Guest Blog: Fulham – A rainy night in Europe

It lashed it down at Craven Cottage last night and I will ashamedly admit that many fans were seemingly put off by the weather – not the Hammersmith End contingent though. Equipped with new chants which include ‘You gotta fight, for the Whites – Kasaaaaami’ (for new 3.5m signing Patjim Kasami) and the adopted ‘I love Martin Jol and Martin Jol loves me’ – Fulham’s European adventure got fully underway as a 3.0 win against Dnipro gave Fulham firm grasp on a place in the group stages.

The real discussion amongst those who braved the conditions surrounded whether another foray into the Europa League will benefit the club. The 2010 Europa League Final was without doubt the highlight of any Fulham fans many long years of toil and hardship but with a replication of THAT amazing run seemingly unlikely would Fulham be better off without the Europa League focussing on the Carling Cup or a Top 10 finish?

Guest Blog: Who says close season is boring?

Close season a bad time to start a football blog? Never. Although the summer hasn’t yet brought the signings that I, as a Gooner, am desperately hoping for, the close season’s managerial comings and goings have delivered more than a little excitement for football-starved fans – and it’s only mid-June.  

The season hadn’t even come to an end when West Ham decided enough was enough, and bid farewell to Avram Grant, who had led the club to relegation after a torrid season of bleak underperformance. Carlo Ancelloti, whose second place finish with Chelsea was deemed simply not good enough by impatient Roman Abramovich, was next to go, not long after the dust had settled on the final day of the season.  West Ham acted quickly, appointing Sam Allardyce a couple of weeks after Grant’s departure, and with the signing of Kevin Nolan revealed yesterday, things seem to be looking up for the Hammers – although it’s hard to see how they could have got much worse. The manager’s berth at Chelsea remains empty, although the smart money is on Guus Hiddink to fill the role, with Chelsea fans clamouring for his arrival and the Turkey national team resigned to his departure.

But things hadn’t even got interesting yet. On 1^st June, Gerard Houllier announced that his ongoing health problems meant he was stepping down from his role as Aston Villa manager. And the very next day, Mark Hughes left Fulham. To join Villa, surely? The Football Water Cooler’s George certainly hoped so. And yet, whilst Fulham quickly replaced Hughes with Martin Jol, securing the man whose services they had wanted a year ago, the Villa job remains open. Steve McClaren was ruled out of the role, with Villa owner Randy Lerner nervous about his club being the first to bring McClaren back to English football. No such compunction for Nottingham Forest, who, after Billy Davies’ departure a few days ago, swooped to secure the services of the man who just might be getting close to shedding the ‘wally with the brolly’ tag that has haunted him since his days with the national team. On the same day that Davies left Forest, McLeish was out the door at Birmingham, whose future, with the Championship looming amid an uncertain financial backdrop, is looking somewhat bleak.

All eyes now then, are on the manager’s role at Villa. With Roberto Martinez having decided against the job in favour of staying at Wigan, who he kept in the Premiership on the last day of the season, it looks today that a deal is going to be done to bring McLeish to Villa Park. Fans yesterday held protests against the appointment of the former Blues boss, and yet it looks today that the move is going to happen. Not only are at least a vocal minority of the fans deeply unhappy at the idea of appointing the former boss of their most deadly rivals, who just got them relegated to boot, but the fallout from a potential deal looks set to be severe, with Birmingham accusing Villa of “tapping up” McLeish.

So, whilst my initial idea for this blog post was to list the clubs with managerial vacancies, and assess who they wanted and who I thought they’d get, things have moved so quickly that Birmingham is the only high-profile club around whose managerial vacancy there is a little bit of uncertainty, with a host of young managers such as Chris Hughton, Billy Davies, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola all possibilities. In fairness though, Chelsea haven’t yet appointed Hiddink, and I’m sure that any breakdown in talks between the two parties will generate a frenzy of speculation, with Hughes’ name back in the frame no doubt and names such as Redknapp touted about. Could Redknapp follow Modric to Chelsea? Yes Chelsea’s apparent bid for the Croatian playmaker hasn’t been accepted, and indeed Hiddink remains the bookies’ firm favourite for Chelsea manager. And yet spurious gossip is the name of the game over the long summer, and there has been more than enough material to fuel this so far. And that’s just the managers – with several big name players leaving clubs this summer, and with many teams looking to strengthen in key areas (a tall and strong centre half for us, thank you very much), who ever said close season was boring?

Jess – Head of Content – Gooner – @jessicaenoch