Fulham: 19/20 Season Preview

As we all get ready for the new season to kick off tomorrow, it's time for another Fulham Season Preview. I didn't do one of these last year, for the very simple reason that the day I would have posted it on was Deadline Day. Generally speaking I like to think of these Previews as an extension of my Summer Window Previews I do at the end of the previous season. So I didn't see much point in posting one with what would have been hours left of the Transfer Window.

With these previews I try and cover all things Fulham related that have happened over the summer, as well as what I'm expecting to see over the next 10 months. With that said, there's only one place to start.

The Transfer Window
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Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolves, Loan)
Cavaleiro was on my "long-list" for my Summer Window Preview, but I didn't include him for the simple fact that I thought he'd be too expensive for us this summer. So I suppose I was right in the sense that we've gone for an initial loan with an option to buy, presumably so the big transfer fee is further away from our "100m summer" in the three year FFP cycle.

This signing doesn't really need much discussion. We know how good Cavaleiro can be in the Championship, and with the players we've lost (and could still lose) we needed to add genuine quality either side of Aleksandar Mitrovic- and we've definitely added quality with Cavaleiro. It sounds like Tony Khan really went for this one as well and worked on it for a long time, so full credit to him for getting it done.

Martell Taylor-Crossdale (Chelsea)
It's worth mentioning Taylor-Crossdale, just because I'd be surprised if he didn't get a look in for the first team next season- even if it's just in the Cups. That's just an assumption, but it's based on the fact that he turned Hoffenheim down to join us- combined with the fact that he openly spoke about a pathway into the first team when he signed.

In fact, I'd actually argue Taylor-Crossdale has a case for being our second choice Striker. Because I personally see Kamara as a Right-Winger and Rui Fonte as a #10. While that doesn't mean I'm expecting to see Taylor-Crossdale in the matchday squad for Barnsley- I do think he'll be making some appearances as long as he impresses in the 21s.

Anthony Knockaert (Brighton, Loan)
This signing confirmed one thing to me. I have no idea what an "ambitious" signing is for Fulham these days (more later). Last summer, even for how badly it turned out, players like Seri weren't even on my radar as potential signings. Similarly, I didn't even see Knockaert as a potentially ambitious option when I was planning my Summer Window Preview. I was looking at relatively cheap options like Darwin Machis (who to be fair had a decent Copa America) and we turn around and sign someone who played thirty games in the Premier League last season.

While no signing is a guarantee of success, with Knockaert and Cavaleiro playing either side of Mitrovic we should have an absolutely lethal front three once they get used to playing together and everything "clicks". Of course having lethal forwards isn't a guarantee of success as we perfectly showed the season we had McCormack and Dembele up-front and finished 20th in the Championship.

Outs
I must say I expected a few more names in this section. As usual I'll only talk about the players who had first team minutes for us last season.

Jean-Michael Seri (Galatasaray, Loan)
I was surprised by this, just because with the greatest of respect I thought Seri could do better than Galatasaray. Although with that said he didn't exactly rip any trees up for us, and then had a very underwhelming AFCON- so maybe he couldn't.

I said it in my Summer Window Preview, Seri is by no means a bad player- he just didn't "fit" at Fulham. Especially when things started to fall apart basically from September onwards and it became clear we weren't a Premier League standard team. I'm interested to see how he gets on with Galatasaray, it's by no means a bad move for him given they're going straight into the Group Stages of the Champions League- it's just up to Seri to get his Nice form back and prove himself all over again.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (Villarreal, Loan)
This is the one that annoyed me. All of the noises coming out of the club over the summer indicated we were planning for next season with Zambo as part of the squad. From Tony Khan's podcast interview to the fact he was included in the kit release pictures (and as of writing this he's still in the header photo for the Fulham Twitter page). So to see Zambo suddenly depart pretty much on the eve of when he was due back in after AFCON was very frustrating.

I can only assume his agent and/or him started to make some noise in regard to wanting a move, because I don't see why we would've let him go- especially on loan otherwise. My hope is the option to buy is a big one, if not on par with what we spent on him at least close to. Because the potential is 100% there with him, and if he has a big season for Villarreal he'd suddenly look like he's worth what we spent on him.

The one thing that does have to be said about the loans of Zambo and Seri is to the best of my knowledge it's actually better for us in an FFP sense for us to have loaned them out rather than sell them at a loss this summer. The fact we still own them means we're still paying however much a year in amortisation on the FFP balance sheet, whereas if we sold them at a loss (which we would have done) we'd have taken a massive loss all at once and that in turn could have impacted how much we can spend this summer.

Harvey Elliott (Liverpool)
As I said, I'll talk about the players who appeared in the first team last season- as a result the most recent departure to talk about is Harvey Elliott going to Liverpool. We don't know how much we've got for Elliott yet, but I'd personally be content with anything above 4 million for him.

It's hard to "miss" Elliott, given he played a total of 18 minutes in the Premier League last season- and those minutes were most likely given to him to boost a potential tribunal fee. I didn't expect him to play a big role (if any) for us next season if he did stay anyway- so I'm happy to take the money for him and hope it funds a player or two that can play a part for us next season. Which brings me on nicely to the next section of this blog.

