“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” has always
been sound American advice. But last
summer Fulham, deservedly promoted to
the top division, controversially entrusted
their transfer policy to the son of their
millionaire owner, Shahid Khan.
The consequences have been
disastrous. True, Fulham needed to
improve their squad, but the basis of at
least a decent season was surely there.
Instead, a vast £100million was spent,
or misspent, with the owner’s son, Tony,
reportedly calling the tune.
Fulham’s season has been terrible,
so much so that it is hard to see them
avoiding relegation.
The present season was young when
they sacked Slavisa Jokanovic, a manager
who had served them well, got them
promoted and had then been arguably left
with the bleak heritage of the owner’s son.
He was replaced, but surely too late
for salvation, by Claudio Ranieri, alias
“The Tinkerman”, notorious for the wayhe chopped and changed his teams but
ever to be remembered as the man who
took unfancied Leicester City to the title.
He seemed strangely in error in
an early game when stationing Tom
Cairney, the left-footed life and soul of
the Fulham midfield, out on the right
wing, even if it lasted only until half-time.
Recently there has been no Cairney in
the team, nor the electric teenaged
left-flanker Ryan Sessegnon.
The previous owner of the
club, Mohamed Al Fayed, for all his
controversial background in business,
limited his self-indulgence to coming
across the field before a home game
swinging a Fulham scarf.
Would Ranieri, having taken the team
down, whether or not it was his fault, be
the one to lead them up again?
A wholly new broom might be a good
idea at Craven Cottage. And Khan junior
should be made to keep his fingers off
the transfer market.Nantes in
contempt of
human decency
Scarcely had the Argentinian attacker
Emiliano Sala drowned in the Channel,
where his plane had crashed, than his
previous club, Nantes, were demanding
the first third of his transfer fee from
Cardiff City. Legally and technically they
were arguably right, but in human terms
they are surely contemptible.
One would suggest that a reasonable
compromise would be for Cardiff to pay
half the agreed £15million fee. After all,
he had yet to kick a ball for them.
No sentiment in business, we have
always been told. And in football?Memories of Hugh McIlvanney
Almiron too late?
Could Hugh McIlvanney, sadly deceased,
have saved the Daily Express?
It may seem a curious question after
the demise of a supremely accomplished
sports writer who did so much for The
Observer and later The Sunday Times,
but it seems largely to be forgotten that
he briefly left The Observer for the Daily
Express, then a hugely successful paper
but with a sports columnist shamelessly
addicted to invention.
Hugh’s brief was to cover events other
than sport but he was out of his essential
territory. It didn’t work and he went back
to distinguish himself at The Observer. Yet
he could have written a superb column
for the Express, which would later go into
steep decline losing millions of readers.
Notorious, although he and the papergot away with it, was Desmond Hackett’s
account of the 1954 “Battle of Berne”,
of how he was manhandled on the pitch
and shepherded the wife of the English
referee Arthur Ellis to safety – when in
fact he never left the press box.
The Express didn’t care. They paid for
him to buy a new suit, a new watch and
receive a bonus.
A writer as totally honest as Hugh
would never have stooped to such
stratagems. If he was essentially a sports
journalist, his equally gifted brother
William was an accomplished novelist.
Scions of a Kilmarnock coal-miner family,
they so splendidly took wing as writers.
On boxing, football and racing, Hugh
was an outstanding and perceptive
commentator.Have Newcastle United gambled
successfully in paying a record fee for
Miguel Almiron? The Paraguayan
international striker comes to them after
two seasons in the USA’s MLS, costing
£21million from Atlanta. But no matter
how talented he may be, that is a far less
demanding world than the one he now
enters in the Premier League.
Given his evident talents he is probably
bound to adjust in time, but how long will
it take him?Can the Khans fix Fulham? Probably not
ORead Brian Glanville’s
weekly online column
at worldsoccer.comFamily...Shahid Khan
behind his son, TonyRespects...Nantes
pay tribute to former
player Emiliano SalaOutstanding...Hugh
McIlvanney