Craven Cottage Newsround

Leicester had clearly not been paying attention. With the seconds running down, Wayne Routledge showed that there’s more than one way to skin a fox, dancing inside and out of his tacklers’ challenges then waltzing in on goal to snatch yet another late, late Fulham goal. It won the game and sent the crowd into ecstacy, and probably added another million to his price tag.

It was all so different to begin with. Leicester starting purposefully, knocking the ball around and bossing the midfield. Their fans were in fine voice, to which we occasionally mumbled ‘come on Fulham’ back. Brown lost the ball in midfield, Leicester, who had clearly been told to test our defence with long balls between the two centre-backs, did exactly this. It fell beyond Bocanegra but not the Leicester forward, who shot past Tony Warner as if he wasn’t there. Tony Warner was there, incidentally, Coleman deciding that the Lastuvka era would end with the Slide of Joy at West Ham. Well Warner let in three too, so who knows what that proves.

Anyway, we levelled when Radzinski accelerated past two Leicester defenders, crossed to McBride, who chested, swivelled, and buried. 1-1.

Normalcy restored, but then what *is* normalcy for this team? A long free kick on the stroke of half time was bundled into our net. And then just as the second half began we failed to close anyone down and a rising drive from the edge of the box flew into the top corner of the Putney End net. 3-1 down, and any ordinary team would’ve given up.

Not Fulham. We needed a hero. He came in the form of Vincenzo Montella. A clever ball slipped him in, and his left footed strike thwanged back off the inside of the post. There would be no time to dwell on that though, as, sensing unfinished business, Montella rammed home Michael Brown’s low cross for our second, and his first for the club. Then a Routledge corner from the left flank found its way to the far post, and who should soar in for a thumping equaliser? That man Montella. Montella, ohwohwoh indeed. Game on.

Predictably Leicester came back at us, adding Danny Cadamarteri to their weapons. They rarely directly threatened, but there was a lot of business happening in our half and it always felt as if they were one random thunderbolt away from nicking it. Then the ball found its way to Routledge, deep on the right flank, two defenders on him. His wondergoal came from nothing, absolutely nothing, and this mad, mad game was up.

There were many great moments, my favourite being when Franck beat four Leicester players in a row… by lobbing each one in turn and collecting the ball on the other side! He also hit a free-kick that must’ve missed by nothing much, and fooled half of the Johnny Haynes Stand into thinking he’d scored. Routledge looked like he wanted the ball at every moment, and the goal capped off a great few weeks for the little winger (Leicester had a very small number 22 too, incidentally). Michael Brown confirmed that he’s not far off being the best player in the whole goddam world, being everywhere at once, talking things over with the referee, talking to his teammates, doing everything and more. And finally a word about Montella, who scored two, hit a post, wasted a good opportunity, and generally looked like you’d expect a class Italian to look in a thundering cup replay just after he’d arrived here. If he settles we’re going to love him.

Bring on Stoke!

On the train home from work tonight I peered over someone else’s newspaper and saw the form guides for the Premiership.  Fulham: DDDDD.   Looked really weird.  And the funny thing is that it could go on.  Spurs at home will be tricky, in that they’re a decent side.  They can’t get results away from home this year, but we’ve hardly been an unstoppable force at the cottage this year, particularly on Saturday afternoon games, so a draw seems likely.  Then Newcastle visit, and they’re warming up at a bad time for us.  0-0 would be okay from that match.   Could we make it seven draws in a row?  Would that be a record?  Would we be happy?  Who knows?  Not me.

Meanwhile, Collins John has decided that while his future may lie elsewhere, it’s sure as hell not going to be at Watford.  Coincidentally, Ashley Young has just rejected a move away from Watford, which would be strange if we didn’t know that the club he rejected was none other than West Ham.   So we’re all waiting around for Portsmouth or Sheffield Utd to come back in for John, otherwise it’s the reserves for the young dutchman.

Elsewhere, Alexey Smertin is said to be warming to the idea of Fulham, which would be nice for him and us.  Everything else has calmed down somewhat, which is just as well as I’ve spent far too much time online at work.

