What took Fulham so long to fire Felix Magath? The masterplan to return to the top flight through the goals of Ross McCormack floundered because of the fact that odd assortment of academy graduates and European imports were simply not good enough to outwit wily Championship opponents, but it also had another basic flaw. The crazy German felt he was too good for the English second tier and that he knew best.
It was quickly apparent that he didn’t. That much should have been obvious towards the tail end of Fulham’s final torrid Premier League season. Magath, hired as a firefighter in a final act of desperation to try and prevent the club’s American owners experiencing a relegation they apparently hadn’t realised was possible, should by rights have kept the Whites up. They were two goals to the good against Hull City with fifteen minutes to go and crumbled.
Magath’s reaction to that failure was to run his players into the ground on a special hill constructed at Motspur Park. It seemed odd ahead of a must-win match at Stoke but, by this point, most of the squad had been driven round the bend by the German’s eccentricities. They were used to be told to stand in silence for forty minutes following a defeat. Felix bingo reached its nadir in Staffordshire with Dan Burn selected at right back after Sascha Riether was punished for an error leading to Hull’s first goal by being exiled from the squad altogether. The result was all too predictable.
The approach to squad management after relegation was ridiculous. David Stockdale committed himself to fighting his way back from the Championship – only be to sold to Brighton in a flash. Brede Hangeland was released by email and Steve Sidwell soon found a new home on the south coast. The spine of a possible promotion challenging side had been ripped out within a week. A rag-tag assortment of youngsters, who would never dream of questioning the manager’s methods, and imports from the continent, never stood a chance.
That much was obvious on the opening day at Portman Road. Magath picked seven debutants – five in defence – and only Scott Parker, McCormack and Moussa Dembele had experience of English league football. Ipswich eased to victory and a pattern emerged. Fulham were swatted aside by well-drilled outfits with a modicum of fuss. The defeats weren’t helped by the fact that Magath benched McCormack – a £12m signing – saying he wasn’t fit enough. The Scot joined Kostas Mitroglou and Bryan Ruiz on the sidelines to the astonishment of Jeff Stelling, among others. It was mostly infuriating, sometimes embarrassing – as at Pride Park, when Derby scored five. Magath should have been given his marching orders then but he was afforded a stay of execution.
The end might have arrived after a thoroughly miserable afternoon at the Madjeski Stadium, where new signing Matt Smith introduced himself by hacking down Hope Akpan and earning a red card inside the first twenty minutes. Glenn Murray scored twice – and the away end chanted ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ throughout the second half only for the German to escape that fate again.
Funnily enough, Magath’s exit followed arguably Fulham’s best league performance of the season – where the Whites weathered the harsh sending off of Shaun Hutchinson to lead three times against leaders Nottingham Forest before falling victim to a Brett Assombalonga hat-trick. Gabor Kiraly was in goal and, as before, the Hungarian veteran went down in instilments. There isn’t a greater example of Magath’s folly than replacing an academy graduate who had an excelled on debut in the club’s only win of the season against a local rival – Marcus Bettinelli at Brentford – with a 38 year-old signed a short-term deal from the German second division.
Picking up the pieces won’t be easy. That unenviable task falls to Kit Symons in the short-term. The likeable Welshman has served his apprenticeship as the club’s under 21 coach, meaning he has experience of handling the kids Magath has thrown to the slaughter, and can call upon a storied Craven Cottage playing career. There couldn’t be a better caretaker while the hierarchy examines just how they got into this mess and plots a route out. Answers on a postcard, please.
