Fulham News 24/7
Martin Jol has told Danny Murphy and others that Fulham won’t pony up the money or years other teams are willing to, allowing them to walk and sign elsewhere
Martin Jol is certainly looking to make his mark on the Fulham squad patrolling Craven Cottage next year during his first full summer transfer window with the club. His first step is to allow three players, Andy Johnson, Pavel Pogrebnyak, and the captain Danny Murphy to leave.
You could make valid arguments for letting go all three of those players. AJ was old and injured often, and hadn’t contributed much compared to what was expected of him after making a highly-touted move to Fulham. Pogrebnyak was a force upon entering Craven Cottage, but faded down the stretch as teams figured out how to remove him from a game. Danny Murphy is 35 years old, and was becoming less and less capable of making it a full 90 minutes.
However, put these three moves together, couple them with the fact that Fulham are still not out of the hot water when it comes to Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele, and this roster needs some serious overhaul this summer. While there are some very capable youth ranks who could step in and make an impact (most notably I would expect Alex Kacaniklic to see serious playing time in place of Danny Murphy, although he’s more of an attacking mid), they’re young and untested, and entrusting a youth squad with filling this many holes is very unwise.
I don’t doubt that Martin Jol has a plan, but whatever it is, all we the fans have been privy to watch is the exodus that could quite easily become even worse if the Dempsey and Dembele situations worsen.
In addition, the men he’s allowing to leave are significant contributors from last year. Between those three men, Jol is allowing 68 appearances, 12 goals, and 10 assists from just this past season go. And that doesn’t count the possible departure of more production: the 73 appearances, 19 goals, and 10 assists courtesy of Dempsey and Dembele.
And it’s not just what he’s letting go. It’s when they’re coming out. The news broke that these three men were leaving just five days apart. It’s a bit of a shock to Fulham fans, who now see their club completely barren at the striker position (Ruiz/Dempsey/Dembele their best goal threats now, none of which are true strikers; best true strikers at the moment are Orlando Sa and Marcello Trotta) as well as without their constant at midfield.
So how are you feeling after the shock? Were these the right decisions? Are you glad they’re all gone at once? If anything, it sure does open up some great wage room.
It’s not that greater shock if you ask me.
Danny’s fulham career was going to come to an end sooner rather than later and AJ and the Pog are clearly chasing the £ and the long contracts.
As for Dempsey and Dembele, that’s out of the club’s hands. They have opted not to sign new deals so really it is our prerogative to sell and not lose them for nothing next summer (although I have a feeling Dembele will stay and leave on a bosman).
I think we’ll see Kasami play more in centre-mid as a replacement for Danny. However Jol will clearly be busy in the market. Strikers are now obviously a necessity.
But I refuse to panic as some will. The way the club had been run in the last 4/5 years suggests much will be going on away from the media and will be well planned and thought through. I have faith in Jol and the board and think they’ll really deliver in the window and on the field next season.
It is only smart to get younger. Sports business in general is a joke. When you bring in a big name, big money veteran in any sport you are more than likely going to pay him for what he did before he came to play with you than what he is actually going to do. Research in all sports I follow over the last several years has shown that most athletes have their “peak years” between twenty-five and thirty, not twenty-eight to thirty-three like so many others believe.
Let me give you a baseball example since I know you are a baseball fan as well. Albert Pujols signed a ten year, $240 million dollar contract this past off-season before his thirty two year old season even though the year before he posted a career low in OPS by nearly fifty points. The angels are not paying Albert Pujols for what he is going to do for them, they are paying him for what he did for St. Louis.
It’s the same principal here and one I think Martin Jol realizes. We are not going to give long term contracts to players to stay until their mid thirties. If we want to take that next step from being a top ten team to a perennial top five contender we need to roll into it and not think we can do it with re-treds and has-been’s.
So sell Dempsey and with the extra wages sign Dembele to a three or four year extension. As things are now I don’t think we are in nearly as bad of shape as some may think. A possible starting XI based just on the guys we have right now:
Schwarzer
Kelly, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise
Dembele, Diarra
Kasami, Ruiz, Kacaniklic/Frei
Orlando Sa
Other than up top that seems like a doable lineup. Find a striker and a right back and give me some more depth behind that starting XI, primarily at center back, and we are a team who could either push up the table or fall flat on our faces. We are going in the right direction. It’s just up to our friends in London to not be so fickle…
Kyle,
It is funny that you wrote this above because I wrote this below on sulia.com today.
Fulham Morning Thought: It is not time to panic because players are leaving.
Fulham have lost some players lately that were an impact with the club in their tenure at Fulham. It is always hard to see good players leave your team.
However, this is not the time to panic. I already saw on the Cottage Corner messageboard, a fan bring up the subject of relegation.
The summer has just begun and Martin Jol has time to shape the 2012-2013 version of Fulham. It is difficult, but patience is needed right now to see who the Fulham manager brings in.
The core of Fulham is still very strong, and I think you will see a huge jump to the production of Bryan Ruiz this season. I am going to wait to and see who Jol adds to Fulham.
I do have faith in Jol and the management of the club to keep Fulham pushing forward. We have plenty of time before mid-August when Fulham open up at home against Norwich City.
My advice is to sit back and wait. You just might be pleasantly surprised by the
additions to Fulham Football Club for this season, because you know they are coming. We just have to be patient.
It’s June. Anyone who is in panic mode over any “exodus” doesn’t understand the game. The time to panic is when the needs haven’t been addressed by August 18th. Until then, its silly to worry.
AJ & Danny were both up there in years (with their best years behind them). At some point you were going to have to move on. Now seems as good a time as any.