Hello and hope youre well?
Sunday the 8th of December at 2.00pm (western European time) sees the Mighty Cannon wend and weave its way through the traffic of west London to set up positions against Fulham FC at Craven Cottage, down by the riverside.
The Guns have been given a 59.8% chance of winning the game, whilst the Cottagers have only 17.8.
What sort of relationship have you had with this side over the years? I have none at all, so really this feels a tough blog to write! I’ve never been to Craven Cottage nor watched Fulham at the Arsenal. Maybe you guys have and can share some memories, or experiences? My only link that I can recall is a guy in my class at school supported them the year they ‘missed out on promotion’ when Malcolm Macdonald was the manager, which is no link at all and not in the least bit interesting. After that he went off and followed Chelsea.
The Cottage seems to have had a fascinating history and I didn’t realise how long they’d been at that site (since 1896). Our old chum, architect Archibald Leitch makes another appearance again on a PA blog, as the man who rebuilt Craven Cottage back in 1905 and he was responsible for the ‘Cottage Pavilion’, surely one of footballs great oddities? Fulham were the third club to go professional after the Arsenal and Millwall, and played in red and white until 1903 when they went black and white, which is how television was when Tottenham last won the league.
Furthering the Arsenal link, Henry Norris ‘the man who made the Arsenal and irritated the Spuds’ etc was a director along with William Hall at Fulham and Arsenal and due to Woolwich Arsenal being close to liquidation decided to try and merge the clubs and make a ‘London superclub’ a sort of Crosby, Stills Nash and Young but with football boots. These plans fell through, and oddly enough Norris also indirectly helped create Chelsea, in that Guy Mears tried to lure him/Fulham over to the land that Stamford bridge now rests on and build a stadium there, when Norris rejected the offer Mears created his own side, Chelsea.
Later, in the 1930s a new Fulham stadium was planned which would have been a 80,000 seater, but the Great Depression saw that idea go down the toilet. Fulham claim to be the first side to sell the gourmet food known as hot dogs back in 1926, nice, I suppose if you like that kind of thing?
Although the ground has seen many changes and is one of the smallest (under 30,000) in the top flight, it seems remarkable that its still on the original site? The area itself has a pretty interesting history; owned by the 6th Baron of Craven (whose son Wes became a famous director of film) it was once part of Anne Boleyn’s hunting grounds.
The Cottage on that site was supposed to have had many visitors; Queen Victoria, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jeremy Bentham and Florence Nightingale. Perhaps that’s what lured the celebrity crowd to support Fulham?
Margot Robbie, Ray Brooks, Sharon Duce, Dominic Guard, Hugh Grant, Daniel Radcliffe, Keith Allen, Liz Fraser, Willie Rushton, Nigel Havers, good ol Sam Kydd, Tony Curtis, Ben Chaplain, Patrick Mower, Nakul Lax, Sméagol from Lord of the Rings, Honor Blackman, Denis Potter, Fulton Mackay, Johnny Speight, Diddy Hamilton, John Sullivan, Jimmy Hill,Tony Blair, Pope John Paul II (eh?), Max Clifford, Tony Booth, Tommy Trinder, Georgie Thompson, Lilly Allen, Keith Chegwin, Isobel Lang, Cathy Shipton, Jacko (only one game though), Michael Redfern, Iain Fletcher,Pierce Brosnan, Bella Emberg, John Woodvine, Richard Osman,Tim Ewart, Richard Parks Andy Kane, Kerok Malikyan and probably more I have missed, all gave up the chance to follow the Mighty Cannon and instead decided follow Fulham. Unlucky!
Keeping alive the Arsenal connection, Bernd, Emile, Alex will perhaps all have something to prove, and I wouldn’t blame them, Reiss wont be playing as hes a loanee, unless the rules have changed?
Marco Silva, their manager has a 44.52% win rate, and Fulham are currently in 10th place.
Fulham don’t have any major honours, runners up in the 1975 FAC final, and runners up in the 2009/10 UEFA cup final, which they lost to Atlético. I don’t expect us to lose this one but every games a potential banana skin in the PL. I’m hoping again for some nicey nice football, swift and intelligent and plenty of goals. COYG!
Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going off and climb Mt. Everest instead of reading this.
Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses!
COYG and keep on keepin’ on!
Mills