WHEN Mohamed Al-Fayed bought Fulham he famously declared that he wanted to make the London club “the Manchester United of the South,” but given his media performances in recent weeks with regard to the Diana inquest he is obviously prone to ridiculous and outrageous outbursts without really thinking through what he is saying.

Our favourite was his attack on a BBC television journalist after the inquest verdict was announced. After accusing everyone from the Duke of Edinburgh to the paradmedics at the scene of the crash of being in a conspiracy, Al Fayed was asked on his views on the inquest verdict. “I’m not talking to you, you’re an idiot and you work for MI6!” he shouted at the poor hack.

As a Fulham fan you have to be concerned for your club when your owner is such a raving loony but it was on this day in 2003 when he made one of his better decisions by placing Chris Coleman in caretaker charge of the club after giving Jean Tigana the boot.

Tigana had got the Cottagers promoted playing very attractive passing football with a hub of young exciting players at the hub of the squad, including Louis Saha and Luis Boa Morte, but the magic had started to wear off and Tigana’s position was not helped by his record £11m signing Steve Marlet proving about as effective in front of goal Emile Heskey on crutches.

A couple of bad results did for Tigana and Al-Fayed told him to do one, installing the popular Chris Coleman as temporary boss.

Coleman had been brought to the club by Kevin Keegan but was injured in a car crash in 2001 which forced him to hang up his boots and move into coaching.

Cookie was only 32 at the time and strenuously denied he wanted the job on a permanent basis but after a few good wins which secured Fulham’s Premiership status, Al-Fayed sensed a bargain and handed him the reigns for keeps.

Over the next few seasons Chris kept the team in the top division despite Al-Fayed seeming to have lost interest in his play-thing and spending bugger-all on new players. Things came to a head late in the 2007 season when a seven game winless streak gave Al-Fayed all the reasons he needed to sack Coleman.

Since then Fulham are already onto their second manager of the season with Roy Hodgson now in charge. Before that they tried employing Lawrie Sanchez who masterminded a couple of giant-killing acts as Northern Ireland boss, and then simply bought all the players he had picked as NI boss. Amazingly spending £20m on the likes of Steven Davis, David Healy, Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird did not suddenly propel Fulham into the upper reaches of the league so he was given his marching orders too.

Fulham are now deep in relegation trouble and Al-Fayed’s dream of making them the Manchester United of the south now seems as far-fetched as his anti-establishment ramblings.

Here is a little vid which charts Fulham’s current struggles and come back tomorrow when a South American legend starts to see a lifetime of excess catch up with him.

Other Football Videos

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...