Hello! Long time, no see. The last time I did one of these Fulham posts was all the way back in September. There's a few reasons for that. I was ill directly after said post- but then something magical happened. Fulham actually became a good football team. To be short, I was just enjoying myself too much to do Reviews and the like in what is now last season for us. The last few years the Reviews functioned as a means to vent my frustrations pretty much, but thanks to the good season we've had there hasn't really been much to vent about.
Did we get everything right? Of course not, because if we did we'd be up. However I said back in my Season Preview I was expecting us to finish between 10th and 14th, so for the first time in a while Fulham have actually exceeded my expectations for a season. I would have obviously loved us to go up, but for the first time since we've come down we're heading into a Summer Window in a position of strength. We don't have to put a whole new team together, simply. We can focus on adding quality where needed and hopefully keeping our key players. All of which I shall discuss in this post.
I've done these the last few years, and the other two times they've been stupidly long because we've had to buy a whole new squad. So thankfully (or perhaps not if you like the long posts) this one will be shorter than the prior few. As always, I'm not expecting us to sign many, if any of the players I discuss in this. However, it's my suggestions based on areas I believe need to be strengthened. Right then, let's just dive right into it.
Ins
Goalkeeper
This summer's a big one in-terms of what we do with our Goalkeeper situation. We either stick with Marcus Bettinelli as our #1, or we probably say goodbye to him. Bettinelli's at the stage of his career where he needs to be #1 to keep developing. Whether or not he does so with us is entirely up to Slavisa and the rest of the coaching staff. If we don't, we need to bring someone in who's Top 6 if not Top 2 Championship quality- because after the season just gone Top 6 is the minimum we should be looking at for next season.
Lovre Kalinic (Gent)
We seem to have scouted Belgium quite heavily, with us already signing Kebano and Cyriac just off the top of my head. So, if you haven't heard of him, let me introduce you to probably the best Goalkeeper in the Belgian League. He's only been at Gent for around about 6 Months, but if we came in with the right offer I doubt they'd turn us down. He's an absolute giant, standing at 6ft 7, and I believe that he is a Top 6 level Championship Goalkeeper as an absolute minimum. The one potential issue is that Villa tried to sign him in the January of 2016 and he couldn't get a work permit, and given the form of Danijel Subasic at Monaco his chances for Croatia have been limited which is what I believe work permits are granted on the basis of. But if we could get over that obstacle, I'd be all over him.
Sergio Padt (Groningen)
Another likely unheard of Keeper for the majority of you, but Padt is one of the best Keepers in the Eredivisie. He's not at the very top which is occupied by Brad Jones of all people after the season just gone- but he's definitely up there. There are a few others, but the majority of them are 6ft or under (including Willem II's Keeper who's 5ft 9) which to me doesn't really work in the Championship. Padt on the other hand is 6ft 3 so shouldn't have a problem coping with the physical challenge the Championship presents.
These are two options, and of course there's a wide variety we could be looking at. However, I just thought I'd highlight these two.
Defenders
If you would have told me this time last year I'd be doing this post and I'd be saying Tim Ream's the only Defender who's absolutely irreplaceable of our current Defence I would've laughed. But here we are. I would go as far as to say Tim Ream was our best player in 2017, just don't have him take a Penalty again. With that said, we're in a unique position for one of these posts in that when it comes to the defence we just need a few "touch ups" as opposed to an entirely new defence like we have the last few years. To me, we need a Right-Sided Centre-Back to partner Ream and depth for Scott Malone at Left-Back because Ryan Sessegnon just isn't one.
We could go all out on trying to sign a pair of Full-Backs with a better end product (or who can at least cross the ball), but I'm largely fine with Malone and Fredericks and the money we would need to spend on getting a marked improvement on them could be better spent elsewhere.
Tomas Kalas (Chelsea)
He's the obvious one, and I wouldn't say no to us signing him permanently by any means. However, I would go as far as to say Ream carried him in the latter stages of the season. We could do a lot worse than Kalas I think that's safe to say, however I'd prefer someone taller. Our inability to keep Clean Sheets is a byproduct of the way we play, which I think Slavisa's openly said- however I think a more physically imposing Centre-Back to cope with the Strikers you see quite a lot in the Championship could definitely help us out.
Marc Roberts (Barnsley)
The majority of "desirable" Barnsley players got snapped up in January, however Roberts is definitely that. I would imagine we're not the only team that would be in for him this summer if we are. Roberts was almost the forgotten man of Barnsley's first half of the season which had them above us for quite a while almost as a result of Hourihane, Bree and Winnall all leaving. However (with respect to Barnsley) in a better team I think he'd flourish.
