Craven Cottage Newsround

I’m back.  Knackered but back.   Bath was quite nice, although my streak of nights in a hotel without sleeping has now increased to two.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Meanwhile, back at Fulham, Mido is now off the menu.   Word is that he and Fulham were unable to agree on what he should be paid.  Fine, move along.    Everyone has a price, Mido’s is higher than what Sanchez thinks he’s worth, so that’s that.

There’s nothing else.  The Korean chap at Reading whose name escapes me has been linked with us, but I can’t see the point in this particularly.

There’s a bit on the offal about how we should be aiming for the top ten.  Volzy’s behind it I think.   I mentioned this on TFI, but I got really fed up with this top ten target, which I think is silly.   The goal should be to win every match, and if, by winning games, you go up the league, that’s great.  All we heard last year was “top ten”, “top ten” and on and on and on.  Coleman really seemed to believe that we were on the edge of being in this wonderful kingdom.   Which we were, had we managed to win any games.

A number of Fulham players have said that they learned last year how important it is to appreciate the value of every football match, and not to think “well there’s always next week”.  Isn’t this the same problem?   If your goal is a vague one (”top ten”) you always know that there’s another chance to reach it next week.  I’m not suggesting that the team didn’t try to win every game - of course they did - but I question this blasted “top ten” mantra.   Shoot Magazine always used to do interviews with players where they asked soft questions:  who’s the joker?  Have you any superstitions?   Do you set yourself targets?  I remember to the latter someone suggested that he didn’t set targets.  What, he wondered, would he do when he reached it?  Stop scoring?  And so it is with Fulham.  Just win matches and see where it gets you.

Apologies for that minor rant, but it annoyed me last year.