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Two managers bite the dust in the past 7 days, and neither saw it coming. Board rooms are getting twitchy. Two men who meet on Boxing Day may be next for the axe.
The soap opera style of operation favoured by Gold and Sullivan at West Ham means disapproval of Avram Grant's management style was making banner headlines even before the boss had cleared the boardroom after his showdown summit. The ultimatum is stark. No win from the next three and you are gone.
By the same token I can't see our own manager surviving either if we fail to beat bottom club West Ham at home on Boxing Day. While assuming the trip to Liverpool is a foregone conclusion, and already factored in, nothing less than back-to-back wins from the home games with West Ham and WBA will suffice to salvage some faith in handing Hughes the necesssary funds to rebuild Roy's side. It's going to be a pivotal two weeks.
For a shrewd assessment of Hughes dilemma at Fulham I refer you to an excellent article by John Nicholson of 365 http://www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746,00.html
This has been bouncing around FFC forums this week and provoking plenty of comment, I add the link above in case you missed it. Having looked into John's work, he knows his stuff, writes thoughtfully and with insight. Always good to get someone's slant from outside FFC.
In passing, and I know this may provoke a howl or two, but if Fulham can get Lyle to persuade Liverpool to part with £10 million for Demps we should snap it up. Why?
Great business for a player who cost us £2 mill and was not even a guaranteed starter under Roy. A terrific move for Clint to really shine alongside the likes of Torres and Gerrard, at 27 this is the time to make that move. For the chairman, he hands out £2 mill in compensation to clear out our management team and still has £8 mill to hand the next guy into the hot seat.
Mo may not go in for the showboating style of the Hammers hucksters, but his tongue lashing of staff who displease him are legendary. Hughes had that visit after the Man City shambles. Since then we've had tame draws with faltering Brum and a 2nd string Sunderland. I note the lame soundbite of Saturday from the gaffer was 'for a little luck to start going our way.' Yes, that's what we've come down to now.
Get out the prayer mats!
Twitter@fulhamphil
 
Comments
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Posted by Brandon on 12/16/2010
I will be the first to admit that I don't have the most thorough understanding of football finances, but it seems to me that selling Deuce could be a financial disaster.
So far, Clint has directly contributed (goal or assist) to seven of our sixteen EPL goals. Where would Fulham be in the table with seven fewer goals? Normally, I would think that if the goals aren't coming from Clint, they'd come from someone else...but that has not been the case this season. With Bobby still out (and what form will he even be in when he's fit?) and nobody else consistently contributing to the attack, how will we score without Clint? Fulham needs Deuce more than ever right now.
We could generate £8m from selling Clint, but what does relegation cost these days? When Newcastle was down, they reported a drop in revenue from £100m to £50m. Suddenly £8m for Clint doesn't seem like such a juicy figure.
Clint stays, we stay up. COYW!
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Posted by JoeUSA on 12/16/2010
I like Fulham, but I don't follow them that closely. I am surprised to see that there are calls for Hughes' sacking. Granted they are not picking up the 3 points, but they have generally looked solid and have been settling for draws. When I look at the squad at his disposal I say their league position could be much worse. There really isn't that much quality in the squad, especially proven goalscorers (just Schwarzer, Hangeland, Dempsey, Murphy, Davies, with AJ regaining fitness and Zamora hurt). Roy raised expectations very high, but with the current squad and finances they were always going to be in for a relegation fight. Hughes seems to have done a good job to keep them battling and keep them in it. With the struggles of Wolves and West Ham, the inconsistency of Wigan, and the instability now at Newcastle and Blackburn, their chances are survival look pretty good at the moment. Everton, Birmingham, and Aston Villa all have classier squads and find themselves in the bottom half.
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Posted by Colin on 12/17/2010
That's baloney JoeUSA. With pretty much the same if not worse group of players (minus Zamora) they finished seventh. It's a managers job to get the most out of what he's got, that's his job. Hughes is not doing this. On the pitch it's total and complete incoherence. Hughes has to go. I don't know if it's because he doesn't really have his heart in it or if he actually isn't that much of a manager afterall, but his effect on overall game-play and team spirit has not been a positive one.
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Posted by Dwuyn van Antin on 12/18/2010
M Hughes insists on converting the FFC's playing style from well balanced offense/defense into major scale direct-offensive play, claiming that this will turn into FFC's favor. The problem is he's executing this plan with the wrong types of players. For almost 3 seasons in EPL FFC has been comfortable playing deep defending and a holding striker up front. Now he asks of his defenders to push forward to provide supports for the midfielders who obviously aren't creative enough to penetrate into opposition's defense. When this tactic doesn't work and the opposition launches counter-attack instantaneously, Hangeland and A Hughes would have to pay the price of midfielders' mistake. The least he could do to recover from the absence of Zamora and Dembele is by placing Elm as holding striker to provide scoring chances for the likes of Dempsey, Gera and Kamara (all of whom the likeliest to score goals). Instead he chose to field the largely inept E Johnson whose finishing ability is terrible.
Blog Central: The Elm shut out has indeed been mystifying
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Posted by Seth on 12/23/2010
Bottom lone--we were not ready to start the season and that has cost us dearly. People forget that the points at the beginning of the year count as much as the points at the end of the year.
We are still struggling with the fact that we never anticipated Roy's leaving.
I would say that our play has been....clinical, uninspired, rote at best. the boys don't seem to buy into Hughes system.
In addition, Johnson was inept when he was healthy he is not, nor will ever be our answer. he is on the wrong side of 28, slowing down and not someone who can hold a ball until we get numbers or our attackers up.
We need some talent, but I am not sure why we insist on consistently making Duce prove himself everytime we get a new manager---this is the downside of sacking Hughes. He now seems to recognize how good Dempsey is.
Who would we hire? What money would we give him to spend?
We need to do better with what we have. Score some goals and not make those 1 or 2 mistakes a game that cost us!
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Posted by royhodgson on 12/23/2010
so far, leading up to the transfer window, i have heard two names that fulham is interested in: matthew taylor and david bentley, both of whom i am excited about. what are your thoughts and what other names have you heard?
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Posted by D lynchaclaus on 12/25/2010
A sacking of Hughes at this point would be entirely unproductive. He didn't have more than a few weeks to make acquisitions over the summer and he came up with two gems in my mind in salcido and dembele.
The problem this year is the injury of our two most creative player up front and a lack of depth and creativity in the center midfield. I think the loss of Zamora show how completely dependent we've been on him over the last 2yrs. We could essentially skip over the midfield by playing long balls to bz who can control and layoff the ball jumpstarting an attack. Effective as it was, without that prescence up front we look lost.
Forced to play with the ball on the ground it's become clear that we just don't have the talent to work the ball thru the midfield. And our strikers are inept at best, and stand no chance of converting the 2 or3 chances we do create.
Let Hughes stay thru the transfer window at least and let him put together a squad that can compete. Merry christmas you whites!
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About
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Phil Mison is a lifelong follower of Fulham FC. As a broadcaster, writer and sports producer he has supplied past club videos and numerous articles on FFC. LBC Radio's Fulham correspondent 1988-1993 and Sky Sports’ reporter for the 1996-97 promotion season. Professionally Phil delivers football content to the highest level both overseas and across the UK via TV, radio and mobile.
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