Fullkrug Speaks Out

[Cerveza Para Mi]

Well dolne to the bloke.  Unfortunately I didn't actually see his interview but imo he said some things that needed saying. There's clearly a divided camp and so I guess the question needs to be asked why the players who are, according to Fullkrug, not playing to instructions are still being picked. 

As many people have pointed out before there is no relegation danger so there is absolutely no downside to throwing a few kids and squad players into the team and leaving out the offenders..  Alvarez was missing completely from the squad yesterday, as was Wan Bissaka.  Apparently AWB picked up an in jury in  training, which explains his absence, but Alvarez is apparently leaving cryptic messages on social media saying something like "all will soon be revealed". That suggests he may be one of those soon out of the door.

But it's good that someone has had the balls to speak out..  There's clearly a lot wrong and sweeping shit under the carpet has nevcer been the right way to clear up a nasty smell.,

[Come On You Irons]

If Antonio hasnt been picked up by any other team as of yet, there is probably a reason for that, and we should stay well clear! 

No, but he is training with Brentford.

[Sanacs on tour]

If Antonio hasnt been picked up by any other team as of yet, there is probably a reason for that, and we should stay well clear! 

[Far Cough UKunt]

Apparently due to the accident, one of Antonio's legs is shorter than the other which is great if we get Yeovil in the FA cup. 

[Massive Attack]

With Potter now out the picture who didn't want to keep Antonio, I could feasibly see him returning as a back up option now. In the desperate state we currently find ourselves in that's now been compounded by a lengthy Fullkeug injury, we can't turn our noses up at his return with only Wilson and an Academy kid to rely on up till January. Far too much at stake to wing it if Antonio is willing and waiting in the wings like he has having played for us for the stiffs recently. 

[Texas Iron]

Another 30. Million plus skunked away by our incompetent club…

Barrow Boy chairman…on and on…

[Massive Attack]

The Germans are saying he got injured training with West Ham.

Who knows? Ultimately, he’s just very injury prone, and too slow and/or weak for the Premier League. We knew this when we signed him for £27m, too.

Our scouting and transfer team really needed shooting during that period.

Absolute waste of money.

 

 

Many believed he was worth it though when we signed him despite some warning of how disastrous this would be due to his medical history, scoring record only in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, will struggle to adapt to the Premier League and how we should have cut our losses in the Summer. Steidtens due diligence on him was shocking and was clearly going more on the time when he worked with him and Werder Bremen and lazily bought him for a ridiculous amount we could not afford to waste on an ageing, injury prone overrated Striker on a long lucrative contract.

Yet Potter and Macaulay saw fit to keep him still, even after last seasons injury problems and outbursts in the Press and reports of fights in dressing rooms involving him.

We will now struggle to get any decent money for him or shift his 100k a week wages with over 2 and a half years left remaining on it. We did this type of signing soon after the Ings one.

We never, ever fucking learn as a Club. Repeating the same god awful and avoidable mistakes time and again. Then we wonder why we are always skint or find it hard to manage PSR when prioritising our money on such unsellable old donkies on lengthy contracts.

[Eerie Decent]

No chance. If you're comparing eras, the money he cost is relative. 

Benny McCarthy, hands down, is the worst signing we have made in our history. 

We signed him when he was 2 stone overweight, we knew he was 2 stone overweight because he had played against us not long before and he couldn't run, he cost £2.5mil which was our entire remaining budget at that time, and we could have signed Victor Moses for the same money, who at the time was 20, rapid, and was exactly what we needed at that moment. He was a fucking disgrace, he did not try a leg.

All things considered, Fulkrug has had some good games for us and he gives his all, but he's definitely been a bad signing, just not down there with the very worst.

[Pub Bigot]

He’d easily get in our worst XI of all-time on account of how much he cost, how shit he’s been and how injury prone he is. 

Callum, your time has come son. Bout ye!?

[southbankbornnbred]

The Germans are saying he got injured training with West Ham.

Who knows? Ultimately, he’s just very injury prone, and too slow and/or weak for the Premier League. We knew this when we signed him for £27m, too.