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Potential Transfers
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Josh Onomah (Spurs)
The most concrete link we seemingly have at the moment is Josh Onomah, for the simple fact that he was spotted at the West Ham game. This goes back to what I briefly talked about in the Summer Window Preview about Matt O'Riley and his agent, because he'd pretty much be coming in as a back-up to Tom Cairney. I don't see him as capable of playing the Johansen role in the 4-3-3 simply put, and frankly I think this would be a bit of a pointless signing if it were to happen because I'd rather use Rui Fonte as the back-up in that #10 role if O'Riley isn't an option for off the pitch reasons.

Although with that said, you'd expect Scott Parker and Matt Wells to know (or know a lot about) Onomah from their time at Spurs- so if they see a role for him next season you can only trust them however underwhelming the signing might appear.

Harry Arter (Bournemouth)
The other concrete(ish) link we have at the moment is Harry Arter, which is a rumour that has been bubbling all summer. Presumably at least in part because of the family link between Arter and Scott Parker.

To me it's quite simple with Arter. Do I think he could do a job for us next season? Yes. Do I think there's better, younger options out there? Yes (more later). With that said, if Parker wants Arter then as already said you have to back him given he's the one picking the team.

I do find it a bit funny that there's a bit of a cross-section of people who don't want Arter who were also having digs at Tony Khan for not letting Jokanovic make his own signings. Because Arter is 100% a Parker driven move, not just because of the family link, but because it would also go against one of Tony Khan's main transfer policies of not signing anyone over the age of 28 unless they were a big upgrade which I'm not sure Arter would be.

As far as actual links go to the best of my knowledge that's it. There's been a few names mentioned, but I can't see anything coming from them. So we're now moving into "my" shopping list for the rest of the transfer window. Quite simply these are names that I believe would strengthen the areas of the squad that need strengthening before the transfer window slams shut next week.

Daniel Ayala (Boro)
We need to sign a Centre-Back. It really is a "need" as well, because as Mawson limping off against West Ham showed we're dangerously short at Centre-Back. This squad isn't a million miles away from being able to challenge for the automatics despite some of the negativity I've seen over the last week since Zambo left. However, signing a quality Centre-Back is an absolute must if we want to achieve our stated goal.

The profile of Centre-Back we're looking at is pretty clear for all to see based on the names we've been linked with (Michael Hector, Pontus Jansson, Ezri Konsa). Championship experience and right-sided seem to be the order of the day- so as a result I thought I'd bring up an alternative option in Daniel Ayala.

I'd assume most people know all about Ayala, so it's not worth going into great detail about him. The interesting thing about Ayala to me is that he's going into the last year of his contract with Boro- and given Boro's two years of parachute payments are up, if we put in a decent bid I'd like to think Boro would accept. Ayala would be more of a stop-gap than a long-term solution, but I do think he'd do a good job for us were he to sign.

Dylan Bronn (Gent)
I made one big mistake in my Summer Window Preview in May. I didn't talk about any players from the Belgian League. I did have one in my "long-list" in Mbwana Samatta, but I thought he'd be too expensive. But still, that was my mistake. I was actually looking at three Belgian League Centre-Backs- Brandon Mechele (Club Brugge), Sebastien Dewaest (Genk) and of course Dylan Bronn. The reason I opted for Bronn is mainly down to age.

Dylan Bronn would be more of a long-term option than Ayala given his age and potential. Especially if we do sign Harry Arter we'd have a lot of players who are either 28+ or turning 28 next season. Which isn't a major concern, but it is something to keep an eye on. For the size of club we are, we need to look at signing players in the 21-24 age range to develop, increase in value and then sell on. It's the reality of the size of club we are, and at the moment the only players we have in that age bracket are Mitrovic and Kamara.

Bronn is a different Centre-Back to Ayala in pretty much every conceivable way, but I genuinely believe he'd be exceptional for us and partner Alfie Mawson (when fit) perfectly given he's very mobile but also defensively sound. Bronn would be quite expensive, but if we are going to spend big in one position in the next week, it absolutely needs to be Centre-Back.

Iyenoma Udogie (Hellas Verona)
This potential signing isn't a pressing one, I'd see it as more of a "bonus signing". I'd personally like to see us sign an actual Left-Back to cover Joe Bryan. We've got players who "can" play Left-Back like Odoi, Ream and Le Marchand, but we don't have an actual Left-Back.

Enter Iyenoma Udogie, who fits the bill perfectly for me. Udogie reminds me quite a lot of Ryan Sessegnon in that he's excelling at youth level, to the point where he played above his age bracket for Italy at the U19 Euros this summer- and he's scoring quite a few goals from Left-Back at youth level as well. Udogie is only 16 but then again so was Sessegnon when he broke through.

