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Watched the final tonight and met a couple of elderly Fulham fans at the next table, husband and wife. They had their brand new scarves spread out in front of them as they spent the game pleading for a win and simultaneously doubting they'd get it. How like City supporters for most of the last 20 years, I thought. Never won a cup, Fulham, never won a thing, tonight was a real shame for Roy Hodgson who deserved better, but with Fulham five minutes away from the lottery of penalties it wasn't surprising when that extra bit of Atletico skill did them in. The reaction from the Fulham pair when Atletico scored the winner was just "oh, dear" from her and "oh no" from him, and a mere ten seconds after the final whistle in the biggest game in the club's history he was saying "That's the right result, they won fair" and "valiant effort, Fulham, nothing to be ashamed of." Then they folded up their scarves, said "see you next year at the Cottage" to the TV, and left. Their gentle disappointment, fair mindedness, and acceptance of their team's relatively humble lot made me feel a bit guilty about supporting the richest club in the world who are about to buy their way to mega-success. Yet I don't think any Fulham fans would trade places. Hope City keep their soul and a bit of humility when they start winning stuff.

I thought we were fairly gracious when Spurs beat us for 4th. Not sure we had too many needing a suicide watch, cept Carl, but then I am sure he reminds himself he is loaded, married to a stunner and living in a tropical paradise and got over it.

Slim wrote:I thought we were fairly gracious when Spurs beat us for 4th. Not sure we had too many needing a suicide watch, cept Carl, but then I am sure he reminds himself he is loaded, married to a stunner and living in a tropical paradise and got over it.

I'd agree with that.

Sure there was quite a bit of over-reaction (me included) when we get dumped out the cup by United in the last minute but that is pretty understandable in all of the circumstances. But I know that, for example, I watched us get beat by Stoke in the FA Cup with a few Stoke fans and didn't find it hard to congratulate them and wish them well.

We're all pretty grounded as supporters to be honest. All of us have been through shit to a greater or lesser extent and I don't think we have or will get carried away by things any time soon to make our reactions, in general, massively dissimilar to those old Fulham fogeys if you were comparing our older supporters.

Sure the younger ones will get het up but I'm pretty sure the younger fans who'd travelled to Hamburg weren't just saying..."ah well, here's to next year" either

I agree with slim ... but i think that a lot of people got mind fucked by Hughes telling us we are on track we are on track, we are a good team, we will be challenging .. while we were struggling to draw with teams that are, in fact, pretty dire. Turns people into head cases, and we witnessed that a bit towards the end of the season. I hope the summer break away from city will help everyone wrap their heads around where we are and where want to be and we can all adjust our thinking

Yep. Not only has the team miraculously improved but each individual's character has undergone a mental improvement since Les left. It really is remarkable how much damage he did.

Ted Hughes wrote:Yep. Not only has the team miraculously improved but each individual's character has undergone a mental improvement since Les left. It really is remarkable how much damage he did.

deary me....

Just puts things into perspective...Fulham not winning anything...ever!

Ok so we've not won much in my lifetime but to be a Fulham fan who have not won zip

Funny how our detractors always harp on about 'History' even though if you look back over the last century we have won quite a bit compared to other clubs...

I appear to be the only person who is finding the whole Fulham love-in a bit sickly.

I cannot stand the way the media fawn over them. Their ground is full of tourists and they have the worst away support I have ever seen in the topflight. In the PL, they only take about 300 fans or so to the likes of White Hart Lane. The only time they take over a 1,000 is when they play Cheslea. To generate an atmosphere, the club have to give 'supporters' soem fangled piece of cardboard to make an annoying 'cracking' sound.

We are criticised for spending more money than we generate. The media never mention that Fulham are propped-up by Al Fayed, and would not be in the PL without him.

The club is run by a nasty and vindictive individual (I wish I could actually tell you some of the things I know about him from a friend who worked in the personnel dept in Harrods).

Plastic club and plastic fans. Lovely ground though, and a great away day

Blue in North London wrote:I appear to be the only person who is finding the whole Fulham love-in a bit sickly.

No mate there's 2 of us!

Finished 12th - a poor reflection of last season after a number of years in the top flight - and, basically, won fuck-all again. Imagine if that was City? Hodgson out!

Lose £5-7M per year and owe about £60M, most of to - yes you've guessed it - Mr Al F. About as generous as Portsmouth's owners have been. Given them nothing, all 'owed'.

