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Fulham
Fulham have been one of the few Premier League clubs
to benefit from a financial benefactor
prepared to pump millions of pounds into top flight membership, and
survival. But even they,
as a club, have had to become self-sustaining after generous backing by
Mohamed Al Fayed
became less of a crutch when the Harrods owner decided not to pump
excess funds into the
bottomless pit that comes with owning a Premiership club.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for The Cottagers,
especially as on/off plans for the development
of their traditional Craven Cottage home necessitated temporary
‘lodgings’ at Loftus Road.
Fulham, courtesy of a reasonable budget and Jean
Tigan’s coaching only entered the
Premiership as recently as 2001, as First Division champions. After
nearly shocking
Manchester United in the opening game they went on a three-match
unbeaten run to sit
10th but dropped back into mid-table until a seven-game run, yielding 15
points, took them
to eighth.
Their neat, attacking football was a welcome
addition to the Premier League and a lavishly
assembled squad, including record £11.5 million signing Steve Marlet,
Steed Malbranque and
the exciting, if inconsistent Louis Saha, impressed all although the
team did lack a consistent
goalscorer and that hampered progress. The team was eventually grateful
for the early
season points as seven defeats in eight games saw Fulham enter April
2002, 15th, their
lowest placing of the campaign. But seven points and three consecutive
clean sheets helped
secure survival with a reasonable finish in 13th.
Internal dissatisfaction between Tigana and Al
Fayed, most publicly over the Marlet transfer,
which cost that club record fee, not to mention the owners lack of
confidence in Tigana’s
tactics, marred Fulham’s second season in the Premier League. Before
the campaign finished,
safe in 14th, Tigana left, in April 2003, to be replaced by Chris
Coleman, at 32 the youngest
manager in the Premiership. The team had reached as high as fifth,
although they had been
third after two games, during the campaign. But, managerial problems
aside, four separate
cup competitions added 20 games to the fixture list, although eight
Inter Toto games
produced a trophy and a post-Christmas slump, in which Fulham recovered
from a season-low
16th, to take seven points from the last three games, allowed the team
to secure 14th place.
Coleman and Fulham learnt quickly and a superb start
to the third Premiership campaign was
testimony to Coleman’s ability as much as the confidence Al Fayed had
in his manager. The
team lost just one game in the first nine before the victory at Old
Trafford that finally saw
recognition for the Premiership force Fulham had become and they went
into November fifth
in the League. The inevitable glitch came that month but the team
recovered and claimed a
draw at Highbury that added to a growing reputation and they were as
high as fourth by
December.
Fulham suffered two defeats at the turn of the year
saw them enter 2004 fifth in the table
but their form was erratic and too many draws hindered recovery but
recover they did and
in winning half of their last six games they finished 14th.
With a return to Craven Cottage to look forward to
Fulham had ridden-out the usually
troublesome early Premiership years and with Coleman and Al Fayed
proving a more than
useful combination the club’s fans were very optimistic about the
Premiership years ahead.
Managers
Jean Tigana
2000–2003
Chris Coleman
April 2003– |
