I Heard It Through The Grapevine

With feelings running high following last Saturday’s desperate defeat there has clearly been a shift in the number of supporters now agreeing Sanchez’ time is up. That's added fuel to speculation on the message boards that the club are already lining up a replacement. The Internet is a powerful medium, and past experience has shown that much of the goings on at many football clubs are accurately reported unofficially. The problem is for every true rumour you read there are probably 50 false ones.

Posters on The Fulham Independent speculated early in the week that Jean Tigana was in the crowd for the Newcastle game. A photo was found that seemed to prove JT’s presence a few rows in front of Al Fayed. This may not seem like much but if true would suggest a seismic shift in stance between both men. The fallout from JT’s sacking was pretty hefty leading to litigation and lengthy court proceedings. Having seen the relationship between Tigger and MAF turn so acrimonious it was hard to believe we'd see him back at the club at any capacity other than opposition manager. The photo is not conclusive but it does look a lot like Tigana, and if so suggests a definite reconciliation between the two men. Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking about the Tigana years a lot recently. The last few months under him were difficult but I strongly believe that under Tigana we would at least be trying to play good football. We might not always win, and surviving in the Premiership would be no less certain than it is now but we'd be better placed to come back should the worst happen.

Prior to this exciting piece of news my leading contender for replacing LS was Martin Jol. I like him a lot, he's a bit of a character and, I believe, a good coach. Like Tigana I feel he’d get us playing decent football again and would be good for our long term development as a team. My biggest problem with the Sanchez era is my lack of confidence in his ability to develop our team in the right way. I have no proof of that, it’s based on gut feeling and some fairly minor things that have happened so far. However, having reached that conclusion it’s hard to shake off and, when coupled with our poor run of form, is probably magnified out of proportion. Jol had previously talked about being keen to stay in England and the Premier League. This seemed to add credence to a suggestion some time ago that he was being lined up to replace Sanchez. However this week Jol came out with a flat denial that he was interested in the job, stating that he did not want to be involved with a team in a relegation fight.

In between the speculation there was some good news in the shape of returning cult hero Jimmy Bullard. JB played for the Reserves against Reading where he completed 60 minutes and scored a goal. Great news for Jimmy who must have begun to wonder whether he would ever play again, and great news for the club. I’m sure his recovery has a long way still to go. However desperate our need for a player of his calibre we must make sure his return to full league football is managed at a sensible pace. Having been out for so long it would be foolish to rush him back into first team football. But still very good news.

Today it’s all kicked off on The Independent Fulham Forum with the news that John Collins has resigned from Hibernian. People “in the know” are suggesting that Sanchez had been dragged off the training ground for show down talks with MAF and was soon to be fired with Jean Tigana returning as Director of Football and John Collins becoming the new manager. I am ridiculously excited about this and have been trying to calm myself down since first reading it. For me the Tigana/Collins combination is a dream team that would mean a return to classy passing football and genuine development of young talent. I would feel the club was back in safe hands and we could enjoy the football again whatever our final position in this years Premiership.

It’s all just rumour though. No actual facts. We’ll have to wait and see.

Whatever happens, I can’t wait for the Wigan game.

Mr Sanchez gets to work

Two players already signed and with a flurry of rumours being reported it seems it won't be long before we've got more players through the door. Today Sky Sports have reported that Fulham lodged a £4Million bid for Henri Camara with Wigan. It seems Lawrie's not content to sit back and wait for other teams to agree to deals, £4Million is a very serious bid but it must also put some pressure on West Brom and Blackburn if they are seriously considering letting their players go. The Diomansy Kamara bid seems to hinge around Heidar's reluctance to move to WBA. I'd be amazed if we are genuinely contemplating signing both K/Camara's so I think the move for Henri must be down to an inability to agree a price for Diomansy. The bid of £2.5Million for Roberts has apparently been knocked back, with Blackburn looking for around £4Million. Maybe they also will reconsider the price if they think we're just going to move on and buy someone else. Either way I think it bodes well for Sanchez mode of practice. Under Coleman we'd be linked with players but rarely did we hear of genuine bids being made. Mo might be backing Lawrie more in his first year than Cookie but it does appear that Lawrie is more comfortable with wheeling and dealing for a number of players at the same time.

Whilst it does look like we'll be buying two speedy strikers fairly soon, the news on David Healy has been very quiet of late. Leeds are clearly in a mess at the moment, and maybe we can benefit by picking him up on the cheap near the end of the window. If we do though he'll be fighting with 5 or 6 other strikers unless we manage to move on some of the old guard. I don't think Healy will be a regular starter but I do think there's a place for him in the Sanchez plan.

Franck Queudrue has been vocal about his desire to leave. He's clearly not happy with the new manager and suggests this is down to the style of football we'll be playing. I reckon it might have more with his failure to put in a decent performance (though to be fair I think he was injured) once Sanchez took over. We've not really been linked with a left back at all so it's possible we might see Bocanegra or Rosenior have to fill the role. Aaron Hughes is capable of playing right back, and Chris Baird (who seems set to go to Sunderland but may still join us) is actually a right back capable of playing in the centre. Moritz Volz could also be on his way, with the news that Celtic are interested. It would be very sad to see him go, but you couldn't blame him if he did as he needs to be playing regular first team football. Finally I heard a rumour, from a Spurs fan who's not one to pull my leg, that Martin Jol may be looking at Liam Rosenior if the £12Million (That does say twelve!) bid from the Filth for Pascal Chimobonda goes through.

All quite exciting and it would seem that the team that starts this season will look very different from the one that started last.

Koeman for Fulham? Simon Morgan moves on

Quite excited (probably overly so) by the news today the Ronald Koeman is interested in the Fulham job. The Daily Mirror has run with the story which is reproduced on FulhamWeb and is also mentioned on BBC Sports. I had a quick check on his managerial record and found that he's done OK if not spectacularly. Three Dutch league titles and a cup with Ajax and PSV plus one Portugese cup win with Benfica, I'm still excited though. I'm not completely opposed to Sanchez being given a go, I think he is single-minded and ambitious enough to actually do quite well as a Premier League manager, but I have been disappointed so far in what he has managed with the team he inherited. My biggest concern is that it will be players like Philippe Christanval who end up missing out under Sanchez as he looks for players who will just do what he wants.

Also this week I found out (thanks Dad!) that Simon Morgan has left the club. Apparently there was a piece in Saturday's programme that said he was moving on to a similar role with the Premier League. Morgs became the epitome for me of the Fulham side that dragged itself from the bottom division to the brink of the Prem. Good luck Simon, hope we'll see you back at the Cottage again soon.

UPDATE: Damn just as I hit publish there's an update from Bert Wijchen, a Dutch Fulham (and NEC Nijmegen) fan who regularly posts on TFi. He says "Ronald Koeman is staying at PSV Eindhoven; there was a terrible fight between him and the chairman because they lost almost a 11 points lead in the league but he will be for 100% staying there for one year" but "His brother Erwin left Feyenoord a couple of weeks ago and he is available. Feijenoord had a terrible season although it has not much to do with his manager skills but the lack of decent players.Erwin is a great guy; one of the people and Ronald has a more arrogant attitude". Oh well guess we'll just have to wait and see.