Vitor Bruno (Feirense)
After two players relatively close to home, we're going back to the continent, this time to Portugal. I looked for players that to me fit the "Fulham profile" because for the first time in ages we have a defined style of play and as a result we can sign players with that in mind. Vitor Bruno was someone who I thought fit in with our philosophy. He's a very attacking full-back, he's quick and he's relatively good with the ball at his feet. I don't claim to have watched Feirense every week, but I would suggest he has a better end product than Malone as far as Assisting goes considering he matched Malone's Assist total for the season in 8 less games in what is on balance a different and I'd argue harder league than the Championship.
Barry Douglas (Konyaspor)
Yes, there is someone called Barry Douglas who plays for a team called Konyaspor which for those of you who don't know is in Turkey. He's quite an important player for Konyaspor as well, and he's registered 5 Assists for them this season- so he can definitely be an effective player for us in the final third, probably more so than Malone I would say.
Moses Odubajo (Hull)
I've highlighted a few more realistic options for us, but I thought I'd include this one just in case we decided to go all out in trying to sign a top quality Full-Back. Hull, or more specifically the Allam's showed in January that they weren't going to get in the way of their better players leaving if the right offer came in for them. So, I would assume that should someone put in the right offer for Odubajo they would accept it. If we could get him I'd obviously be all over him, because to me he'd be the best Right-Back in the Championship.
Midfielders
There's two ways to approach this section really.
To me, we had the best Midfield in the league this season with Cairney, Johansen and McDonald. However, I'd argue we were almost too reliant on those three to make us tick. Especially in the case of Johansen, with the way he plays- he can't play to his absolute top level for 46 Games a season plus however many cup games we have and he features in. So the first approach is to say we need to add more depth to our Midfield and specifically find someone who's a good rotation option for Johansen.
Lewis Holtby (Hamburg)
The first name that I thought of when thinking of a rotation option for Johansen was Holtby. Hamburg have basically turned into the Sunderland of the Bundesliga in that they always seem to be going down and then somehow avoid the drop. As we saw with Sunderland this season however, that run can't last forever. I just thought I'd put his name into the hat. Especially if Johansen does what he did at Celtic and has a shall we say underwhelming second season after a stellar first Holtby would be more than ready to take his place.
Ricardo Avila (Gent)
Another player from a Belgian team, and this one appears to be a done deal at this stage. I can't say I know a lot about him, but from the limited highlights I've seen of him, it looks like he can take a Penalty. So at least that'll be something.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah (Man Utd)
Now that Man Utd have officially made it into the Champions League, I can't see their spending stopping any time soon. As a result, players like Fosu-Mensah could very well be loaned out to gain first team experience. It would be quite a coup if we were to get Fosu-Mensah on loan, for the pure fact that he'd be an absolutely top drawer player at this level. He's versatile as well, I'd stick with him in Midfield which I believe is his best position- but if injuries were to necessitate it (as it has done for Utd) he can play Right-Back and Centre-Back as well.
That's approach one. Approach two is a "worst case scenario" type thing where we lose Tom Cairney. It is a possibility, and if we want to be in the hunt for Top 6 we'd need to find a top drawer replacement for him. Although, I'd actually want us to give Jozabed a go in that role should Cairney go after seeing how he played for Celta Vigo .That being said I think we've burned our bridge on that front.
Alejandro Pozuelo (Genk)
Should Cairney go, I'd be going back to Belgium and signing Pozuelo. He's gotten 8 Goals and 19 Assists in all competitions for Genk this season and I'd say he'd be a more than adequate replacement for him. As I said, this is only relevant in the event of losing Cairney- and I'd like to think if Cairney were to be sold we'd get a minimum of 15 Million pounds for him in which case we could put an offer in for someone like Pozuelo which couldn't be turned down despite how key to their team he is.
Deniz Türüc (Kayserispor)
Türüc would be an interesting one, because he's been a stand-out performer, not just for Kayserispor but in the whole Super Lig. Much like Cairney, he's registered double figures for Goals and Assists for Kayserispor this season and this is in a team that's currently 14th in the Super Lig. Türüc can play wide as well as centrally, but with how influential he can be to a team, he reminds me a bit of Cairney really in that he can play wide- but he's probably best suited to playing centrally.
Kevin Möhwald (Nuremberg)
It's clearly worked for Huddersfield, so why shouldn't looking at the Bundesliga. 2 be an option for us? Put simply, Möhwald has the second highest Assists in the Bundesliga. 2 in what is now last season- while playing for a team that's been Mid-Table. Add on to that the fact he's 23 Years Old, to me he'd be a pretty low-risk signing and he'd be a good option to have next season.
Forwards
To me, we need to sign another Winger and two Strikers of a good level to add to what we've already got to have a good crack at next season. Especially on the Striker front, the earlier we get them through the door the better.