I remember us being linked with a Left-Back from Shamrock Rovers earlier in the summer, so it's clear we're in the market for a Left-Back for the 21s. I'd see Udogie as similar to the Taylor-Crossdale signing in that he'd start with the 21s, but then if he impresses he'd train with the First Team occasionally and get his chance to impress in Cup games and if Joe Bryan gets injured we could potentially look at playing him in the league next season.

That would be my selling point to Udogie when convincing him to sign, which was also seemingly our selling point to Taylor-Crossdale in that one of Scott Parker's "things" seemingly is a proper pathway to the first team for youth players.

Lennart Czyborra (Heracles)
I suggested signing Adrian Dalmau from Heracles in my Summer Window Preview, and we're taking another trip to Almelo in this blog. This time for a Left-Back.

Czyborra's further along in his development than Udogie, but you'd expect that given he's practically ancient at 20 years old. In fact, Czyborra had his breakthrough season for Heracles after signing from Schalke last summer. Czyborra's very quick, and given how it seems Parker wants us to play with "inside forwards" a lot of our width needs to come from the Full-Backs- which increases the need for pace in those areas. Whether Czyborra would be happy to join as cover after having his breakthrough season with Heracles is the only concern I'd have over whether we could sign him or not.

Uros Racic (Valencia)
We're approaching the end of a cycle with our current midfield with Cairney and Johansen turning 29 and McDonald turning 31 throughout the course of next season. McDonald especially is someone we need to look at replacing given how important the "anchor" is to the 4-3-3 system.

I see Racic as a natural successor to McDonald in the "anchor" position. He possesses the same physical and technical attributes that McDonald does, but he's also pretty much 10 years younger. Racic is seemingly surplus to requirements at Valencia as well, so I doubt it would take an extortionate fee in order to sign him- we could probably even try for a Loan + Option to Buy which would be better for FFP purposes.

We'll be starting the season up at Barnsley with Kevin McDonald, but when we start getting into "game every 3 or 4 days" territory I'd start bringing Racic in, and provided he performs I'd be wanting Racic to fully succeed McDonald as our starting defensive-mid by the end of the season. That's not saying anything against McDonald, but we need to phase out players like McDonald, Ream and Odoi sooner rather than later given their advancing age and it being clear after last season that they're nowhere near Premier League standard which of course is where we want to be.

Oriol Romeu (Southampton)
This was my "more later" I talked about in the Anthony Knockaert section. I genuinely don't know if this recommendation could be classed as "too ambitious". Romeu isn't an absolutely guaranteed starter for Southampton, and Southampton's wage bill is quite inflated- so if we went in for him with a similar deal to Knockaert of a Loan + Option to Buy and possibly a wage increase for Romeu- we might be able to convince him to join and Southampton to let him go.

Romeu would be more of the Knockaert variety in that he's turning 28 in September, but that is seemingly the market we're shopping in this summer in that we're not really looking beyond this upcoming season/our two years of parachute payments with the players we're bringing in. I'd still be very keen to sign Romeu of course. He'd be an absolutely top drawer signing for us and would help us get back to running midfields like we did in our two full seasons under Jokanovic.

James Lea Siliki (Rennes)
Moving on to the Stefan Johansen role in the 4-3-3, and introducing James Lea Siliki. Siliki's been on my "radar" for a while now, specifically after putting in one of the best crosses I saw across any League/Cup last season for Ismaila Sarr for the third Rennes goal as they beat Arsenal 3-1 in the Europa League.

Siliki would be an interesting option to have, because he's primarily a Centre-Mid, but he's also played Left-Wing and even Left-Back. As I've already talked about, Parker seems to want to play with "inside forwards" having Cavaleiro and Knockaert cutting in from the wing on their strong foot. With that in mind, signing a Centre-Mid like Siliki who can overlap down the left-hand side and put a cross in would be a very good option to have and would add another dimension to how we want to play as it's different to what Johansen can offer us.

Siliki is close to my ideal signing this summer. He's only just turned 23 so provides long-term value for us- and he's already a very good player. To give an idea of his "level" I've seen reports linking him with Porto and Celtic. He wouldn't be cheap by any means I've seen fees of 7-8m being talked about, but if we want a quality long-term replacement for Johansen we'll need to spend.

Adama Traore (Monaco)
No, not that one. There was cause for some amusement during AFCON when Mali kicked off their campaign with Adama Traore starting and Adama Traore on the bench. Even more so when both Adama Traore's scored as they beat Mauritania 4-1. Neither Adama Traore that featured for Mali that day is the Wolves Adama Traore, even though the Wolves Adama Traore is eligible for Mali. The Adama Traore I want started, scored and assisted in that game, whereas the other Adama Traore who funnily enough was subbed on for the Adama Traore I want only scored. Is that clear enough?

Traore would be more of a budget option than Siliki, but a good option to have nonetheless. Traore's clearly surplus to requirements at Monaco considering they sent him out on loan in January, and given he's going into the last year of his contract you would imagine he'd be available for a pretty cheap price. There's a player in Traore as well, he was tipped to have a very bright future when he was at Lille- so if we could help unlock some of that potential (which we very feasibly could seeing as he's only just turned 24) we'd have a good player on our hands.

