When a team have just secured their first post-relegation point of the Championship season at the fifth attempt and the manager has already had one of those kiss-of-death votes of confidence from the owner, the last thing you might expect is to hear said manager talk about his belief that he can make academy products into Premier League players, and insisting, with a straight face, that promotion is still within his sights.
Felix Magath, of Fulham, had support, though, for his post-match comments on Saturday from a player who knows him as a successful Bundesliga manager while most English observers have seen only the hapless figure of recent months, too often attempting in broken English to explain away another defeat.
Tim Hoogland was signed by Magath at Schalke in 2010, and also observed the success Magath enjoyed with Wolsburg, where he helped to develop a young striker who is doing rather well with Manchester City. “There are always young players who develop under him — especially Edin Dzeko,” Hoogland said.
Magath’s problem at Craven Cottage is that he has a whole squad of young players to bring through, with Hoogland, 29, and Scott Parker, the captain, among the few old heads. Yet Hoogland believes that Magath can turn things round. “Absolutely,” he said. “He [Magath] is doing good. [The pressure] doesn’t show.”
Hoogland helped to reduce some of that pressure on Magath by nodding in Ross McCormack’s cross after 22 minutes, but Fulham’s tyros were unable to press home their first-half dominance and allowed Cardiff City to snatch a barely deserved equaliser through Kenwyne Jones ten minutes after the restart.
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Magath hopes to bring in “two or three” players before today’s deadline, but expects Konstantinos Mitroglou, the striker, to leave, Olympiacos being the likely destination.
Teams
Fulham (4-2-3-1): M Bettinelli — K Voser, N Bodurov, D Burn, K Stafylidis — T Hoogland, S Parker (sub: T Eisfeld, 81min) — C David (sub: M Dembélé, 75), E Hyndman, R McCormack — C Woodrow (sub: A Chihi, 60). Substitutes not used: G Kiraly, S Hutchinson, P Roberts, R Williams. Booked: Hoogland.
Cardiff City (4-4-2): D Marshall — J Brayford, S Morrison, M Connolly, Fabio Da Silva — A Pilkington, P Whittingham, K Dikgacoi (sub: J Ralls, 59), M Daehli (sub: M Wolff Eikrem, 82) — A Le Fondre (sub: F Macheda, 71), K Jones. Substitutes not used: S Moore, J Cala, T Adeyemi, J Guerra. Booked: Whittingham.