The Tanner Report: Leicester 3 Fulham 1
The Khan regime has sacked 6 managers – Martin Jol, Rene Meulensteen, Felix Magath, Kit Symons, Slavisa Jokatovic and Claudio Ranieri. Of these six, the last five were appointed by them and only Jokatovic can be judged a success.
After each dismissal one hopes for a bounce. Scott Parker is now the man at the helm, he is in the tradition of Fulham ex-players in their thirties given their first chance at management, like Malcolm MacDonald and Chris Coleman, though both these had a freer hand in the transfer market. Against Chelsea last week we night have got a late equaliser but certainly the performance had more vim.
Against Leicester yesterday we were all but overrun in the first half, Jamie Vardy must have got behind our back four on 5 occasions and eventually, after Callum Chambers was too easily dispossessed by Ndidi, he teed up Youri Tielemans for the first goal.
In the second half Fulham were much brighter.
Floyd Ayite outfoxed England fullback Ben Chilwell, continued into the box and his shot – taking two deflections – dribbled into the net. Fulham looked now the dominant force but after a giveaway by defender Nordtveit Jamie Vardy strode through for his 100th goal for Leicester. He added a late third.
Fulham have now conceded 68 goals, 5 more than Newcastle and 11 more than any other Premier team. If you are playing us you can just sit back and wait for the defensive howler.
Leicester acquired James Maddison from Norwich for far less than we paid for Anguissa (£30 million). Watford bought Delacore for a £1 million from West Ham, Arsenal Guengouzi from Lille for £9m, Brighton Bissema for £12m, all of these an indictment of the £100 million Fulham splashed out in the summer.
The recruitment system has failed but Scott Parker announced he will work with it.
Owner Shahid Khan is by all accounts a decent man, he has made a huge investment in Fulham for nil return, but his regime is the least liked since that of Ernie Clay.
We read in the week that his “stress free” (as he termed it) appointment of Ranieri was measured by the commercial prudence of inserting a clause that if Fulham were in the bottom three when he was sacked he would would receive no compensation, so how much did the Khans really believe in that appointment?
Their way is the right way and managers have to work within it.
Our stay in the Championship might prove a long one.
