Khan's misjudgments continue to plague Fulham - Interview Wednesday, 23rd Sep 2015 19:28 by Clive Whittingham Ahead of Friday's trip to Craven Cottage, LFW caught up with our resident tame Fulham fan Konk for the latest on Kit Symons, incompetent foreign owners and a raft of summer signings. Assess Fulham's start to the season for us? Konk: Roughly what many had expected: look okay going forward, defensively unconvincing; not going up, hopefully not going down. But we’re above Brentford, so that’s something to celebrate these days. Kit Symons seemed like the logical choice when he did well as caretaker manager but it's been underwhelming so far, what have you made of the job he's done? Konk: After the surreal experience of watching a side managed by Felix Magath, anyone and anything would have been an improvement. Symons did well during his caretaker spell and there was a fairly widespread feeling that he deserved a chance even if some good results had on a couple of occasions masked some less than convincing performances. Plenty of fans had reservations, but an 18 month contract seemed fair reward. Our form tailed off badly in the New Year, however, with just four wins from 21 games and we finished in seventeenth place, with a large chunk of our support expecting to see a change of manager during the close season. After conceding 85 goals during our relegation from the Premier League, we went on to ship 83 last season - only Blackpool, who finished 20 points adrift of safety, conceded more. In mitigation, Symons inherited a hopelessly lopsided and inexperienced squad which had one point from its opening eight games and did well to stabilise things and restore confidence to the side. Some fans felt that he should be given the chance to shape the squad to his liking with a full summer transfer window and pre-season, whilst others felt they’d seen enough and that he’d failed to demonstrate enough tactical nous or the squad management required to warrant prolonging his tenure. For a lot of our fans, the reluctance to replace Symons during the summer signalled a lack of ambition on the part of the club, an acceptance of mediocrity and acceptance that at best we’d have a year of treading water. Some people were talking about the season as a write-off before it had begun. Squad wise — we’re probably somewhere around eighth to tenth, but it’s difficult to gauge at the moment with the defensive signings made so close to the deadline. Symons seems to be in a bit of a lose-lose situation with a section of our fans — if we lose, it’s because Symons is a shi t manager; if we win, it’s usually because the opposition were poor/unlucky. I don’t think he’s a terrible manager, I just don’t think he has the ability to get the best out of a group of players or to think on his feet during a game. With a coach like Roy Hodgson in charge of this squad, I’d be quietly confident of promotion via the play-offs, with Symons you get the feeling we’ll probably finish a few places lower than we should. There are a lot of new players getting used to each other, so it’s difficult to know whether time will straighten things out, but we desperately need some organisation at the back and a midfield that offers an effective screen to the defence. Alan Curbishley has recently started appearing in training gear, so perhaps he can get things sorted.
A real downward spiral since the US owner took over from Mohamed Al-Fayed, much criticism going his way? Any chance of him selling up? Konk: Al Fayed wasn’t always consistent when it came to making money available and in the last couple of years, he certainly seemed reluctant to invest in the club, so it wasn’t a great surprise when he sold-up. If the club hadn’t been on the market, I think Martin Jol would have been sacked after a terrible second half to the previous season, but presumably Al Fayed wanted to promote the idea of a stable club. So Khan was handicapped from the outset by inheriting a manager who’d badly lost his way, and was perhaps reluctant to sack Jol for fear of being seen to be some trigger happy Yank sacking the manager after ten minutes. Following Jol with Meulensteen, Ray fucking Wilkins as assistant and then Felix Magath, all within the space of a few months didn’t exactly inspire confidence that this was a man who knew what he was doing. Khan’s time at the club has so far been a disaster. A dismal, utterly avoidable relegation from the Premier League, and the appointments and/or overlong retentions of Jol, Meulensteen, Magath and now arguably Symons have resulted in a situation where there’s no faith whatsoever that the next appointment will be any more successful than previous efforts. You wouldn’t rule out a Bryan Robson/John Barnes dream team when Symons’ time is up. We’re more or less even with our transfer expenditure/income under Khan, and there’s a perception that he’s more obsessed with FFP than he needs to be - either through convenience or a genuine concern for straying into trouble. In the light of QPR’s accounts and stories that have emerged concerning the size of the likely fine for that, you might expect an owner worth $5.6bn to be making more funds available. With the advantage we have/had from the parachute