Craven Cottage Newsround

Sometimes we meet people we really respect. Our parents, maybe a couple of teachers and lecturers along the way, or perhaps someone at work. When around these people we’re always on our best behaviour, trying to make the right impression and trying to learn from them and the way they are.

These are people we admire, and, to an extent, want to be like. I used to work for one of the country’s largest market research agencies, and the deputy MD sat in our area. He was a nice man, a bright man, and a man who set a good example in any way you wanted to look. He did the right thing.

There was one year when I’d had a rough time at work, 2001 I think. My boss had noticed a few things I didn’t do very well. These were all legitimate issues and in the end I benefitted from her bringing them to my attention, but equally, being new in the industry, I felt she could’ve been a bit more constructive sometimes. It felt like a constant belittling and my confidence, never high in the first place, just disappeared.

It was a frighteningly low ebb: I stopped listening to music on the way to work because I thought maybe it was affecting my brain somehow; for the same reason I even stopped reading on my commute. In retrospect this seems mad, but I was making lots of mistakes (or was being told I was), they weren’t being tolerated, I and couldn’t understand why all this was happening. I thought maybe my brain was being messed up by all the other things I was interested in, that somehow there wasn’t enough room in there for these and for work. Stupid, yeah, but I didn’t know any better.

I remember that year my appraisal came around and I’d expected something terrible, but the deputy MD had contributed and said something to the effect of “Richard’s a bright lad and shouldn’t be so hard on himself”. That was it. Doesn’t sound like much, but given my extraordinary crisis of confidence it was probably the best thing I could’ve heard, doubly so because it came from the one person in the company I really respected. Suddenly I had a bit of belief. I respected my boss for what she could do at work, but there was nothing in her personality that I wanted in mine. The deputy MD though… I really wanted to be like him.

You get the impression that Brian McBride is the sort of person who could make a difference to younger players, to his teammates. Someone who just gets it, who does the right thing under all circumstances, who treats people well, and who is respected by anyone he’s ever played with. You hear anecdotes: Jimmy Bullard said that he’d play a practical joke on anyone but McBride; just last week we heard on TiFF that a young player had decided to come to Fulham (despite other choices) because of how welcome McBride had made him feel when he visited; countless fans have bumped into McBride and all are glowing in their praise; he’s class.

On the pitch he brought that presence to our forward line. He was a leader. You didn’t see McBride talking to the referee much, and if he did you knew he was probably right. And he was greater than the sum of his parts: he wasn’t quick but he was generally where he had to be; if a ball was there to be won he won it, or gave everything trying; he scored goals, good ones too.

How important he must have been to the squad during that precarious escape. Roy Hodgson must’ve been delighted to have such a man out there fighting for his team. Now he’s leaving. It’s tempting to wish we had a 25 year old McBride here, to wonder how good he might have been given a different footballing education, but each of us is what we are because of the roads we’ve travelled, and McBride became McBride by taking the route he did. We are very lucky that this journey included Fulham, and wish him well in whatever’s next. A great Fulham player.

Ireland beat Columbia 1-0 at Craven Cottage last night. Robbie Keane - who has enjoyed playing at the Cottage in the past - got the goal.

Blerim Dzemaili released by Bolton. So? I hear you say. Well we’ve been linked with him.

Gillingham confirm that there will be no friendly against Fulham. Good. Very wise.

Many teams want Steve Davis. If there’s one thing I hate it’s sites like Fans FC passing on these stories as if they’ve got the inside info. Clearly it’s come to them third hand, or they’ve read it in the papers. So why not say so? Otherwise it just looks made up. Still, I thought I’d pass it on in the spirit of showing that there’s demand out there for him. Loaning him out was a very shrewd move.

We’re linked with Marlon Harewood. So are Stoke. Which seems more likely. More of a Sanchez type players I’d have said. I saw him years ago when he was on loan from Forest to Ipswich. Looked quite tidy then. A sort of middle of the road forward, one who won’t score many but does quite a few things well. We could do worse, but I suspect we could do just as well for a better price if we shop abroad.

