Football editor of the Daily Mail Ian Ladyman has published historical quotes from ‘a senior official’ at Fulham designed to show how relaxed the club remain about Marco Silva’s disenchantment with their recruitment.
Ladyman writes:
Fulham manager Marco Silva is unhappy with the fact his club haven’t signed the players he wants this summer and has said so. At boardroom level they will not stress too much.
Silva is a coach who continues to improve year on year but he has also a habit of pushing the boundaries and testing the patience of those he works for.
When he was linked with the Tottenham job last June, Mail Sport spoke to a senior official at the club who just laughed.
‘We are used to this with Marco,’ he said.
‘These stories come and go and strangely enough they usually start in Portugal.
‘But in the end they settle down and Marco stays here…on what is a very good contract indeed!’
This is the second time in the final month of the transfer window that Fulham have briefed against their own head coach. Presumably, there was no room in Ladyman’s copy to include the fact that Silva’s ‘very good contract’ expires next summer – and that he’s enhanced his reputation no end at Craven Cottage.
Fulham fans remember how long it took for the club’s board to replace Kit Symons when they sacked a club legend because he didn’t have the Whites close enough to the Championship play-off places. Based on that seven-week search that eventually secured Slavisa Jokanovic, you wouldn’t bet on the Motspur Park masterminds making the right choice to replace Silva, should he refuse to sign a new deal.
If this is true, and to be fair I don’t take much of what the dailyfail to be true, then it shows the complacency and arrogance of the boardroom of this club. Their hubris could come back to bite them
The board are leaving every thing to the last minute and hoping they run out of time to sign anyone so then they can say we tried but ran out of time, they must be stupid if they think we don’t know what they are up to, they do this every transfer window and if we lose Marco we all know who to blame.
I hope this article highlights that Fulham Fans’ anger should not be directed at the Khans – who have spent hundreds of millions in the market [just check Transfermkt if you do not believe me]- but towards the Board and Alistair Mackintosh who are responsible for the Club’s day to day operations, and ‘getting the job done’.
There is a massive sense of entitlement and arrogance within that quote that reflects in the apathetic way the club operates, vs. Marco’s sincere ambitions.
We need to question and pressure Alistair Mackintosh and the Board in a more concerted way.
I agree it is the board that is to blame. maybe a need to replace Alistair Mackintosh
Either way, I wouldn’t blame him for walking away at the end of the season – the club’s ‘ambitions’ are just hot air.
I’m not convinced that the Khans can get off scot free here as some people claim.
If our anger has to be aimed at the board, then aren’t the ownership responsible for the make up of it? The Khan family hold two seats and Shad has given Tony an important job – Director of Football – which he doesn’t seem to have time to do well enough.
Then there’s Mark Lamping, a prominent figure in American sport and a key man at the Jaguars. You’ve got David Daly, previously a senior executive at Nike, and a lifelong Fulham fan.
Mackintosh might be the one who gets most of the flak, but he’s the only one on the board who knows how to effectively run a football club. He was part of a group that got us to the Europa League final and convinced Al-Fayed to invest in an academy that is now bearing fruit when our previous owner wasn’t exactly splashing the cash. Mackintosh has probably become too comfortable in a cosy environment – but he has ensured that Fulham will remain at Craven Cottage – and just like Marco, I’m not convinced that the Khans could effectively replace him as a CEO.