Our scouting and transfer team really needed shooting during that period.

Absolute waste of money.

[Far Cough UKunt]

The cսnt wants out? It's not like he was tearing the premiership alight with goals was it? Go on fuck off out of it you cսnt.

[nychammer]

Sorry if done. He's injured again out for several weeks. Picked it up training in Germany apparently.

isn't it time to offer Antonio something. Yes its desperate but we have next to nothing up front. Unless we've had a look at him and h's nowhere near the mark.

[Bowener]

Sorry if done. He's injured again out for several weeks. Picked it up training in Germany apparently.

[Massive Attack]

But, he is on record as saying he doesn't like London and his move here was a disaster. So this was largely about him being pissed off with being in a shit show. 
His rescue point about the manager being clear on attacking intent did not ring true. He (a forward) was replaced by Soucek (not a forward). Effectively Potter's substitutions were baffling, defensive and disruptive.
Whatever your take on Fulkrug's comments what is clear is that the club is dysfunctional to the point where a senior and respected international spoke out with such passion.
I see Fulkrug's heartfelt rant quite simply "please get me the fuck out of here!"

Very true, his previous comments did also cross my mind as well. He's made his feelings well and truly clear he ain't happy here both on and off the pitch. If he still feels that way come the Summer then sell to the highest bidder and recoup as much as we can for a 32/33yo he'll be next season. £100k+ wages as well ain't it? 

[El Scorchio]

German mentality. that's why they have been so successful.

[ATHammer]

I agree with pretty much everything he said and liked the way he delivered it, including the shrug when the interviewer apologised for the bad language. Yes, I know he has form for this type of outburst.
My take on it is he is a consummate professional with high standards and that performance hurt. But, he is on record as saying he doesn't like London and his move here was a disaster. So this was largely about him being pissed off with being in a shit show. 
His rescue point about the manager being clear on attacking intent did not ring true. He (a forward) was replaced by Soucek (not a forward). Effectively Potter's substitutions were baffling, defensive and disruptive.
Whatever your take on Fulkrug's comments what is clear is that the club is dysfunctional to the point where a senior and respected international spoke out with such passion.
I see Fulkrug's heartfelt rant quite simply "please get me the fuck out of here!"

[Russ of the BML]

It's not that I disagree with what he said (I agreed with a lot of it and share his frustrations), I just don't think it was wise for him to come out and say it so publicly in the way that he did. A time and a place for me that should have remained behind closed doors. 

The other issue I've got with someone like Fullkrug who's been at the Club for 5 minutes coming out and effectively burning down the dressing room with his public comments is he's barely contributed to anything of note for us in 2 different ways. He's barely scored for us in a number of appearances, as well as miss 19 matches through injury. Had he been playing regularly contributing to many points and/or banging them in left and right, then OK I can at least understand it's coming from someone who's heavily contributed well towards our season when very few others have. However that's not been the case at all and all it's likely to do now till the end of this sorry season is cause further division, as opposed to inspire a dressing room that's clearly a volatile weak one from earlier altercations and arguments amongst them earlier on in the season. 

I also think his frustrations should be just as equally aimed at the manager as well as the player's as it was Potter who foolishly took off all our forwards at a crucial time in the game and effectively handed over the initiative to a piss poor Southampton side. Who then continued to attack us till the end before successfully achieving a draw thanks to Potters dence substitutions. 

Fair points.

But it may be that he just thought "Well, if Potter ain't saying it and Bowen ain't saying then, fuck it, I will say it". 

And to be fair, someone had to say it. Just seems to me that Potter and Bowen are just not that type of person. 

I'm not convinced  anyone should be saying it the way he did so publicly. Tearing strips off one another behind closed doors telling home truths, I'm all for that but making such a public display I think causes more damage than good. If you start playing that game then it emboldens other players to feel they also have the right to air off cunting off their team mates/manager in the media as well. Hopefully it has the desired effect and little damage is made but I'm not convinced it will. It's very rare disharmony and publicly airing your dirty laundry brings out the best in a Team.