Guess he might sell it now he's retiring, as long as he gets his loans back of course!

john@staustell wrote: owe about £60M, most of to - yes you've guessed it - Mr Al F. About as generous as Portsmouth's owners have been. Given them nothing, all 'owed'.

Guess he might sell it now he's retiring, as long as he gets his loans back of course!

I think Al Fayed is a fool but....it's not particularly fair to castigate the guy for the fact that he has loans outstanding to the club

Wardle and Makin had such loans to MCFC

So did Sheikh Mansour

the only difference is that both of the above ultimately capitalised their loans (ie exchanged the loan finance for share capital).

- Al Fayed has bankrolled the club with his own cash (just like our owners (present and past) have)
- He has questionable ability to recover the cash he pumped in, he can recover if he sold at a profit but if he wants to sell and a new owner won't pay off his debts then he'll have to waive them if he wants out (he certainly won't be able to wind the club up a la HMRC/Pompey as the terms of his loans will almost definitely not enable him to do so)
- He's taken them from languishing in a lower division with limited prospects to an established PL outfit and now to a UEFA final

I don't like the guy but to compare him with the various opportunistic purchasers/owners of Portsmouth is wide of the mark and is rather unfair

ant london wrote:

john@staustell wrote: owe about £60M, most of to - yes you've guessed it - Mr Al F. About as generous as Portsmouth's owners have been. Given them nothing, all 'owed'.

Guess he might sell it now he's retiring, as long as he gets his loans back of course!

I think Al Fayed is a fool but....it's not particularly fair to castigate the guy for the fact that he has loans outstanding to the club

Wardle and Makin had such loans to MCFC

So did Sheikh Mansour

the only difference is that both of the above ultimately capitalised their loans (ie exchanged the loan finance for share capital).

- Al Fayed has bankrolled the club with his own cash (just like our owners (present and past) have)
- He has questionable ability to recover the cash he pumped in, he can recover if he sold at a profit but if he wants to sell and a new owner won't pay off his debts then he'll have to waive them if he wants out (he certainly won't be able to wind the club up a la HMRC/Pompey as the terms of his loans will almost definitely not enable him to do so)
- He's taken them from languishing in a lower division with limited prospects to an established PL outfit and now to a UEFA final

I don't like the guy but to compare him with the various opportunistic purchasers/owners of Portsmouth is wide of the mark and is rather unfair

I'm more concerned with the media love-in mentioned above by Blue-in-north-London. Dear old Fulham, wonderful Hodgson, nasty old City etc.

The cold facts suggest Fulham have had a poor league season. Much worse than last year.

Yeah that part I can agree with....Uncle Woy isn't that lovely....he's like a spitting image character

john@staustell wrote:

Blue in North London wrote:I appear to be the only person who is finding the whole Fulham love-in a bit sickly.

No mate there's 2 of us!

Finished 12th - a poor reflection of last season after a number of years in the top flight - and, basically, won fuck-all again. Imagine if that was City? Hodgson out!

Lose £5-7M per year and owe about £60M, most of to - yes you've guessed it - Mr Al F. About as generous as Portsmouth's owners have been. Given them nothing, all 'owed'.

Guess he might sell it now he's retiring, as long as he gets his loans back of course!

Stick me in this club too. Al-Fayed propping the club up and financially bankrolling it is comveniently forgotten by the press I'm afraid.

Well Al Fayed has just sold Harrod's for something like 2 billion pounds or dollars (no big difference). What if he now decideds to pump in some of that money into Fulham. Not much, say 100-200 million ??
That will then make them a force to reckon with.

Dubaimancityfan wrote:Well Al Fayed has just sold Harrod's for something like 2 billion pounds or dollars (no big difference). What if he now decideds to pump in some of that money into Fulham. Not much, say 100-200 million ??
That will then make them a force to reckon with.

Fulham was, and is, one of Al Fayed's tools in his eternal quest for British passport. Why he never gets one, I don't know. But if he ever got it, I think he'd get rid of Fulham quickish.

Anyways, just being in Premier League is Fulham punching WAY above their natural weight. City is, and has always been, one of the biggest clubs in Britain. We are 9th in 'marathon table' since the beginning of the English top flight. So us being 5th is hardly way above our natural level.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Dubaimancityfan wrote:Well Al Fayed has just sold Harrod's for something like 2 billion pounds or dollars (no big difference). What if he now decideds to pump in some of that money into Fulham. Not much, say 100-200 million ??
That will then make them a force to reckon with.

Fulham was, and is, one of Al Fayed's tools in his eternal quest for British passport. Why he never gets one, I don't know. But if he ever got it, I think he'd get rid of Fulham quickish.

