The rise of Fulham

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START OF THE 2016-17 SEASON
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Alright, my second season in the Premiership is about to start. I think it's a good time to lay out the expectations, transfer policies and players.
Expectations:​
  • Premier League: Same like last season, that's all I want. The Board wants a top-half finish. I want to finish in the top 8. Why am I not being very optimistic after finishing 6th last time? Go to the 'transfers' section to find out.
  • League Cup and FA Cup: Knock-out competitions are hard to predict. We won the League Cup last time around but exited the FA Cup in the earliest stage possible. The board wants QF and sixth round at the very least in League Cup and FA Cup respectively. I don't care. I just want to go as far as possible. Definitely looking forward to a better run in FA Cup
  • EURO Cup: The big one. The board has no expectations here as they think we'll get eliminated in the Group stages. Since the teams aren't yet drawn, I am not setting any expectations currently. However, I want to go to the first knock-out round atleast. I believe we can.
Players:

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Morale is very important, obviously. We'll take part in an additional competition compared to last season and so, lot more travel will be involved. So, I need to keep the players fit and fresh for the games. I might reduce the training a little bit to avoid injuries.
Bakker is still unhappy. Unlike last season, that is spreading a little bit among the guys. He was missing from a training session and I let it slide. Lustig was unhappy with my soft decision and wanted me to tighten things up.

The lad is a good player - no doubt, but his conduct is unacceptable. I have placed him on the transfer list but no one has made a bid yet. I'm willing to sell him at any price, and if it doesn't work out, I might just terminate his contract.

Mitroglou, Hutchinson, and a few others are all transfer listed, mainly because I don't see them getting regular football here and/or their performances have been a touch disappointing.

Transfer activity:

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There's not going to be much activity in the market from our side. I want to build the team around our youth players. I might even start some U21 and U18 players in a few games. They'll definitely be featuring in friendlies. Depending on their performances, some of them may be loaned out.

Striker - That's the only position where I feel the team doesn't have much cover. Woodrow has been in fantastic form in the last two seasons, and largely injury free. Mitroglou, McCormack and Rodallega have all chipped in when needed. Since Mitroglou will be leaving and the other two aren't scoring well, I may have to get a new striker. Preferably, a poacher because Woodrow is more of a target man.
 
Fulham in the Transfer news

Lots of news regarding transfers involving us. Sometimes, I wonder how the press get hold of the news so fast.

Chicharito snubs English clubs for OM
Man Utd released Chicharito at the end of his contract and he is available on a free transfer. He is exactly the kind of striker I want to bring to the club and offered him a contract for $2.7M per year, for a period of 2 years. Several clubs wanted him and I wasn't very hopeful. Chicharito rejected contracts from us and a few other clubs and joined OM.
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Baselli and Christensen might leave Fulham for Champions League football​
Goddammit. Why Liverpool, Why? They openly expressed interest in Christensen and Baselli, two of our best midfielders. The players, tempted by Champions League football came to me asking permission to leave. I tried to convince them to stay but couldn't. So, I told both the players that I'll sell them if and when a right bid comes in.
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Mitroglou joins Sassuolo​
And he left. After considering several offers, Mitroglou moves to Seria A by joining the club Sassuolo. I feel like I got good money for him. He was valued at $5.25M, but Sassuolo made an offer of $7.5M. I immediately accepted the bid.
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Arsenal interested in Fulham's Balanta
Aaargh! Another of my key players is wanted by a big club. Balanta wants to move, for Championship football. I tried to convince him like Baselli and Christensen but he too didn't listen. I told him that I would only sell him to Arsenal if they made a sizeable offer. He understood the situation.
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We bought a striker. Someone who is good at playing the poacher role. Alfred Finnbogason is an Icelandic player who used to play for Real Sociedad before joining us. I think he'll do a good job for us. The scouting staff say that he is a quality player and will add much needed threat in front of goal for us.

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Pre-Season friendlies

I prefer not to go in-depth for these games. I just like trying new tactics, giving the youngsters a chance and see who show the most promise.
Anyway, so here are the games:
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A 2-0 win, a 0-2 loss. A 1-0 win, a 0-1 loss. And two draws - a boring 0-0 one and a pulsating 3-3 game. Basically, everything happened.

