Our final review of the 2020/21 Premier League issues is published today as we take a look at the programme from Fulham. Our full review is shown below and you can now read all of our reviews from the season here.
Winners of our Gold Award the last time they were in the Premier League in 2018/19, Fulham return with another impressive issue that retains the look and feel of that issue from two years ago. The programme is a 100-page perfect bound edition, packed full of original content, and benefiting from simple but effective page designs.
Nowhere is the quality of the design work better demonstrated that in the well put together opposition coverage, which runs to nine pages. A stylishly presented two-page spread opens the section – called ‘The Away End’ – with a club fact-file and an image of the club’s crest on a full-page of their primary kit colour. There are some opening notes on the team’s form as well as recent transfer activity, followed by a manager profile, and basic biographical detail of the squad with a ‘Star Man’ receiving the full-page treatment. ‘Number Crunchers’ collects key numbers associated with the visitors and the players, past and present, while ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ features an interview with a supporter of the visiting team.
There are a few pieces of original content in the programme that relate to the day’s opponents. ‘Those Were The Days’ consists of an interview with a player who turned out for both Fulham and the visiting club, looking back at their career. ‘Freeze Frame’ reproduces an old image from the archives, and traces the two teams from the match concerned, asking ‘Whatever Happened To?’ the players involved.
There is an extensive amount of other original content, including an eight-page feature with one current player that includes a biography and one journalist’s take on the player. Fulham’s record goal-scorer Gordon Davies contributes a column, as does journalist Dean Jones in ‘Football Insider’, but the best reading comes in a 16-page historical section.
‘Ken’s Gems’ sees former Fulham photograph Ken Coton discussing an image from days gone by, while ‘The One Hundred Club’ is a four-page feature that looks at players who have made a century of appearances for the club. ‘Shirt Tales’ looks at Fulham jerseys from the past, with notes on what makes them memorable. ‘Back Issue’ focuses on a programme from a past meeting of Fulham and the visiting club, with images of selected pages from each issue. ‘There’s Only One’ meanwhile profiles a Fulham favourite from the past, with words from the player and images from his time at the club, and ‘Returning Heroes’ recalls those players who spent more than one spell at Craven Cottage. ‘The Stan Brown Collection’ looks at items of memorabilia from the archives of the former Fulham favourite, who died in 2018.
The Fulham programme also includes plenty of club information. Past matches are covered in ‘Instant Replay’, which includes line-ups, stats, and pictures from the game. There are two-page columns from manager and captain plus a couple of pages of news in ‘White Bites’. There are a couple of pages on the club’s women’s team, including match information and a player profile, as well as seven pages covering the club’s academy, with news, stats, and player profiles covering the under-23s and under-18s. There are also four pages of first team stats.
A fine issue from Fulham then – well-presented and offering some terrific reading – certainly among the best of the Premier League issues once again.