The stuff after this paragraph was written this morning, however as I was working, I didn’t have time to upload it. Just as well, as something came to light after I wrote it today. In Drillo’s new book, he alledges that John Hartson used to spend a lot of time down the pub instead of training or fighting injury. The only fighting he did was apparently getting in brawls with other WFC team mates in taxis.
Bearing in mind that he has also supposed to be in fights with VJ and Dean Blackwell last year, it does make things a little bit more interesting. What makes it more explosive is the fact that JH hasn’t denied it, issuing a “no comment” type statement and will only comment further when he’s discussed things with cunt features Barnett.
Assuming this is remotely true, it makes my comments about him below somewhat poignant. If you think I’m singling out JH in this way, it’s probably because I am. When you hear that he’s got massive influence amongst the players (and I presume they would tag along in what they do), when you read on the one hand that he wants to stay at WFC for his contract and yet you hear from someone else that he is “desperate” to leave, and when you see how our captain is performing on the pitch (sorry for anyone who doesn’t believe that he’s being serviced enough, when you duck out of as many challenges as he does, he’s currently nowhere near a 1986 model Fashanu or even Holdsworth or Ekoku), you do tend to wonder if he is a poisonous influence and we ought to cut our losses on him. ATM, I certainly do. And I certainly never thought I’d say that when we signed him.
Why have I suddenly developed a strong twinge of deja vu? After watching Elys 0 Harrods 3 I thought I was experiencing various alledged “performances” of the last 24 months. We started off OK, even got on top for a 20 minute spell, but conceding in the first half, then that penalty (supposedly a bit on the iffy side, not that we deserved anything else) and we just bottled it. The players as a whole didn’t want to know. The annoying thing is, Fulham weren’t really that special, it’s just that we made them look good. Had we put the same amount of effort in as we did against Boro, or even Barnsley last week, we could well have got a result. But as you well know, we clearly don’t have the stomach to put two games of 110% effort in succession, so it’s no wonder we lost
So, who can I blame? The fault clearly lies with those on the pitch. Not TB (who can only do so much), not the owners, not the coaching staff, not the tea lady. But those 11 players who started (and finished) yesterday should seriously question whether they should pick up their wages next time (they’ll pick them up as usual no doubt).
Let’s get a few home truths out of the way : JH should not be captain. In fact, I’m now seriously doubting whether he should even be picked. He doesn’t inspire the team on the field often enough. Talk of him being a good influence off the pitch (given what Drillo is supposed to have said about JH going for mid-morning pissups I can see that his “influence” seems to entail him getting everyone pissed up) means fuck all as far as I’m concerned. He looked slow, lazy, sluggish, and quite frankly if we’d only paid £2m for him I would be disappointed.
He’s supposed to love these sort of games, well it’s time he started to fucking show it. Euell came on for Damo and to be honest if somebody pays £5m for him, I would snap it off them ASAP. People like Gayle, Kimble and Blackwell are only being picked because they’re part of the furniture, and they’re keeping out more hungrier (and probably better) players like Pecker, Harley/Kramer (yeah, I know Kramer’s injured, but you get the point), and even Wilmott and Gier. I’ve said this virtually every week now, but our players always seem to be half a yard off the pace. In fact, yesterday, they looked even slower – whenever we got a throw in we just stood there, nobody moved – I doubt if anyone was capable of moving. I wonder if I’ll hear yet another story of certain players getting bladdered after the game?
Am I being unfair? Were we simply outplayed? No, I don’t think so on either count. I’m definitely not the only person getting fed up with JH, eavesdropping a few people after the game yesterday and he certainly wasn’t being talked of in high regard. When Gayle fucked up yet again, people were really getting on his back. And I don’t really blame them. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the end whistle where people weren’t giving much in the way of booing (which I think was deserved yesterday), though I think that it was just sheer pissed-offness. It’s clear that there are still major problems with attitude, if there aren’t then explain yesterday. I firmly believe that there are still too many bad apples there. On paper we finished with a very strong team yesterday, but we were clearly second best. It’s time for part 2 of the mass cull, TB, this time I think some sacred cows need to be slayed….
Because I’ve neglected the usual format for match reports for this one time rantathon, here’s some minor points : Why does Mark Williams always let the ball bounce once before challenging? Why is it that whenever “we” (the fans) get pumped up, turn out in relatively high numbers and put effort in our singing, which is what TB wants us to do, do we fuck up totally? If I hear somebody at WFC turn round and say that the team needs to be lifted from us getting behind them then I think I’m going to firebomb the admin offices with everyone who works at WFC inside it. You owe us, fuckwits. How many fans have Fulham found in the last 6 months? 5,000? They are clearly those who can’t get into Ponti Stamfordi, they’ve adopted that misplaced smugness already, despite Fulham not actually winning anything. Generally, I’ve known a few Fulham supporters in my time and they’re nothing like the pricks I encountered yesterday. Oh, and one more thing – why do I always seem to have flu every time we play Fulham? Why do I always need to hold a post mortem afterwards? And why do we always seem to lose 3-0 to them as well?
Two other points : one, REMBE didn’t turn up for his book signing session in Wimbledon yesterday. I think that he may have had other committments like being a coach on a matchday, but even so if you advertise that you’ll be there, then it is good PR to actually turn up. Who does he think he is, Joe Kinnear? (don’t answer that…) Second, and very contentious – guess who is back training at WFC? One Andreas Lund. He seems to want to play for us, which is something, and be honest, he can’t be much worse than our so called “stars”……..