A lot of youngsters got their chances. Some impressed where as some were not yet at a level to play top quality professional football. The ones who looked good were loaned out for more first team football opportunities.

The friendly games were good in terms of our preparedness for the Premier League. There was one unfortunate incident, however. Cauley Woodrow got injured. The young striker is out for 2-3 months. With the premier league starting game only a week away, this means Woodrow will be sidelined for the first 6-7 games or more, depending on how quickly he recovers.
This means that our new signing Alfred Finnbogason will have to step up to the task. I hope he's upto the task!
 
My assistant Giuseppe Baresi walks into my office after the long training session. He had that look on his face which suggested that something wasn't good.
Kostas Stafylidis wants to have a word with me. I uttered all kinds of curse words. Baresi interrupted me before I broke anything in the room out of frustration. "Should I ask him to meet you at 11:00 AM tomorrow?", he said.
"No, no, no. 11 is too early. No. I need more time to prepare for the conversation. I need to think through all possibilities and what not. Let's do it at 3:00 PM tomorrow. ****** Arsenal, Baresi, **** Arsenal", I replied.
"I understand your frustration. I'll let him know", he said as he left the room.

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It might seem odd as to why I was cursing Arsenal. It's because they have told the press that they're interested in my leftback Stafylidis. They've already unsettled Balanta by saying similar things and the lad is now concerned after I wasn't 100% set on letting him go. Now, I need to have a similar talk with Kostas. Goddamnit. Goddamnit. *****. ******.

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Next day, 2:45 PM
Kostas, who never comes early for training shows up early for this meeting. Oh **** great. Let's get done with it.
The conversation started just as I expected. He said he wants to leave to Arsenal for champions league football.
I tried my best to convince him to stay and told him that he won't get a lot of opportunities as they already have 3 left wingbacks. He didn't care. He actually demanded that I accept an offer from Arsenal.

Well, I really didn't have any choice. If I said no to him, he would've created a huge unrest in the dressing room and I didn't want that. So, I had to say yes. He looked happy and he left.

I was angry and once he left, I banged my fists against my desk in frustration.

Sigh, that makes 4 players who want to move. All four are first team players. Two of those four are players I brought to the English league.

Bids from Liverpool and Arsenal
Liverpool have made bids for both Christensen and Baselli. Arsenal have submitted one for Balanta as well.

Liverpool made a bid for over $19M for Christensen. Too juicy an offer to reject. I accepted it and arranged for the two involved parties to have a chat. Luckily for me, Christensen wasn't happy with the rotation role and the salary Liverpool offered him. I KNEW IT. I ****** KNEW IT. There's not way he is getting into first team there. Well, atleast it's good news that he rejected Liverpool.

The offers for Baselli and Balanta were too low. Liverpool offered under $10M for Baselli, who has been a gem of a player last season for us. Ya, there's no way I am accepting that.

When Arsenal made a bid of $12M for Balanta, I couldn't control my laughter. Balanta was the best defender in the league last season in terms of rating and tackling and Arsenal offer a mere 12M. Now, Balanta may want to leave but there's no way I am selling him for such a low offer.

Try better Liverpool and Arsenal. I am just hoping the transfer window closes before they can make a reasonable bid. That should allow Baselli and Balanta to calm down and forget about those two clubs.
 
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And the Premier League 2016-17 is underway!

Good start. So much better than last time around where we got destroyed in the first two games.

vs. Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough played with intensity but couldn't pose the same threat in front of goal as we did. George Williams and Kacaniklic played excellently on the wings. Finnbogason scored his first competitive goal for the club from the penalty spot after Williams was brought down by the Boro defense. With continued pressing and excellent wing play, we scored two more to win the game 3-0. A solid victory to start the season.

vs. Hull: Hull are difficult to beat at home, as last season statistics would indicate. Rhodes scored for them giving them an early lead. I can't help but feel that our defense switched off momentarily to let Rhodes make an easy run right through the center of our defense. But the boys showed some spirit and equalized before half-time. It was Finnbogason, who showed his natural attacking instinct by intercepting a poor pass by the Hull defense before hitting the back of the net. Williams scored our second in the 70th minute with a beautiful finish. When Baselli passed him the ball inside the box, he chipped it beautifully into the side netting (goal below). Hull threatened to equalize and I brought in Scott Parker to provide much needed calmness and determination to our midfield.
[video=dailymotion;x2kk4af]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kk4af_fm-15-williams-chipped-goal_videogames[/video]
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Injuries and Cup draws