I think his continually slagging off the British Royal Family, blaming them for his sons death and accusing Prince Philip of masterminding a cover up probably hasn't helped his quest, don't you think?

Goaters 103 wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Dubaimancityfan wrote:Well Al Fayed has just sold Harrod's for something like 2 billion pounds or dollars (no big difference). What if he now decideds to pump in some of that money into Fulham. Not much, say 100-200 million ??
That will then make them a force to reckon with.

Fulham was, and is, one of Al Fayed's tools in his eternal quest for British passport. Why he never gets one, I don't know. But if he ever got it, I think he'd get rid of Fulham quickish.

I think his continually slagging off the British Royal Family, blaming them for his sons death and accusing Prince Philip of masterminding a cover up probably hasn't helped his quest, don't you think?

probably not but it's strange that he didn't receive one before that. Also more strange is that he has Finnish wife who DOES have British passport.

Goaters 103 wrote:

john@staustell wrote:

Blue in North London wrote:I appear to be the only person who is finding the whole Fulham love-in a bit sickly.

No mate there's 2 of us!

Finished 12th - a poor reflection of last season after a number of years in the top flight - and, basically, won fuck-all again. Imagine if that was City? Hodgson out!

Lose £5-7M per year and owe about £60M, most of to - yes you've guessed it - Mr Al F. About as generous as Portsmouth's owners have been. Given them nothing, all 'owed'.

Guess he might sell it now he's retiring, as long as he gets his loans back of course!

Stick me in this club too. Al-Fayed propping the club up and financially bankrolling it is comveniently forgotten by the press I'm afraid.

Add me to the club too. Fulham have been average this year and stupidly lucky to get to the final. I really don't get the fulham love in that is going on across the country.

Blue in North London wrote:I appear to be the only person who is finding the whole Fulham love-in a bit sickly.

I cannot stand the way the media fawn over them. Their ground is full of tourists and they have the worst away support I have ever seen in the topflight. In the PL, they only take about 300 fans or so to the likes of White Hart Lane. The only time they take over a 1,000 is when they play Cheslea. To generate an atmosphere, the club have to give 'supporters' soem fangled piece of cardboard to make an annoying 'cracking' sound.

We are criticised for spending more money than we generate. The media never mention that Fulham are propped-up by Al Fayed, and would not be in the PL without him.

The club is run by a nasty and vindictive individual (I wish I could actually tell you some of the things I know about him from a friend who worked in the personnel dept in Harrods).

Plastic club and plastic fans. Lovely ground though, and a great away day

Totally agree.
The numbers travelling to support them is an embarassment. I'd say that Sunderland travel to London in numbers close to 10 times those representing Fulham who have to travel for 30 minutes on the tube.

Oh, and Fayed is suing us - still - for missing out on one place's worth of prize money when we stayed up. Despite his team doing so that term because LFC played a weakened side.

So, yeah. FFC can stick it.

BobbyJ1956 wrote:Watched the final tonight and met a couple of elderly Fulham fans at the next table, husband and wife. They had their brand new scarves spread out in front of them as they spent the game pleading for a win and simultaneously doubting they'd get it. How like City supporters for most of the last 20 years, I thought. Never won a cup, Fulham, never won a thing, tonight was a real shame for Roy Hodgson who deserved better, but with Fulham five minutes away from the lottery of penalties it wasn't surprising when that extra bit of Atletico skill did them in. The reaction from the Fulham pair when Atletico scored the winner was just "oh, dear" from her and "oh no" from him, and a mere ten seconds after the final whistle in the biggest game in the club's history he was saying "That's the right result, they won fair" and "valiant effort, Fulham, nothing to be ashamed of." Then they folded up their scarves, said "see you next year at the Cottage" to the TV, and left. Their gentle disappointment, fair mindedness, and acceptance of their team's relatively humble lot made me feel a bit guilty about supporting the richest club in the world who are about to buy their way to mega-success. Yet I don't think any Fulham fans would trade places. Hope City keep their soul and a bit of humility when they start winning stuff.

I dont really get what the point is mate. Im sure theres fulham fans that are younger, passionare and were going mental. There reaction has nothing to do with ''soul''. Its do with difference in personality and passion. I was still going fucking mental if city lost / won in division 2. Money doesnt change passion. It changes expectations, but I have always believed that city could over achieve. Under pearce et al. I also thought ''one or two'' good results would get us that much coveted 6th place..