Craven Cottage Newsround

UEFA 2008:  77 goals in total, 18 of them in the final five minutes.

In the first round, 16 games, seven goals came after the 90th minute.

Is this a change in football?  How will it affect Fulham?  Will Roy just keep it tight again then throw on forwards late on if we’re behind?  Interesting to ponder.

Look what Marseille are doing with this year’s kit:

At first I thought the fellow had a Newcastle shirt on underneath, but no, it’s the city crest or somesuch.  Perhaps we could do the same.

I’ve just cycled 17 miles to work. Or it would’ve been 17 miles had I not got lost twice. Saddle Sore City, Arizona, etc.

If only Germany had had David Healy, eh?

Same Simunic comments again:

“I’m sure we can work something out with Fulham. They’re a huge club, I’ve the greatest respect for them. But right now, I need a break from all things football. All will be clear in the next couple of weeks.”

Good man.

The Telegraph has a few odds and ends about our prospects: they’re optimistic but don’t appear to know anything we don’t.

Two more rumours I haven’t reported: Newcastle want Konchesky, and we’ll turn that money into Paul Robinson of West Brom. Liverpool want Antti Niemi as a backup, which makes a bit of sense for everyone.

The excellent Martin Kelner on Alan Shearer’s nothingness. Spot on (and cheers to Mart for the link).

There’s a new mole in town and - if he’s to be believed - we’ve got more good info:

1) Simunic likely

2) We’ve bid £5million or so for Vaclav Sverkos of Czech Republic. He’s the fellow who shinned in the goal that beat Switzerland. This is funny for me because I remember watching that match and visualising him in a Fulham shirt. Really. I have a thing about Czech footballers.

3) Roy has four players he wants to sign, one of whom is likely to be a loan. He has £15 million, so £10 m for Simunic and mystery player 1.

4) Roy is happy with Andreasen and Andranik (hmmm, the And brothers) as defensive midfielders, so won’t be spending there.

5) He’s after a centre-back (Simunic, we think), a right back (?), a left midfielder (?) and a centre-forward (Sverkos, it seems).

6) He is actively trying to shift the squad’s dead wood. We thought that might be hard, didn’t we?

7) The Kitson and Harewood stuff is made up. As predicted, Roy will look to get better value elsewhere. We asked about Darren Bent and ran a mile when Spurs gave us a price. Good that we asked though, eh?

8 - I think that’s it.

[UPDATED TO REFLECT LARGE SQUAD] Possible frequent players:

Schwarzer - various

New RB - Hangeland - Simunic - Konchesky - Hughes…. Omozusi/Leijer/Watts/etc

Davies - Bullard - Murphy - Gera - Andreasen - Andranik- Dempsey - Gera - Proper left winger

Nevland - Healy - Sverkos - Kamara - Johnson

Which says that we’re alright at the back (assuming Simunic is coming), midfield is still crowded (how’s he going to pick four or five out of that lot? Especially if there’s another player coming) and that we have numbers up front but perhaps not the reliable goalscorer/all purpose superstar we want. Still, encouraging enough. Looking at all that I just can’t see a front two season. It does look as though we’ll see either one up or split strikers, the dropping off player being (I presume) Gera (or Dempsey). Who knows though, this is no more than idle speculation.

I was just browsing my World Soccer and saw Jan Lastuvka’s name (Czech squad possibles list).  So I surfed around and ended up at Wikipedia:

According to the Ukrainian League regulations there have to be four domestic players on the field. Because of this rule they didn’t want to take Laštůvka back. So he went on a loan to German side VfL Bochum until the end of the 2007-2008 season to replace his compatriot Jaroslav Drobný, who left the club for Hertha BSC Berlin.

Laštůvka started the season as first keeper. But after some mistakes his position was threatened by the reserve keepers. After an injury third keeper René Renno got his place. Ironically second goalkeeper Philipp Heerwagen had a minor injury at that time. Renno started quite well but also made some mistakes before the winter break. So coach Marcel Koller claimed that all three keepers started at zero in the preparations for the second season half. After the winter break Laštůvka was first keeper again and started with a very good match against Werder Bremen which was rewarded with a nomination in the ‘Team of the Day’ by Germany’s leading football magazine Der Kicker. However, he couldn’t stabilise his performance and even lost for a few matches his position in the goal again. However, at the end of the season Bochum was interested to sign him but due to the high transfer fee (4 million Euro) they decided to sign the Portuguese keeper Fernandes from PAOK F.C.. Laštůvka will return to Shakhtar Donetsk in the coming season.

Trivia

He studied philosophy for a time at the University of Kiev.

Oh well.  Hopefully his studies will have helped him deal with the whole ‘troubled goalkeeper’ thing.

The path to enlightenment will lead through Championship At Best.   Did you know that Fulham forwards score twice as frequently as subs than as starters?

The Fulham Chronicle says that Croatia’s Simunic is definitely in talks, but won’t be signing for a couple of weeks.  Good player, so good news, if it happens.

This is the new Barcelona home shirt.  What do you think?  I like it.   Sure, it’s not stripey, but you see that and you think “Barcelona” (or Basel, but still).  I might get one: when we were out there a couple of weeks back the old kit was full price, so I wasn’t about to go for that, but now…

Also, the Fulham Review is almost ready.  I got my final proof back today, read it all, and am happy.  I’ll get a load printed next week.   Yay.