I learnt that Balanta got himself injured during training session. With Woodrow and Stafylidis already injured, this was like rubbing salt in the wound. That makes 3 first team players out for the next big game against Man City.
With one day left for the Man City clash, I asked Mike Taylor to file the injury report. It doesn't look good.
We've been drawn against Scunthorpe away for the third round in the Capital One Cup. While these draws may seem easy, I hate it. We had a similar draw in last year's FA Cup (against Ipswich away) and we lost. We'll have to combat complacency in this fixture. The highlight of the draw was the Man City vs. Chelsea fixture. Since one of the premier league giants will be knocked out very early, it'll give us, among other teams a slightly better chance. Man United play Everton at Old Trafford and will be another interesting match to look forward to.
EURO Cup group stage draw has been really good to us. No offense to Metalist, KRC Genk and AS Saint-Etienne but I think we are in the group that gives us the best chance of progressing through. We've avoided clubs like AC Milan, OM, Roma, Leverkusen, Sevilla, Lyon etc. If we put in our best efforts, we can go through to the knock-out stages.
 
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Oh so close! We took the lead in the 10th minute through Alfred Finnbogason, who scored in his consecutive game. We held the lead for 81 minutes until Nasri equalized for them. It was heart-break for us after an excellent performance. I don't mind conceding a worthy equalizing goal but this really made me pull my hair apart.
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Oh good lord! Why! WHY! WHYYYYY!

As for the game itself, I have to sit back and applaud our defense. It was time for Trott, the tactician before the game started. I generally like playing wingbacks but I had to sacrifice a bit of offensive threat from our left flank as I asked Kay Voser to man mark Silva. And he did a wonderful job. His rating may have just been 6.7 but he completely kept Silva out of the game. The Spaniard failed to create any decent chance for City.

Amorebieta, you beauty! The second key threat to us was Sergio Aguero. Fernando Amorebieta was assigned the role of a ball playing stopper in the defense and was asked to mark Aguero. And he did, in a fantastic manner. Aguero ended the game with a rating of 6.6 and Amorebieta with a rating of 8.2, and also got the player of the match award.

Highpoint: Our tackling. The lads put in some fantastic tackles. We won 82% of our tackles, with our defenders having 91% success rate in tackles. I made a tiny montage of some tackles I thought were really solid. Amorebieta owned Aguero. It was beautiful. I could go on and on, but what's the point - Nasri's fluke shot ruined it for us. :@​
[video=dailymotion;x2kloxu]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kloxu_fm-15-tackling_videogames[/video]​



In other team news:
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  • [*=left]Balanta injured on intl. duty and out for 4 weeks.
    [*=left]Christensen, Baselli, Balanta and Stafylidis who all wanted a move away from the club put their concerns behind them. They aren't keen on moving now and it's great news for the club.
    [*=left]Danny Bakker leaves Fulham.

    • [*=left]And finally, I terminated his contract. I had to incur a loss overall but I don't care.
      [*=left]Bakker has been very unprofessional and kept missing training sessions and was spreading unhappiness among the players.
 
Super-sub Bryan Ruiz secures an away point!

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Last season, Spurs got two 3-1 victories against us. This game started on a similar note as they had the better first half. Harry Kane's goal was the difference at half-time. We were a touch lucky to only be 1-0 down. The players received a bit of a lecture at half-time for their rather slack performance.
We put on a much better show in the second half. Bryan Ruiz came on in the 75th minute for Woodrow, who looked very tired in his first game after return from injury. He made an instant impact as he scored off a Kacaniklic cross. Kane should've scored his second in the dying moments of the game but his shot narrowly missed the goal.

The game ended 1-1, second one in a row for us but I'll take this. Spurs are not an easy side to beat at home and I'm happy to get 1 point from it.

