The Tanner Report: Kit, let’s be fair
I may make no bones about it that when Kit was made permanent manager I had deep reservations. However I’m not going now to say “Yah boo, I told you so” as I fully understood why the appointment was made. Kit had many things going for him. He was not Felix Magath but a popular player: he coached the Academy which is our future: his record as temporary caretaker was impressive following the legacy of Magath of 1 point in 7.
Reading the Fulham Independent board after a disappointing home draw with Wigan the anonymous posters are sticking in the knife into Kit – some in the most abusive un-Fulhamish way.
The interesting question is why Kit the Temp was so much better than Kit the Perm. He seemed unable to motivate the team; a succession of loanees did not help; he was slow to recall Matt Smith; he bowed to fan pressure to drop Bryan Ruiz when the midfield lacks any creativity; but, above all, as was the case last night, the defence is leaky. I thought it wrong to criticise Bettanelli as it was well struck free kick by Pennant but for the second from a corner there was no marking at all. Both goals came from set plays for which you can prepare on the training ground.
On the same site there was a well-reasoned analysis of how it all went wrong, how decision after decision was misjudged.The conclusion was that the new owner was left a structure of a Fulham board and highly-regarded CEO but imposed his own one – or lack of it – which has proved to be little short of disastrous.
There are those who now clamour for Kit’s dismissal. This would be 6 managers/coaches in 2 seasons. Each one will have his own training methods and selection preferences and morale would descend even more. Fulham are extreme unlikely to be relegated and at the of the season a root-and-branch review should be undertaken with the priority of appointing a manager with a track record of understanding and achieving in the championship.
Alan, you’ve recently criticised the Club’s PR efforts and were spot on! For the likes of Kit and Sean Davis (Sarah Brooks probably wrote the piece for him!) to now be telling us survival is all we could reasonably hope for after the disastrous start is just plain disingenuous. As a matter of fact we finished the first half of the season on 28 points (of 69 available, capturing 40.6% of the points on offer, notwithstanding 1 of 21 available under Qualix). In contrast, we will only exceed the that production for the second half if we win all four remaining matches, as, thus far in the second half of the season, we’ve captured 17 of the available 57 (29.8% of the total on offer).
Of course, this is all rooted in being the second-most profligate team in the League. Surely Kit has had ample opportunity to improve on that beyond what he’s managed to do.
Agree totally. We are taken for mugs by some of the statements emanating from Planet Fulham. Kit should be saying ” I share your pain and want the team to succeed and realise its potential” Fulham fans are too smart to fall for such spin.
And I forgot to mention that we were 13th at Christmas with October-December form suggesting we might be able to make a run for the promotion playoff. And now all we can hope for is survival — absurd!
Against the four lowest teams in the division that we’ve already played at the Cottage this season, we’ve managed a mere two points — D in Nov v rock-bottom Blackpool, L in Aug under Qualix v Millwall, D the other night v Wigan, and the desultory L over Christmas v Brighton.
And, not surprisingly, we’re one of the few teams our fellow strugglers can manage to score against. To wit, Blackpool scored two of its 16 away goals at the Cottage, and Wigan has scored FIVE of its 37 goals this season against the Fulham.
Blackpool are down and are likely to approach this Saturday’s home match as a Cup final — a relatively rare opportunity for a win. I hope we can withstand the onslaught.
There may be myriad reasons for our disappointing season, but in his next explanation Kit also needs to make sure he’s holding a mirror.