Those are the four areas I'd like to see us make a signing in before the transfer window is closed. A right-sided Centre-Back, cover Left-Back and two Centre-Mids. One a replacement for McDonald and one as competition/a replacement for Johansen. For the record, if we were to be in the market for a Right-Back my choices haven't changed from my Summer Window Preview of Nazim Sangare or Falaye Sacko. However, as long as we keep Steven Sessegnon- I genuinely don't see the need to sign a Right-Back. We can't complain about wanting to see our kids get more chances like I saw a lot of when players like Kait and Thorsteinsson left in May- but then demand a new signing when we have I'd argue three good options for Right-Back in our academy in Cody Drameh, Marlon Fossey and Steven Sessegnon.

Outs
Ryan Sessegnon
It actually isn't that much of a surprise to me that Sessegnon's still a Fulham player at the time of writing. I'm still expecting Sessegnon to go, but it's just the way Daniel Levy does things really. The one thing I will say about Levy in that sense is the last time he tried to mess us around and get a deal out of us on "his" terms, neither side ended up really "winning" as Spurs missed out on signing Dembele and we ended up losing Dembele for a 500k development fee.

As I've already said, I'm still expecting Sessegnon to go- and frankly I don't even necessarily think he'd be a regular starter for us were he to stay given we've pretty much built a team with his departure in mind. If he got his Championship Player of the Year form back of course he would be, but based on last season and the fact he's starting this season with an injury he'd have an uphill battle.

My hope is we can get Sessegnon sold with time to spare in case we're relying on the Sessegnon money for incoming business. But with that said if Daniel Levy messes us around and then comes in with a low offer on Deadline Day out of principle I'd genuinely rather run the risk of losing Sessegnon on a free next summer to somewhere abroad than accept the offer. Because if Sessegnon's preference truly is Spurs we'd get a tribunal fee that wouldn't be significantly less than what Spurs are offering anyway. Worst comes to worst we can always sell The Cottage to ourselves to cover us for FFP after all.

Steven Sessegnon
It's not really clear if Steven Sessegnon is going to be part of any potential deal taking Ryan Sessegnon to Spurs. The rumours have varied throughout the summer. There was a bit of concern when the team for West Ham came out and he wasn't anywhere to be seen given he started against Brighton the week before and was seemingly going to be our first choice Right-Back going into the season. However, from what I've read he apparently had a knock so there isn't much to read into in that sense.

I'd be very disappointed if we did let Steven go, he could genuinely have a breakthrough season with us next season because the Right-Back position is definitely up for grabs. Add on the fact that he's contracted to us until 2022 it means we don't have any immediate "need" to let Steven follow his brother to Spurs. Unless we've attached a ridiculous value to Steven to cover Ryan's diminished value so the package for both ends up as 35-40m.

Cyrus Christie
Speaking of the Right-Back position being up for grabs, I still think there's a chance we move Cyrus Christie on this summer. Christie was in the Starting XI for what I'd call the "Cup team" for the friendly against Oxford rather than the two games against Premier League teams either side of it, which to me suggests he won't be first choice next season. With that in mind, given Christie's at an age where he'll be looking to play every week- if someone came in with a decent enough offer I'd be willing to accept.

I said most of what I had to say about Christie in my Summer Window Preview, so I'll just repeat that it's probably best for all parties that Christie moves on and gets a fresh start without the baggage of last season. But if we do decide to keep Christie and have him and S. Sessegnon as our two options for Right-Back I'd be largely fine with that.

Fabri
It's not a surprise to me that Fabri's still here. Simply for the fact that the Turkish and Spanish transfer windows still have another month to go. This is one thing I hate about the English window closing early, because Fabri's wages off the books and a potential transfer/loan fee could mean another signing comes in, or a higher calibre of signing comes in- but if he signs for someone on the 31st of August what good does that do us in the immediate term?

I'll add that I genuinely want to see Fabri as our #1 next season, but given he's played about 25 minutes throughout the whole of Pre-Season that doesn't seem particularly likely. It's mental to me though. Imagine if we went down with statistically the worst Keeper in the league last season (Bettinelli) and someone said we'd sign a Keeper who's played in the Champions League and Europa League, won the Turkish League, is recommended by a former Goalkeeper coach and Leeds (our nearest rivals for the title according to the bookies) supposedly wanted to sign in January before opting for Kiko Casilla.

And we're writing that player off based on two games (one being Spurs away) behind an absolutely shambolic defence at the start of last season. I've seen some people bring up his height as a negative, but he's the exact same height as Jordan Pickford who while slightly erratic at times is doing alright for himself. I haven't seen Fabri take a penalty though.

Ibrahima Cisse
I said this in my Summer Window Preview, Ranieri saw something in Cisse- because he got him properly involved in the first team squad and even started him above Seri and McDonald at the Emirates. So if Parker also sees something in him and wants to use him, then fair enough. The negative of AFCON being in the summer in that sense is we genuinely don't know how involved Cisse will be, as he's pretty much missed the whole of Pre-Season being away with Guinea. Without any informed knowledge, I'm assuming Cisse's off whether that be a loan or permanent.