What makes it worse is we appear to have Alan Partridge as a Football Manager who is well out of his depth dealing with big personalities/egos and will struggle to manage the situation just as he struggled to deal with them at Chelsea lasting just 6 months there.

 

 

All good points. And hard to disagree. 

The only reason I am more accepting of what Fullkrug said is that you could clearly see anger in his eyes and that it was done in the heat of the moment and out of frustration. He cares. You can see that. 

As is always the way with these things, they can be blown out of proportion and can have an unecessarily large impact.... However, if managed properly, they can be used to your advantage and have a positive impact. That brings me to your point about Alan Partriddge. Is Potter capable of dealing with this maturely and positively? Or will he take offence and shun Fullkrug. As a manager on whatever industry, you have to deal with issues between the staff - And to prevent cracks appearing you have to manage these well. 

Hopefully it has the desired effect and today at training a meeting is called and everyone can positively and sensibly air their concerns and the collective can find solutions. But this has to be lead by Partridge.... Ahem, sorry, I mean Potter. 

[Eerie Decent]

Good to hear some honesty and frustration.

Part of a manager's job is to motivate players to "run thru brick walls" or "put everything on the line" making last ditch blocks, fighting for the ball and holding off the opposition when in possession, making and winning second balls etc.   I just have not seen that under Potter and even less so under Lopetegui.

From the outside, it seems Lopetegui went for the confrontation approach, "hairdryer" in the dressing room and leaving players out or having bust ups.  Potter has gone for the "softly softly" approach, build a team mentality, "we're all in this together", "work for the team" but personally I have not seen a West Ham side that is combative, really hard working since the first season or two under Moyes.    

I guess "familiarity breeds contempt" and having multimillionaire players ( both first 11 and squad ) makes it harder to motivate them. Its why the rich clubs often bring in an ex player who has played at the highest level to get the respect of players albeit they often lack the other necessary skills ( communication, tactical awareness etc).

A wild guess, possible ( probably you say ) wrong, is that we have a few players who think they are too good to play for West Ham now we are out of Europe and relegation candidates once again ( Kudus, Paqueta, Alvarez maybe one or two more? ) and only one or two not doing what they are told is enough to undermine everything. They aint buying into the last 2 managers approach and only listened to Moyes as we were in Europe?

All the above ignores the fact that the squad has been imbalanced going back to Bilic and BFS, in terms of playing any other way than low block, survival football ( which was apt when we first got up) and only the emergence of Rice temporarily made us more than that and essentially in Moyes COVID season ( dont forget the influence of no crowds ) we were playing as effectively as Forest are this season. 

In summary, its pretty certain Potter aint going anywhere until next season. So to me it makes sense to root out the players who think they are a cut above West Ham and get in young players who have something to prove, are developing. They might listen to his "come on lads try to do it this way", cajoling style. No certainty but the only way I can see things improving?. 

Tend to agree Alf.
It might upset a few people but maybe we do need to shift a few of those, even if they are considered our better players.

Let's be honest they are nowhere near the level we've seen them play for us before (especially in Europe), so right now it wouldn't actually be a huge loss to the team.

Especially if they are replaced with players who don't have a problem trying to be part of a team that isn't anywhere near Europe currently, but that's the goal.  

So we should bring in a few decent players willing to be a part of the Potter Project and promote some of the youngsters who are doing well in the youth teams and out on loan and that for me would be a good mix.

For me, we should always look at the youth before deciding if we need to make a signing though.  For the first team, if there is an obvious need (like we've had up-front for years) then I agree we should try and sign a player who will start for us in that position. 

But for back-up and reserve to the first team, a number of these players should be from our academy.  For instance, we brought in Danny Ings when we should have given that opportunity to Divin Mubama who has since left presumably due to lack of game time.  It's not a clear and obvious mistake to lose Divin yet, but the fact that Man City wanted him and he has scored 11 goals in 8 PL fixtures since joining them suggests he at least deserved a proper chance, rather than the odd minutes here and there.

For a club that calls itself the academy of football, we are very poor at promoting our academy.