Jermaine Jones out!
A big blow. Jones is not a star player, I know that. Neither is he on the young and athletic side. But he is determined and aggressive, and provided a lot of steel in our midfield last season. The only similar player we have is Scott Parker, but he is not as physical as Jones. It'll be interesting to see how we hold up!
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View attachment 288980
Fantastic comeback. Amorebieta gave away a penalty in the 8th minute, which was never one. Amorebieta used his strength to win the ball from Stancu fair and square but the referee thought otherwise. Oh well! Stancu converted it and put us on the back-foot straight away. We were playing no where near our potential.
Come half-time, there was a change in tactics with more focus on direct passing. Short passing wasn't cutting it. Oh, and the players got a good ol' fashioned hair-dryer treatment at half time. I know we weren't the favorites, but that performance wasn't acceptable.

The response was fantastic. We scored three second-half goals, all through our new signing Finnbogason. He is banging in goals at an excellent rate. Ruiz, who got a start today in the Engache role pulled all the strings in the later-half of the game. It was really pleasing to watch.
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We looked disoriented. This was the first game Woodrow and Finnbogason started together and it showed. There were a lot of misplaced passes and the strikers couldn't get into good positions. I made a few tactical changes at half-time but kept both strikers on the pitch, with the score still at 0-0. Kim Shin-Wook gave Q.P.R. the lead in the 54th minute and the crowd went absolutely crazy. 65 minutes into the game, I replaced Woodrow with a midfielder and switched back to a 4231 formation. Might seem a step backward, but it had to be done.

It didn't affect the result though as Shin-Wook added another one and sealed the victory for Q.P.R. My first loss to our bitter rivals. Fans were devastated. Couldn't really blame the players as I employed a 442 formation after more than 20 games with a 4231 formation, and made a bad mistake.

What I learnt: A derby isn't a good time to test new tactics.

CAPITAL ONE CUP THIRD ROUND
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A 119th minute goal by Finnbogason secured us a spot in the fourth round. A late, dramatic winner against a lowly League 1 team, but I don't care. I am glad this is over. My players get very complacent in games like these and even this was a far from pleasing performance. All my defenders got a rating of 7+ while most of my midfielders and strikers were stuck with 6 point somethings.

The highlight for us was Cameron Burgess' excellent performance. Balanta was injured, Burn and Amorebieta were exhausted. So 20 yr old Burgess got his first start under me. And he put in a top-class performance, and got the player of the match award.

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Other news: Chelsea-Man City clash at Etihad stadium was the highlight of the third round. Chelsea beat City 2-1 and progressed through. I want to avoid 6 teams (United, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs) in these cup clashes, atleast early on. Seeing City get eliminated is good news for me.

Fourth round draw: We’ve been drawn Swansea away. We’ve avoided the big clubs again. Arsenal face Liverpool, meaning another of the top 6 will be out. Good. Good.​
 
Back home!

After four away fixtures in a row, we play the next two at home (1 EPL and 1 EURO Cup).A game where neither team could really control the game due to excellent defensive displays from both sides. The only goal came from the penalty spot from Woodrow, after Seamus Coleman tripped Kacaniklic. That was the only action of the game. Neither team could really break open the opposition defense and could create half-chances, at best.

Injuries: Cauley Woodrow was injured in the ending moments of the Everton game, and Lasse Vigen Christensen had to be replaced at half-time itself due to a serious injury as well. The physio tells me that both of them will be out for 2 weeks. With Jermaine Jones out for 2 months, Christensen's injury will really stretch the midfield a bit.
I don't know much about this Ukranian club. But stats suggest that their forwards are rather tricky and have some good set-piece takers.

We started with a very high tempo and pushed Metalist back. Against the run of play, they took the lead through Xavier as he scored a direct free kick from the edge of the box when Balanta committed a foul. I was worried about this. Oh well, we are 1 goal behind at home.
Metalist slowly but steadily upped their momentum and started to push us into our own half. Ruiz, however wasn't gonna stay silent for long, and he made a beautiful pass to find Finnbogason in acres of space and the Icelandic striker thumped it home.
But they took the lead soon after our equalizer. Geuvanio, who is excellent at beating the offside trap got the better of our defenders and tucked one away. Craven Cottage went silent again.
We tried our best to pull level but simply couldn't. Ah ****!

