PA PhotosMartin Jol: Has he taken Fulham as far as he can?

This blog is becoming harder to write. As all scribes fear, your columnist is in danger of becoming repetitive and boring. The record is well and truly stuck in the groove when it comes to reporting Fulham matches. But a daily paper has to publish regardless. The blank pages will get filled with something. To those who have been criticising the downbeat tone of recent Twitter and forum posts, let me concede the relentless pessimism can be off-putting. I am an optimist by nature believe it or not.

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But as a journalist I can only write on what I see. I don't deal in PR and personally abhor the amount of 'spin' that routinely accompanies world matters. We can give all topics Fulham FC a rosy tint and pretend we are marching shoulder to shoulder into a brave new world, but that's the journalistic school of Goebbels. The Manchester City performance from our boys offered nothing new. Apart from the injured Diarra, on current form levels Jol fielded what was probably our strongest eleven. And that gives you a measure of how far we have fallen.

It's a tall order to even be at the same racetrack as Mancini's thoroughbreds, so let's not lose any sleep over this defeat. Looking to the bigger picture, and fervently striving to strike a positive note, what can the club do turn the corner? Managing an enterprise as large as Fulham FC requires expertise at many levels, I am certain people far cleverer than me at board level and working for the chairman realise the club is in crisis.

My personal opinion from 30 years reporting the game is that Martin Jol has nothing more to offer this team. He has no tactical nous, his re-building of the side (average age at the Etihad 32) has been a catastrophic failure. I sense the players are disunited and dispirited. I do seriously question Fulham's ability to find the 'four or five' wins needed to stay in the Premier League under the current strategy, and therefore as a lifelong follower of FFC am deeply worried at the thought of falling into the Championship - with all the financial implications that entails.

Fan sentiment has clearly swung massively against the gaffer, though I would estimate the popular vote currently suggests a 50-50 split between the sack or soldiering on. I do get a little tired of the vacuous self-important posters however who baldy state, "We'll be fine, Jol's our man," without offering a shred of evidence in support.

We have ten days to the end of the transfer window. There is a very real possibility Jol could be shown the door in that time. Especially if a groundswell of doubt and negativity gathers momentum in the press. I've seen it happen before. Pressure can only mount further should we get nothing from the West Ham and United league games. It's therefore all down to the board as to what happens now. Their position is an unenviable one and fraught with peril.

Irrespective of Jol's managerial ability, the side at present is deeply flawed and must be strengthened. The constant fawning to the two 'Untouchables' in the side has worked against us. Both Ruiz and Berbatov would have been wonderful additions to a well-drilled Fulham side of past seasons. Now the two are luxuries we cannot afford in a relegation scrap. They are two old masters on the mantelpiece while the house is crying out for some double glazing and a new boiler. Our 'number one keeper' has looked very average for all three goals conceded in this past week. We need at least three players urgently in the next 10 days. Why was Lukaku not snapped up from our neighbours last summer?

Nobody can tell al Fayed what to do with his money. But are the board prepared to miss out on the increased TV revenues for next season by playing a game of Russian roulette now? The magnitude of our predicament goes way beyond the figure of Martin Jol.

Do nothing in the next 10 days and I'm not certain this group of players can squeeze out the necessary points - especially with teams around us signing players and pulling out all the stops. Stay faithful to Jol but back him with more funds to dig us out of the hole? Give Jol's crew a one-way ticket back to Holland and pull a rabbit from the hat with a new appointment? Look at how the club have operated in the past . Tigana and Woy both recruited and installed before the papers got a whiff of it. I would not be surprised if Jol's successor wasn't holed up in a Heathrow hotel right now staring at the snow.

Just glad I don't have to make the decisions. Stand by for an interesting few days in Fulham's Premier League history. In these darkest of days, and in bitter weather, to finish on a positive note, a collective salute and big shout out to all the 300 odd who made the trek both to Blackpool and then again to Manchester at the weekend. True followers of the Whites, we salute you!

Twitter@fulhamphil

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