Saturday, December 22, 2007

Lewington stakes a claim for the hot seat

It seems Ray actually fancies another crack at the Fulham job. The BBC are now carrying an article with all the quotes from the Radio 5 interview I mentioned earlier. Lewington has apparently been told by Mohamed Al Fayed that he will retain a position on the coaching staff whoever succeeds Sanchez and also expects to be in charge for the Boxing Day trip to Spurs.

"I am realistic enough to know they will probably look outside, and I am OK with that. If that is the case I will just get on with my job."

Lewington believes that with the addition of one or two players in January - he identified a lack of ball-winners as one problem - Fulham have the makings of a "decent little side".

"It is a difficult task but I am absolutely confident we will survive. I have got no doubt about that, whoever the manager is."

Fairplay. I always liked Lewington as a player and a manager. He did reasonably well in his full spell as manager, and possibly only fell short due to the financial limitations of the time. He also served us well in two previous periods as Caretaker Manager. I'm not convinced he's the right man to take us forward, but I'm pleased to see him retain a role at the club.

The Dempsey quotes are really interesting. Clint has been one of the few players to have performed so far this season and yet it seems he was never that comfortable trying to play the style of Football Sanchez was after.

"I am happy with the manager we have right now," Dempsey told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I like Ray and Billy; they give us more freedom to express ourselves as players; I enjoy that.

"I think we showed a better style of play and I think you could hear the response from the fans, even if they were frustrated we didn't get the win, as the players were.

"I like the style of keeping possession more, not playing so direct, and trying to create chances instead of trying to jump the ball in.

"That is just what I think personally, I can't speak for the team, but I think the fans showed they agreed by the way they got behind us."


I'm looking forward to seeing how Dempsey performs under the new manager. The Tigana/Collins/Clarke triad is still the hot rumour, but we've also been linked in today's papers with Glenn Hoddle, Martin Jol and Slaven Billic.

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