The Independent is claiming that Fulham are “set to abandon plans to build a new stadium in London and will return to Craven Cottage,” using seats bolted on to the terraces, as most of the fans would prefer.
But as the article goes on, whatever happens in the next few weeks regarding Tigana – and speculation is rife that he’s actually on the way out before the season is over – the overall cost structure of Fulham is going to have to fall. We’re no different from the other companies, sorry, I mean clubs in the Premier League who are finding that the high wages of the bubble years are no longer sustainable.
One way to do that of course is to stop paying rent to QPR, another is to sell players and cut staff and a third is to cut wages of those remaining. I know March 31 is some sort of deadline, I think it’s the deadline for committing to another season at QPR, i.e. the 2004-05 season, as we’re certainly playing there next term. So there will probably be many more such stories emerging between now and the next game, at home to Blackburn on April 7.
But one thing that is annoying that the article repeats is this nonsense about the fans ambition. It quotes an unnamed sources as saying, the bolt-on seat strategy will only work “if the fans are prepared to give up a degree of ambition”.
Er, as far as I recall it was only the chairman and his myriad staff who wanted us to be the proverbial ‘Manchester Utd of the south.’ We’d be happy being Fulham for a few more years yet and being back at the Cottage would go a very long way towards achieving that.