Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Why Ian Holloway’s take on Fulham’s struggles reveals the ignorance of the media
After Claudio Ranieri’s sacking, Ian Holloway made an appearance on to discuss Fulham’s failings this season.
In a classic example of the media’s utter ignorance towards Fulham Football Club, Holloway trotted out the oft-used line to deride Fulham’s summer business — the fact that the Whites spent £100 million and alienated their promotion-winning side in the process.
Because of Fulham’s massive expenditure, the reasoning goes, the Whites ruined the spirit of last season’s team and overspent on players that contributed to a collapse of team morale.
“When you spend that amount of money when you first go up, you could cause a problem in your dressing room,” Holloway said, going on to claim players who were on lesser wages than the new recruits would become unsettled.
Holloway suggested Slavisa Jokanovic should have stuck with the midfield trio of Stefan Johansen, Kevin McDonald, and Tom Cairney in the top flight — before showing a modicum of intelligence when he correctly concedes they would be nowhere near good enough for the quality of play.
His fallacious view fails to grasp the true situation: it wasn’t that Fulham bought too many players, it’s that the club bought the wrong players.
Following 26 May, when Fulham triumphed over Aston Villa at Wembley, the club faced a crisis.
The starting lineup that day featured Marcus Bettinelli in goal, a back four of Matt Targett, Tim Ream, Denis Odoi, and Ryan Fredericks, the aforementioned midfield trio, and a front three of Ryan Sessegnon, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Aboubakar Kamara.
On the bench were David Button, Rui Fonte, Floyd Ayite, Oliver Norwood, Tomas Kalas, Cyrus Christie, and Lucas Piazon.
Targett, Mitrovic, Kalas, Norwood, and Piazon all returned to their parent clubs. Fredericks left for West Ham United and Button was sold to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Of the 18 that brought Fulham up, just 11 remained in the aftermath of the Wembley victory. The squad was unbelievably threadbare: one first-team goalkeeper, two centre-backs, one back-up right-back, three central midfielders, three wingers, and a misfit striker — a team that would have been doomed for relegation from day one.
If Fulham had taken the pundits’ advice and not seriously strengthened their side, then the club would have been rightfully called out for a serious lack of ambition.
When they justifiably brought in 12 players to beef up an obviously weakened team, Fulham were instead lampooned for over-investment — a perfect indictment of the lack of research of the punditry.
And even with all this summer investment, clueless pundits would be surprised to learn that Fulham still stuck with the ‘core’ of their promotion-winning side in many instances — and have been totally found out for it as a result. Ream and Odoi have shockingly played in 44 combined league matches this season, being consistently exposed for their defensive deficiencies.
In the clearest instance of Fulham sticking with their Championship players and getting smashed, one must review their 4-2 away defeat to Cardiff in October. Ream and Odoi started at the back, McDonald and Johansen started in central midfield, Bettinelli was between the sticks, and along with Sessegnon and Mitro in attack, even Ayite came off the bench. Yet the Whites turned in a turgid performance and were sent packing from Wales.
An argument is there to be made that Fulham are perhaps too reliant on last season’s Championship-quality players, instead of the common, incorrect belief that they have discarded the 2017/18 team.
Cyrus Christie, a clear back-up in the second division, has played a mind-boggling 20 times in the league this year, along with Odoi, who was second choice to Kalas much of last season, making 26 appearances Premier League appearances to date.
The summer business was necessary, but deserves to be criticised. Not for the expenditure, but for the quality, as only Mitrovic and Calum Chambers can be considered overwhelmingly positive transfers.
There is no doubt that Tony Khan and Fulham made massive errors in the summer transfer market. But to blindly critique the Whites for spending big money is ignorant, as the criticism must instead focus on the quality of those who were brought in.