looking fairly shambolic at times this season, I was pleased to see us looking organised, committed and fluid at Tottenham last week, and hopefully that will remain the case for the rest of the season. I worry that we might not ever have the players needed to produce the football that Jol would like to play, but I rate him and if he's able to bring in two or three quality players in the summer, then I think we could be a very tidy side.
Who are the leading contenders for the club's Player of the Year award?
Konk: Our right-back, Sascha Riether, should walk it. He’s been magnificent and it seems strange that he wasn't considered an automatic pick at FC Koln in the German second division. We have an option to buy him at the end of the season and hopefully he’ll want to stay. Sidwell can be a niggly pain in the arse, but he’s done well in a midfield that’s struggled for large chunks of the season. And whilst most of us were underwhelmed by the signing of Karagounis, he’s been something of a revelation; an intelligent, busy player who always shows for the ball and plays with great energy. He’s also scored a couple of absolute crackers and it’s a pity we waited until he was thirty-five before we signed him. Berbatov's our top scorer and is sublime at times, but I don't think he's done enough to be in consideration for Player of the Year.
Alex: I'm sur there are other contenders for player of the year, but I would be stunned if full back Sascha Riether did not win the award. He has been remarkably consistent since his transfer from Cologne, has made some excellent attacking contributions and always plays with total commitment. Berbatov has been outstanding at times, but I'm sure Riether will be the deserving winner.
Where are the weak links in the side? What sort of transfer activity can we expect from you guys this summer? Where needs strengthening?
Alex: We certainly missed the departures of Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu to Blackburn, both of whom provided very disciplined defensive in previous seasons. The signing of Urby Emanuelson from AC Milan was an exciting one, but he has yet to establish himself in the side so I would certainly say that central midfield needs strengthening. Jol often looks to sacrifice our solidity in this area to adopt a more attacking style, but we've sometimes been made to pay for this so some improvements will definitely be necessary in the summer.
Konk: It feels a bit disloyal to talk about players who’ve served us so well needing replacing, but a few of the old guards’ days look to be numbered. Schwarzer is still capable of breath-taking saves, but at 40 he’s not the consistent presence he was, and the fact that we came very close to signing Roma’s Maarten Stekelenburg on loan in January, whilst loaning Stockdale to Hull, suggests that Jol may well be in the market for a new first choice keeper. At centre-back Aaron Hughes has been superb for us but isn’t getting any younger and could probably now be improved upon, whilst Hangeland is yet to sign the new contract that the club have offered him. Hopefully he’ll stay as his form has picked-up again over the past couple of months. Senderos generally does okay, but seems to have a moment in most games where he channels the spirit of Zat Knight and does something depressing, so I’m not sure how confident I’d be watching big Phil without a more experienced partner alongside him. I don’t rate Riise, so would like to see a left-back come in (although Richardson may well fill that slot if he can stay fit for longer than ten minutes) So, we could potentially do with replacing the entire back-four and keeper if Hangeland and Riether don’t sign in the summer! And we could definitely do with a bit of class in a workman-like midfield, as whilst Ruiz can be brilliant on occasions, we still haven’t figured how to get the best out of him on a consistent basis.
Does the aim each season remain avoiding relegation? Do Fulham have any greater ambition than that? Is there any boredom/apathy setting in?
Konk: Barring some very strange results, next year will be our thirteenth consecutive season in the Premier League and for a club of our size and our resources, that’s a decent achievement. However, history suggests we’ll go down at some point, so I suppose every season starts off with the goal of avoiding relegation. But we’ve finished seventh, twelfth (with the Europa League final and 19 additional games), eighth and ninthin the last four seasons, so there’s a sense that we’re progressing and establishing ourselves as a steady, mid-table club now. Without an insane level of investment the limit of our ambitions is probably seventh spot – which isn’t the stuff that dreams are made of, but that’s modern football for you. Is it boring? Probably. Pre-season excitement tends to be centred upon the prospect of watching new signings rather than the possibility of actually winning some silverware or even qualifying for Europe, which isn't very Roy of the Rovers. Despite going so close in Hamburg, we still haven’t won a major trophy in our 134 years, so other than the small minority who obsesses about relegation, most of us would love the occasional decent cup run. People should stop worrying about us over-stretching ourselves and finishing eleventh rather than eighth and embrace the cups. That's where the glory lies. Swansea have shown what’s possible and we should be looking to emulate them.
Alex: I think the primary aim each season is to avoid relegation, but having come so close in 2010 (albeit against the likes of Forlan and Aguero) the majority of Fulham fans would consider winning a major trophy a much more important success than mere survival in the league, however much that cannot be taken for granted each season. I definitely don't think there is boredom or apathy setting in for the majority of fans, though I have spoken to several who feel disillusioned by the Premier League in general and look back fondly on our league days and the greater proximity of the fans to the club. To sum up, I think that for the fans the incentive to stay in the Premier League is ultimately to increase our chances of winning a trophy.
What do you make of the mess QPR have worked themselves into this season? Try not to gloat too much.
Alex: It's brilliant how Harry Redknapp has made the players fully responsible for performances, as it seemed from a distance that too many were happy to collect the big wages while allowing Mark Hughes to take the blame for results. I'm sure that had a lot to do with Hughes's management, but it was incredible to see largely the same group of players get such a deserved win at Stamford Bridge. You seem to have made some excellent signings in the January window, and given the positive noises Fernandes has recently made in the media I'm sure that regardless of what happens this season, QPR will remain a force to be reckoned with.
Konk: I don’t know anyone who thought you’d be anything other than mid-table this season. Hughes was a manager with a decent track record, he’s made some astute signings in the past and Tony Fernandes seemed happy to indulge him in a way he never was at Fulham or Blackburn. When Zamora and Johnson signed for Rangers the feeling amongst our support was generally, good luck to AJ – nice final pay day with little prospect of actually being fit to play, and that Zamora had looked lame (in the traditional sense) for some time and wasn’t going to be too great a loss either. With Hughes being familiar with both players' injury records and with few alternative options up front, they seemed high risk signings. The signing of Cesar a few weeks after you’d signed Green on £50kpw, and then signing a full-back on £60kpw suggested a bit of a random, ill-conceived approach to targets and wages for an as yet unestablished Premier league club. Some players look to have been signed because they were well-known and available rather than as part of some coherent strategy. With Rangers bottom for most of the season despite heavy investment in salaries, it's obviously been a bit of a disaster, but if Rangers can get a win at our place, I still reckon you’ll stay up.
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