Nostalgia: Feature on Fulham's rise up the leagues

Here is a piece that I wrote back in January 2001 about Fulham's rise up the divisions for the sports section of a national newspaper called Sunday Business. During its compilation I was fortunate to interview Johnny Haynes.

When Fulham entertained Scunthorpe on a wintry January evening in 1996 they lost 3-1, watched by the smallest crowd in the club’s history. A paltry 2,176 turned up, and trudged home in the knowledge that Fulham were close to slipping out of the Football League.
Life in south-west London could barely have been more miserable. For a club that once boasted England captains Johnny Haynes and Bobby Moore, as well as the skills of Rodney Marsh and George Best, the thought of losing league status was unbearable.
Five years on, and fortunes have changed in SW6. When the team runs out at Craven Cottage this afternoon, it will be in front of a sell-out crowd against Manchester United, in a glamour FA Cup tie being screened around the world.
Fulham are clear at the top of the First Division and the past few seasons have seen them take the scalps of Aston Villa, Tottenham, Southampton and Wimbledon. Even their problems are spectacular – captain Chris Coleman broke a leg last week after crashing his Jaguar.
“This has the potential of being the biggest turnaround in the history of football,” enthuses David Lloyd, editor of Fulham’s fanzine, There’s only one F in Fulham. “We have been so used to the downward curve that everything happening now has left us short of breath.”
The glory days, it seems, are back with a vengeance, but the 21 years since United’s last visit have seen varied fortunes for the sides. When United arrived in 1979, again for an FA Cup tie, they were a mediocre, mid-table outfit in the old First Division, while Fulham were in the top six of the Second. Since then, United have become the world’s richest club and accumulated a vast array of silverware, while Fulham have yo-yoed between the bottom three divisions and faced losing their ground in a merger with Queen’s Park Rangers in 1987. Despite a mini-revival in the early 1980s, success has been rare.
Dennis Turner has been a Fulham supporter for 45 years and is the club’s official historian. As one of the hardened few on the terraces that day against Scunthorpe, he has witnessed the club’s darkest hours. The proposed merger, quashed when a group led by former player Jimmy Hill bought the club, and the prospect of losing Craven Cottage to developers a decade ago, rank among his worst memories. “In January 1996 we were second from bottom of the Fourth Division and one place off being relegated,” he recalls. “The recovery started that month. What we are seeing now is the best Fulham team of my lifetime. They are now capable of competing with the best.” The man credited with the resurgence is Mohamed Al Fayed, the Harrods owner, who bought the club in 1997 and installed Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins as its management duo, ousting Micky Adams. But it was Adams who dragged Fulham from the bottom of the League. At the time there was bitterness about his treatment. “People wondered what was in it for Al Fayed, but now believe he’s got their best interests at heart,” says Turner. “He’s one of the few chairmen who doesn’t want to pick the team.”
Al Fayed has ploughed over £50m of his own fortune into Fulham with a raft of improvements, new training facilities, coaches, a shop, club magazine and subsidised travel to away matches. But the moneybags title with which Fulham are branded rankles with Michael Fiddy, the managing director. “It is inappropriate as we haven’t spent vast amounts on players,” he said. “You can’t buy yourselves out of the First Division. Only a football team can get you out and the key is the manager and the training staff.”
That manager is Jean Tigana, part of the midfield engine of France ’s legendary 1984 European Championship-winning side. With Tigana has come confidence, a free-flowing style and players of the calibre of Louis Saha, Nicolas Sahoun, John Collins and Luis Boa Morte.
Even Johnny Haynes, the link to past glories, is impressed. “Fulham has always had the reputation of being a special club,” he said. “In the 1950s and 60s the stars of stage and screen used to go there. When we had dodgy times, they switched to Chelsea . It will be interesting to see what happens if we get into the Premiership. This side is very, very good and I wouldn’t say it’s completely down to money. Tigana has a lot of experience and he has done a fantastic job.” Yet, despite the resurgence, full houses are rare at Craven Cottage, even though the number of season ticket holders has increased from 2,000 to more than 8,000 in recent years. Games are often played with up to 2,000 season ticket holders not even taking up their places.
Football analyst Frank Buchan, of Brewin Dolphin Securities, believes this will change if Fulham get into the Premiership, with promotion providing a further £20m from television money and sponsorship. “They are on a very sound financial footing,” Buchan said. “They will never be as big as Chelsea, but if they manage to get a good ground with 25,000 supporters regularly, they will be very healthy.”
A planned redevelopment of Craven Cottage into a 30,000 all-seater stadium is facing opposition from some residents, with a hearing expected within weeks. The historic Stevenage Road façade may be staying, but some fans resent any demolition of the cottage. Fiddy believes the future is reliant on the planning decision going in the club’s favour. “If they don’t give permission there will be irreparable damage. It will be catastrophic,” he said.
But while the stadium and promotion remain the priorities, for a few hours today they will be replaced by a trip down memory lane. And this time the prospect of a Fulham victory doesn’t look quite so ridiculous.