The Tanner Report
In my Fulham room hangs a picture of our Day of Days, May 26 2018 when we won the play-off final against Aston Villa. A jubilant Slavisa Jokatovic holds aloft the trophy with a rare smile. 6 months on he has been sacked.
He will go down in posterity as one of the great Fulham ‘gaffers’. After 6 seasons of successive decline he reversed our fortunes his team achieving promotion with a swagger.
The problem is that he does not seem capable of replicating this ability in the top flight.
Add to this £100m worth of August transfers have resulted in us being bottom of the Premier with 5 points, 1 win and 31 goals conceded.
In a sentence he did know not his best team and wholesale changes both in personnel and systems took place every match.
Claudio Ranieri has managed in the Italian, Spanish, English and French leagues with varying degrees of success. He became ‘the tinkerman’ at Chelsea, won the title at Leicester but did not hack it at Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and recently Nantes.
Stefano Ursolini speaks well of him as coach at Fiorentina where he won the Cup and Super Cup. He will address our defensive lapses. His cheerful personality will lift a group who must have been more than irritated by SJ’s public criticism of them and the bigging up of himself. With promotions at Watford and Fulham, he has the credentials to manage a senior aspirational Championship team
Ranieri’s first game is home to Southampton. Next after that Chelsea away and then an intriguing home fixture against his former club Leicester City. Then another tough fixture away at Manchester United.
