So the football season is over and Fulham have finished in their highest position in their 125-year history – ninth in the Premier League (out of 20). The £6.5m prize money for finishing there is not to be sniffed at, given our debts.
But that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Most previews have been deleted from websites, but this one survives:
To Be Relegated: Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City.
Managers who could be fired – soon!
….
Chris Coleman at Fulham is an inexperienced manager – and Fulham, with doubts hovering over their stadium, have many problems to be resolved off the pitch. If their league position falls below 12 (which is likely) – then Chris will be at the mercy of the wolves.
At least the Guardian was big enough to point out where it was (quite spectacularly) wrong :
Fulham
Predicted:20 Finished: 9
We said: “After last season’s teasing flirtation with relegation, this season they will put out.” What happened? Ahem. Rather than flirting with relegation, we saw Fulham flirt with the European places. After wiping the egg from our faces, we saw Chris Coleman, “the most inexperienced manager since Attilio Lombardo” dealing admirably with his star striker Louis Saha pouting his way to Manchester United and his team still presenting respectable mid-table opposition.
Room for improvement: A quality out-and-out striker is still required to replace Saha and complement the sustained excellence and creativity of man-of-the-season Luis Boa Morte. Everton’s Tomasz Radzinski would fit the bill.
But given that for the last five games of the 2002-03 season, Coleman oversaw a team that won three, lost one & drew one and we lost no significant players during the off-season (though Sean Davis came within a failed medical of joining Everton, who subsequently escaped relegation this season by one position) it perhaps says more about the media’ bias towards the so-called big clubs and the assumption that they will always win everything, than football reality.
But the fact that our top scorer – Saha – left for Man Utd half way through the season and the next closest to him scored only nine goals indicated the necessity for a decent striker.
Anyway, well done to the lads and Coleman and Steve Kean.
We will never reach the heights of Arsenal, but we’ve got the basis of a good side and even though I know it’s not more important, it feels that our first season back at the new, improved Cottage should be at least as good, if not better.