The news that both Larnell Cole and Ryan Tunnicliffe had
been shipped out on loan yesterday was greeted with relative scepticism amongst
the Fulham faithful particularly in Tunnicliffe’s case as he had already shown
signs of breaking in to the first team and providing some much needed younger
legs to an aging side. There is no doubt that both can still have promising
future’s with the club and it is important to remember that these are only loan
deals and have no option of becoming permanent. Clearly Felix Magath just feels
at this stage that neither is in his eyes going to start on a regular basis this
season and it would be beneficial for all parties if they can get football
elsewhere.
Felix has mentioned a number of times now that he feels the
current squad is too big and we may well still see a few more departing on loan
in the next week. The fact is our current squad is a hybrid of players brought
in across a number of managerial spells so in turn is not only on the large
side but also rather fractured. Of
course I have no concrete insight in to the daily goings on within our squad and
my ramblings are purely speculative but it would’t surprise me in the slightest
if our players have numerous cliques and
groups which in the situation we find ourselves in does little to encourage a
team bond or spirit as a whole.
One factor that I felt was particularly overlooked when
considering the the sacking of Rene Meulensteen was the significance of
dropping 2 senior players in Hangeland and Parker for the Man Utd and Liverpool
games. In fairness to Rene both Kvist and Burn performed amicably in their absence
but I can’t help but feel if the club captain and Parker were disgruntled at all
then they, if any player at the club, would have been able to communicate that
to various stakeholders and only add to applying pressure on the Manager. I
would of course like to believe that both are professional enough to get on
with it without any complaints although we all know about well documented player
power in recent years. At the end of the day it was results that were the major
factor in bringing yet another change in management although I am sure there
were other reasons which contributed.
In addition to the players that Jol brought including the
likes of Stekelenburg, Riise, Karagounis, Richardson, Dejagah and Reither we
now have a group of players within the squad from Rene’s time like Heitinga,
Holtby, Mitroglou, Kvist, Cole and Tunnicliffe. There are still a few Hodgson players kicking
about like Hangeland, Duff and Stockdale as well as Sidwell and Kacaniklic from
the Mark Hughes era. Each set of players was likely brought in to the club
under the impression of a certain football philosophy, a promise of game time
and an affiliation with the particular manager is it so hard to believe that
certain divides may exist within our squad?
Much has been reported about the methods Magath is seemingly
infamous for and what strikes me is that this ways of going about things is always
going to be far more effective in a tight knit group than in a large one and by
reducing the squad size the German is attempting to build some camaraderie and
fuse together a group of individuals for the battle that lies ahead. The one thing that we as a team need more than
anything at the moment is some consistency both in terms of team selection and
performance so Felix needs to identify the 18 or so players he sees as being
involved in the run in and get them to bond.
Again just to reiterate , I have no solid evidence of these
divides within the squad but was just a thought as to the reason why Felix is
looking to reduce the squad now for the remainder of the season. Less players
in a training session will hopefully mean a more hands on approach and allow us
to improve in areas that have perhaps been neglected in recent seasons. I always got the impression that Rene ran the club with one
hand tied behind his back in accommodating Wilkins and Curbishley but at the
very least we need to let Felix Magath be held accountable for his own choices
and just hope that another great escape is still on the cards.
All ifs buts and maybes, too much speculation and zero facts.
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