Since my impassioned plea for mercy on Jan Lastuvka I’ve seen a few more positive comments (I’m not implying that I’ve caused those, merely that there are fellow sympathisers out there).  Certainly he helped himself with that Slide of Joy at Upton Park, but whether he gets the chance to prove his abilities either way remains to be seen, as Antti will be back soon.   This is what I love about football, the little subplots that keep things interesting on a human level.  For all I know Lastuvka could be a class 1 idiot, but I’m rooting for him for the same reason I always wanted the likes of Graham Hick to do well for England… and I don’t know how to articulate this, but there’s a vulnerability there that I’m drawn to.  A lot of athletes are ruthlessly brash and do what they do very well without ever exposing a human side.   That’s fine, but not something I can identify with.  I like footballers who show something of themselves, show that they think, or care, or make mistakes.  That they’re human.   Football at this level is a fiendishly difficult thing to do well, and for all but the very best there will be bumps in the road.  Lastuvka’s had his bumps, but I hope he has a blinder on Wednesday, for his own sake as well as ours.

The constant criticism of our Czech ‘keeper (both on TFI and in the crowd) is starting to annoy me. Today he let another three goals in, but let’s have a look at them:

• first, Bocanegra beaten to flick on, Christenval beaten by Zamora, forward slips ball through Lastuvka’s legs when clean through.  This happens all the time, sometimes goalkeepers save them, sometimes they don’t;
• second, Benayoun’s chip.  Superman would’ve got to it, spiderman might’ve used his spideysense to anticipate it, but I think it would’ve beaten batman, Seaman, Shilton, Yashin, Zoff, and most other goalkeepers;
• third, absolute f%ck up by Bocanegra and Christenval, Lastuvka completely exposed, didn’t save it, couldn’t have been expected to save it.

I watched him closely and I think he’s quite nervous, his body language and mannerisms seem a little that way.  We know he doesn’t speak English, and therefore that’s a problem in communicating, particularly with an ever changing centre-back pairing in front of him who seem to have trouble communicating with each other.

Past form: yes, he was culpable against Blackburn on their first goal, but that was freakish.  As best I can recall there’s not a thing he could’ve done against Liverpool (where he saved a penalty), and he did pretty well against Watford (again showed early nerves in his kicks, which are otherwise booming).  I wasn’t at Leicester, but the radio man said he had one mad moment.  Fine, it happens, but I don’t know that he could’ve done much on those goals either.

I’m not saying he’s a great goalkeeper, the number of balls flying past him would suggest otherwise, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that he’s a bad ‘keeper either.  We have a bad defence and a changing defence, and Lastuvka has a lot on his plate fitting in.  I think someone like Shaka Hislop would be ideal as a backup, but the Czech isn’t the root of all our problems at the moment, and I wish people would be a bit more even handed in evaluating him.

The noble art of defending took one hell of a battering today.  Fulham and West Ham served up a six goal thriller in East London, the last redeptive hurrah courtesy of Phillippe Christenval, deep into injury time.

Things started well for the whites, Thomas Radzinski pouncing from a corner to make it 1-0.  At this point we were cruising, but a long punt undid us at the back as Carlton Cole outjumped Bocanegra, flicked on to Zamora who eluded Christenval and slipped the ball through Lastuvka’s legs.

The second half was seconds old when Yossi Benayoun skipped clear of more poor defending and clipped an exquisite shot over Lastuvka and into the net.  Stunning, in every sense.  To Fulham’s credit they fought back, Routledge slipping the ball cleverly to Volz, whose cross was met by the old-reliable, McBride, who planted his header into the net for 2-2.

Then disaster again!  An aimless pass fell between Christenval and Bocanegra, both hesitating and both leaving it to Benayoun, who rounded Lastuvka and scored West Ham’s third bad goal.  Awful, awful defending, and an action replay of the Charlton mixup, for which Bocanegra was also partially culpable.

Amid all this Graham Poll was enraging both sets of fans, Christenval appeared to haul down Tevez after five minutes when the Argentine was clean through, but he was spared the red we expected.  Then Nigel Reo-Coker committed a series of awful fouls in the middle of the pitch, but Poll only yellowed him for one.  Poll ended up carding our entire back four as well as Helguson and half of the Hammers.  Poor Bobby Zamora got two, the second of which was pretty harsh given that Boca did really well to pip him to a 50-50 ball.

