Greek drama in West London
It was kebabs and kleftiko all round this week along the Fulham Palace Road as tavernas strung lanterns across the street, flung open their doors, and threw back the retsina in welcome of Fulham Football Club's new saviour. Georgios Karagounis is his name, the 36-year-old captain of Greece has been plucked from Panathinaikos, seen by the powers that be at FFC as the fatted calf to salvage our season.
While lambs were slaughtered in the street and traffic slowed to a crawl, Fulham manager Martin Jol, enjoying himself hugely in the autumn sunshine, disentangled himself from an impromptu lesson in the steps to Zorba's Dance to possibly say: "We've replaced one ageing ex-international at the heart of midfield with another pro just about on his last legs, but this guy gives me far less back-chat. And look at the reception for him here today - the people love him already. Let me tell you, if you have a photo of Danny Murphy ever smiling - please show it to me, because, you know, I never saw it from the guy."
But surely this free agent recruit is being parachuted into the midfield berth vacated by Dembele's departure to Spurs? This caused a shadow to pass over Martin's jovial features.
"Don't mention that guy any more, he's history. You think this one has come over from Greece to make 50-yard sprints up the pitch? He's too good for that. He just needs to look up from halfway, Dimi gives him the sign (or maybe yells something in Bulgarian, I think it's close to Greek) and 'Kara' lays a pass between the centre-backs for my boy Berbatov to run through and smack the ball home. I tell you, football's a simple game. You ultra-critical guys in the media always over-complicate it," Jol may have fumed.
So there you have it. Days of wine and roses, perhaps champagne football even, as we report on the start of a new era at Fulham Football Club. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be old raki and shrivelled figs.
Jol could've added: "Listen, we get a lot more from Karagoulis than just a very experienced old pro at the end of his career. I can see it now on the coach to away games as Kerim or Mesca climb up on his knee to hear the heroic re-telling of how Kara lifted the European Championship for Greece against all odds. This guy is a true legend. His feats of 2004 sparked a national resurgence and party that only stopped when those nasty Eurocrats demanded the country pay back their massive debts to German taxpayers".
But back to reality. We've had to trawl down the list of free agents, along with a few other clubs who caught the backdraft of deadline day dealings that didn't quite go according to plan. The international break has left Whites followers, if not panicked by the two high profile departures, at least a little apprehensive about what's in store. Fear of the future is common, which is why we seek succour in the past. Hence, I have delved back through the records of our past two seasons to attempt an evaluation of how important Dempsey and Dembele were to the team.
Taking Moussa first. It was a salutary lesson even to this writer just what selective memory can do to you. I turned up the archived evidence and despite his initial impact when joining Fulham from Holland under Hughes (his game-changing double strike v Wolves), Dembele's influence on results for the rest of that season was often illusory. Seen as a skilful foil to Zamora, he was of course being utilised up front for that difficult period after Bobby's leg-break, simply because we were short on strikers.
By any stretch, despite a few fleeting cameos (Spurs in the Cup), you have to say the Belgian flattered to deceive and it was Clint who stepped up to the plate with his burst of goals, and bravery in the box, that carried us forward to respectability.
The period up to Christmas two years ago was tough. We were bottom three by Boxing Day. The New Year brought in Sidwell, loanees Kakuta and Eidur, and Bobby was back, along with AJ, by the end of February. A strong run in saw us up to 8th. But you would not have said Moussa had been integral to much of that, though his campaign was disrupted by a couple of injury lay-offs.
The case for Dempsey is different. His transfer continues to cast a pall with revelations now leaking out of the rupture in relations that we hear brought Clint "to the verge of tears". It was unavoidable once his agents determined this was the summer a move just had to be made. Clint's big mistake was to go public with his desire for Champions League football. All said clubs involved in this season's competition perused the list of player availability sent out by agents - not one of Europe's elite teams felt the need to bid for Mr. Dempsey's skills.
The Fenway Group, having decided on a new era of austerity at Liverpool, felt disinclined to bid up for a player edging towards 30 who would have little re-sale value at the end of his contract. A fair point. And Clint's people were left scrambling at the very last minute to cobble together the deal with Spurs.
For the past two seasons, as the club top scorer, Clint's impact to the team actually putting points on the board has been of a different calibre to Dembele's input. No question. His absence will hurt. But I sense we have had the best of the Texan, and it would have been some stretch for our number 23 to have achieved the same levels all over again.
That's all conjecture of course, so let's see what he does at WHL. With Clint, and his iron resolve to improve all the time, the one thing you should never do is to under-estimate him. As many sides found out to their cost.
But in the striking department at least, we must look forward to the forthcoming games with optimism. Fulham still have the hallmarks of looking on paper an attractive and attack-minded side. We certainly are not playing the all too sterile and narrow game we followed for much of the past two years, with our inverted wingers and slow build-up to the edge of the box, over-reliant on Murphy to create. Jol knows he has to re-shape midfield, and let's hope blending the right elements is hit upon quickly.
To leave you on a cheery note as we build up to the West Brom game, review our squad list put forward to the Premier League. Of the 21 initially submitted, we designated five as strikers - Berbatov, Petric, Rodallega, Ruiz and Trotta. QPR, after signing some 20 odd players since promotion, named but three - Zamora, Cisse and Johnson. Which side do you back to score more goals this season? COYW!
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