Fulham have confirmed that seven members of their squad will be leaving the club this summer.
As expected, Moritz Volz is on his way after reaching the end of his current contract. If you missed it, I paid my own personal tribute to Volzy yesterday. I’m not sure which performances against Tottenham in recent seasons the club are describing on the offal – it surely can’t be the Boxing Day game when we were thumped 5-1 at the Lane and Volz was sent off having only come on as a substitute at half-time.
It’s no great shock that Collins John has been released either. There isn’t really too much more to add to the general consensus that John has wasted his chance to have a really terrific career. It could have been so different as he started his Fulham career brilliantly, scoring some impressive goals at Loftus Road and then finishing the following season as our top league goalscorer. But, he semed to be infatuated with the assistant referee’s flag and annoyed successive managers with his attitude, which left a lot to be desired. The fact that Charlton passed on the chance of signing him after a dismal trial last year shows just how far he’s fallen.
Confirmation of Leon Andreasen’s departure was also not unexpected. I felt the Danish midfielder had plenty to offer – tough in the tackle and a powerful runner – but he wasn’t getting enough games in the side. The stats suggest he might have given the ball away a little too often for Roy’s liking, but I think the main reason for the move was that he hadn’t really settled in England. I’m sure he’ll do very well at Hannover, where he was on loan since January.
There’s no word on whether Olivier Dacourt has retired and we all knew that his spell at Fulham was only due to be a brief one. Julian Gray didn’t have all that many chances to impress given the settled nature of our midfield and it’s best for his career that he moved on. You can only assume that if Roy felt he was likely to make a real difference in the Premier League he would have kept him on. And the chances of Giles Barnes earning a permanent deal now appear very slim indeed.
I am surprised, however, that the club have released Karim Laribi, a promising member of both the youth team and the reserve side in the past couple of years. He chances of breaking into the firs-team might have been slim but he certainly looked like a good prospect when I had the opportunity to watch him.