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Aleksandar Mitrovic's new contract
When talking about summer business, it's only right to talk about the best bit of business we could have done all summer. The three players I was resigned to losing this summer were Seri, Sessegnon and Mitrovic, and if someone offered that we could keep Mitrovic at the expensive of losing Zambo I would have taken that deal any day of the week. As long as he stays fit, Mitrovic should be in the mix for top scorer in the league next season without a shadow of a doubt. Especially with the options we have either side of him and behind him with Tom Cairney.

My one slight reservation is that I'm not entirely convinced he suits how Scott Parker would ideally want to set his team up. Especially at Championship level Mitrovic is good to the point where you adapt to accommodate him, but I think in an ideal world Parker would prefer a more mobile, pressing Striker. That could perhaps be why he's only scored 1 goal under Parker to date including Pre-Season (and that was a penalty). He'll still score a bagful of goals next season because of how good he is, but I'm not entirely convinced Parker will get the absolute best out of him- and that could very well be his undoing during his time in charge.
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New Kit Reaction
The new kits have grown on me over the course of the month or so they've been public knowledge. I like the home kit for how simple it is, and I like the away kit just for how it looks. My one annoyance is the Adidas logo on the away kit is central rather than on the side.

I feel like I always end up talking about betting sponsors in this section, so I'll repeat what I always say. Betting companies as sponsors are quite literally where the money is. Bar the Top 6 in the Premier League who can attract other brands, almost every club has a betting sponsor for their shirt. Until betting companies on shirts are banned, it's stupid to not go with the sponsor we can get the most money out of. As long as the team wearing the kit are winning football matches I couldn't care less what's on it.

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The Season Ahead
It's definitely going to be an interesting season, I think that's a safe assumption. The signings we've made and the players we've kept have made our Top 2 ambition pretty clear, but the signings we are yet to make mean that Top 2 is just an ambition rather than an expectation at this stage in my opinion.

It might be a reflection of my opinion of Scott Parker as a manager, but I'm very wary of the fact that we could become the flat-track bullies of the league next season- similar to West Brom last season. In that we could turn around one day when everything clicks and beat someone 8-1, but we could also end up having some pretty heavy defeats and the season could ultimately end in disappointment. With the quality of players we have, Top 6 is the absolute minimum for us this season- but whether or not we can push for Top 2 is dependant on our transfer business over this next week as well as how well Scott Parker can get us playing. The only thing to say on both of those points is "time will tell".

It's interesting for Scott Parker, because he's in a bit of a no-win situation in my opinion. If we do manage to go back up then it's "well obviously Fulham went up, they signed Knockaert and Cavaleiro and kept Mitrovic". And then if we don't it'll be "how has Scott Parker managed to not get promoted with Knockaert, Cavaleiro and Mitrovic up-front".

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Predictions
You may have seen my Championship prediction I posted on Twitter if you follow me, and as Fulham are involved in it I think it's worth repeating here.
I've predicted;
1st. Cardiff
2nd. West Brom
3rd. Leeds
4th. Fulham
5th. Stoke
6th. Brentford

I should say this is based on the players the clubs have as of writing this, because if Brentford lose Benrahma and/or Maupay then things would change. But as of writing this, that's my Top 6 prediction for the season with Leeds beating Brentford and us beating Stoke before Leeds beat us at Wembley.

Regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to a new season of ups and hopefully significantly less downs. Depending on how much business we do between now and the deadline I might be back for a Transfer Window Review, but in the meantime thanks for reading as always. I always enjoy doing these blogs, so hopefully you enjoy reading them. Thanks again for reading, and let's make this season a good one.

Fulham: 19/20 Summer Window Preview

Well, it's safe to say that could've gone better. I'm not going to dwell on what is now last season too much, simply because everything worth saying has already been said multiple times over. Especially since the Watford game, and it's for that reason (and that this blog will be long enough as it is) that I'd rather look ahead to next season.

I had actually written a version of this post about a month ago in the direct aftermath of the Watford game, but I thought with so many things up in the air I'd let things breathe for a month and keep this blog until after the season was over. At least we know who's going to be in charge going into next season, so you're saved a paragraph of me talking about Mikel Arteta and Oscar Garcia as well as my ambitious "wildcard" (in every sense of the word) option of trying to get Jorge Sampaoli.

Looking ahead to this summer, I do think something important has to be said about the Khans. They've shown multiple times over that they're not the "take the money" types of owners, and as such I'm expecting to retain the core of a very good Championship team over the summer. Going all the way back to when we kept McCormack and Dembele in January 2016, the Khans are far from "selling owners". They could've taken the money for Cairney and Sessegnon multiple times over, but they didn't because it didn't benefit the team.

There will be sales over the summer of course, but I'm not expecting the fire sale that I've seen some people talk about. We've already seen evidence of this with Cairney signing a new deal, and while we may be saying goodbye to some players I'm expecting us to reinvest a reasonable amount of money back into the squad to replace the players we're losing.