Still Fulham couldn’t take advantage of the shortfall, and a horribly disappointing defeat seemed likely.   We built some more pressure, the Hammers keeper saving smartly from close in, then Queudreu planting a header that was nutted back off the line.  It didn’t look like it was going to be our day, but more pressure ended with that man Christenval volleying a bouncing ball home from eight yards.  3-3!  Jan Lastuvka, who had gone forward for the previous attack, slid towards us all like a maniac, screaming with delight.

So what to make of all that?  The defending was very poor, the attack fairly unthreatening, but still we got a point.  The midfield really shone though, Brown and Volz working hard again, and Routledge, who was 6 inches from a wondergoal, having an inspired match.  It was his clever pass that set up Volz to lay on the second, and he posed a threat all afternoon.  Many point to the fact that he hasn’t been consistently dangerous, but I’d strongly argue that he’s making an impact on this team that goes beyond the obvious.  And if that sounds too wishy-washy, so be it, but the lad’s improving all the time and without him we’d look very predictable.   Oh, Montella: looked absolute class, although his impact was minimal.  I have huge hopes for the Italian, once he gets to grips with the English game I think he’ll be excellent.

So, another day another score draw.  Back at home next week, where we’ll no doubt have our 0-0 hats on for the visit of Spurs.

Like a fine wine, Phil Mitchell is definitely improving with age.   There can be no doubt that Phil had difficulty in his 20s and 30s, not helped by an equally troublesome brother and the most annoying mother in the world.  As they say, making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got, and Phil gave everything but not always in constructive ways.  But in time he matured, has a steady, nice partner, has his son back, has delegated most of his work in the Arches and is now performing heroics in extracting the hapless Sonia from a sticky situation.  Phil alone sees that Sonia is innocent, and it’s inspiring to see him sorting things out.

Not all people age so well though.  Take David Beckham, for example.  31 now, he’s presumably still fit, and never had that much pace to begin with, but he’s about 3 years past his peak already.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s played sporadically well in recent times, and saved England’s bacon in the world cup (to the extent that our bacon got saved), but the days of him grabbing games by the scruff of the neck are gone.   So he’s done the thing that all right-minded footballers would do in his position and signed for LA Galaxy for a very large amount of money indeed.  Not a day ago I mentioned that Rio Ferdinand earns the equivalent of a MacArthur scholarship every two weeks. Well Beckham will be earning about four times what Rio does, as best I can see.  

This is great for the US game.  They get a very high profile player who, as the Guardian pointed out today, will do things that are easy to put in highlights packages and will wow the watching public.   Beckham may spray a series of aimless long balls into strange places, but that’ll look good and he’ll always have his trademark benders to show off with.  You can imagine the excitement the first time the Galaxy gets a free-kick 25 yards out.

The trouble is, Beckham’s going to be a one trick pony.  He’ll have his free-kicks and his marketing usefulness, but not much else.  As he ages this will only get worse, and by the time he’s 35 it’s not a stretch to assume that he’ll be playing about half the games, standing on the right wing waiting for one of the forwards to fall over around the D so he can have another go at goal.    And say what you will about American footballers, they appear to be strong and disciplined.  It really won’t take much to mark him out of games.  Doubly so if there’s any jealousy over him earning as much as the rest of the league put together.   So I wonder about this.  It’s great for America, great for us (we lose Posh Spice for these shores in what is surely the greatest ever example of addition by subtraction), and great for Beckham. 

But somehow it all feels a bit wrong, almost as if this’ll be remembered as the moment when football finally disappeared up its own backside.   Yes, they’ll raise the profile of the game over there, and yes that’s a good thing.   But it’s an awful lot of money. 

I ordered my West Ham and Leicester tickets yesterday.  A round 50 quid for the two, which somehow feels like a bargain.  I’m looking forward to both; my first ever football match was an FA Cup third round match between Luton and Liverpool back in ‘85 or so. I remember it quite well, a 0-0 draw at freezing Kenilworth Road in which Mick Harford rattled the bar late on with a 30 yard piledriver, an orange ball was used, and everyone’s fingers nearly dropped off.  The game went back to Anfield, where the teams drew again, then back down to Luton for a second replay, which I think Luton won 3-0.   He he, those were the days.  Unfair advantages on plastic pitches, no away fans, Luton were onto something back then.

Meanwhile, back in 2007, Fulham have to be big favourites for the replay.  Leicester showed guts and some ability first up, but you would expect the Premiership team to win through on home turf more often than not.  That game’s £18 (£15 plus £1.50 administration, plus £1.50… handling?). 

