There are some striking quotes in the interview Fulham chairman Shahid Khan has given The Observer – which has been published on the paper’s website this evening.
Asked about the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules that seem to have inhabited his club’s spending this summer, Khan says:
“I think they’re really good. I’m glad they’re being enforced now. Why is the Premier League the most popular soccer league in the world? Because of some of those rules and how the money is divided … the fact is that when you compare it to the other leagues in the world, the Premier League is by far the most competitive. For Fulham, we have to optimise our key attributes; the richest, most-educated fan base in English football. Geographically it’s in a beautiful location, so we can serve the community on non-match days.”
Curiously, Khan appears most animated when discussing the architectural merit of the new Riverside Stand.
“Frankly, it’s a passion for me. I seriously thought about being an architect, and I even started the first year in engineering school. But then I saw how much money they were making … The challenge of space design is, how do you come up with something that’s iconic, efficient and really touches people in a good way?”
Asked about the prospect of acquiring Wembley, which Khan came close to achieving seven years ago, the Fulham owner replies:
“We’ve got a great relationship [with Wembley] and for the time being we are doing great, so all is good.”
Conor Schmidt’s piece, which centres more on the turbulent summer endured by the Jacksonville Jaguars, is notable for what it doesn’t include: any discussion of Fulham’s passive transfer business, which has so irked Marco Silva.
There’s no chance of us falling foul of PSR. To do that you need to spend money.
The rest of the premiership clubs seem to have managed this transfer window so why is it we don’t want to spend any money on improving our squad which is probably the smallest in the premiership the answer is the Khan’s have no ambition to get our club into Europe and we will probably lose Marco because of them.
Not spending money this window has absolutely nothing to do with PSR. Our PSR position is just fine. I thought PSR was being dumped after this season anyway and replaced with SCR, Squad Cost Ratio.
Does Mr. Khan actually know what he’s talking about? The current PSR rules discriminate against clubs like Fulham and protect the riches of the traditional top six. It’s an odd position – and completely wrong.
The part that worries me most, however, is when he spells out in black and white why he wants to price out the traditional fans.
For Fulham, we have to optimise our key attributes; the richest, most-educated fan base in English football. Geographically it’s in a beautiful location, so we can serve the community on non-match days.”
Nothing about the supporters who have sustained the club before these American owners came along and charged us more for the privilege of supporting a side they won’t invest in. I’m as annoyed as Marco.
I get it why fans are disappointed that there hasn’t been early transfers. No surprise there!
But am sure we wouldn’t reach European football via the League. Man Utd just spent £200m !!!??!! They won’t be getting Europe’ via the league, or the cup.
We have a great squad, just need a few tweaks. But will survive another year in Premiership.
That’s enough for me.
It has always been clear that Marco will leave at the end of the season if offered a bigger club. Nothing to do with transfers. He will see out his contract, unless Utd make an early call. Be great if he stays, but there are other great
Managers out there.
Not quite sure how fans can critics Khans for lack of spending or ambition. They’ve invested nearly £1billion (that’s a literal billion pounds!) by most accounts. If there was no cap to spending in the Prem then how much more of their money would this be, mainly going to players and agents??
We spend way too much on wages already compared to our turnover and our fans seemingly want us to spend indiscriminately more on every occasion. Without selling players – which every other club of our size does to fund transfers.
Haven’t checked but doubt in our history we’ve had three consecutive top flight finishes as we’ve had the past three years? Happy to be proven wrong there though.
I think criticising the Khans on last minute transfers is completely fair but criticising them on ambition and spending is borderline delusional. Sad but true we should be ecstatic for mid table finishes considering our size and psr spending power
Well said Nick!! Pinch myself moment – we wanted more but its note all negative!!!
I don’t think anybody is criticising Shahid Khan for the level of his investment. He has bankrolled the club for more than a decade – but he took over a team that had been in the Premier League for thirteen years, so it isn’t as if the level of success we’re having at present is unprecendented.
The concern that I have is that we have a terrific coach, a great stadium and are situated in the perfect part of west London. What’s the point of the investment to date if we aren’t going to back Silva? My fear is that the Khans aren’t really that interested in challenging for honours. They are happy to survive in the Premier League and now what to get some of their money back.
It seems strange that Silva would get the wrong end of the stick about this summer’s transfer activity. Relying on the brilliance of the coach to keep doing more with less is a recipe for disaster. Other teams have strengthened significantly which means they may overtake us, but more damagingly, it looks as if Silva will walk at the end of the season. That would be a disaster because the Khans don’t have a great track record when it comes to managerial appointments.
We will lose Marco next summer 100%. Just hope we dont get another Martin Jol in.