Anyway, let's dive into the blog. As usual, I'm not necessarily expecting to sign these exact names- but it's the sort of profile of player I'd look at. Basically what my shortlist would be if I was in Tony Khan's shoes based on what I think we need over the summer.

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Goalkeeper
We don't need to sign a Keeper this summer. We've got three very capable Keepers for the Championship at the club in Bettinelli, Fabri and Rodak, and given we'll need to spend on other positions there's really no need to spend on a new Keeper this summer. Even in the likely event that we lose one of them (more later).

Defenders
It's funny in a way, because in January we needed to pretty much sign Defenders exclusively and we ended up signing two wingers. Whereas this summer, I'm pretty relaxed about the defence. Bar Right-Back, you could even make a case for saying that our likely defence next season without any signings/departures is stronger than the one that got us up.

A lot of what I'm going to talk about in regard to signings is system dependant, because we don't really know what sort of Manager Scott Parker is yet and what his preferred formation is. As such, I've tried to choose players who would be comfortable playing in a three and four-at-the-back. Personally I'd look to sign a Right-Back to replace Cyrus Christie and a right-sided Centre-Back because Mawson, Le Marchand and Ream are all more comfortable on the left.

Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea)
Loans will always have their place in the Championship, it's just being overly reliant on them that can do you in- as we proved last summer. I hope Tony Khan's learned his lesson on this front, and we aim to "just" sign two or three players on loan to supplement a core squad of permanent, contracted Fulham players.

This specific loan suggestion could be completely moot if Derby can overturn Leeds' 1 goal advantage from the 1st Leg of their Play-Off match and then go on to win at Wembley. Tomori's had an absolutely exceptional season on loan from Chelsea, and should Derby manage to go up I'd imagine he stays with Derby on loan in the Premier League next season. However, if they don't go up his future may be a bit more up in the air. He might even end up staying at Chelsea with Gary Cahill leaving and Chelsea's transfer ban seemingly holding for this summer at the time of writing.

If Tomori was available though, we should be doing everything to be at the very front of the queue. The other potential loans for Centre-Back I was looking at were Michael Hector (Chelsea) who we've already been linked with, Mason Holgate (Everton) and a potentially unrealistic one in Juan Foyth (Spurs) who we could hypothetically try and sign on loan as part of a deal for Ryan Sessegnon with Parker's Spurs connection possibly coming into play.

Timo Letschert (Sassuolo/Utrecht)
Looking at permanent options now, and it's our first trip to the continent. I actually suggested signing Letschert before he signed for Sassuolo when he was first at Utrecht. An underwhelming spell at Sassuolo later (not helped by injuries) he was back on loan at Utrecht this season and he's had another pretty good season which has made me keen on signing him again.

Funnily enough, the moment that put him over the edge for me was actually something Letschert ended up getting subbed, dropped and fined for in a game that Utrecht lost 5-0. Utrecht were 3-0 down at Half-Time, and Letschert went into the dressing room and absolutely went off at his teammates. I want players in the dressing room next season who will hold other players accountable- because we had too many passengers this season. While it's clear Letschert went too far, I don't mind having players in the dressing room who will demand a certain standard from their teammates.

Utrecht have an option to buy as part of the loan deal with Sassuolo, but as Wolves and Stoke proved last summer with Benik Afobe activating a buy clause isn't a completely closed door in-terms of the player making another move in the same window.

Nazim Sangare (Antalyaspor)
Moving on to Right-Back now, and I've simply looked for someone who fits the "Ryan Fredericks profile". In that they're comfortable carrying the ball forward, comfortable overlapping and running in behind the defensive line, not afraid to take a player on and most important absolutely rapid.

The last time I suggested a full-back from the Turkish League in one of these was Barry Douglas two years ago. Douglas of course went on to have an absolutely exceptional season with Wolves. Introducing Nazim Sangare, who is pretty much as close to Fredericks as we could realistically look to get.

Sangare's on 2 goals and 4 assists for the season- and he's pretty much everything I'd look for in an attacking Right-Back (in my initial writing of this post a month ago I had a joke here about Sangare actually being able to score a goal, but then Fredericks went and scored for West Ham and blew that one). Sangare's one I'd hope we can act quickly on, because I've seen him being linked with a move to Fenerbahce and with only a year left on his contract making him very affordable I would imagine there'll be other suitors for him as well.

Falaye Sacko (Vitoria Guimaraes)
Sacko's similar to Sangare in a lot of ways. They both fit the "Fredericks profile" and they've both been linked with moves elsewhere already. In Sacko's case he's been linked with Reims in Ligue 1, and the price for him is again very good with 2-2.5 million Euros being the quoted price for him.

My personal preference of the two is Sangare, even with Sacko being pretty much a year younger. Simply because AFCON is this summer, and Sacko's going with Mali. While it may be naive of me to expect us to change the habit of a lifetime and get the majority of our transfer business done early, I'd like to avoid signing players going to AFCON when there's a very viable alternative like there is with Sangare who'll be available to us the day Pre-Season starts.