Some Chicago Fire players talk about the possibility of Brian McBride returning.

More Steve Davis, this time from a real publication. It says that Walter Smith will offer us Daniel Cousin as part of the deal. Stresses that West Ham are interested. Hmmm.

And here’s Rob on Brede Hangeland for captain. Why not? Someone’s got to do it, and ideally someone you expect to be in the team all year. I like Hangeland and think he’d make a good captain.

Finally, a TiFF poster says that Southampton sources say that Chris Baird’s going back to Saints on a season long loan if Roy can’t offload him permanently this summer.

And now I really should prepare for my presentation….

Lots more, including what this is about, here.

The Fulham boys certainly played their part tonight. It was a dire game and our players contributed fully to this.  Perhaps that’s unfair.  But watching the game was unusual; the first time I’ve been able to observe our players as a ‘neutral’.

Carlos Bocanegra is no longer our responsibility, but I felt that he looked slow and cumbersome tonight.

Clint Dempsey really didn’t get into the game. He had quite a lot of touches, but was unable to contribute much. His defensive work was mixed: a couple of nice headers and tackles, but a couple of times when he dwelled on the ball on the edge of his own box and could have been punished. Going forwards he linked up fairly well, but none of his shots were dangerous, he didn’t win any headers in the box, and his passing was not penetrating. Still, he’s put in a good shift for Fulham this year and has earned a summer break.

Eddie Johnson may well have encouraged Roy. In the context of the game - namely that the US really didn’t have much joy from the England defenders - Johnson did alright. He linked up nicely, made a nuisance of himself in the air, and took his best chance well. This was a tricky ball, bouncing, skidding, behind him, on his left foot… he swivelled and pummeled sweet half volley just wide of the post. Nice strike. The old concerns about his movement, his instincts, and his overall presence remain, but I liked what I saw.

Or is this just me encouraging the one player who hasn’t quite made it at Fulham? I do that sometimes.

Link here.

Photos here.

Brian McBride has informed Fulham Football Club of his decision to leave the Club. The American striker, who has made over 150 appearances for the Whites and scored 40 goals, bid farewell to the Club’s staff after discussing his future with Fulham Manager Roy Hodgson at Fulham’s Training Ground.

By way of a eulogy, here’s what Bruce of DuNord wrote about McBride in last year’s Fulham Review:

Brian McBride (signed January 04) - The quiet all-American athlete with the long blond hair held out of his eyes by a string. You could just tell he was going to run all day and try to jump right over the stands to get onto every ball. He paid the price many times using his head as a battering ram, even when he knew it might break again. His first professional gig was at Wolfsburg in Germany, but when the new pro league started up in the USA he quickly headed home. He was the first young player brought in for the start of Major League Soccer, and was promoted as the future of American soccer. After massive instant success he twice left us to play for other teams in England, Preston and then Everton. But both times he returned to Columbus unsatisfied and hungry for more. By then he had become a star for the USA, and the third time abroad was the charm.

Which really sums him up very well I think. Thanks for everything, Brian.

Promised land of promotion comes at a steep price

says the Guardian’s David Conn.  Great read.

Remember we got onto the shortlist for the New Football Pools best blog award?  Well after a long delay Kopblog has been announced as the winner:

Another accolade for Merseyside - Kopblog received the most nominations in this award category. Frequently updated with news, match previews, well written articles and reports, Kopblog is a passionate take on the life and times of Liverpool FC.

Here’s the blog itself.   Serious congratulations are in order.  It’s a very nice looking site, in a different league to some of the other nominees presentation-wise (including this one!).

My favourite on the shortlist was The 100 Football Grounds Club, but I can see how the organisers would’ve wanted to hang their hat on a team-specific site.   200percent is, for me, comfortably the best football blog out there, but didn’t get nominated.  Which is a shame.

Ah well.  Maybe next year.   On a brighter note, it’s been a great year for Fulham blogs hasn’t it?  Hopefully everyone will stick at it next season.

No surprise.

Stockdale due to sign today, I believe.

