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As a Fulham fan for nearly fourteen glorious years I have seen nothing but success for my team. Since my first game, (a 4-0 mauling of Burnley in Division two) we have risen higher than I think any Fulham fan could have imagined. True we have hit the dizzy heights of the First Division before, experienced cup finals and World Cup winners have called our club home. But the meteoric rise from third tier to genuine European contenders is one that no man could predict. Except, one man did.

This article will attempt to pay homage to that man. A man who took us from the Macclesfield’s and Hartlepool’s, through your Watford’s and Ipswich’s  to the point where we not only play with the big boys, not only give them a run for their money but challenge them. This article praises the great Mohammed Al Fayed.

I am writing this article today for three reasons; one; we look set (touch wood) to continue our recent run of top half finishes, two; we have now in my opinion the most gifted team of players in living memory, and three; we have managed to do this and post a profit last season. All three of which can be attributed to the chairman Mohammed Al Fayed.

My reasoning is simple. In the last three seasons we have finished outside of the top eight on one occasion, the year we reached a major European final. This I have seen as the next stage in our development. I believe that since 1997 and Al Fayed’s purchase of our club we have had a series of objectives. Reach the Premier League, stay in the Premier League, establish ourselves as a strong Premier League team and now we are moving to the next stage, challenge for European places consistently. We have been there or there about for three years now and despite setbacks we have continued to move in the right direction. We have done this because of Al Fayed, because he has continued to back our managers with good sums of money, despite relatively little return in the past, and because he has not been trigger happy. Whilst many fans (me included) called for Hughes head at the end of December last year, Al Fayed stayed calm and gave him the time and we finished eighth. My overall point here is whilst trigger happy managers such as Abramovich seem to have commitment issues, and clubs like Wolves and Bolton seem to be afraid to over commit to a manager in the way of significant transfer funds, Mo has found the right balance. From an outsider he seems to be hands off yet with enough control to keep us out of the trouble.