Rosenior: Magath 'ripped heart out of Fulham'
- adamhigginsuk
- Sep 21, 2014
- 3 min read
Confident: Magath believed he was the "only man" who could deliver Premier League promotion for Fulham but described the start of the season as a "catastrophe" (Picture from Zimbio.com)
FORMER Fulham striker Leroy Rosenior has slammed Felix Magath's managerial reign at the club, believing the German should have been sacked sooner.
Magath, 61, was dismissed on Thursday with the Cottagers, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, rooted to the bottom of the Championship having taken one point from seven games under his stewardship this term.
Rosenior admitted he was “relieved” to hear that Magath, who was appointed to replace Rene Meulensteen in February, had been dispensed with following a winless run of 11 league games.
“I have to be honest, you don’t want to see any manager to lose their job but when I heard Felix Magath had gone, I thought ‘at last’. I was relieved,” the 50-year-old said, as a pundit on the BBC's Football League Show.
Rosenior, who scored 20 goals in 34 appearances at Fulham in 1987-88, launched a scathing attack on the former Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich boss when asked for his assessment on the turbulence at Craven Cottage.
“It’s a club close to my heart but I think he [Magath] was long on the way to really ruining it, in all honesty. He has ripped the heart out of the club,” he claimed.
“This season, when you put a lot of young players in the side, they need someone experienced to work with so to get rid of the likes of [David] Stockdale, [Brede] Hangeland and [Steve] Sidwell, players who had the club at heart was just totally wrong.”
After losing their top-flight place for the first time in 13 years, Magath allowed 15 players to leave during a summer overhaul, instead promoting several members of the club’s successful Under-21s side into the first team this season.
But the decision appears to have backfired during a disappointing run of six defeats from their first seven league outings, with their line-ups boasting an average age of 22.
FULHAM RESULTS THIS SEASON: 9 August Championship Ipswich 2-1 Fulham
16 August Championship Fulham 0-1 Millwall
20 August Championship Fulham 0-1 Wolves
23 August Championship Derby 5-1 Fulham
26 August Capital One Cup Brentford 0-1 Fulham
30 August Championship Fulham 1-1 Cardiff
13 Sept Championship Reading 3-0 Fulham
17 Sept Championship Nottingham Forest 5-2 Fulham
20 Sept Championship Fulham 0-1 Blackburn
Rosenior, who accused Magath of “knowing nothing about the Championship”, said he hopes the youngsters have not been harmed by the experience.
“I hope he hasn’t ruined those players, they are very good young players at Fulham who got to the FA Youth Cup final [losing to Chelsea in May],” he explained. “I hope their development hasn’t been hampered by Felix Magath as well.”
“Something that has been built up over a period of time has almost been torn apart overnight and Felix Magath has got to take responsibility for that.”
Fulham are now searching for their fourth manager in 14 months since owner Shahid Khan arrived at the club but, despite not blaming Magath for the club’s relegation to the second tier, Rosenior said the change at the helm “needed to be done a lot earlier”.
After Magath became the ninth Football League manager to leave their job already this season, Under-21s coach Kit Symons was placed in caretaker charge for Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Blackburn, which the Cottagers played with 10 men for the entire second half after the dismissal of Sam Hutchinson.
Rosenior stated his wishes for the west London club, who were the pre-season favourites for promotion, to “get back on track and start moving forward”.
Ex-Celtic boss Neil Lennon and former Fulham captain Danny Murphy have expressed interest in the vacant post while Chris Hughton, who was manager of Norwich most recently, is the frontrunner according to several bookmakers.
“Let’s hope Fulham get the right manager in place and get some experience in to help those young players,” Rosenior added.
The Cottagers host League One Doncaster Rovers in the Capital One Cup third round in midweek before travelling to St Andrews next Saturday to face Birmingham City.
Last updated: 21 September 2014 10:03am
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