Lucas Piazon (Chelsea)
Let's just get the obvious one out of the way. I hope we sign Piazon. He clearly likes being here, and as far as options go we could do a lot worse. I'm actually curious to see how Piazon would do if he's actually settled at a team, because he arrived at Chelsea with quite a lot of hype but I think their loan farming methods destroyed him. So if he does get settled at a club he could potentially turn into a really tidy player.
Iuri Medeiros (Sporting Lisbon)
Medeiros is in many ways of the same ilk of the likes of Piazon in that he's just constantly out on loan. He's a level or two (at least) above him though, and Medeiros definitely wouldn't be cheap were we to sign him. I've seen reports that he's expected to go back to Sporting Lisbon next season after loan spells at Arouca, Moreirense and Boavista in the last couple of years. However, I doubt he's completely indispensable to Sporting and should we put the right offer in we could probably sign him. This one is ambitious without a doubt, but I wouldn't say it's impossible.
Marcus Ingvartsen (Nordsjælland)
The Danish League is a weird one, because it's by no means a league of the highest standard- but there's always a few gems in there. Specifically in-terms of Strikers. You just have to look at Nicolai Jorgensen who went from Copenhagen to Feyenoord last summer and he went on to be Top Scorer and Top Assister in the league for Feyenoord in their league winning season.
Ingvartsen is someone who I would imagine will be in quite high demand this summer, because not only was he Top Scorer in the Danish League, he's also only 21 Years Old. He's 6ft 1, so could do a good job in the "Chris Martin" type role of holding the ball up a bit and bringing our other attackers into play. He would be a risk given his age and the level he's played at up to this point, but as I've said I want us to sign two Strikers and Ingvartsen would definitely be someone I'd want us to go after as one of them.
Tammy Abraham (Chelsea)
This one doesn't need much of an explanation. If Abraham can get as many goals as he did while being injured for a spell in a largely unimpressive Bristol City team, imagine what he could do in a team as attacking as we are which creates as many chances as we do. It is of course very possible that they loan him out to another Premier League team after his ridiculously successful first season at senior level, but if they were to loan him out to another Championship team we should be at the front of the queue for him whatever it takes.
Enzo Crivelli (Bordeaux)
Crivelli's another relatively young Striker who's coming off of having a really good season in a struggling team in Ligue 1 in Bastia on loan from Bordeaux. I don't know for definite, but I'm also fairly certain we could get him for Free because to the best of my knowledge he hasn't signed a new contract with Bordeaux yet. If that was the case, signing someone who's scored 10 Goals for a team that finished bottom of Ligue 1 on a Free would be a pretty good deal in my opinion.
Duje Čop (Cagliari)
I saw we were linked with Kenan Kodro from Osasuna a few days ago, but it's another Striker for a relegated La Liga team I thought I'd highlight. I've been looking at La Liga Strikers ever since we were linked with Sergi Enrich in January, and of the ones I think we could realistically sign Čop is one of the ones I'd love to. Scoring 9 Goals for a team of Sporting Gijon's standard in La Liga is no mean feat, and given the fact Cagliari have loaned him for the last two seasons I would imagine he'd be relatively affordable.
Sergi Enrich (SD Eibar)
We're ending the "Ins" section with someone who we came close to signing in January by some accounts. Of all the names in this "Attackers" section he'd be top of my list. I know he signed a new contract at Eibar once the January window was over and I'm not sure what his new release clause is, but given the relative size of Eibar, I would think if we threw enough money their way they'd have to accept the offer. A player like Enrich could be the difference maker between going up and staying down, so I hope we're willing to spend big money on a Striker this summer.
I'd actually looked at potential options from the Belgian League for this part, but the two top scorers are way too good for us and will likely be off to the Premier League and then the third highest was Orlando Sa so I just stopped there.
For the first time in a while, we're an attractive proposition for players. We're in London, and we've now developed a reputation of playing good Football under Slavisa. We need to use that and of course spend an appropriate amount of money and we could very well be looking at Premier League football in a years time.
Outs
Let's just get the easy ones out of the way first.
Chris Martin (Derby)
No explanation needed.
Cyriac (Oostende)
I actually wanted to see more from Cyriac, because while I wouldn't say he's a player of the highest level I think he'd have a place in our squad if he could bulk up a bit. However, from reports I've seen we're not signing him permanently this summer even though we had the option to, so as a result he finds himself in this section of the post.
Thanos Petsos (Werder Bremen)
Remember him?
This is another unique situation for this type of post on here, because the focus of it isn't on having a mass clear-out, but rather the need to hang on to key players.
