Fulham have taken drastic action in their bid to beat relegation by sacking Rene Meulensteen and appointing Felix Magath as first-team manager.
Former
Manchester United coach Meulensteen was appointed head coach under
Martin Jol, only to take control of first-team duties on 1 December
following his compartiot's sacking.
However,
with the bottom-placed west Londoners four points adrift of Premier
League safety, chairman Shahid Khan has wielded the axe again.
Magath
has been installed as first-team manager on an 18-month contract, with
Meulensteen confirming his exit from the club despite the club statement
not mentioning his name.
German manager
Magath arrives at Craven Cottage with an impressive CV, having led
Bayern Munich to successive Bundesliga titles in 2005 and 2006, before
achieving the same feat with Wolfsburg in 2009.
Commenting on the decision, chairman Khan told the club's official website: "I am very happy to welcome Felix Magath to Fulham Football Club.
"Felix is an accomplished manager with multiple honours in the Bundesliga and a hunger to replicate his success with Fulham in the Barclays Premier League.
"I'm
especially impressed with the reputation Felix has for coming into
clubs at difficult times, often late in the season, and lifting them to
their potential and beyond.
"Felix knows that is precisely the task awaiting him at Fulham, and he made it abundantly clear that he wants and is ready for the opportunity.
"Our club has shown promise in recent matches, but the fact is we have not won a league match since 1 January.
"Given
our form, we can no longer merely hope that our fortunes will finally
turn. And with 12 matches remaining and at least four points separating
us from safety, we certainly can no longer post empty results. Action
was required.
"[Chief executive] Alistair Mackintosh did a wonderful job during the January transfer window to improve our club.
"This
week, Alistair recommended Felix, with his history of producing results
for clubs with similar challenges as ours, as the new manager of Fulham.
"Alistair's recommendation received my complete approval and Felix has my unequivocal support."
While Fulham
are bottom of the Premier League and four points adrift of safety, the
decision to sack Meulensteen with only 12 matches remaining has taken
the football world by surprise.
Last Sunday
the Dutchman led the Whites to a 2-2 draw at Manchester United and on
Wednesday his side put in an impressive performance against Liverpool,
only for the league's in-form side to win 3-2 thanks to a stoppage-time
penalty.
Meulensteen was informed of the
decision by chief executive Alistair Mackintosh and believes the
decision to press the "panic button" was wrong.
"I
am very, very surprised, very disappointed, very frustrated as well,
because the job that I stepped into was one that took me by surprise
from the start, because that was not anticipated with Martin Jol leaving
and obviously you then have to step into situation which is not the
best," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"You need to try and make things better as soon as you can, but you're playing with a deck of cards that are not yours.
"I
haven't really been given any time to make that work. I thought the
performance against Manchester United and Liverpool were very, very good
and it was unfortunate that we did not pick up the points that we
deserved.
"Twelve games to go, plenty of points to play for and I'm sure we would have turned it around.
"I've not been told anything. I knew the owners were freaking out and panicking about the fact that Fulham could get relegated, but they've had that sort of attitude already ten games back.
"They've hit the panic button on emotions of fear, but hey-ho, that's what happens in football. It's not always fair."
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