It’s really been a crappy month, no?
First there was the interminable international break, then the beloved Bobby Zamora had his leg broken, then Fulham took a trip to Blackburn and were mugged around the park by thugs like Vincent Grella, then (finally) Fulham had a Carling Cup match at Stoke City…where they promptly lost 2-0 because Mark Schwarzer’s psyche is kaput.
Oh, and Moussa Dembélé got stretchered off the field from a ridiculously unnecessary Andy Wilkinson tackle. Thankfully, sorta, he’s only out for two weeks. Good times all around!
I would report more about last night’s Carling Cup defeat, but from listening to GJ it seems there is not much to report as Fulham were just that poor. Beyond Dembélé being out for the next two weeks, sigh, I think what is more noteworthy is that yesterday marked the sixth straight year that Fulham have gone out of the Carling Cup either at or before the Third Round (in the 2006-07 season you may remember us losing to Wycombe in the Second Round).
Perhaps we have an annual tradition beginning?
Now, about Mark Schwarzer. Parallels can easily be drawn between the psyche of goalies in soccer and quarterbacks in American Football. They’ve got such fragile little minds, and once their confidence is gone, so too is their ability. Especially ones that never have had to deal with competing for the starting role, like Mark has (not).
Let’s just put ourselves in Schwarzer’s boots for one minute: The coach that signed you, and had great success with, left during the offseason. You only have one year left on your contract for a team that’s going to go through some transition, and you’re 37 years old. You hear that Arsenal put in a bid for you, so naturally you’ll say that you would like to play there.
Buoying this scenario is that your coaches say you can go, but only on the condition that Arsenal up their paltry £2m request. Unsurprisingly, Arsenal didn’t increase their second request enough (which was only £4m total), so the deal is off.
In other words, it is basically Arsene Wenger telling you “Sorry Mark, but your compatriot Brad Jones (Liverpool paid £2.3m for a keeper that got ‘Boro relegated!) and untested Asmir Begović are worth more than you (Stoke paid Portsmouth 4m for a keeper with way less experience than Mark).
Meanwhile, you get injured and subsequently lose your starting spot to your understudy David Stockdale, who is only 25. Then Stockdale gets injured and you’re thrust back into the limelight.
So I’m honestly not too surprised he’s been fucking up left and right since Stockdale went out. He was jilted on both ends and is now suddenly back in the fold. Of course he’s a professional so he *should* not be playing like this but he’s a human being, not a robot. And on top of that, he’s a goalie.
Mark will come around soon enough – he’s too much of a professional not to. It’s just right now we need to deal with the current funk, however unfortunate it may be.
(h/t to ImperialWhite at FoF for uploading the highlights. Surely both Stoke tackles could have been reds, no?)
Category: Team News, match report
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Comments | Add your comment stoke fan | September 22nd, 2010 at 7:50 am 
Not disputing the Wilkinson tackle (it was stupid, late and could’ve been very dangerous), but is it not a little ironic showing a picture of your captain throwing the ball in our captain’s face with the tag line of “More thugs?!?”, which I assume it aimed at Stoke.
timmyg | September 22nd, 2010 at 7:56 am Stoke Fan — yes, it is intentionally ironic. I really love that photo.
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timmyg: Stoke Fan -- yes, it is intentionally ironic. I really love that photo.
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