Tom Cairney
To go up, we most likely have to keep Cairney here. Would I begrudge him a move to the Premier League? Absolutely not. Especially if a Premier League team were to come in with a bid of 15 Million plus it would be very hard to turn down. However, in my idealistic world, Cairney decides to give us one more season to try and "finish the job" and take us up as Captain and if he doesn't we agree to sell him to anyone willing to pay our asking price next summer. Brighton managed to hang on to all of their key players last summer despite interest elsewhere, and we need to do the same if we want to be in Brighton's position this time next year.
Ryan Sessegnon
Sessegnon is quite an interesting one to me, because while I obviously want us to keep our best players. Provided he signs a professional contract with us, we can pretty much name our price for him. If selling Sessegnon brought in 15-20 Million that could potentially be the difference between us going up and staying down I would 100% sell him. I know that sounds harsh, but the reality of the situation with players like Sessegnon is that they always end up at a big club, and if the money brought in from his sale is the difference in the level of Striker we could sign this summer I know which one I'd prefer.
I obviously want us to keep our best young players. However, the financial benefits from selling him, and potential long-term financial benefits the money brought in from him could give us would mean I'd be open to selling him for the right price. Especially if we could get a sell-on clause and maybe a Loan back as well.
Jozabed
As I've already said, should Tom Cairney be sold, I wouldn't look much further than giving Jozabed a proper run in the team. Especially after seeing him play like he has done for Celta Vigo it confirmed my suspicions that we hadn't seen the best of him in a Fulham shirt. But he barely had a chance to make an impact for us. I do wonder if he isn't dissimilar to Kebano in that if given the time and the opportunity he could've made a splash with us. However, as I also said, I think we've burned our bridge as far as he's concerned, but we should get a decent transfer fee for him. At least recouping the majority, if not all the money we spent on him last summer.
Richard Stearman
Stearman's quite a lot like Matt Smith, in that he's almost definitely surplus to requirements for us- but he should still fetch a not insignificant transfer fee for us and a number of Championship teams will definitely be interested in him.
Ryan Tunnicliffe
I still like Tunnicliffe. Do I think he's good enough for us? No. However, a player like him will always have a place in a team. I could see him dropping down to League 1 or doing something similar to Dan Burn and going to a Championship team that will be fighting relegation next season like Bolton perhaps.
Ragnar Sigurdsson
It's not worked out for Sigurdsson simply put. I don't believe he's a bad defender, because he's had some good games for us without a doubt. However I just don't think he's suited to English football to be blunt, and at the stage of his career that he's at, he should be playing every week realistically which we simply can't offer him. He should fetch a decent(ish) fee for us though. I think we signed him for about 4 Million, and I'd expect us to sell him for maybe 2-2.5.
Cauley Woodrow
I think it's about time Cauley moved on. He's shown at Burton that he can be a useful player in the Championship, but he's a level below where we are now, and multiple levels below where we want to be. We could probably sell him for 1-2 Million to a Mid-Table Championship team like Barnsley, Preston etc.
Lasse Vigen Christensen
Going back to my point about Stefan Johansen not being able to play to his highest level for 46+ games a season, Christensen could feasibly be Johansen's rotation option. We all know what he's capable of doing after his first few months in the First Team under Kit. But I don't think Slavisa rates him considering he couldn't even make it into our 18 most weeks so I think he'll be off this summer, either permanently or another loan.
David Button
I don't think there's many Fulham fans who'd be disappointed if Button did go. I do think he's been too harshly criticised at times this season, but he was without a doubt dropped rightly after the Derby away game. Put simply, he didn't come to us to be a #2 and he'll want to move to somewhere who'll make him their #1 because he won't be our #1 next season.
Scott Parker
I'm probably in the minority, but I genuinely see Scott Parker doing another season in the role he's played this season of half "experienced head to bring on" half coach effectively. He won't play much next season, I'm not saying he will, but there's still definitely some value in keeping him in the set-up.
The Championship is wide open next season. The only team that's been relegated who I think will challenge the Top 6 next season is Boro, and there's not a team like Brighton last season who were pretty much ready to push for Automatics before the season even started. It's not going to be an easy season by any means. You've got the likes of Norwich, Wednesday, Reading/Huddersfield and Derby to add on to Boro (potentially Villa as well, but they need to do a lot of work considering their rumoured FFP problems). But, I'd back us against any of them. I genuinely believe if we get this summer window right we could push for Top 2 next season.
Thanks for reading as always. I can't say when the next one of these will be out, but just keep an eye out. I'm definitely not done with these. If you've read some of my previous posts welcome back, if you're new hopefully you stick around for the next one. Hopefully you have a good summer, and we're all back in August for what'll hopefully be a season even better than the one just gone.