Oh for f*&!’s sake.

Not that we have a right to the World Cup in 2018, but we haven’t hosted the thing since 1966! I’m as quick to point out England’s ghastly sense of self-importance in the world of football as anyone, but really that’s down to the players and administrators involved with the game in this country: as an important football nation we ought to be hosting the tournament at some point. Every other major nation has had it since us, some more than once. We made a mess of things in the build up to the 2006 bid (tried to weasle out of a gent’s agreement with Germany), but come on…

Best songs of the season (found via With A Plum)

Some good ones:

“Oh Moses, whoah oh-oh,
Oh Moses, whoah oh-oh,
He comes from Norbury,
He parted the Red Sea.”
Victor Moses is highly rated at Crystal Palace.

“Does your livestock know you’re here?”
Colchester fans to Norwich.

Newcastle (Happy Days theme tune):
“Sunday, Monday, Habib Beye
Tuesday, Wednesday, Habib Beye
Thursday, Friday, Habib Beye
Saturday, Habib Beye, rocking all week with you!”

Leeds fans (to the tune of Kaiser Chiefs’ Oh My God):
“Oh my God I can’t believe it, we’ve never been this good away from home!”

and many more, including our own Bullard one (but not the crossbar song).

John Strohm, former Blake Babies guitarist, is doing his band memoirs online. To someone like me this is gold dust:

Juliana had corresponded a bit with Rollins, or perhaps she’d sent him letters without response. She’d been fairly obsessively listening to his entertaining spoken word tapes for weeks in the van. Before the tour she’d written to him and invited him to the show, and to her stunned amazement he’d actually shown up. When we played, Rollins stood stock still in front of the stage with his massive arms folded across his chest. Juliana was so nervous she could barely sing. Moments after we finished Rollins loaded our gear out and kindly invited us to stay at his Venice bungalow. Freda and I followed the van in the Ryder truck, giddy with excitement. Juliana hadn’t even told us that she’d invited him – his presence was a total surprise.

Rollins’ place was surprisingly tidy and grown-up: except for a room filled with thousands and thousands of CDs and albums, the place looked like it could belong to a Spartan yuppie. Freda and I crashed on a pull-out futon while Juliana and Rollins retreated to his bedroom. I have no idea what occurred behind closed doors, nor did I particularly want to know. The next morning Rollins came out wearing only a tiny pair of athletic shorts – tattoos and muscles on full display. Freda and Juliana ogled him shamelessly as he made fun of my canvas sneakers and pressured me to come lift weights in his garage. I politely declined. He asked me to make a pot of coffee and, assuming Rollins drank a strong brew, I heavy-handed it to the tune of approximately double-strength. I handed him a cup and he took a sip and immediately spat it in the sink. “You call this COFFEE??” he bellowed. “Pour that shit out and I’ll show you how to brew a MAN’S pot of coffee!!!” His brew was about three times as strong as mine, and it kept me in a manic state of agitation for the entire visit.

Which probably means nothing to anyone, but I found it very interesting.   On the one hand the series has been full of really great insights into a band I loved.  On the other Strohm’s suggesting that frail ol’ Juliana Hatfield, the most famous virgin (possibly) in music (in the mid 90s anyway), was at some point in bed with the giant Henry Rollins.  Or maybe he’s not suggesting that at all.  But his writing raises the possibility, and now I’m wondering about it.

It’s funny isn’t it? These days everything’s about celebrity, and I find it completely repellent. But when I find idle nothingness from someone I’m interested in, well, I’m lapping it up.

I suppose in the same way that it’s easy to laugh when Ashley Cole writes a book about his career at the age of 23, it’s interesting to read one of the Brian Clough books available to us. It’s all about choosing your subject or interest wisely.

Where am I going with this? I’m not sure. Perhaps this is about looking beyond the obvious; why Claude Makalele is more interesting to watch than Didier Drogba, why Craven Cottage is great and why Wembley was better before they knocked it down.  And isn’t it funny how the Premier League, the league Richard Scudamore wants to sell to the world, will feature such fixtures as: Wigan v Hull; Middlesbrough v Stoke; Bolton v Fulham? Hmmm.  That’s a face only a mother could love. People won’t pay for that.

