Cottagers Confidential

Cottage Talk Today At 2PM GMT / 9AM EST

2012-05-18T12:02:38Z

Cottage Talk is back today at 2PM GMT / 9AM EST, and we will be looking back at the Spurs loss along with having an interesting discussion about the Hammy's which are season ending awards given by co-host Chris Gilbertson on Hammyend.com. This should be an interesting show and I hope you can listen live or after the show by clicking here.

Diarra extends stay

2012-05-17T17:14:32Z

Diarra extends stay

Midfielder Mahamadou Diarra has extended his stay at Fulham until the Summer of 2013.

Fulham close to signing Rhodes?

2012-05-17T12:39:49Z

The Daily Mail are reporting that Fulham are on the verge of completing a £3.5 million deal for Huddersfield's prolific forward, Jordan Rhodes.

Supposedly, Jol has bee keen on the striker for a while and the opportunity has now arose to table a bid. A deal, if genuine, is expected to be struck after Rhodes plays his part in the League One play-off final between Huddersfield and Sheffield United.

Rhodes has caught the eye of many Premier League managers over the previous few months with his extensive scoring record but there is, too, a widely held belief that he might not make it at the highest level considering previous investments in players like Jay Bothroyd at Everton. Rhodes, however, with 40 goals to his name, could be a more promising purchase.

He played his first international game for Scotland in a friendly against Cyprus last November and hopes to retain a place in their setup.

With such acclamation behind him, it is no surprise that, would the deal with Fulham to go through, Jol would have beaten off attention from clubs such as Everton, Aston Villa and Norwich City in the process.

It is thought that the deal will be complete before Rhodes goes on holiday.

Poll

Would Rhodes constitute a good signing for Fulham?

Bleak end to a gratifying campaign - Tottenham 2-0 Fulham

2012-05-14T12:16:18Z

A certain Rudyard Kipling once said that "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you" then you'd be, by way of honour, a man. If there was ever any doubt, over the course of this campaign, then, about the gender and about the personal traits and about the background of Martin Jol then it has finally, most assuredly, been answered. There was a sense, at many stages over this season, that heads would roll and the biggest would that of our manager's, but in his most calm and convincing manner, Chairman Mohammed Al Fayed stood by Jol and the Dutchman now, by all accounts, can be considered the manliest of men.

He stuck by his own grounded principles and let nothing slip - in a way that Mark Hughes, quite simply, couldn't. He followed through on quite risky promises - he lowered the average age of the squad and has allowed some of our most glittering young talents to shine, dazzle and glisten on one of the world's greatest footballing stages. He has continued to grace the fine Craven Cottage turf with a style of football that is brisk and pleasant and has, also, taken the good along with the bad and never appeared to be overly bothered. All the while, Fulham have finished ninth, level on points with Liverpool, a team of such damning pedigree, and finished the year with a certain sense of well-being and a prevalent thought that, come August, things could be even greater in SW6 and that Fulham are a club, for all intents and purposes, most definitely on the up.

The season, then, was a good one but the game at White Hart Lane never quite lived up to the billing on show at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City dramatically clinched the title. In truth, though, that was never expected. Here, one side sought Champions League football while the other fought for a less prosaic ending to a sporadically successful campaign. In that sense, it was no surprise that Emmanuel Adebayor only took 96 seconds to put Tottenham Hotspur into an eventually unassailable lead after being released by Luka Modric.

Fulham did find their way into the game but never intruded into the score sheet with Moussa Dembele in particular proving influential in midfield. As the away side grew in stature, though, their impotence up front only seemed to grow with Clint Dempsey clearly being a sorely missed casualty. He was left out through injury but the conspiracies around his imminent Fulham departure flew around the away end sharply as, really, there was little to look at on the pitch.

Jermain Defoe went on to double the Spurs lead after the break after replacing Rafael van der Vaart and there was a bleak acceptance that the game was now beyond Fulham. They did press, and could have taken something back to South West London, but two strikes of the post, unfortunately, don't make a goal, and this proved to be a negative ending to an ultimately positive season.

The bigger test will, of course, come over the summer as other clubs pursue our best talents. Let's hope we're better at keeping them away than we were Tottenham here.

Poll

Has it been a good season for Fulham?

