USMNT rumor

[Ajax]

Outstanding!  Did he give a date or an opponent? 

[JaxByDefault]

I'd heard the Fulham in Jax (July 26th)  plan last fall, but I assumed it had been shelved since they're in a relegation fight.

I'm a long-time FFC supporter, and I'd love to see them here in JAX -- but only if they manage another great escape and remain in the Premier League. I'll be highly disappointed in Khan's leadership if he is willing to spend what will be rapidly dwindling club funds after falling out of Premiership for a US visit (unless he could make money off of the deal, which is unlikely). The side are going to get gutted of the (limited) top talent they currently have and history proves that you have to get back into the Premier League quickly or you stall in the lower leagues for quite a while. I'm really not ready for FFC to be a third division team again.

[Ajax]

I'd heard the Fulham in Jax (July 26th)  plan last fall, but I assumed it had been shelved since they're in a relegation fight.

I'm a long-time FFC supporter, and I'd love to see them here in JAX -- but only if they manage another great escape and remain in the Premier League. I'll be highly disappointed in Khan's leadership if he is willing to spend what will be rapidly dwindling club funds after falling out of Premiership for a US visit (unless he could make money off of the deal, which is unlikely). The side are going to get gutted of the (limited) top talent they currently have and history proves that you have to get back into the Premier League quickly or you stall in the lower leagues for quite a while. I'm really not ready for FFC to be a third division team again.

Yeah, I had heard the 26th as well. 

I remember reading somewhere that teams that fall from the Premier League are more likely to drop again than they are to make it back up to the Premiership.  Yikes.  I hope Felix can work his magic again. 

[Todd_Parker]

Fulham is just experiencing bad karma after removing the Michael Jackson statue from Craven Cottage.

[pierre]

Jags President Lamping announced that Fulham FC will play match here in July. It will be the first event in Everbank after the renovations have been completed.

Jacksonville is such a futbol town

[JaxByDefault]

I remember reading somewhere that teams that fall from the Premier League are more likely to drop again than they are to make it back up to the Premiership.  Yikes.  I hope Felix can work his magic again. 

If they do not make it back up to Premiership with in 2-3 seasons, they are more likely to drop from League Championship to League One than they are to promote to Premiership. I have no idea if Financial Fair Play will alter that stat.  Keeping Jol past last season (when he had lost every home game since the last week of March), all of last Summer's transfers, hiring Rene as a manager-in-waiting then promoting him all in the span of a month, the Dempsey loan, and the terrible Curbishley/Wilkins/Rene managerial troika, were all horrible decisions. Fulham are a hot mess.

Felix seems like a desperation move. He's got a decent record in times of woe, but he also has a trail of destruction in his wake. The Holtby loan is first good piece of transfer work FFC managed  in a while, and he once famously declared that he would never play under Felix again. Yikes, indeed.

I'm not terribly happy with the Khan era so far. I wonder what kind of draw  a League Championship side (stripped of player like Reither and Holtby) would have over here?

*And that MJ statue had to go. I purposefully avoided the Riverside Stands (with its roomier seats) and the Thames walk (preferring Bishop's Park/Stevenage Rd.) just to avoid ever seeing the horrible thing.

[Ajax]

I remember reading somewhere that teams that fall from the Premier League are more likely to drop again than they are to make it back up to the Premiership.  Yikes.  I hope Felix can work his magic again. 

If they do not make it back up to Premiership with in 2-3 seasons, they are more likely to drop from League Championship to League One than they are to promote to Premiership. I have no idea if Financial Fair Play will alter that stat.  Keeping Jol past last season (when he had lost every home game since the last week of March), all of last Summer's transfers, hiring Rene as a manager-in-waiting then promoting him all in the span of a month, the Dempsey loan, and the terrible Curbishley/Wilkins/Rene managerial troika, were all horrible decisions. Fulham are a hot mess.

Felix seems like a desperation move. He's got a decent record in times of woe, but he also has a trail of destruction in his wake. The Holtby loan is first good piece of transfer work FFC managed  in a while, and he once famously declared that he would never play under Felix again. Yikes, indeed.

I'm not terribly happy with the Khan era so far. I wonder what kind of draw  a League Championship side (stripped of player like Reither and Holtby) would have over here?

*And that MJ statue had to go. I purposefully avoided the Riverside Stands (with its roomier seats) and the Thames walk (preferring Bishop's Park/Stevenage Rd.) just to avoid ever seeing the horrible thing.

I've always liked Fulham but I can't say I was a supporter - more of an 'observer' due to the Fulhamerica stuff with McBride, Bocanegra, Dempsey, etc.  I'm an Ajax supporter (if you hadn't guessed), so when Jol left us in mid-season to go to Fulham I was happy to see him go and didn't think he would do much for Fulham. 

I guess since I have the luxury of being an observer and not a full-hearted supporter, I can be a little more patient and supportive of Felix and Shad.  But if this kind of stuff was happening at Ajax I would probably be just as upset as you are.  In watching what Khan is doing with the Jaguars, I trust that he will fix things at Fulham, but of course in the NFL you can take your time rebuilding since there's no relegation threat.  Again, if I were emotionally invested like you probably are I wouldn't have any patience for that. 

Funny that Holtby said that.  Ooops!   I view Felix as sort of a Tom Coughlin-type, sure a lot of players hate his old-fashioned ways, but he has his loyal supporters.  Maybe that's too simplistic a comparison, but I'm still hopeful that Felix can keep them afloat and then move on after his 18 months are up.  Or sooner.  For what it's worth, I don't think Rene was going to be able to keep them up. 

I really don't think Fulham will have much of a draw here if they're relegated.  I know Stoke City played in Orlando a couple of years ago because the team president was on the Stoke board of directors, and I think they drew around 10k fans.  I don't think Khan would want to bring Fulham over here to play in front of a small crowd like that. 

[CityLife]

Fulham had a horrible summer, but a really good January. Holtby is a really classy player and can potentially lead them out of relegation like Deuce used to. Mitroglou just left a team that has a chance to make the Champions League Quarterfinals, to join a relegation battle (who knows why), and Kvist is a steady DM. Might be too late, but they can definitely rally and pull it out.

If they get relegated, Khan is going to lose a lot of money overpaying players to take them back up to the EPL and even then there is no guarantee. I really don't think there is a huge gap between the bottom 5 EPL teams and top 5 Championship teams.