2019-20 Swingometer - SPECIAL FULHAM EDITION!

[cdbearsfan]

Fulham 1 Liverpool 2
Liverpool 2 Fulham 0.

😒

[Ad@m]

I think I know how this one ends...

[ChicagoLion]

So we have done a Fulham.

[Louzie0]

It’s not over ‘til it’s over. We haven’t done a Fulham yet and we never will. 

[cdbearsfan]

Fulham Villa lost three-nil at home to them, too. Obviously.

[ChicagoLion]

Obviously we haven’t done a Fulham like getting rid of the team spirit that got promoted and bought in a load of over paid expensive shit not good enough for the Premier League.

[OzVilla]

And this is probably the thing that grinds my gears the most.  I absolutely piled into those lazy wazzocks on social media that said that we were 'doing a Fulham' before the season. This wasn't coming from informed impartial posters, just twats that were desperate to have a pop at the Villa.

I gave all the reasons why our situations were different, repeated all the rhetoric about signing players we knew, increased resale value, young upgrades, our sheer necessity to sign players etc, etc.

And after all that to think its come to this, endless chirping on that we've 'done a Fulham'.  Feck me Villa, feck me.



 

[dcdavecollett]

But they're still wrong, of course.

[cdbearsfan]

Gained three points on Fulham last season. What a bloody team.

[Ad@m]

And with Fulham losing all three of the equivalent remaining games we have everything to gain!

What a time to be alive!

[cdbearsfan]

The good times keep on rolling.

[cdbearsfan]

Gained a point on Fulham. Yay, go us.

[Ad@m]

We're absolutely romping this!

If we do better than Fulham we get to stay up, right?!

[cdbearsfan]

Pretty sure that's the rule. And, ideally, they base it on who went furthest in the League Cup.

[FatSam]

The clearest way that we have done a Fulham, is that we went up through the play-offs, and so had the worst team of all the promoted clubs, and the shortest amount of time to prepare for the EPL. Fulham went up with 88 points, whereas we went up with 76 the following season, so we had an even lower starting point than them.

Fulham had a tough time last season, despite spending £104m, and finished below the two other promoted clubs with 26 points. We finished 18 points behind Norwich last season, so the £136m that we have outspent them by this season has at least bought us a 28 point swing. Small comfort.

Fulham paid £22m for Mitrovic who scored 11 of their 34 goals, and was probably their best business that summer. Of course he was relatively low risk, having already spent half a season on loan there, as well as being an international with a season and a half of experience in the EPL. We effectively tried to sign Tammy for the similar reasons. Seri has arguably turned out to be a worse signing for Fulham than any of ours are likely to. He cost them £27m and is now on loan at Galatasary.

Our mistakes in the transfer market this season are more who we didn't buy (i.e. at least another striker) than who we did. Although I suppose we would have been able to sign other players if we hadn't spent the money on the ones that we did! None of them were bargains, and I didn't understand why we were targeting the Belgian league where we didn't seem to be getting great value.

We went down so catastrophically in 15/16 that we didn't have any saleable assets. we sold six players for £5-7m, and struggled to get rid of the deadwood, whilst Gueye, Traore, Veretout, Amavi and Ayew ultimately all left for less than their worth. Newcastle on the other hand were able to get £14m for Townsend, £24 for Wijnaldum and £31m for Sissoko, keep hold of most of their squad, and get back up at the first attempt (with the help of a good manager). We had a net spend of £36m in 16/17 whilst Newcastle had a net income of about the same amount.

The ultimate test will be the aftermath of our (almost) inevitable relegation. If the relatively young players who haven't proven good enough for the EPL can help us get promoted at the first attempt, then we will definitely be in a better position in a years time than we were a year ago, when we had to completely re-build the squad, and 'did a Fulham'.