Fulham FC, a stalwart of the Premier League, have had one rough ride this season. New ownership and yet another new change of management has meant that the London club sit bottom of the table. Of course there is a long way to go but for a team known to be constantly in the midtable, they have a huge cause for concern.
Firstly, let’s recap: Shahid Khan took over the club from Mohammed al Fayed this summer. The new owner of Fulham also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise in the NFL, which hardly inspires any fan when they discover that Jacksonville have struggled in recent years.
Martin Jol seemingly lost interest in managing the club and then in came Rene Meulensteen who was hardly an inspired replacement. Fulham also hired the likes of Alan Curbishley and Ray Wilkins to assist with Meulensteen’s running of the club but that was to very little effect.
Therefore out goes Meulensteen and his fellow “assistants” or “advisors” or whatever they were supposed to be (do you know?) and in comes “Saddam Hussein.” Many people in England have so far raised concern to the appointment of Felix Magath by calling it a risky manoeuvre.
It is highly understandable why quite a few pundits have raised their concerns at this surprise appointment. Meulensteen was seemingly getting Fulham back on the right track following some recent successes in the league such as the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford against fellow flops Manchester United. Factor in that Meulensteen was only there for a measly 75 days as well as the questionable appointments of Curbishley and company and one wonders what Khan has done at the football club since the takeover.
Moreover, Magath’s credentials (which will be touched upon later) are thrown out the window because of the parallels that he apparently draws with a former Iraqi totalitarian dictator and that he has a strict philosophy that is mainly based on fitness, fitness and fitness.
Yet I believe that Magath might be the short term solution that Fulham need. The newly appointed manager has already slammed his predecessor for not having a philosophy and destabilising the team. Needless to say that the German is half-right; Fulham were already unstable before Meulensteen took the reins. Furthermore, Magath is likely to install some discipline and some stability, even if it means not gaining the respect of the Fulham locker room.
With that being said, midfielder Lewis Holtby, currently on loan from Tottenham Hotspur told Fulham’s official website that he is confident that Magath can help keep the club in the Premier League. Holtby should know too since he played under Magath back in their Schalke days.
Magath has had a huge amount of success despite his derogatory nicknames. He won successive Bundesliga titles in 2005 and 2006 with Bayern Munich and he won the same title with Wolfsburg in 2009, the latter of which should be considered an impressive piece of coaching success.
More importantly for Fulham is that Magath is considered as a “relegation specialist” back in his native Germany. He has remarkably guided five teams away from relegation in the Bundesliga and earned his nickname as the “fireman.”
In the 1997-98 season he took second tier side Nuremburg from the relegation places to promotion to Germany’s top tier. In 1998-99, he avoids relegation and wins the German Cup with Werder Bremen. In 1999-00 he takes Frankfurt, favourites for the drop, to four points clear of the relegation places. In 2001 he keeps Stuggart up and then guides them to second and fourth a few seasons later and then in 2011 he returned to Wolfsburg to keep them up too. Apologies for sounding repetitive but his reputation speaks for himself.
The only downside to his appointment is that Magath might lose the respect of his playing staff very quickly with his fearsome ways. Despite his successes, many players have held parties when he has departed from their club due to the sheer relief of not working under him anymore. With the Premier League being a less-disciplined culture than the Bundesliga and factoring in that this is Magath’s first job outside of his home country, then he could face a serious challenge in uniting and focussing a disjointed unit.
I don’t see Magath staying for very long. And that’s not because of the quickly gained reputation that Shahid Khan has created about his hiring and firings. And neither is it down to the nature of modern day football being ruthless in how clubs treat their managers.
It’s because he does not tend to stay at clubs for very long. I predict that he will have a short life at Fulham, resuscitating their hopes for survival just like Paolo DiCanio did last season with Sunderland. Beyond that I don’t see what they could offer Fulham in an exceptionally tough league. That depends on what happens in the next few months and possibly the summer too.
Nothing is ever certain in the Premier League. But if there is one realistic expectation then it would be this: Expect the fireman to fight this battle with fire.
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