I still don’t know where this is going. Perhaps we need some news.

Clint gets wet training for Wednesday’s game (Brian found this link):

Great team-talks of our time:  Benito Mussolini:

You athletes of all Italy have particular duties.  You must be tenacious, chivalrous and daring.  Remember that when you take part in contests beyond our borders, there is then entrusted to your muscles, and above all to your spirit, the honour and prestige of the national sport. You must hence make use of all your energy and of your willpower in order to obtain primacy in all struggles on the earth, on the sea, and in the sky.

This from David Goldblatt’s excellent “The ball is round”, which is a global history of football.  Very good.

More transfer rumours.  I think you have to look at a few screeners before deciding if someone’s coming to Fulham.  Simply put, why would he join us?

Money: would we offer more money than a rival club?

Competition: can we offer him play in a competition that a rival club cannot?

First team football:  can we offer him first team football that a rival club cannot?

Connections:  does he know someone here, either a player or the manager?

Another reason:  does he want to move to London?  Does he like old stadia?  Does his wife want to move to London?  Does his wife like old stadia?

So for Schwarzer we have part 3 (first team football), part 4 (Mike Kelly), and possibly part 5 (London).  And maybe part 1 (money).

Last year’s signings were mainly about 4 (Sanchez) and presumably 1 (money).

Djibril Cisse?  Money?  Possibly, but that probably wouldn’t do it alone.  Competition?  No, he’s at a big club in France and has more opportunities to play in exciting European competitions there.  First team football?  He could get that anywhere.  Connections?  Samir Nasri’s going to Arsenal… which is in London.  No, I don’t think that works.  So that leaves us with something else.  I don’t think he’s played for Roy, or with any of our other players (possibly Danny Murphy at Liverpool).   You have to say it’s unlikely, given that whatever we could offer, someone like West Ham or Portsmouth could offer to a greater degree.  Unless Roy can pull something off.

Bernard Mendy’s easier:  money?  Possibly.  Competition?  Premiership might be a goal of his.  First team football?  Possibly.  Connections?  Dunno.  Another reason?  The first three could’ve already secured this one.  So it’s very possible.

Anyway, you get the idea.  Something to chew on.

Finally, some excellent looking friendlies for the reserves:

Sat 12th July
Walton Casuals (Away) 3.00pm

Tues 15th July
Staines Town (Away) 7.45pm

Tues 22nd July
Banstead Athletic (Away) 7.30pm

Sat 26th July
Carshalton Athletic (Away) 3.00pm

Fri 1st August
Kingstonian (Away) 7.45pm

I might well try to do Walton Casuals, which is on the trainline to my work.  The others might be too far away.

We might not even be looking to sign the bloke, but here’s a recent compilation of his Marseille goals.   A fantastic mix of thumping headers, scorching runs off the last defender, and finishes where he’s just belted the thing as hard as he can.  The man’s seriously good.   And yes, it is only the French league.  But there are fewer goals per game in that league than most.

Like I say, we might not even be in for him, but no harm in watching a few goals on a cold and wet Monday afternoon, eh?

“I haven’t made my mind up about my future.

“It’s difficult to comment on at the minute because I have to speak to Fulham and see what their thoughts are.

“All I will say is that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Rangers.

“I think the club is on the up again, they are progressing well and if I’m part of it next season then that will be great.”

Steve Davis really wants to stay at Rangers.

The Mendy thing seems to be gathering steam.

I’m trying to hype this up!   We’re 90% there.  I’m expecting contributions up until early June so we’ll probably make it available then.  That’s an Ormondroyd photograph on the cover there, from the away end at Fratton Park.   The use of the Great Escape phrasing seems lazy, but what else do you call it?   I’ve tried to borrow from the film font (e.g. used capital letters).   Going for a white background this year so as to make the various editions distinct from one another.   All good stuff.