Competitions:
6th in Premier league, 2nd in EURO group stage and qualified for the fourth round in League Cup. Not a bad start, but we can certainly do better.
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A goal each game.

Last few days have been hectic. Physios and coaches have been swarming my office telling about injuries, players' fitness concerns, players unhappy about not getting first team chances and etc. I took the physio's suggestion and decided to rest a couple of players.

We kept pushing on.​
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West Brom were at the top of the table heading into this game. So, getting a point from The Hawthorns is really good. Chris Brunt gave West Brom the lead when he smashed one home following a swift counter-attack. Finnbogason leveled the score for us in the 32nd minute as he headed a perfect cross by Lustig from the right flank.
West Brom had the better chances and kept dominating for significant portions of second half. We did come close to taking the lead somewhere around the 80th minute. Baselli should've scored but he hit the post and the ball went out of play. The score stayed at 1-1 when the referee blew the final whistle.
And another goal, another win. This is the fifth game in a row where we've scored just the one goal. It's not a bad thing as long as we keep winning games. This was a good victory. Baselli scored the game's only goal in the 22nd minute from a direct free kick. It was a sublime finish. We had quite a few wonderful chances from open play but the post denied us twice and a supreme goal keeping effort denied us a few times as well.

West Ham tried to force an equalizer and kept shooting from distance to get a goal desperately. But it never came and we sealed the victory and 3 points.
 
Wow. I still can't believe we won the game 8-0. It was one of those games where everything the players did and tried succeeded. Cauley Woodrow got a rating of 9.9 and was absolutely fantastic.
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That huge victory gives us a very healthy goal difference, which is critical as three teams are tied at 6 points in the group.
 
Why? Why do my players ignore all the instructions and tactics? Ugh!
The game was well-poised at 1-1 and it was a very interesting game. And George Williams spoiled it for us. He has this habit of trying long balls when he doesn't have the best passing accuracy. I specifically told him to not get too excited and make short passes. At the one hour mark, with the ball at his feet, Williams tried a cross-field ball in our half when there were over 3 players who were in space. Southampton countered but wasted a good chance.

I was annoyed. I kept screaming at the touch line. Told Williams to concentrate and to not get too creative. He didn't listen. 68 minutes into the game, he tried another long ball to find Woodrow when he was marked by both central defenders. A counter wasn't even on and yet, he tried to find Cauley. With Baselli and Ruiz making forward runs from midfield, that was a terrible ball. Southampton intercepted, and countered successfully taking the lead.

I gave an angry stare at George Williams and immediately substituted him. We couldn't find a way past Soton defense. And we lost by a goal. I sympathized with our defenders and midfielders. But Williams got a lecture. It didn't end there.

That was terrible passing!
I told Baresi to tell Williams to meet me. He came to my office.

"What the **** was that? I specifically told you not to do something and you do it. Pass shorter, PASS SHORTER. I keep telling you and you just keep ignoring me. We were lucky not to lose 1-3 or 1-4. Your squandered possession by misplacing too many passes", I said. I tried to remain calm despite my anger.

"Boss, I'm here to score, not to pass", he argued.

Williams is just 21 yrs old and his immaturity was clearly showing. I let him know the importance of passing and creating chances.

"Creating goals for team-mates are as important as scoring goals. And to do that, you need to move the ball forward for the team without squandering possession.", and I continued for about 5 minutes saying why possession and passing is important.

"I'm sorry if I spoke out of turn. I'll get back to training now.", he said as he left the office. He seemed deep in thought as he left the room. He needs to think about his performance. I knew he'll come back better.
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Capital One cup 2016-17: Fourth Round

Solid performance. Two second half goals, one each by Baselli and Finnbogason propelled us through to the quarter finals. Baselli is quickly becoming a crowd favourite with his eye-catching midfield displays. He scored the first and was greatly involved in the play preceding the second goal. The Woodrow-Finnbogason partnership upfront is starting to look good recently.

Other news:
Liverpool defeated Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield to secure a QF spot. Chelsea and Spurs also progressed through after narrow 1-0 wins in the extra time. Manchester United hammered Hull to progress.

We've been drawn against Man United in the QF. The match will take place at Old Trafford. A tough one for sure.
 
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