But before that we have to play West Ham again.  The game at the Cottage was a strange one, a 0-0 draw that didn’t do a great deal to excite anyone present.  We made West Ham look better than they are that day, struggling to handle their big forwards and not looking particularly convincing ourselves.   Now it’s over to the Boleyn Ground, and West Ham will be up for it.  Over on Knees Up Mother Brown (an excellent ‘ammers community) this game is being talked up as a Cup Final of sorts, supposedly the easiest game West Ham have left.  It’s a sell out too, so I expect a raucous afternoon in East London.  They’re crying out for Tevez to start (so would I be in their shoes), which is a frightening thought.  He seems to be getting the hang of this English football lark, and could run riot one of these days.  Our lads will have to be at their sharpest to keep him quiet.  

And what of our old friend Luis Boa Morte?  The theory around here was that he’d gone a bit stale, that he had plenty in his locker if only he chose to be interested.  Witness what he did to Arsenal for evidence of the latter, but consider his insipid showings against everyone else for evidence of staleness.   But against his former club he’s sure to be up for it, and we could be in for a hiding down our right flank.  Liam will need help. 

Montella will be that much nearer to sharpness and there’s half a chance Dempsey will be cleared to play, so all in all I haven’t looked forward to a game this much for ages.  I have a feeling it’ll be a goodun, possibly ending 4-3 or something like that.   It’s not often I expect goals (and heaven knows we haven’t seen many this year), but there’s something about this game that tells me to expect the unexpected.  Ho ho ho, can’t wait.

I was just reading up on Thomas Pynchon, the enigmatic but extraordinary fiction writer. Turns out that in 1989 he was awarded the MacArthur Prize, sometimes known as The Genius Grant, which is given to outstanding people in creative ‘fields’. The recipient gets $500,000, paid over five years. What a boon to a writer, eh? Imagine how much that’d help? I was mulling this over when who should pop into my head? Rio Ferdinand! He earns this in two bloody weeks!

Steve B said the other day that Chris Coleman has been shocked at how money-focused the players’ demands are when they come in to negotiate. It’s all about the remuneration, never mind the historic stadium, the hard-working squad or London location. I appreciate the old chestnut about it being a short career and all, but the MacArthur-Ferdinand Dichotomy (is that what I mean?) really puts things into perspective.

Anyway, on with the show. Clint Dempsey has signed. Wooooooooooooooh! I can’t wait to see him in action, I (and others) have high expectations, he looks like he could be made for the Premiership. We shall see. Chances are he’ll be ok for Spurs, but possibly sooner with FA cooperation and a strong following wind.

Current state of play - thanks as usual to Steve B and Barra Boy, as well as others whose digging has helped us learn more than would otherwise have been the case!:

Onyewu - Standard Liege have accepted our offer for the BIG MAN, Gooch must now decide whether to accept it.  He was supposed to do so yesterday, but didn’t.  This may be because another club, believed to be Inter Milan, are in for him too.  We can all see his dilemma, but one would hope that the Fulham-America bond is strong enough to coax him our way.  Presumably American Airlines, our official partner, would throw in some free flights in First Class
 
Dempsey - work permit decided today.  We have submitted paperwork and so he’d be available to play a week on Saturday.  By now you’d have to assume it’s a goer, Dempsey’s been in limbo in London for some time now.  If it doesn’t go through the club will appeal in the summer

Routledge - Spurs linked with both Ashley Young and Stuart Downing and Routledge (clearly not in their plans) turned down a swap move to Watford.  No news on Fulham’s perspective, which presumably means that Coleman wants to see how the window plays out before committing either way.  At least he’s getting games now

Thomas - we have been strongly linked with the Charlton winger.  Word on the street is that Charlton fans are amused at the amount we’ve bid

Smertin - West Ham supposedly close to a deal, but is this Steve B’s mystery midfielder?  Would we gazump the Hammers after they were nice enough to give us £5 million for Boa?

Murphy - Jol apparantly doesn’t want to lose Murphy, who would be keen to come to Fulham.  But I really don’t know about this one, it doesn’t feel right

Davies - Everton’s midfielder seems destined to be a last resort signing, so if we get him it’ll be late in the window

Eastwood - the bubbling rumour stew has been taken off the stove and left on the work surface.  Will anyone eat it?