Then we can all bake some cup cakes, bring them to the next game, sit in a circle on some grass outside the ground and sing Kumbaya together.

[THUNDERCLINT]

Cock Piss Potter

[violator]

Graham, shall we try and score some goals today.....No way you big spastic, you're a mentalist

[Massive Attack]

"Urh, uurhh, who do you think you are?! I've got cheese! Look at you all on the West Ham gravytrain.."

[honky cat]

Karrren. Smell my cheese platter you mother.

[Manuel]

Graham Partridge.

That could catch on.

He'll be standing in car park with his big plate shouting "DAVE" come the summer window. 

He does appear to look a bit stupid and Partridge like in that tracksuit top he wears with the upturned collars, he looked much better in a game recently, might have been Liverpool, when he was SPORTING a navy suit and a crisp open necked shirt.

[John Drake]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/pi ... st-ham-way

[scott_d]

Good to hear some honesty and frustration.

Part of a manager's job is to motivate players to "run thru brick walls" or "put everything on the line" making last ditch blocks, fighting for the ball and holding off the opposition when in possession, making and winning second balls etc.   I just have not seen that under Potter and even less so under Lopetegui.

From the outside, it seems Lopetegui went for the confrontation approach, "hairdryer" in the dressing room and leaving players out or having bust ups.  Potter has gone for the "softly softly" approach, build a team mentality, "we're all in this together", "work for the team" but personally I have not seen a West Ham side that is combative, really hard working since the first season or two under Moyes.    

I guess "familiarity breeds contempt" and having multimillionaire players ( both first 11 and squad ) makes it harder to motivate them. Its why the rich clubs often bring in an ex player who has played at the highest level to get the respect of players albeit they often lack the other necessary skills ( communication, tactical awareness etc).

A wild guess, possible ( probably you say ) wrong, is that we have a few players who think they are too good to play for West Ham now we are out of Europe and relegation candidates once again ( Kudus, Paqueta, Alvarez maybe one or two more? ) and only one or two not doing what they are told is enough to undermine everything. They aint buying into the last 2 managers approach and only listened to Moyes as we were in Europe?

All the above ignores the fact that the squad has been imbalanced going back to Bilic and BFS, in terms of playing any other way than low block, survival football ( which was apt when we first got up) and only the emergence of Rice temporarily made us more than that and essentially in Moyes COVID season ( dont forget the influence of no crowds ) we were playing as effectively as Forest are this season. 

In summary, its pretty certain Potter aint going anywhere until next season. So to me it makes sense to root out the players who think they are a cut above West Ham and get in young players who have something to prove, are developing. They might listen to his "come on lads try to do it this way", cajoling style. No certainty but the only way I can see things improving?. 

Tend to agree Alf.
It might upset a few people but maybe we do need to shift a few of those, even if they are considered our better players.

Let's be honest they are nowhere near the level we've seen them play for us before (especially in Europe), so right now it wouldn't actually be a huge loss to the team.

Especially if they are replaced with players who don't have a problem trying to be part of a team that isn't anywhere near Europe currently, but that's the goal.  

So we should bring in a few decent players willing to be a part of the Potter Project and promote some of the youngsters who are doing well in the youth teams and out on loan and that for me would be a good mix.

For me, we should always look at the youth before deciding if we need to make a signing though.  For the first team, if there is an obvious need (like we've had up-front for years) then I agree we should try and sign a player who will start for us in that position. 

But for back-up and reserve to the first team, a number of these players should be from our academy.  For instance, we brought in Danny Ings when we should have given that opportunity to Divin Mubama who has since left presumably due to lack of game time.  It's not a clear and obvious mistake to lose Divin yet, but the fact that Man City wanted him and he has scored 11 goals in 8 PL fixtures since joining them suggests he at least deserved a proper chance, rather than the odd minutes here and there.

For a club that calls itself the academy of football, we are very poor at promoting our academy.

[THUNDERCLINT]

End of season board meeting:

Karen, do you like owls?

Dave ,have I got a second season? 

I want a second season.

Would you like me to lapdance for you?