payments and a multi-billionaire owner, it seems that we haven’t exploited this position and that with significantly increased payments for relegated clubs following the new TV deals, we may have missed our opportunity. After promising to do “whatever it takes” to get us promoted, we’ve seemed reluctant to spend serious money in that quest. The general feeling seems to be that Khan is either clueless, badly advised or has lost interest following relegation. Possibly all three. But whilst Khan may be getting slated in the pubs and on social media, I think there’s little danger of him getting proper stick from the crowd unless there was some suggestion that the future of the Cottage was in doubt. He’s about a million miles away from a Blackburn/Venkys situation at the moment. Mike Rigg’s appointment initially filled me with despair as he comes across of a bit of a tit, and people pointing to his role at the FA as a sign of his qualities, should bear in mind that Aidy Boothroyd is the England U20 coach. However, we’ve made some reasonable signings since Rigg came in — albeit too close to the deadline for my liking - so credit where it’s due, although the jury is still out. Regardless of how bad things have been to date, though, Khan could earn some serious brownie points by starting work on the new Riverside stand. The redevelopment of the Riverside might seem like a strange project to pursue when we’re averaging 18,000-odd in a 25,700 capacity venue, but CEO Alistair McKintosh has recently gone on record as stating that following a few complications due to the site location, the build is now due to go ahead at the end of this season. If that were the case, then it would at least demonstrate some commitment and investment from Khan, even if the ultimate intention was only to make the club more attractive to prospective buyers.
Fulham's youth academy has brought through some gems just lately, who's next who we perhaps haven't heard about? Konk: Marcus Bettinelli is a promising keeper — heavily linked with Chelsea in the summer but now out injured. Not the finished article, but enough about him to suggest he’ll do well. Lasse Vigen Christensen was excellent for a spell last season before picking up an injury. George Williams looked good with quick, direct running from wide before doing likewise and Moussa Dembele Mark II is now getting game time and whilst still raw at 19, looks a decent prospect. Emerson Hyndman, is another 19 year old who I really like the look of — busy, tidy, good passer and the US U20 captain, he got a bit of game time under Magath, but hasn’t featured since, and is apparently reluctant to sign a contract extension with the club. Stand out players and weak links in the current team? Konk: Andy Lonergan, Jamie O’Hara and Tom Cairney have all impressed since signing in the summer, and James Husband’s loan was welcomed after a successful spell last season. O’Hara has arguably been our best player to date. Ben Pringle stood out in both games against Rotherham last season, but hasn’t really got going so far. Bit early to say with Richard Stearman and Tim Ream at the moment, although Stearman looks the stronger player of the two, and Jazz Richards signing after an unconvincing loan spell last season, was pretty underwhelming. Ross McCormack was very good for large chunks of last season, but has been fairly quiet so far, having complained of being played out of position in an almost midfield role earlier in the season. Difficult to identify any stand out players on current form, but Cairney looks to have a good eye for goal and O’Hara has been surprisingly industrious and effective, whilst also being able to pick a pass. The defensive side of our game needs an awful lot of work, but we’re struggling collectively, almost regardless of personnel. At Wednesday on Saturday and in the last 30 minutes against Blackburn, we failed to deal with balls coming into the box or block them at source; it’s difficult to imagine this will have escaped everyone else’s attention.
Short, medium and long term ambitions for the club? Short term: With Symons, I’d be encouraged by a top ten finish, with an upgrade in manager and a bit of luck, maybe a tilt at sixth spot? Medium term: To be in play-off contention this season, with promotion or a play-off spot next season following either an improvement from Symons or a decent replacement. Ideally, promotion within the next three years. Long term: We’ve spent 25 seasons in the top division and 52 in the second, so long term, I think the second tier is where I’d expect us to find us more often than not, with hopefully the odd spell of reasonable length in the Premier league to keep things interesting/attract more support. We’re the oldest club in London, yet have never won a major trophy. Along with Palace we’re possibly the biggest club never to have done so, so I’m fairly desperate for us to win one of the cups during my lifetime. More than anything, I’d like to see Fulham competing in whatever division they’re in and I’d love to see the Riverside redeveloped with the club’s long term future at the Cottage secured. The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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