I have recently been harping on about Djibril Cisse of Marseille.  Here is my thinking:

Brian forwarded me this link from the UEFA technical committee (on which Roy sits).  They have observed that a third of goals in Euro 2008 have come on the counter attack.  This is how the game’s going, and how Italy were able to frustrate Spain: by keeping a back four and at least two screening players back most of the game, there was no space for Spain to run in and through.  Spain had well over a dozen shots, but most were off target because Spanish attackers generally had Italian defenders in their faces when shooting.

It also gives us a clue about Russia’s heavyish defeat to Spain in the groups:  Russia, we now see, are a very attack minded team.  They commit men to attack, play some wonderful passing football, but leave space behind them.  Spain, small but very quick (both in running and moving the ball) gobbled this up and scored four.  This simplifies things enormously but is broadly what seems to have happened, and may very well happen again in tomorrow night’s game.

Anyway, this is football.  As the UEFA people say, teams are setting up with four defenders, and often two holding midfielders.  I suspect that Roy’s thinking along these lines too, and we will presumably see some quite tight football on occasion, but football that can explode into life when allowed to.  So Diomansy Kamara will be important, Danny Murphy would appear to be important in setting off such attacks, and Leon Andreasen should play more than he did in the run in.  It still means we need pace up front.

Not just pace though, because Kamara can give that.  We need a complete player, which is where Cisse comes in.  He’s fast, strong, shoots early and often, can head the ball, chase long stuff, work with short stuff; in short he’s the archetypal counter-attacking centre-forward.  He’s also the player Eddie Johnson needs to be.  If we’re spending big money it needs to be on a big talent player.   For me, that player is Cisse.

Wow - £11 million? Bolton favourites but we’re sniffing around.

Give it to Cisse! If we sign him I’ll buy all three shirts with his name on them. Possibly. Elmander doesn’t strike me as being a star player, but perhaps this is the going rate for solid international forwards.

Jerson Dos Santos. It’s an exciting footballing name, if nothing else. He’s 17, but maybe one for the future.

Setanta says we’re one of a number of clubs looking at Poland midfielder Mariusz Lewandowski.

This is he:

Also, someone on TiFF says that they have solid information that we’ve signed Steve Finnan.  So that’s nice, if true.  The archetypal understated fullback.  We shall see though.   Pre-season starts next week I think, so I guess we’ll see a bit of movement between now and then.

As you may know, I’m a bit of an Airness fan, so I thought I’d pass along their latest shirts: Le Havre.

It doeslook a bit weird at first, but it’s growing on me, it really is.

The away could work with our black and white.

Courtesy of Football Shirt Culture (see links).

Roy (or perhaps MAF) wants full value for Steve Davis.

“I know Rangers are interested in buying him and they have made bids which, so far, we have not found acceptable.  He will only leave if a club matches our valuation.   Every player has his price but, as far as we are concerned, Steven is still part of our squad and he will be welcomed back here.”

Which is sound negotiating, if nothing else.

The club’s signed Chris Smalling.  He’s an England U18 centre-half, and had originally decided to join Middlesbrough.   Supposedly going to be a bit good.

The greatest music ever put down on record. I first heard this late at night in the carpark at Blockbuster Video, Camberley. It was John Peel’s show, Hade was dropping off the video, so I sat there in the dark, transfixed. At the end of the record Peel said something about James Brown (who’s on the record too), and I spend about ten years looking under “James Brown” in record shops for this song. No luck. Eventually the internet came along and, eventually I was able to work out what I was really looking for. Well worth the wait. The rest of the album it’s on I can take or leave but this… wow.

Today Barra suggested that we’re in for Marlon Harewood, then we got word that Harewood’s committing himself to Villa. So that’s probably not happening, assuming it ever was. Sounds like a Roy smokescreen while he hoovers up some Norwegian wunderkinds on the sly. Barra also mentioned Simic of Croatia, but I suspect he meant Simunic, who is big, tough, and left footed. Ideal partner for Hangeland.

Not much else happening. Roy still on holiday watching football, everyone else sitting at home waiting for his next signing. And come to think of it, nobody’s been sold yet, either.

I wonder what Roy’s reading on his hols.   I’ve just ordered a used copy of Schultz by JP Donleavy, which Roy mentioned during The Great Escape.   The Ginger Man (by the same author) is excellent fun, and still in print (unlike Schultz).   Crockatt & Powell have copies in stock.

After 70 minutes Spain had had 15 shots, 2 on target.   I know people don’t always like the statistics in football, but does that not show just how masterful the Italian defence has been today?  And how dedicated too: there have always been at least seven of them back.

New idea for referees:  every ‘foul’ ask yourself - “would I have awarded a penalty if that had occurred in the area?”  If no, don’t give the bloody free-kick.  I’m tired of silly free kick breaking up play, I’m tired of double standards inside and outside the box.

Germany beat Portugal.  Germany played full strength throughout the groups, Portugal didn’t.
Turkey beat Croatia.  Turkey played full strength throughout the groups, Croatia didn’t.
Russia beat Holland.   Russia played full strength throughout the groups, Holland didn’t.

Is there something to be said for not resting players?

The Russians used the ball as it’s meant to be used.   Games like that make me feel lucky to be a football fan, lucky to have a television.  Beautiful football.   The only shame is that they didn’t score a fourth goal to better represent their brilliance.   This Holland team had swept all aside to get to this game; it has just been absolutely trounced. Football, eh?