Sidwell’s Red Card Appeal Turned Down

Referee Lee Probert issued Fulham their second red card of the season, both dished out by Probert.

Steve Sidwell controversially received his first ever red card Monday during Fulham’s 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers.  It was issued controversially, not necessarily because the challenge was terribly weak, but more so because a clearly worse foul committed by Clint Hill early on in the match only produced a yellow from Lee Probert’s pocket.

Fulham and Sidwell issued an appeal to the Football Association, but had it turned down, and subsequently Sidwell will miss the next three matches at Newcastle, at Aston Villa, and home to Chelsea.

It’s not a surprise the appeal was turned down, as although the card was controversial, only blatantly obvious mistakes by the referee are usually overturned, and this doesn’t exactly fall into that category.  Sidwell appears to pull out of the challenge as he slides in, and does not go in spikes up, but it still is a hard and late foul, and while most don’t believe straight red was the proper punishment, it may have an argument, at least enough to deny an appeal.

Probert has issued Fulham both their red cards this season, Sidwell’s in addition to Brede Hangeland’s straight red earlier this season against Sunderland.

Sidwell will be sorely missed, although Emmanuel Frimpong will most likely step into his place, and Frimpong looked solid in his substitute appearance directly following Sidwell’s dismissal.  The match against Chelsea will be where Steve will be most heavily missed, but if Frimpong can duplicate his short substitute appearance against QPR, it will be like Sidders never even left.

Reports: Twente Youth Signs With Fulham

According to a report by De Telegraaf, Twente youth player Chris David has signed with Fulham on a 4 year contract.

This comes as no surprise, considering David was all but signed on Deadline Day in the summer, but the two sides ran out of time.

Reports out there are saying the deal with Fulham is for 4 years.

The 19-year old is a youth player for the side Jong FC Twente, and he’s been in Twente’s system since he was 11 years old.  He hasn’t made any appearances for the senior side, but is considered one of their better young talents.  Not much is known about the youngster, but he is more of an attacking-minded midfielder, exactly what this club needs to back up Bryan Ruiz.  If Ruiz is injured again at some point this season or next, could David see some first team action?

Just to reiterate, this has not been confirmed by either club yet.  And we learned in the summer, just because Twente confirms a move doesn’t mean it’s done.

Rumors today have also pointed to Derek Boateng to Fulham, another move that would be a long time coming.

Fulham File Official Complaint on Rogers’ Pursuit of Dempsey

Fulham have made a formal complaint to the Premier League about the tapping up of Clint Dempsey by Brendan Rogers and Liverpool, the Premier League has confirmed in a statement.

In the Goal.com exclusive breaking the news, one thing is clear though: this has NOTHING to do with the FSG post claiming Dempsey had been signed on the NESN website.  This is only a complaint that Rogers discussed their enquiry of Dempsey in public when asked by the media. The complaint was filed in July, and Liverpool have apparently already responded to it.

The Premier League stated:

“The PL has received a complaint from Fulham regarding comments made by Liverpool officials and is currently looking into [it].”

The same day the NESN story was accidentally put up, Brendan Rogers was questioned by reporters about the issue. He said the following:

“Clint is a player we’ve inquired about, it is as simple as that. Ian Ayre, our managing director, has spoken with the club to see what the position is. That is where we’re at. He’s a very talented player but we don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players.”

It’s a hilariously obvious quote, and if Rogers was trying to tap up Clint, which he clearly was, he could have at least hid it a little better. “We don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players” but you just did, revealing everything about your pursuit of the guy. Nice going, Brendan.

Fulham made it very obvious they weren’t pleased at ALL with Rogers comments or the story on NESN, which was hastily removed, so to hear this news isn’t a surprise at all.  We’ll see if anything comes of it.

Martin Jol also confirmed today at a press conference that still no bid has been made for Clint, and the situation remains the same.  He’s been excluded from the squad traveling to Old Trafford this weekend.

To sum this all up, a funny quote from Jol in the same press conference today when asked about the possibility of signing Maarten Stekelenburg:

“We never speak about players coming in or going out. We keep it to ourselves because we are not Manchester United.”

Or Liverpool.

Stephen Kelly Signs a New Contract

Stephen Kelly, last year’s first choice right back with Martin Jol, has signed a 2-year contract extension with the club. Making 33 appearances (24 league) last year, Kelly took over for an injured Zdenek Grygera last season and dug himself firmly into the first team. The 28 year old told the club’s website after signing:

I’m delighted that it’s sorted now and I can hopefully continue on from last year. It was a really good end to the season with the way we finished off, the way we were playing and I just hope we can continue on with that again. Last season was fantastic for me, playing pretty much every game from Christmas onwards and to cement myself as the number one right-back was great and hopefully I can continue on with that this season. To sign another contract here is fantastic. I’m delighted to be staying at the Club and I just want to carry on with the progression I’ve made over the last year or so.

