This was my first Mark Hughes memory, and to my nine year old mind it was just about the best goal imaginable. A bouncing ball, several feet off the ground, suddenly thrashed into the top corner from Hughes’ wonderfully judged volley. For him it was probably just one of those moments, see the ball,...
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This morning’s Times says that Mark Schwarzer is probably going to Arsenal as soon as we get a manager, and that West Ham’s Robert Green may be the man to replace him. No issues with this, but what it did make me realise is that there are probably other dominoes waiting to fall, we...
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Murphy missed pen 5, no goals. Team: Stockdale; Stoor (Kamara 76, Smith 79), Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky; Duff (Davies 45), Etuhu (Baird 45), Murphy (Kelly 63), Riise (Elm 45); Gera (Greening 63), Zamora (E.Johnson 76). Would have loved to be there. I was going to go to Sweden to do some more research early in...
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“The chairman is obviously confident that we will have someone in place but we won’t be rushed into making a decision. “There is no deadline. The chairman wants to make sure that he has the right man for the job and will make that decision as and when he sees necessary. “We have our...
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Hurray! We’re sold out! I was hugely proud of this year’s book, easily the biggest and best yet, so it’s great that it has found its way into as many hands as possible. We’ve about eight 2007/08 Great Escape reprints left, and a few more of the other two (2006/07 and 2008/09). So if...
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In today’s Times Literary Supplement, in an unlikely article about a book about small African gold weights, David Attenborough notes an old Ghanaian proverb: “It is unwise to rub bottoms with a porcupine”. I think we can all see the wisdom in that, never moreso than today. But on reflection, I’m increasingly inclined to...
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Which, translated, means “I have played a blinder here and got exactly what I wanted from Ajax while leading Fulham along like a… well, anyway”.
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It feels like something out of a film. Our hero, a brown suited underslept journalist played by Jake Gyllenhaal, sits in the office, shooting screwn up paper into waste bins, getting ribbed by Robert Downey Jr and under pressure from his domineering boss (played by an older man with white hair). “Get me the story!”...
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I was digging around the internet looking for Martin Jol’s transfer dealings when Ken V on TIFF posted the following, which lists them all. Some of the dealings, then: 2004/05 in: Paul Stalteri (free), Andy Reid (£4m), Michael Dawson (£4m), Michael Carrick (£2.75m), Pedro Mendes (£2m) 2004/05 out: Simon Davies (£3m), Kasey Keller (£.5m)...
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Tremendous picture from Simon Shaw here: Which was taken during a stadium tour shortly after this game. Interesting on a few levels (“Boa always over the ball” is intriguing in its insistence, and much else of good ponderability there too)… you’d assume that players might remember these sorts of details, but if writing...
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NEW TOOFIF WEBSITE At long last the award-winning Fulham fanzine has its own website check out www.toofif.co.uk for the web-based extension to the enduring magazine. NEVER SEEN TOOFIF? Well check out the website to see what the fuss is all about it’s an independent view of Fulham FC by the fans and...
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The Fulham Chronicle says so.
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Like the Two Ronnies’ policemen whose toilet had been stolen, at this point we still have nothing to go on. I wonder if part of this is candidates taking a realistic look at what Fulham are, what Fulham can be, and backing off. Yes, we’re a Premier League side, and yes we’ve recently made...
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For whatever it’s worth, the team tonight was: Fulham: Stockdale (Etheridge 77); Stoor (Marquez 86), Hangeland (Hughes 45), Kelly, Konchesky (Smith 45); Duff (Davies 45), Greening (Harris 77), Baird (Marsh-Brown 63), Riise (Saunders 63); E. Johnson (Trotta 79), Elm (Gera 45). Which probably tells us little about anything, given World Cup holidaymaker absences. David...
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Here it is:We’ll pass by the marketing speak (a v-neck bringing personality?) to conclude that the shirt looks really good. Nice one, and a relief to be rid of those Nike templates. What do you think?
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The 2010 World Cup finals have drawn to a close. Unlike Richard, I can’t say I’ve particularly enjoyed it. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I just didn’t see enough live games but this tournament failed to generate the excitement I’ve felt with previous years. There were moments though; Ghana did Africa proud, Germany entertained,...
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Spain it is then. A lot of commentary seems to revolve around the quality of the tournament (or lack thereof), but I’ve enjoyed the games and felt that it was a worthy World Cup. The final wasn’t quite the spectacle many had in mind, but the Dutch approach to tackling set Howard Webb intriguing...
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It was 1986. Mum and Dad bought a video recorder, which enabled us to watch Mexican time football after school in England. One of my first memories was waking up and finding a note on my pillow: “England won. Gary Lineker scored a hat-trick” and if that doesn’t set you up for the day...
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(Halmstads BK, 1978) One of the outtakes from the book (what with me having no rights on the picture and all). Anyway, the club’s going on a pre-season tour of Sweden, playing Halmstads and Malmo. I was going to go on a similar trip to research the Roy part of the Fulham Review, but...
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Further to Chopper’s excellent work, the field is thinning out and we seem to be left with a shortlist of Sven, Slaven Bilic and Mark Hughes. Sven, as I’ve said elsewhere, would be the continuity choice. He learned the game in Sweden at a time when Roy and Bob Houghton were very influential. Sven...
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