Montella - is here!  So here that the club has given him number 11 and printed off t-shirts with his name on them!

Jankovic - GBLB on TFI has used his Serbian connections to reveal that we’re ‘very much in the hunt’ for the young winger, currently playing in Spain.  Jankovic has a minimum fee release clause too, which would be triggered at about £2.7 million.  This would make him a huge bargain in GBLB’s eyes; he had previously assumed that the Serb was out of our league

Hislop - not linked to us, but surely we could really do with an experienced backup goalkeeper?   Shaka showed in the World Cup that he still has his mojo

Beckham - last night’s exclusive has still not hit the mainstream media.  We must then assume that this will not happen, at least not in this version of the universe.  In others it may well happen

Jensen - Niclas that is - has gone, we’re told

Jensen, Claus - was rumoured to be on his way, but must presumably be mulling over Coleman’s ‘take it or leave it’ contract offer

John - speaking with Watford today.  The Hornets are improving their offer to Collins.  By making the acceptance of the offer public Coleman made quite a statement (as in “you are free to go, Mr John”), so one would imagine John will end up somewhere else

Diarra - pissed people off by getting stuck in traffic before the Macclesfield game, so they didn’t get a last look at him.  Who knows?  Mourinho is said to be keen to let him go out on loan

Etherington - rumoured to be a throw in with Boa, but that’s slowed.  May be joining us still, but not much word either way

Wright-Phillips - someone said they saw him at Motspur Park last night.  But we have three loanees at present, and I think that’s the maximum.  We wouldn’t be buying him would we?

Boa Morte - “Chris, West Ham are on the phone, they want Boa Morte” - “Tell them to go away, I’m just going to the toilet” - “I can’t, they’ve phoned several times already.  They won’t leave me alone” - “Ok… try this.  Just say £5 and a half million pounds!  That’ll get rid of them!  I’ll talk to them later and negotiate a sensible price”  -  “Ok…. Chris?  They’ve said yes!”

Bjorn Runstrom’s had an accident in training and his knee ligaments are messed up. It’s a shame for Runstrom, who, having expected a difficult first year, was keen to stay at Fulham (as opposed to a loan move somewhere) and fight for his place. I hope this injury doesn’t disrupt his acclimatisation, as his many fans think that Bjorn will be a goodun for Fulham in the end.

Best of luck, Bjorn.

This, of course, stretches resources even more.  If Collins John can be persuaded that money isn’t everything he’ll be off to Watford or Sheffield Utd, which’ll leave us with not much up front (assuming Montella’s not ready to thrive just yet).

Nothing on Eastwood rumours, he was supposedly at Portsmouth yesterday but we’ve heard very little from any of the many spies on the case.   Given the presence of three experienced forwards at the club now, if Coleman is still looking for a forward I’d guess that it’ll have to be a youngun (given the amount of time he’ll have to spend on the bench).  Ishmael Ehui was with the first team against Watford, perhaps he’ll get his chance to be the second reserve forward.

No more transfer news today, although Steve B claims to be wetting himself over something he can’t tell us about yet.  With this in mind I have leapt to the conclusion that David Beckham is about to sign.

Consider the facts:

• He is homesick;
• Before too long Posh will be out of the limelight more than she wants;
• We are linked with a midfielder, and Beckham’s right foot would surely cause Brian McBride to shudder uncontrollably in delight;
• Beckham would like to join a London team;
• But most London teams wouldn’t want him;
• He’s just the sort of shiny trinket Mr Al Fayed would love to possess, surely?
• And in fact, Hady says that Al Fayed is a friends with Posh;
• Posh would get involved in some kind of joint deal to promote Harrods;
• Which might help us with the wages somehow;
• His wages would be covered by all the shirts we’d sell to young Japanese people.

When you put it like that it’s surprising that the national press aren’t all over this one.

Back in the real world the mutterings are that Shaun Wright-Phillips is about to join us on loan.   He’s like a turbo-charged version of Routledge really. Barely 11 feet tall if one stood on the other’s shoulders, they both whizz around and cause havoc on the right wing.  Only Routledge hasn’t caused as much havoc as he looks like he could, and Wright Phillips has been a famous outcast at Chelsea.  He is now rich beyond his wildest dreams, but probably at the cost of a trip to the Germany World Cup, and perhaps even the best years of his career.  This sounds a bit extreme, but his game is all pace and blurred wizardry, and when those attributes go he might not have enough to offer.  So he needs to get back on track, and Fulham wouldn’t be a bad place to do it.  As ever, we shall see.

