This country’s insatiable appetite for rolling football coverage necessitated many doyens of the sport’s media to start their pontificating on prospects for next season within 24 hours of the final whistle blowing on this one.
Chief topic for debate, of course, concerns the likely effect on Manchester United of their having a new face at the team’s helm. With all observers desperate for a genuine title fight in 2013/2014 after this year’s one-horse race, the possibility of a Jose Mourinho inspired Chelsea re-emerging as a serious force at the very top of the Premier League, and the portents for a post Roberto Mancini Manchester City are high on the agenda.
Gareth Bale’s future, Arsenal’s potential summer spending, and the chances of a freshly promoted trio of clubs surviving in the top-flight are subjects to stimulate football minds which might otherwise be exercised by nothing more than ticking the days off the calendar until we start all over again.
Amidst the higher-profile goings on as the English game’s prize-fighters jostle for position ahead of August, one club that cannot afford the next three months to pass in an idle daze is Fulham. It will take a lot more than the impending signing of 30 year-old journeyman Ghanaian midfielder Derek Boateng to guard against this outfit, which has spent a year treading water, from drowning in what will be their 13th year back among the elite.
The warning signs are flashing. It is when an aspirational club begins to feel settled at the top table that the cloth can suddenly and unexpectedly be whipped away. Wigan Athletic have found that to their cost this term after eight Premier League years. Charlton Athletic had enjoyed seven successive top-flight campaigns ahead of their 2007 drop. Of 2012’s demoted triumvirate, Wolverhampton Wanderers had survived the previous two season, while, most strikingly, both Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers had been part of the establishment since being promoted with Fulham in 2001.
There has been little evidence in the Cottagers’ on-pitch performances this term to hint towards anything other than nine months of strife between this coming August and next May. A flattering 3-0 final day win at Swansea City avoided what would have been an ignominious six game losing streak to close this term.
It is the form of Martin Jol’s team between November last year and February of this, however, which will most agitate any harbingers of doom. After a trio of high-scoring draws, against Reading, Everton, and Arsenal, Fulham won three of 15 games. A 0-0 draw at Norwich City on 9th February left the club eight points above the relegation zone with 12 games to play. With a procession of tentative and stodgy displays replacing the expressive football which had been inextricably linked with Fulham since their Premier League ascension, eyes at the club were firmly fixed over shoulders, rather than optimistically focusing skywards.
Even with senses heightened by their insecure predicament, Jol’s men could only scrape together 14 points from the last 36 available. Adding to misgivings about a Fulham team with an enduringly abysmal record away from home, is the discernible eroding this season to Craven Cottage’s reputation as an unhappy hunting ground for its visitors.
When they finished ninth, 12 months ago, 10 of Fulham’s fourteen victories were secured in their own uniquely homely surroundings. Mark Hughes’ side built their 2010 10th place on 11 home victories – a record which took the sting from only managing three wins on the road.
The only season since the Jean Tigana led promotion campaign in which Fulham have won fewer home matches than this term’s seven came in 2007/2008, when Roy Hodgson’s late rescue act – which required all three final games to be won – kept the Cottagers afloat. That dramatic escape was achieved only thanks to a superior goal difference over Reading, and despite taking maximum points from a mere five home encounters out of 19.
Even during that demanding campaign, Fulham’s support was able to enjoy watching the flair and invention of Diomansy Kamara, Clint Dempsey, and Danny Murphy. Jimmy Bullard returned from injury to provide his unique brand of drive and, weeks after his appointment, Hodgson brought in the commanding Brede Hangeland to solidify a porous backline.
There was a purpose about the Fulham operation under Hodgson which culminated in their epic run to the 2010 UEFA Cup final. That exciting unit, which had added the goals of Bobby Zamora to its ranks, saw off European heavyweights; Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, and Hamburg, on the way to an ultimately heart-breaking meeting in Germany with Atletico Madrid.
