Fulham’s downward spiral has reached crisis point with the Cottagers bottom of the Championship after seven defeats in eight games this season.
Felix Magath, a former Bayern Munich manager that has won the Bundesliga three times, just couldn’t get it right and departed last week – clouding Craven Cottage with more doubt than when he arrived.
The club’s U21 manager, Kit Symons, has been appointed caretaker manager, but the team’s situation requires a boss with more experience and stronger credentials – someone who knows how to bring a club back from the dead.
This is why Tony Pulis should definitely be considered for the role.
The fact Pulis was deservedly named Barclays Premier League Manager of the Year last season, overcoming Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and Brendan Rogers, should be a good enough reason to deem him as the perfect solution.
Crystal Palace were struggling under former manager Ian Holloway, amassing four points in 11 matches before Pulis was parachuted in to save them.
The Welshman picked up 11 wins in 26 League matches and a total of 38 points, which remarkably led the Eagles to 11th place. He is a manager that knows how turn a team’s players from zeros to heroes.
He is a coach that is never afraid to look the big clubs straight in the eye. With Palace, he beat Chelsea 1-0, Everton 3-2 away and came back from 3-0 down at home to Liverpool to draw 3-3.
Last season was no fluke for the 56-year-old as he did the same thing he had been doing with Stoke for seven seasons having got them promoted to the Premier League in 2008.
To this day, the Potters are an established Premier League team that has not looked relegation fodder thanks to Pulis’s work. They also made the 2011 FA Cup final and progressed to the last 32 of the Europa League one year later under his guidance.
The Welshman cares about the club he works for and works hard both on and off the pitch. In his days at Stoke he helped design a state-of-the-art training ground which gave them a new and improved identity. If Fulham invest in him and give him time, then he can transform the entire image of the club.
Everywhere he goes he creates a special relationship with the fans of the club. There were times the former Potters boss would watch the team’s games from the stands with the fans, ignoring the VIP seats.
The situation at Craven Cottage is a complicated one – they have sacked three managers in 10 months. Fulham need a boss that is patient, not afraid of a challenge, never loses hope and knows how to build a team from nothing.
Pulis is the perfect solution because he has been in this situation many times before and will know the remedy for the Whites’ problems.
Picture courtesy of Treevis, with thanks