Cup draw: Leicester or Fulham v Stoke.

Which is a good thing.  As I said earlier in the week, this has the potential to be a good cup side, and all we need is a few home draws and a few of the better teams to knock each other out, and woof! we’re all of a sudden in a semi-final.    But first Leicester, who we should beat on our own patch, then Stoke, where the same applies.  Stoke are a decent enough side and going pretty well in the Championship, and if we were away I’d say it’s another 50/50 game.  But the home draw is everything and we should be too good for them.

Steve B has resurfaced on TFI and says that Onyewu was ‘very keen’ but ‘went cold’ the next day.  Last week it emerged that we had had to raise our offer to Standard Leige, which was supposedly accepted.  Now Onyewu must be persuaded that this is the club for him.  The rumours about Italian sides are still kicking around though, so this one has a while to go.

Chelsea’s Diarra failed to turn up at the appointed time on Saturday, so Frank Lampard had to play instead (he nabbed a hat-trick).  As such the Fulham brains were unable to get a final look at the Frenchman, so now the loan deal has gone from “almost certain” to “what now?”. 

The absence of any concrete rumours over Eastwood suggests to me that this one has been all mouth and no trousers all along.  A little excited wishcasting by some of us, some heavy paranoia from nervous Shrimpers, and the lack of any real evidence either way have all added to a cauldron of bubbling guesswork and half-hearted rumour, but when the dust settles and the metaphors are unmixed, I think Eastwood will be at Portsmouth.  Where he is today, if another rumour is to be believed.

We shall see (which is becoming something of a mantra around here).

The Leicester website is saying that replay tickets will be about £15 a throw, which isn’t too bad.  In fact it’s good, but I can’t help feel that this is what football should cost anyway.   A season ticket costs about the same as a pretty decent tv, and I know which my girlfriend would rather us spend our money on (doubly so given the shonky lil portable thing we have in the lounge… oh well).  

Match ticket prices are ludicrous really, but at least in the cosy confines of the Cottage we don’t have entire galleys of empty seats every week.  Other grounds aren’t so lucky, so while Man Utd and Chelsea can continue to sell out week after week, the ordinary clubs without multi-million pound marketing operations make do with what they can get, which in the case of Blackburn, Wigan and Middlesbrough means strangely muted grounds with sub-capacity attendances every week.  It’s not good. 

This is relevant because there are always rumblings about increases in capacity at the Cottage.  To which I wonder why?  We don’t sell out very often, but at least this way the ground gives the impression of fullness, which is a good thing atmosphere-wise.   For the costs of the additional seats we’d get a few extra people every few weeks.  I’m sure they’ll do their sums before building anything, and I’m sure it’ll be well done, but surely it’s time to consider another option: terraces. 

It’s not Fulham’s decision to take, but what if a small section of the ground were turned back into a terrace?  It need not be an old-style terrace - the authorities would throw that out straight away - but what if the old enclosure in front of the Stevenage Road stand were brought back?   I haven’t been around long enough to remember it, but if what I’ve seen is right then it can’t be beyond the realms of possibility.   The enclosure would be small enough that there’s no real slope to tumble down, and modern technology could ensure that all elements were soft… so steps would have rubberised corners, barriers have padding, etc, etc.  It would be very hard to make a case that people in the enclosure were in any danger whatsoever, it would increase capacity, and allow people to stand at football again. Tickets would have to be handly carefully, and it might even have to be a season ticket holders only affair, but this might be something that could be considered.   It would only add to the Cottage’s unique appeal, in my opinion.

Other odds and ends:

has any top level team looked as desperate as Charlton in recent memory?   Every year teams perform badly, but this is a combination of poor performance on and off the field, as well as a real sense of internal division (putting all the new signings up for sale, the rumours of ‘issues’ before Dowie left, for example).

you have to love the current Man Utd side.   The football they play is breathtaking, and with the addition of Larsen they now have another old school back to basics footballer.  With players like Neville, Vidic, Giggs, Scholes, Rooney, Larsen and possibly Hargreaves next year, you’ve got a really hard working team that just exudes controlled excellence.  And say what you will about Christiano Ronaldo, that lad can do almost everything a footballer needs to do.  Between them they’re fantastic.