James Justin (Luton)
Justin's had an absolutely exceptional season with Luton, and he's one of the big reasons that we'll be playing them next season. There's a lot of upside with Justin in that he's 21, English and showing a lot of potential. I also believe that for the right price Luton would sell Justin, and I'd look at signing him if we could.

There's two ways we can go with the Justin signing. We could either sign him to be our starting Right-Back, or we could sign him as a cover full-back in addition to one of the two names mentioned above and ease him into the first team over the course of next season. The reason Justin would be ideal in a cover sense is that he's had his real breakthrough season at Left-Back, but he's naturally a Right-Back and he can play both comfortably.

Midfielders
As in the Defenders section, I've tried to cover a few bases in-terms of the type of Midfielder I've looked at- simply because we don't really know what system Scott Parker will favour. Tying Cairney down to a new deal is big, because it means we're pretty much set in-terms of having the #10 type player. As such I've looked to more defensive-minded Midfielders, because my assumption based on what we've seen so far from Parker is that he favours playing with a defined #10 and two defensive-midfielders behind.

I'd look at signing two defensive-mids to take us to four total with McDonald and Anguissa, and that then extends to three if we say goodbye to Zambo over the summer. Depth is important in the midfield area. Especially as even if we keep Zambo, he won't be starting for us on the first weekend of August because of his involvement with Cameroon at AFCON. Looking at the way the draw's fallen, I've got Cameroon getting to at least the Quarter Finals which takes his involvement there up until the 10th/11th of July as an absolute minimum. He'd then need a two or three week break after that before being brought back up to speed.

Oscar Lewicki (Malmo)
In direct contrast to Zambo in the sense that he won't be ready for the start of the season, you won't find someone more ready than Oscar Lewicki. Malmo are really in the infancy of their season, with the Allsvenskan played between April and November. As such, there wouldn't be any concerns about fitness levels and match fitness with Lewicki and he'd be the ideal player to sign with making a fast start to the season in mind.

Lewicki's fitness would have to be managed over the course of the season, because he can't essentially play Football for 12 months straight- but that goes back to depth and wanting four defensive-mids to use over the course of the season.

Lewicki's a very good player- to give an idea of his "level" he was being linked with Cardiff last summer and generally speaking most of Cardiff's signings last summer could be described as "top-end Championship" level signings. He's also shown so far this season that he's not a selfish player, he's a defensive-mid by trade, but he's ended up playing as the right Centre-Back of a three for Malmo so far this season.

Taras Romanczuk (Jagiellonia Bialystok)
For my money, Romanczuk is the best player in the Polish League. Romanczuk is pretty much everything I'd look for in a defensive-mid signing this summer. Going back to my point with Letschert, I want more leaders and characters in the dressing room next season and based on the player he was I think Scott Parker will too.

Romanczuk fits the bill perfectly in that he's a genuine leader in the midfield. He's similar to McDonald in that sense, but Romanczuk is a lot more mobile and covers a lot more ground. I think the phrase "captain's performance" is back in fashion after Vincent Kompany's goal last Monday effectively won Man City the title- and Romanczuk has had games like that throughout the season with his most notable performance being scoring twice in a Polish Cup Semi-Final (including a 90th minute winner) to take Jagiellonia to the final.

Ryan Woods (Stoke)
Closer to home now, Stoke need to be our example of what not to do this summer. They probably thought they were all but guaranteed to go up by keeping the likes of Joe Allen and Jack Butland and adding to them with some "big" Championship players like Benik Afobe and Ryan Woods (among others). It's not as simple as "just" keeping most of your best players and adding some Championship experience like a Harry Arter for instance. The mentality has to be right, the balance has to be there and the hunger has to be there- and in Stoke's case I think they just went for names.

Ryan Woods is one of the players where I'm not sure his face ever really fit at Stoke. He moved from a very possession-based Dean Smith Brentford team to a Gary Rowett Stoke team. I'm not sure how much possession Stoke averaged under Rowett specifically but over the course of the season they pretty much averaged 50% compared to his Brentford team the season before averaging around 55%.

Based on what we've seen so far it looks like Parker wants us to move back to a very possession-heavy style, and as such I think Ryan Woods would be a very good addition. He has Championship experience and he's almost definitely available given he wasn't even in most of Stoke's matchday squads towards the end of the season, most likely for less than Stoke bought him for as well (or maybe even on loan).

Andreas Geipl (Jahn Regensburg)
Stuart Webber's shown over the last three or four years with Huddersfield and Norwich that there's a lot of value in the Bundesliga. 2 if you know where to look.

This one is a very stats-based recommendation. For me, one of the big problems our midfield had was that it was just too passive. So how to rectify that? Look for a player who makes a lot of tackles. Geipl's averaged 3.9 tackles a game (our highest Midfielder this season averaging 2.1) for Regensburg over the last two seasons. To me he's the ideal squad player in the sense that he'll be cheap and offer us something completely different in that he's a "Kante" type defensive-midfielder whereas the other two we currently have in McDonald and Zambo are more suited to playing with the ball.

