SB Nation - Marcel Gecov

Jol: Kasami can leave on loan

Kristian Balkin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:17:23 -0000

The dearth of talent in Fulham's central midfield is about to become yet more significant with manager, Martin Jol, admitting that he would like to see Pajtim Kasami sent out on loan.

After losing Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu, Marcel Gecov and Moussa Dembele from the middle of the park, there are major doubts as to how well both Steve Sidwell and Mahamadou Diarra can cope but Jol, usually keen on blooding youngsters at Craven Cottage, is seemingly not concerned about letting another midfielder, in Kasami, go.

Kasami has blown hot and cold since his arrival from Palermo last summer, showing glimpses of his talent at various stages in his debut season but never truly breaking into the first team. A row over a missed penalty led to the Swiss 19 year-old being fined and, since that day, Kasami has found first team football to be a scarcity.

Still, his talent is undeniable and Juventus' pursuit of the midfielder over January proves as such.

Jol, however, was slightly more succinct with his assessment of the player.

"Kasami is a youngster and if everyone is sound and well he won't start, he knows that," he told the Fulham Chronicle.

"That's a bit of a problem with him because he wants to play all the time.

"I feel he should do a bit better and push for a starting place but he's not there yet.

"I think he could benefit from a loan spell."

Will Dempsey feature? Game preview - Norwich (h)

Kristian Balkin — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:43:35 -0000

New official website. New look stadium. New screens. New players. New season.

And how I've longed for it. We've had a summer full of football - from the European Championships to the Olympics, there's been plenty to savour, but nothing can quite top a fresh Premier League campaign, full of hope, expectation and, as always, that little bit of dread.

With Fulham, the dread has been somewhat exaggerated by the lack of activity at Motspur Park or, to be more specific, the lack of inward activity. We've lost plenty of players - Danny Murphy, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Dickson Etuhu, Andrew Johnson, Marcel Gecov and Orlando Sa(in order of significance) - but have yet to spend a penny on their replacements. Of course, time is on our side, but that hasn't taken the edge off the concern.

You have to feel, however, that we have enough about us to see off he threat of Norwich City. They have a new manager, in the form of Chris Hughton, yet there are major questions lingering over his head as to whether he can replicate, or even go close to replicating, last season's heroics under Paul Lambert. The away fans at the Cottage on Sunday will certainly be hoping so but the bookies don't look at them quite so favourably. With SkyBet, they are 6/4 to get relegated, level with Wigan Athletic.

Matches aren't played on paper though, and the Canaries have had a respectable pre-season, beating Celtic away and taking a draw against Ajax. Fulham perhaps had the better summer, with the highlight being a hammering of OGC Nice away in France. Mladen Petric has been particularly potent.

In the same fixture last season, we defeated Norwich 2-1 with all the work done within 13 minutes, Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey the scorers. Whether Dempsey will feature on Saturday is a question many are afraid to answer, with a potential move away from the club still playing on everyone's mind. Sa scored a sumptuous volley in the reverse fixture, helping claim a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road.

New Norwich signings Steven Whittaker and Jacob Butterfield won't play a part while Javier Garrido is thought to still be awaiting international clearance after his loan move from Lazio was confirmed.

Fulham team news has yet to be released, but there are thought to be no major injury concerns.

Potential line-up: Schwarzer; Riise, Hangeland, Hughes, Riether; Duff, Diarra, Dembele, Kacaniklic; Ruiz; Rodallega

Score prediction: Fulham 3-0 Norwich

Dude, Fulham Beat Arsenal 2-1

Stephen Catanese — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:20:24 -0000

Four of six points from the Gunners.

One away. Three at home.

Bobby Zamora played. Scored too.

As it all should be. In our dream world at least.

David Stockdale offered a masterclass on making ludicrous saves in the first half.

Don't rewind, or you'll see Arsenal score. No one wants to see that. Over here, at least.

Shots on goal were in Arsenal's favor in the first half, but just barely. If 9-1 constitutes barely.

That's okay. Fulham won. Don't look now, but that's only one loss in their last five fixtures. And the only loss was the 5-0 thrashing to Manchester United, so that doesn't count.

Drawing at Chelsea and beating Arsenal is better. Let's remember those ones.

A bright start to the second half for Fulham.

Possession, possession, possession. No goals. Alas.

John Arne Riise was inspiring. I tweeted about him prolifically. He was everywhere on the field. Crossing the ball and tackling in the box. Theo Walcott was forced off in the 65th for failing to contain the mighty Riise. He deserves a feature of his own later on in the week.

Johan Djourou was sent off for a second yellow card that was, we'll say, marginal. Maybe Djourou's that much stronger than Zamora. Maybe not.

Someone on Twitter said he Djourou should've recieved his second yellow earlier in the match. I'll go with that.

They were the only yellows given. By all accounts, it was a fast paced, clean, competitive game on the whole.

Thus, why I piggyback on Arsenal at times.

Digression accomplished. Where were we?

Djourou was off. So was Robin Van Persie.

Wait, no he wasn't. He just disappeared.

A few minutes passed. His ginger majesty struck. Arsene Wenger said the F-Word.

A point. Whee!

Could there be more?

I urged it on Twitter. Maybe Jol caught wind of it, and urged the boys on. A talismanic tweet.

Seconds left. A ball chipped into the box. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Bounce all the way to Bobby's boot.

There's your goal. There's three points!

Fulham's only in 13th, but the drop zone seems so, so far way, up eight points on 18th placed Wigan.

Great stuff. Hopefully the relatively unchanged first-team of the last few weeks gets a break during Fulham's home FA Cup match-up against Charlton Athletic. It's been a while since we've seen Aaaron Hughes, Damien Duff, Marcel Gecov, Pajtim Kasami, Simon Davies, Matthew Briggs or Chris Baird get a start.

That's a tidy little backup lineup to be able to trot out. A pleasing amount of depth, really, outside of striker.

Let's see how much of that rotation is still around in two weeks.