Unlike Chelsea, who seem to be disappearing up their own backside.  The latest is that Peter Kenyon is on a mission in China, so won’t be around to negotiate transfers.  When the man responsible for putting your team together is off on a brand building mission in China, especially in the middle of the transfer window, surely you have to wonder if your club’s soul is still intact?    Perhaps Kenyon is off because there will be no more transfers.  If you can’t get it right spending £80 million in the off-season, do you deserve to spend any more money?

Well it all played out as you might have expected it to. Close first half, lower league side ‘up for it’, squander very good chance (Hume six yards out, leans back, in space (is that a Haiku?)), then better team take lead, flurry of goals, back to Fulham for replay.

Word is (and Coleman suggested this) that Leicester played very well, but Fulham were there too, sporting a young defence that included a debut making Elliot Omosuzi at right back, Ian Pearce and Carlos Bocanegra up the middle, and Liam Rosenior at left back. Jan Lastuvka was in goal.

The latter appears to be the subject of some consternation among the Fulham support, but I still haven’t seen convincing evidence either way on him. He appeared to make a good attempt on the Leicester first, a good header that he got a hand to but that flicked down off the bar. The late equaliser was a strange goal, Cadamarteri’s shot right into the top corner and Lastuvka not there in time. It might be that he could’ve anticipated this a little better, with the winger (who had just embarrassed Omosuzi’s attempt to shepherd the ball out of play) broke in Lastuvka might have shaded to his near post, and certainly Cadamarteri’s shot wasn’t hit hard… but it’s hard to judge these things. Whenever we see a goal that looks half-soft it’s the keeper we think of, and perhaps this is right on this occasion. The good news is that Antti Niemi will be back soon.

Elsewhere, the Brown and Volz partnership appeared to grow, with match of the day showing two killer through-balls from Brown (one that saw Routledge beat the ‘keeper but without keeping control, the other setting McBride through for the opener, the American clipping the ball firmly inside the near post) and a piledriver from Volz to make it 2-1. At this rate we’re not going to need midfield reinforcements for the forseeable future, as these two are doing it all. Omosuzi had his moments (he looked good when I saw him in the reserves the other week) and Pearce went off injured. This brought Zakuani in, which gave the back four an average age of not much at all.

Still, we’d expect to win the replay. Annoying that it’s another game to wear out the players, and more money to conjure from nowhere to watch the team, but c’est la vie. So yeah, good enough really, and as Sheffield Utd will agree, it could have been so much worse.

Okay, one more, there’s a game tomorrow.

For some time I entertained the possibility of going tomorrow, but a bank balance that HSBC will be charging me for said otherwise. I have a season ticket, I hope to go to West Ham next week, and I need to be happy with that. But holy mackerel, I want to see Montella’s first steps as a Fulham player. Never mind.

So anyway, the FA Cup. It’s an away draw, which is a killer really. I guess this makes the game round about 50/50, with us as slight favourites depending on how the ball bounces. The team is depleted, but reasonably well rested. Michael Brown is in charge out there, and the side should be fairly close to what we’ve been watching recently, except with Lastuvka in goal (still not sure about him, he has yet to make a decisive impression either way really, although his kicks go far) and Christenval nursing an ankle. This means either Pearce or Zakuani will step in.

I actually think we have the makings of a good cup side. What Coleman’s done is make us hard(er) to beat, and any team that can go into a cup tie with a reasonable shout at getting away without losing has to have a sniff. This Fulham side has “cup run” written all over it, which a) means we’ll probably lose tomorrow and b) is a shame because we’re already out of the Rumbelows Cup (or whatever it is now).

Fearless prediction: 1-1

Fourth Round: Home draw, please - it’s my birthday weekend!

Chris Coleman has appointed Michael Brown as club captain.  This is very much A Good Thing, and a fitting reward for Brown’s stirring displays in the middle of the park.   Boa was many things, but his captaincy was more decoration than inspiration, and it’s nice that we can now move forward with a real leader.

I like Brown.  Regular readers (and you are growing in number!) will know that I am a big Brown fan, despite having early reservations.  He is a great player for this club, and if he can be persuaded to start shooting again (he got goals at Sheffield Utd) then we’ll have an even better player.  He and Moritz Volz are performing wonders in the middle of the park at present.  Congratulations, Michael.