Cottage Talk: Fulham vs. Tottenham Hotspur Preview Show

2012-05-11T16:00:02Z

On this episode of Cottage Talk, we looked back at the 2-1 victory for Fulham against Sunderland. We were then joined by Simon Peach of the Press Association for a 15 minute interview. We had some audio issues during the interview with Simon and I apologize for that. We then had a discussion about the Fulham U18 team playing in the Premier League Academy League Final at Craven Cottage on Saturday. After that we played an interview with Chris Nash and Stephen Brandt of Vuvuzela: The World Soccer Show. We finished the show with a lengthy preview of Sunday's match against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Please do take a listen. Listen to internet radio with cottagetalk on Blog Talk Radio

No Dempsey for final day - Game preview - Tottenham Hotspur (a)

2012-05-11T15:40:09Z

The task at hand seemed daunting enough but news has now appeared that, on our final match of the campaign, away at Tottenham Hotspur, Clint Dempsey will be unavailable after picking up a groin strain.

It's been a long, tough and yet ultimately fulfilling season for Fulham but it will be no testament to Dempsey, who has proved pivotal at some moments of quite vital importance, that he plays no part at White Hart Lane on Sunday. If there is one thing he deserves, it is a respectable send off and a goal would have topped his simply miraculous season off quite nicely.

The consensus still is that Dempsey will no longer play for Fulham by the time the 2012/13 season begins and, despite words from Martin Jol to the contrary, there is sombre acceptance all around Fulham that he will be plying his trade in SW6 no more. In that respect, last weekend's victory over Sunderland could well have been his last Fulham game, ever.

Perhaps, though, it will look far more pleasant on his CV if he doesn't feature on Sunday because, in all honesty, the odds are firmly stacked against Fulham. Not only are they away from home - a cosmic disadvantage in the first place - but Spurs are in a desperate search for a Champions League spot and have been justly rejuvinated under a newly content Harry Redknapp. The decision to hand the England manager's job to Roy Hodgson seems to have lifted a weight off of his shoulders.

In their last outing, Redknapp's side could only muster a draw from stalemate specialists Aston Villa but, before that, they showed their superiority over a lacklustre but nonetheless scrappy Bolton Wanderers side. They defeated the Trotters 4-1 at the Reebok Stadium.

Fulham, meanwhile, are enjoying some of their best form of the season, having pulled 16 points from a possible 21. Sunderland were their latest victims, falling to a 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage, but, really, the scoreline could have been more daunting.

Earlier in the season, with Fulham at home, Spurs ran away with a 3-1 victory in what was, arguably, a tighter affair than the scoreline suggests. At White Hart Lane last season, we fell to a 1-0 defeat.

Injury wise, Scott Parker is set to miss out for the home side because of an Achilles problem and Danny Rose is suspended. Ledley King may be absent due to a knee injury while long term concerns Niko Kranjcar, Tom Huddlestone and Michael Dawson are all unavailable.

For Fulham, Dempsey provides the main injury worry but Alex Kacaniklic will face a fitness test after pulling up in training on Friday. Dickson Etuhu, Bryan Ruiz, Steve Sidwell and Zdenek Grygera will not feature.

Score Prediction: Tottenham 3-2 Fulham

Fulham target Luciano Narsingh unsure over whether to join Fulham or Ajax

2012-05-11T14:09:59Z

Fulham and Ajax target Luciano Narsingh this week met with both clubs to discuss terms and look around the training grounds and facilities. He's just put out on his official twitter site the following:-

"Guys I do not know where my future lies. Thanks for the responses. Ajax & Fulham are both nice clubs. # # Narsingh Fulham"

He's obviously unsure and this could go either way as he's a former Ajax graduate and will have allegiances with them. On the other hand, Martin Jol's agent Raiola is also Narsinghs agent so this could sway him towards Fulham.

Hopefully he'll make a decision soon on where he'd like to join as his pace and trickery could work very well for Fulham in the Premier League.

Cottage Talk At 3PM GMT / 10AM EST - Fulham vs Tottenham Preview

2012-05-11T13:14:20Z

On this episode of Cottage Talk, we will be first looking back at the home victory for Fulham against Sunderland last Sunday. Later in the show we will be previewing Sunday's match against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

We will be joined during the show by Simon Peach who covers Fulham for the Press Association. Also, there will be an interview that was done yesterday with Eric Nash and Stephen Brandt from Vuvuzela: The World Soccer Show.

I hope you can listen to this episode of Cottage Talk.