By FRANCO PANIZO
The Tim Ream sweepstakes is over, and the club with a history of signing Americans is the winner.
Fulham announced on Thursday that it has signed Ream to a four-year contract after agreeing to an undisclosed transfer fee with Bolton Wanderers. Ream’s deal with the Cottagers runs through 2019, but it also comes with an option that could extend the contact another season.
“I’m more than pleased to be here,” Ream, 27, told FulhamFC.com. “It’s been a long time coming now, over the past week-and-a-half it’s gone back and forth so I’m glad its finally sorted.
“The biggest thing was the history, walking into the training ground and feeling the vibe around the club and the success that previous American players have had here.”
With the move, Ream joins Clint Dempsey, Brian McBride, Kasey Keller, Carlos Bocanegra, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Lewis, and Marcus Hahnemann as Americans to play for Fulham. The versatile defender also joins compatriot and young midfielder Emerson Hyndman on the current Cottagers squad.
Ream, who was also drawing heavy interest from fellow Championship club Queens Park Rangers, leaves Bolton after three-and-a-half years with the club. He made a total of 126 appearances across all competitions for the Trotters, and won back-to-back Player of the Season awards in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
At the international level, Ream has earned 15 caps with the U.S. Men’s National Team. He most recently represented his country at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July.
What do you think of Ream joining Fulham? Like the move better than if he had signed with Queens Park Rangers? How do you see Ream faring this season?
Share your thoughts below.
I love the jersey sponsor.
Why on earth would he not choose QPR? They are more likely to get promoted and more likely to pay him more. And why did he leave Bolton? Are they that much worse than QPR and Fulham?
IMO QPR tosses around money and is a yo-yo club, Fulham is more a long haul team. QPR will be up faster, and down just as quick. If Fulham makes the effort to put together a winner — and I think that is a long term drive — it will be less by throwing around money and more by steady building of a team.
I also think that QPR’s ambitions are also more threatening to a player looking for stability and playing time to pursue international callups. If QPR goes back up they will sign better backs and he will go back to the bench.
Sure hope the Aryan Brotherhood doesnt steal that photo
hah!
Did Fulham ever get a lot of press or sold lots of jerseys in the USA when they had American players?
They have me as a lifelong fan and I’ve bought merchandise, watched games, etc. But that was more due to McBride post 2006 World Cup. I’m positive I’m not alone because there are supporters clubs here and likely a big reason Kahn bought them in the first place.
Same here, supporter for life because of Fulhamerica! Went to my first match at the Cottage last year.
I’m also a stateside Fulham fan, mainly from the FulhAmerica days. I was at the final home match of the season at the Cottage during the Great Escape, and that locked in my loyalty right there. We’ve bought jerseys and T-shirts and been avid fans since then – even though they’ve made it difficult, to say the least. We can still catch them live once in a while on TV here on Bein Sports, even though they have a habit of showing every QPR match.
They were quite popular here when they had a bunch of Americans, were top 10, and playing well in Europa. But some longtime fans like me have some unease about the bubble of fans coming in and out when someone popular gets signed. You have people who claim to love the team when Dempsey’s there and they are in the MLS Allstar game. And then they took a hardline with Dempsey and suddenly they hate the team. So I am a fan but a little wary of the bandwagon that sometimes comes and goes.
I kind of think supposed English team fans should be tested for knowing any team songs or chants, and required to make a game pilgrimmage like the hajj. Not just buying a jersey. If you don’t care that much you won’t be around after the American you like transfers back out. Same people bought Spurs and then Seattle Dempsey jerseys. They follow players not teams. I mean, Hyndman is leaving, who knows how Ream will fare. So I am intrigued by Americans rediscovering the team but can’t get too excited unless people commit.
I’m here to stay. When they were relegated my friends/wife/etc. asked who’d I support now. That was almost offensive. They make it easy to follow posting matches the day after a game, and as Dave mentioned throwing the live games on BeIn when Sky is broadcasting them for the game of the week.
I always love hearing other fans like myself talk about the team. Not the biggest or most vocal fan group, but one of the most loyal and passionate
Tim Ream becomes latest American to get relegated with Fulham.
What does that even mean? Fulham have been relegated once in twenty years. Are you saying that’s some kind of trend? Your comment is inane and boring.
A bland player goes to a bland team. #JonathanSpectorPartDeux
lol…exactly what I have been thinking for months. However, Spector has better pedigree.
“However, Spector has better pedigree.” ??? He has better genealogy or breeding? What? If that is some loose reference to soccer experience,…how? Can you throw in a wak Brad Friedel accent with that?
BTW – Ream has been his club’s player of the year two years running. What’s not to like?
We use pedigree all the time to describe where a kid went to school, worked in looking at candidates. I saw it used in grad school as well. Certain industries, medicine, law, Consulting, banking etc care a little about that. Yes, it’s a bit pretentious.
