The perfect football flat

Primarily in a QPR area (Loftus Road can be heard on particularly noisy days), this two bedroom flat is only 1.1 miles from South Africa Road, only 1.6 miles (and a lovely Thames walk) from Craven Cottage, or 2.4 miles from Stamford Bridge (or a short hop on the 391 bus).
It is also only 2.7 miles to Brentford's Griffin Park and, as an added bonus, 4.5 miles to Wembley, which can be viewed from the top of the building. A perfect football fan flat then!
[estate agent]
It will also protect you against cancer, make you irresistible to the opposite sex and comes with a thriving money tree.
[/estate agent]

European nights - FUL 1 -1 TWN

So I finally managed to catch up with a Fulham game, albeit on lovely Channel 5, and was partially impressed at what I saw. Young Matthew Briggs had a stormer from left back, Grygera was solid enough at left beck (although on another day with a different European ref he could have been  in serious trouble after an 'enthusiastic' tackle in the first half), Kasami was full of energy on the right (if little guile), Dembele was more effective than usual, as was AJ.
It was AJ that provided Fulham with the lead after two bits of bad defending - the first saw him cut out a square pass, while the miscontrol of the challenging defender allowed him to clip a wonderful finish past Twente's goalkeeper. Fulham were actually quite comfortable for a lot of the first half without having too many attempts on target, but have a worrying capacity to crumble under a bit of pressure this season. So it proved after Twente's headed equaliser (which went in off the back of the unfortunate Schwarzer). It's not as if Fulham hadn't been warned - only a minute earlier de Jong had come close with a similar chance. Baird at centre half really does improve distribution from the back with his long raking passes, but has a tendency to get caught underneath crosses, which is what happened at the equaliser.
Second half Fulham again started brightly, although only Dempsey really looked like a goal threat. AJ should have scored again with the simplest chance of the match, but hit it straight at Twente's keeper. Strange though that when Zamora replaced Johnson, Fulham's attacking impetus practically stopped. I think the Twente back four are more used to playing against the sort of challenges that Zamora offers rather than AJ's selfless running and things just stopped happening. Duff was practically invisible when he came on for Kasami - I've never seen him so anonymous.
The impetus then switched to Twente for the last fifteen minutes after some needless and sloppy play at the back for Fulham and in the end both teams were happy with a point knowing they've just played the hardest team in their Europa Group.
A novelty for me then watching on TV - and I'm slightly worried about co-pundit Graham Taylor. In the first half he talked about Fulham's unbeaten European home record with the co-commentator and then in the second half brought it up again as if it was a totally new discussion. Very strange. I will agree with them one one thing though - Twente's Douglas was a very impressive player.

Value?

Jol appears to be keeping his powder dry for Man City by resting some of the key players tonight. We'll probably have Baird or Grygera alongside Hangeland with Kelly at RB. AJ up front with new boy Sa? Or even Clint?
Anyway, it appears that Twente are taking it more seriously than Fulham, which gives them real value at 11/4 with Ladbrokes to win the tie.
Still, it's a nice return to Channel 5 for this evening's festivities.

New recruits

As is patently obvious, I've not been able to keep tabs on this blog this season - mainly down to becoming a father for the first time - so we've taken a change of tack and recruited a few more writers to help spread the load.
The good news is that McLean and MMcC are both Fulham fans and therefore more qualified to comment on the Cottagers than I.

Preview 2011/12

I've been trying to write this season preview for some time now, but it's been hard to know where to start. This Fulham side still feels much the same one that Roy Hodgson started off with three glorious seasons ago. There have been some additions, but only Hughes' Dembele and Jol's Riise are free of Roy's guidance. Even Senderos and Sidwell were lined up before Hughes arrived.
Last season Sparky tried to impose himself on the side, but they only pulled themselves out of trouble when allowed to play the way Hodgson pioneered at the club. It is still unclear what approach Jol will take.
It's hard to gauge what tactical innovations from the early rounds of the Europa League will stick, but one of them seems to be playing Aaron Hughes at right back so the team can adapt to three at the back when in possession. This is worrying given the strength of the Hughes/Hangeland pairing, but retaining Hughes' presence in the back line might preserve some of the advantages. If it doesn't work then Baird, Kelly or possibly Salcido (who is right footed after all) could get a run out.
And that's as exciting as it will be: who will play right back? While it's nice to be back in Europe, it is a much shallower squad now than two seasons ago. The departures of Paintsil, Kamara, Zolly Gera, Greening, Stockdale (thankfully just on loan), Elm, hell even Eddie Johnson, along with some of the Europa alumini such as Konchesky and even Seol, suggest there is not the depth to emulate 2009/10. In fact, with just three strikers in the squad, all of whom missed chunks of last season through injury, there is a need for reinforcements up top. The two new midfielders Gecov and Kasami sound interesting, but are somewhat of an unknown quantity.
What this squad has achieved at Fulham will rightly have it hailed as the club's best ever. However a few injuries this year and the team might find itself dragged into a relegation battle, especially if it advances into the Europa groups and beyond.
Fortunately there's still time to get a few more bodies in and maybe some of the youth team like Dala Valle can step up.