I'm seeing reports online saying that we're about to announce Steve Clarke as manager. If that's true ... I'm not sure what I think. Not necessarily an exciting appointment, but a better one than most of the alternatives being bandied around in the last few days. He seemed very good when he first went to West Brom, but things fizzled out for him there, if I'm remembering rightly. Time will tell.
I tend to agree with you Captain on this one. Not a very exciting prospect, but if true time will tell. Khan defiantly does not seem to have the all guns blazing as Mo did in his early days.
To the extent that he spent the the last 6 months of his second season with them (2013/14) on 'gardening leave'. please log in to view this image
If he does become Head Coach, I wonder if he will bring Kevin Keen with him? Keen (an old mate of Curbishley) isn't new to Fulham of course - he took over our U18s from Steve Wigley in July 2014. That was a period when a new cycle of youngsters were being introduced so it's difficult to judge him and anyway he moved on after only 6 months. To re-join Clarke as Assistant Manager, this time at Reading when Clarke took over there in December 2014. The pair of them had previous together, at West Brom.
Bit underwhelmed by decision if that is what it is but he does have more experience than Kit and did ok at West Brom - and Reading till we made them wobble. I'm still perplexed that to sack Kit with no idea of who to replace him with seems strange to say the least. Clark isn't the most ambitious addition and I'm not sure he's as much of an improvement on Kit as I would have liked. Still, I'll back him. He's not terrible. He's got a good squad to work with and a fresh approach might be just what we need.
He wouldn't have been my first choice, he hadn't crossed my mind until his name cropped up in the papers, but I would be happy with his appointment. At the very least, he is an upgrade on Kit but from a similar mould - decent guy, maybe not the best motivator, but has long experience of working under high level tactically experienced managers. He will appeal to Khan and Rigg because of how he worked at WBA - this article gives an insight http://www.skysports.com/football/n...-steve-clarke-concerned-with-west-broms-depth, especially this section from deadline day; "It's a good squad, but they do need some help. At the moment I can't say I'm confident of landing any player. Time is short, I'm getting a little nervous, but hopefully something will come. "Rather than for me as a present, it would be a nice gift to the squad I have here. "My job as head coach is different. I'm not a manager, I don't have a budget, I can't decide who I'm going to go after. The contract of a head coach is such the club has the final say on who comes in and out of the club. It's the same in my case. "I can make recommendations, but it's down to the club to bring those players in. My job is to train the players I have. Is it frustrating not to have your squad together before the season starts? Yes. "Is it frustrating to be sitting here now not having made a big-name signing, or a big-cash buy during the summer? Yes. "But my job is to get over that and make sure the players we do have here go out and give their best for the club. That's what I have to do." The club did splash out, a tidy £12.5m, on Anichebe and Sessignon to replace Lukaku who had been the main threat the season before. I think this is where a defence of him begins. The team then went on a very poor run after that and he eventually left with wage expenditure (at that point the highest in club history) as one of the factors in the decision. I think that's a bit harsh really, he'd done very well the year before, picking up manager of the month at one point, the club then controls the transfer policy over the summer, along with its expenditure, provides him with substandard replacements at inflated prices (which is not going to galvanise the players) and then sack him when it all turns to ****. In the time since they were signed Anichebe and Sess, combined, have scored less goals than Lukaku did in his one season. I don't know that we need too many new players now, but we do need a coach to get the best out of them. It could also be good news for Dembele given that Stevie C worked with Drogba at Chelsea and Lukaku averaged nearly a goal every two games under him at WBA.
'He wouldn't have been my first choice'. I suspect that's something that most of us would echo, Silkship. Then again, how many of us had Roy as our first choice to replace Sanchez? I think I'm coming round to the idea: I'd now describe myself as moderately satisfied with the appointment if it comes. As Fulham COYW says, we need to back him - or whoever else gets the job - and give them the chance to show us what they can do, not get on their backs and start moaning as soon as they hit the first setback.
Think Clarke fits the Rigg profile of being more of a Head Coach then an all controlling Manager. If he does get the post, then like anyone who gets the post I will be behind them if they entertain me and get Fulham to compete with the top teams in this league. I don't agree with Rigg, I prefer a manager who is allowed to chose which players he wants to get in, I prefer a manger who can motivate players and supporters. I don't think DoF/CEOs have the qualifications or experience and haven't seen many examples of teams benefiting from them. Instead of chanting Steve Clarke's B&W Army, should we be singing Mike Rigg's B&W Army ?
Still on the fence until it's a definite done deal. However, and I know it's only statistics (again), if you look at this comparison between Fulham and Reading so far this season, you will see a marked difference - please log in to view this image That says to me that Reading have a balance in the side that we've been missing. Whether Clarke could/can do things differently with our current squad, as I said in the Manager Vote thread, just not sure.
Would prefer Clarke to Pearson, who I can't stand as a person. Clarke does fit the mould as others have said. The points against are Reading are only four points above us and since Clarke took over at Reading they have accumulated 49 points to our 47 points, so they have hardly set the world on fire, but I think he has great qualities as a coach and has worked with some big names as a coach or number two and must have learnt something from them.
How bored must the Preston fans be?! After seeing c58's chart had a quick look at recent results, 4 of the last 6 games were 0-0!