In this case, I assume he means he trained and played at better places, but Spector is older. He didn’t go to college. Instead he played on the Man Utd youth teams and was named captain, started and played multiple seasons at the Premier League level with Westham United before going to ‘Boro and starting when not injured. Now that doesn’t mean he’s better but he has a better track record. I think Ream is better defender (not by a whole lot), but Spector can play more positions – he came up as a center midfielder at Man Utd, but was pushed towards outside back at Westham.
Please ignore the bad grammar. Typing on the phone makes me look illiterate.
FFC is actually a fun place to watch a game. In that neck of the woods CFC is known as the prawn sandwich fan’s team and QPR my experience was like watching paint dry, no atmosphere. FFC has a nice sincere local backing and you can’t get any sense of the pleasantness of the stadium without walking through the surrounding gardens or using the riverside stand, which backs up to the Thames.
It seems to me that QPR is much more likely to get a promotion to the Premier League. UJnless there is a large disparity in income offers, I think he should have gone to QPR instead of Fulham.
neither are favorites. but yes QPR as picked to finish flightly higher than Fulham this year.
QPR strikes me as the team that would spend 3m on the CB that will get them to the prem and then spend 8m on their premier league CB the next season, selling him back to the championship.. Fulham is a good safe step up from Bolton
THAT IS RACIST HOW IS THT LEGAL
Shut up Frank.
Exactly the player Fulham need. Good technical player who will be a calming influence at the back…Fulham have dropped 5 pts in the first 3 games by conceding in the final 10 mins….Ream could be the answer..
Also Hyndman.. American….still at Fulham…
“The versatile defender also joins compatriot and young midfielder Emerson Hyndman on the current Cottagers squad.”
Fulham under Shad Khan are a dumpster fire. I hope he’s ready for a relegation battle.
Agreed…it’s been a disaster but from what I’m able to gather is that Al Fayed is the one to blame. Yes he got them there but then he got out and lit the match to the dumpster fire on his way out.
Regardless, it’s an extremely sad situation. One good thing is that they put full games online the day after so I can at least avoid social media and watch games in their entirety.
This will only be their second year in the championship and their first without Felix Magath, who was their biggest problem.
Khan gave Magath full reigns of the club’s transfer policy and he drove Fulham into the ground with his mass exodus of establish players and influx of new ones. After that, the team had no identity, absolutely no chemistry or any clue for that matter.
Khan has vowed to spend his money wisely this year and so far has lived up to that promise bringing in establish players such as Tim Ream and the like.
They have a new coach, so it could take some time, but I can see them finishing at the top of the table this year and fighting for promotion.
Khan is completely to blame. Completely ruined the club. Just because Al Fayed didn’t invest as he was in the process of selling doesn’t mean he set them up for failure. And those suspicions of Al Fayed were out there for any businessman who does his research to read.
I wonder is some of the more transient Fulham enthusiasts are aware of club history. I lived in London mid 90s when they were a third division side Fayed had just bought. He pumped money into the team and they made it to the Premiership, and had to reconfigure and expand Craven Cottage to play there. But at the end the defense was awful, the team got sold, and it’s questionable whether the club intends to moderate its ambitions again. Dumpster fire is a little unfair for a small club — used to play in front of 10k people just two decades ago — that managed a decade in the Premiership and a titanic run in the Europa League during Dempsey’s heyday.
What killed the EPL for Fulham was bailing on Jol when they were struggling but safe. They then went through a succession of managers in just one year before landing on the awful Magath, who added obnoxious management to a team already struggling with talent lack (think DiCanio at his worst), Symons is not new and it’s debatable whether he can turn it around. But some continuity if just for rebuilding’s sake is probably fine. They didn’t get relegated last year and I don’t think will be at risk this year once the transfer window closes and the roster settles.
I have little faith in Khan because of Jax but I think the team can comfortably be a championship midtable side.
Since they are getting more Americans in, and getting fashionable again, it bears noting Hyndman seems disinterested in extending his deal. There is a youth national team player they just signed but if you are interested in Fulhamerica they may soon cut back to just Ream. Which is a dubious reason to be a Fulham fan. I’m not sure I’m excited about that pickup. But we’ll see what happens.
Ream may have favored FFC over QPR for stability. QPR will push for the EPL and probably churn anyone on the roster who gets in their way. FFC is not prepared to make that sort of rush now and thus it’s probably a safer landing spot to assume he’ll play.
I’m fully aware of the history and it’s only because of Al Fayed that they had such high ambitions.
That history is what drew me to the club along with the FulhAmerica. Now I could care less how many Americans are there, just that they return to the recent glory.
I’m also a Cubs fan and the similarities between the two are fun.