shurlock

3/10 You mean the team that lost three of its best players: Mané, Wanyama and Pelle? The PPSD (post puel stress disorder) schtick still hasn't taken off after all these months. I always had you down as a master of knowing when to cut your losses and move onto the next hole.

Last season fizzled out after the cup defeat. We were comfortably safe and had little to play for. Its very common for sides in our position to finish the season on an anticlimax. Guess you haven't been following football long pal.

Put a fork in it, you’re done pal.

One of Window’s big African lads?

Who do you suspect to be a skate then?

Ebony You love it pal.

The acoustics at Craven Cottage may also be a factor - it’s well known that the away end sounds better than other other stands. Plus all the other general reasons people have given. http://fulhamsupporterstrust.com/news/2017/11/19/matchday-atmosphere-report.html

Exactly. When I think of toxic, I think of games like the 2-1 defeat at home to Doncaster in our relegation season in the championship. Fights between fellow fans kicking off around the ground, fans trying to make their way to the directors box. Great memories!

Brexit bingo alert. Warning: this post may contain unhinged nonsequiturs and apples and pears comparisons. So the problem lies with the toxic atmosphere? The ungrateful fans are what dunnit: they forced Reed’s hand and got Puel fired; they’re even responsible for the drop off in form and the unprofessionalism of our star players. Usually the more swivel-eyed the claim, the greater the onus to provide a thing called evidence pal. Of course you do a good enough job of demolishing your own argument -simultaneously claiming that certain players are jaded because didn’t get their big money moves which has nothing to do with the fans. Why they are ‘rightly’ jaded is left unexplained: how is it ever right to act unprofessionally and throw your toys out of the pram? And which players are you referring to: Bertrand? Tadic who was blowing hot and cold, even under Koeman? They alone account for our poor results, the inconsistent performances, the baffling team selections, the holes in the squad - a couple of players whose motives and minds you have a unique window on? If all else fails, blame the fans. Let’s be clear, even if your fevered little fantasy was true, there is nothing particularly toxic about the atmosphere. Frustrated and reactive possibly but nothing that comes close to toxic. I also can’t tell whether you actually rate Pellegrino or you are more obsessed with fellow fans that you see Pellegrino as just deserts, some kind of biblical curse visited upon our fans for writing angry letters. It’s odd either way. I didn’t expect to wake up on Sunday morning and find a pile of steaming turd on my digital doorstep. Well done.

How many skates posters are on here pal? And i don’t mean the ones in your fevered little imagination.

My mind might be playing tricks on me but I remember us creating more clear-cut chances last season.

A win's a win - we're in the next round of a competition that's responsible for its fair share of banana skins. People understand that. But do tell me what about today's performance suggests our league fortunes are going to change anytime soon? Silence....

Are we bottlejobs?

Bought the book on kindle - felt a bit dirty doing so, not a million miles away from buying a copy of hello magazine.

Looking for a new crush now that charlie’s out injured?

Adrian you're all the over place. How many current squad members featured in those league finishes? The squad is unrecognisable from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 squads. Last year's 8th place finish flattered to deceive - points-wise we were closer to the relegation places than 7th. This is a point you yourself made, albeit for the purpose of calling for the then manager's head. Odd now that you should be claiming last season's finish was in fact excellent, proof positive of the quality in the squad that the current manager is failing to exploit. Some would call it disingenuous: others would call it dim. I'll hedge my bets and say it's a bit of both. When has cost ever equalled quality? Perhaps we overpaid for bang average players recently. The reality is that the wage bills of the midtable teams are highly compressed. There really isn't much to separate our wage bill and that of teams lower down. The fact our wage bill is slightly higher may arguably have more to do with churn in the squad than differences in quality: as we're selling and replacing players more regularly than other teams, we're having to negotiate with players against a background of rapid wage inflation. Other sides with more stable squads are more likely to have players on contracts which have been benchmarked against older, lower market rates. In sum, the current manager is poor and the current squad has some glaring weaknesses will need to be addressed in the transfer market. Both statements are true. The world's a complicated place pal. There isn't a single, silver-bullet explanation for everything.

Jesus wept, you're a mess.

One recognisable attacking player besides Long. Glad to see we’re being positive.

Happy New Year Les.

They were OK -and they certainly weren't our biggest problem. But having been built on an exceptional defense (by contrast, we could be very inconsistent in front of goal under Koeman), it was a large drop off. Stephens was good in one-on-one situations and decent on the ball but his reading of the game and positional sense left a lot to be desired and wasn’t as physically imposing as you might expect. Yoshida improved massively last season but was still Yoshida. No longer did I feel confident that we could nick a goal and let the defense do the rest.

You mean like it was an opportunity for Yoshida, Stephens or Bednarek to fill Fonte's position?

That’s some ‘arry mercenarism there.

At least we got our stripes back.

What you overlook is that this strategy was always risky -just because it was working didn't obviate its basic flaws and weaknesses. Not having balance and variation in your transfer policy, focusing predominantly on prospects with an eye, consciously or unconsciously, on their potential resale value at the expense of experienced and proven players, was always questionable. Perhaps a few more Steve Davis type signings, players who were never going to be a long-term investment but could slot in, provide leadership and have an immediate impact wouldn't have gone amiss. Likewise having to rely entirely on transfer proceeds to finance investment in the squad -by and large just to stand still and replace your best players- was never going to leave much margin for error if signings didn't pan out -and as you acknowledge many signings do not pan out. No sustainable business is run without having buffers or slack to deal with such contingencies. All this was pointed out at the time to much derision on here, so this is not glib hindsight; yet it appears the club did little to mitigate these risks. On one level, today's predicament is not altogether surprising. Hopefully, going forward, we have the humility to revisit some of the assumptions in our transfer policy to complement what is good about it. By the way, complacent doesn't mean lazy uncaring - that's a strawman as nobody is claiming that Reed and co. aren't trying their best.