Chopper has the story of how Fulham stopped Roy Hodgson from talking to Radio Five Live after our defeat at Old Trafford on Wednesday night in protest at Alan Green’s commentary.
I couldn’t get up to Manchester in midweek (like a fair few others I should imagine) and so had to make do with the radio and a dodgy internet stream. Green infuriated me and any other Fulham fans listening by informing the listeners that Fulham were still at 0-0 after just 25 seconds. While I understand that it was unlikely that the scoreline would stay the same and that United are, by some distance, the best side in the land, a little more consideration would have been appropriate.
When I was younger, I was a fan of Green. He didn’t seem to take any nonense and had the right balance of description and opinion. I’ve even still got his autobiography somewhere at home. It’s an interesting read. But lately he seems to be revelling in his angry persona. The much considered commentaries of John Murray and Ian Dennis, as well as the excellent Mike Ingham, are much more to my taste now.
Those of you who have followed us at HammyEnd.com since the beginning will know that we’ve often clashed with the club and Sarah Brooks. On this one she’s 100 per cent right:
We always co-operate with the media and never complain about fair criticism. But Alan Green’s comments about Fulham appalled some of our fans, who made their views known on the message boards or contacted me during the game.
I also listened to some of his commentary myself and remarks like ‘Fulham should not have bothered to turn up’ were insulting. In those circumstances, I didn’t feel it appropriate for Five Live to speak to our manager.
Before I comment on this article, I would like to say that I have been a Fulham Supporter since the early 60’s. I hold a Season Ticket in The Riverside and I travel over 500 miles to each home game as I live in Lancashire. I do not watch Fulham through rose-tinted glasses and I feel I understand the game fairly well.
Alan Green’s comments did not offend or hurt me as I believe he was reporting the game as he saw it. His opinion was already tainted by the pre-match interview with Roy Hogdson as was mine and a number of Fulham Supporters I spoke to. The Fulham performance was as he saw it and probably not much different to the way I saw it. As I live in the North West, I work with a number of Manchester United Supporters who have told me that Fulham were the worst team they haveseen at United by a country mile. I know we are not that bad, but our efforts that night were non-existent. I don’t care what Alan Green says but Roy should. Green was right…..we were abismal and he should ensure that we are never beaten before before we set foot on the again
Neil,
Fair comments but I don’t agree. Green was a little bit over the top in my opinion.
Plenty of sides have offered very little at Old Trafford this season and I thought we actually did alright going forward. Dempsey might well have scored just after they opened the scoring and had Schwarzer not gifted them a couple of goals it might have been a lot closer.
The problem was that our gameplan depended on us not conceding an early goal – and we did. I certainly think that going there and playing an expansive game is a surefire way to suffer a heavy defeat.