Stephen Kelly may feature much this year like he did last year.

Fans have mixed opinions on Kelly, and with Sascha Riether now on loan, it remains to be seen who will be at right back for the majority of the season. I, for one, will definitely admit I have my doubts about Kelly, especially in one-on-one situations, as he was beat time and time again leading directly to goals. I haven’t seen Riether yet, but it’d be nice if the club can get a more full-time right back to cement himself, much like Riise has done on the left. We’ll see how the spot plays out, but it’s an important one and one I still feel is a need, despite the fact Jol probably feels this suffices for now.

The last note on the right back spot: a lot of people have asked me in the last few weeks what the situation with Grygera is. From my understanding (and please someone if you know for sure I’m wrong, correct me) he is out of contract and not officially signed with the club. However, Jol said he’d have the chance to prove himself on the training ground that he’s fit and healthy to earn a new contract. So don’t be surprised to see Grygera resigned either this offseason or early into the season. But, if Jol determines he’s not fit or he doesn’t think he’ll stay healthy, he’ll probably leave on a free.

Gecov departs:

Something I failed to mention on the blog yesterday was the departure of Marcel Gecov. Not too much to say, other than the club most likely netted the same £750,000 they paid for him. He was sold to Belgian club KAA Gent, the same one Bryan Ruiz came from before Twente. The 24 year old Czech midfielder only made 2 appearances for Fulham, amounting to a whopping 7 total minutes played. It was a low-risk experiment and Martin Jol felt the time was up, and I’m sure Gecov did too. He was a promising talent but we wish him all the best in Belgium.

HEY! EVERYONE! WE SIGNED CLINT DEMP…..whats that? Oh, we didnt? Oh….

Oops

Somebody – and possibly a few somebodies – was probably fired from the web department at Fenway Sports Group this morning.

Chaos insued when their site ran a story claiming Liverpool had “added Clint Dempsey to a team that game (sic) within a game of winning the FA Cup.”

In case you were wondering, that “sic” part means, in journalism lingo, that yes, they did in fact make that typo, not me. I’m assuming that’s as good a tell-tale as any to the haste in which this story was put up on the FSG website.

Oh, and also the fact that, according to Fulham, they haven’t even received a bid for the 29 year old.

According to the London club, via their communications director Sarah Brookes:

“There has been no bid from Liverpool, or any other Club, for Clint and we would discourage any potential bids”

That’s a pretty darn definitive statement, especially considering they certainly weren’t forced to add that last part about discouraging bids.

I sent a request for a statement from Clint Dempsey’s agency, James Grant Sports Management, but haven’t heard anything from them.

Overall, this is just flat out a massive blunder by FSG. How does something like this happen? I don’t even know. Yikes.  There are still multiple reports that this is close to being completed, which would make this a case of where there’s smoke there’s fire.  We probably won’t know until everything’s completed, however.

For what it’s worth, Dempsey did not feature in the squad that played Lokomotiv Leipzig today.  Whether that’s because he’s barely trained (which is true) or some other reason more fitting for a conspiracy theorist remains to be seen.  But also absent from the friendly were Duff and Rodallega, so I wouldn’t read too much into that.

UPDATE – Brendan Rogers confirmed on Liverpool’s official website that they have indeed enquired about Dempsey, but no more than that.  This is not good at all for Liverpool. Suffice it to say Fulham are NOT happy about this statement.  Things could get ugly in the coming hours/days.  Could this be the end of the discussions? It remains to be seen.  But it’s clear Fulham officials are furious over this revealing of inside talks.

Club Official: Jol Grab Rodallega on Free

Fulham have confirmed what we thought for a while was a possiblity – Fulham have signed Wigan striker Hugo Rodallega on a free transfer to a 3-year deal.  More coach-speak to bring you, first from the Colombian:

“I’m thrilled to have signed for Fulham Football Club. I wanted to stay in England and I’m delighted that I now have this opportunity with Fulham. I would like to thank the staff and fans of Wigan Athletic for three and a half wonderful seasons there. I’m looking forward to pre-season training with the rest of the Fulham squad and starting a new chapter in my career.”

Now more blah from Jol:

“I am delighted that Hugo has decided to join Fulham. There has been a lot of interest in him from other top flight teams in England and abroad, so to be able to add his quality to our squad is a massive boost this early in our preparations for the new campaign. He is a great addition and I think he will contribute very well to our style and philosophy here.”

You better be delighted Martin, you signed him!

Actually, there is one part of that quote from the manager you can take as substance, and that’s the last part.  He actually does fit very well into the system Jol is looking to implement at Fulham, and will most likely be used either up top, or more likely, as a winger.

And for the haters of this deal, which there shouldn’t be many, for what it’s worth he’s the all-time leading Premier League scorer for Wigan.

Also, finally, he’s NOT making £70,000 a week like some are reporting. It’s not true.

Rodallega still needs to reapply for his work permit.