If you will all remember correctly, it was a long wait last year before a manager finally signed a contract at Fulham. It wasn’t long before the start of the season and therefore giving Hughes limited time in the transfer market. This was one thing that I was worried about for this year, whether or not the deal would be done quickly especially considering the boys will be back to training in little over 2 weeks! But this year, Al Fayed is clearly shown his intent for this season. Sparky’s words have obviously sunk in with him and he has made swift action to get his man. This is the first reason why I think this years appointment is better than last years appointment. So that’s 1-0 to Jol and the 2011-12 season already!
The second reason why so far we are a step ahead of last year is that, again I’m sure you all remember, Jol was Al Fayed’s first choice last year as well. Unfortunately that dragged out for weeks and ended in absolutely nothing. I was in France on holiday at the time and the papers had actually convinced me by saying that the deal was done and had moved on the transfer targets (although I suppose the fact that they claimed we were keen on bringing in Zlatan Ibrahimovic should have been my first clue of classic paper talk!). So this year again the club has bettered themselves as they have the man who they wanted in the first place this time last year. I make that 2-0 now!
Thirdly, although Sparky was quite decent at picking out a gem (Dembele), he just won’t have had the experience that Jol has had in the transfer market. Also, Jol has managed in Germany and Holland quite recently so he will probably already have an idea of some transfer-budget-suitable players on his mind. He has the experience that Sparky lacked, purely down to age and travel. But still, thats 3-0 now.
We will just have to wait and see if Jol can add to that score line but he will have plently of chances to due to the length of time he has in the transfer market, the Europa League, FA cup, Carling Cup and, most importantly- the Premier League! So here’s to a quality season, with a quality man at the helm!
