I remember Zat Knight rather ill-advisedly telling an FA media officer that he’d like to progress and be playing European football the season after making his international debut on England’s summer tour of America in 2o05. It was quite obvious that he’d had next to no media training, but he could have got that media experience had he stayed at Fulham. Then again, he might not have made Roy Hodgson’s cut.
I didn’t think Knight was an atrocious defender. He was just one of those players who never really went beyond the ‘promising’ stage and those lapses into concentration – that often led to costly mistakes – stuck in your mind. Anyway, he’s now at Bolton and hasn’t exactly stabilised their defence either. He has some nice words to say about the Fulham side he played in, although it doesn’t seem to relate to the premise of the article, which talks about Fulham’s rise from relegation candidates to Europa League competitors.
When we were at Fulham, it was a tight knit team and everyone got on and we did go out for dinners. Since we broke up everyone has gone their separate ways but we keep in touch with phone calls and texts.
When you play against each other you keep tabs on how your families are doing — that type of thing. I got on really well with Louis Saha and we kept in touch. I saw Edwin van der Sar earlier this season and it was good to catch up and have a laugh and a joke with him. That was the spirit of Fulham at the time.
That Fulham team was one of the best I’ve played in. Obviously Villa is a massive club but we had a good team spirit and some good players.
I am really enjoying it at Bolton. It’s a similar type of family club, ticking away in the Premier League. They had a taste of Europe a few years ago.
We have a good squad now and we are trying to build something here. Hopefully we can get the same sort of success that Fulham have in the sense of getting back into Europe.
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