Throughout their 12 years in the top-flight, Fulham have retained an identity. Their method is ostensibly based on an excellent goalkeeper, – latterly Mark Schwarzer – defensive organisation, midfield industry and guile, adventurous wide players, and a potent centre-forward.
From their very first game back in the Premier League, when a team which contained the imposing and effective spine of; Edwin Van Der Saar, Alain Goma, Steed Malbranque, and Louis Saha were unfortunate to lose 3-2 at Manchester United, the Cottagers’ blueprint for success and evolution has been rigidly adhered to.
As well as the aforementioned individuals, Fulham’s 2001 stellar cast included Steve Finnan, John Collins, and a young, flourishing Sean Davis.
Through the managerial eras of; Tigana, Chris Coleman and Hodgson, as well as during Hughes’ sole year, Craven Cottage regulars have been treated to the spectacle of a series of distinguished footballers donning their club’s famous white shirt. Lee Clark, Sylvain Legwinski, Moritz Volz, Claus Jensen, Carlos Bocanegra, Papa Bouba Diop, Brian McBride, Antti Niemi, Heidar Helguson, Simon Davies, Damien Duff, Carlos Salcido, and Moussa Dembele can all be exhibited as men who typified the varied attributes which formed to sustain Fulham’s top-flight life.
Even the unloved Lawrie Sanchez was faithful to the club’s mantra with his recruitment of Kamara and Murphy, the tenacious Aston Villa midfielder Steven Davis, and reliable and versatile defender Aaron Hughes.
Now, with a midfield patrolled by the rather more prosaic Giorgos Karagounis and the transient presence of Eyong Enoh and Urby Emmanuelson, there looks to have been a neglect of the philosophy which has served the Cottagers so well. Duff and John Arne-Riise are declining forces, while all too often Schwarzer and Hangeland have been left alone to repel assorted Premier League attacks.
When they click, this Fulham team is easy on the eye and remain capable of slicing through opponents. Those occasions are all too infrequent, and increasingly reliant on the magnificent but capricious Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian striker is only too aware of his importance to the side, a fact he confirmed with his revealing of a t-shirt stating; ‘Keep Calm And Pass Me The Ball’ upon scoring in a Boxing Day draw with Southampton.
Bryan Ruiz is a class act, but beyond those two fine attackers, the bright and breezy Alex Kacanilklic, Ashkan Dejagah, Kieran Richardson and Hugo Rodallega are not men whose bodies or consistency can be trusted at the highest level.
There have been rumblings of dressing room antipathy towards Jol almost since the Dutchman first took over as Fulham’s manager in 2011. Zamora’s departure came amid speculation he had fallen out with his boss, while similar rumours surrounded the exits of Murphy and Dempsey.
Riise is among the current squad to have endured a less than smooth relationship with the ex-Tottenham boss. In January this year, the left back’s brother, Bjorn Helge, who also played at Craven Cottage under Jol, said the Dutchman is ‘disliked by most players’, and has an ‘arrogant manner’.
A mini uprising in Jol’s group, months into his first season, was ridden out as results improved. It is when fortunes turn on the pitch that any unrest takes its damaging toll. The manager is desperate for money to rejuvenate a squad which contains ten players whose contracts are at an end. Without that coveted cash injection, there must be serious doubt regarding the 57 year-old’s desire to continue at the Fulham helm – that is if his reign is not cut short by chairman and owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed first.
This is a time of massive uncertainty at the cosy south-west London club. The playing staff is in a state of flux, there is an absence of apparent long-term vision, and there exists a questionable spirit among the team which was most obvious in their late season collapse – a run which included the concession of four goals at home to already relegated Reading.
Manchester City were not immune this year to the ills that come with a football club sitting on its hands in the close season. The repercussions at the Etihad however, extended to being runners-up in the Premier League and F.A. Cup. If Fulham do not rapidly address the apathy which has insidiously crept up on them, it will sink its claws into the club with the most costly of consequences.
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