Geipl can take set-pieces as well which is a nice added bonus given we don't really have anyone who you'd call a "set-piece specialist" at the club.

Forwards
As I've already talked about, in January we needed to sign a load of new defenders and we ended up signing two wingers. Whereas this summer we're looking at losing pretty much every forward that's been relevant to the season, so watch us sign a whole new back four this summer and have Stefan Johansen back as a False-Nine in August.

There's two ways to approach this section. One where the Khans dig in on selling Aleksandar Mitrovic and Mitrovic doesn't agitate for a move- and the other more realistic one where we say goodbye to Mitrovic and have to replace him this summer. I've tried to cover a few bases in this section, because as I've already said we don't really know what system Parker wants to play. As such I've looked at wingers as well as different options depending on whether we want to play one or two up-front.

Personally I'd look to sign a new Winger to add to Ayite and Kebano, a new Target Man depending on where Mitrovic is playing his Football next season and a pressing forward who can either play up-front in a two, up-front on their own or on the wing. I want tactical versatility and different options simply put.

Darwin Machis (Udinese)
I primarily see Machis as a Winger, but it shouldn't be ignored that he's had probably the best run of his career primarily playing up-front in a two on loan from Udinese at Cadiz in Liga Adelante in the second half of the season. As I've already mentioned I want that versatility with our forward line next season, because I felt like we were too predictable a lot of times over the course of what is now last season and even in the first half of our promotion season.

Machis has scored 8 goals in the second half of the season with Cadiz after being a bit-part player for Udinese in the first half. To me, Machis is the ideal sort of player we should look at this summer in that he's a decent player, knows where the goal is, can play multiple positions and he should be reasonably affordable given he is just a bit-part player with his parent club.

The one downside with Machis is that he'll be going to the Copa America (featuring such South American teams as Qatar and Japan) with Venezuela this summer, but given he'd (hopefully) not be our only forward signing combined with the fact that Venezuela aren't likely to go far in the competition (famous last words) I'd still be pretty keen on signing him.

Fredrik Gulbrandsen (RB Salzburg)
When looking for value, Gulbrandsen is the absolute top of my list player for this summer. I've seen a lot of talk on forums and on Twitter about potential free agents- and it's the usual wanting to sign Premier League cast-offs or even with one name that I've seen mentioned in Gary Hooper Championship cast-offs. But generally speaking with those names there's a big reason to not sign them whether it be age, wages or just lack of quality.

Gulbrandsen is genuinely my ideal signing this summer. He's on a free from Salzburg, and he's everything we didn't have from a Forward in the season that's just finished. Gulbrandsen's primarily a Striker who can play on the wing if required, and for want of a better way to describe him he's a Jamie Vardy type player in that he's a "pressing" forward who also has the pace to run in behind a defence. Given he is on a free we wouldn't be the only team in for him of course. I've seen Gladbach and Fenerbahce as two potential destinations for him, but if the wages were right I would hope we could convince him to join.

Adrian Dalmau (Heracles)
Adrian Dalmau is similar to Gulbrandsen in the sense that he's a "pressing" forward, but he doesn't have the outright pace that Gulbrandsen does. In-terms of goals though, Dalmau is having a better season. At the time of writing this Dalmau has 19 goals (making him the 3rd top scorer in the Eredivisie), and is coming off the back of scoring a Hat-Trick and getting MOTM in a 5-4 defeat at the weekend.

Dalmau is a good player to look at signing because he'd be suited to either playing up-front on his own or with a partner. Dalmau wouldn't be extortionate in-terms of price either given his contract is up in 2020, with that said however I'd still prefer Gulbrandsen if it was a choice of the two given Gulbrandsen's quicker and he's on a free.

Oli McBurnie (Swansea)
Moving on to potential Aleksandar Mitrovic replacements now, and in my mind there's only one real option. McBurnie is about as close to Mitrovic as we could realistically get this summer. He's coming off the back of a 20+ goal season with Swansea, he knows the league, he's a good age and he's pretty much the ideal Target Man replacement. He's not as good as Mitrovic of course, but McBurnie wouldn't score significantly less goals than Mitrovic would for us next season and we could probably buy him for half (maybe even less) of what we sell Mitrovic for.

In fact, the only real problem I have with McBurnie is that he wears his socks low.

Vedat Muriqi (Rizespor)
McBurnie is my absolute #1 when looking for a Mitrovic replacement. There's no real debate about it as there is in my mind between Nazim Sangare and Falaye Sacko for instance. With that said, we won't be the only ones in for McBurnie this summer and if say a Sheffield United come in for him- we can't compete. In simple terms we could be on the other end of what we did to Villa with Joe Bryan last summer. As such, we do need to look at alternatives- and in doing so we're taking another trip to Turkey for another Fenerbahce linked player. I swear I haven't just gone on Fenerbahce message boards and made a list of all the players they're supposedly in for.

Muriqi is still a very good player, he's another Target Man and he's scored 15 goals for mid-table Rizespor this season with two games to go. The added thing to me with Muriqi is the fact that he's also on 7 assists which indicates his general play is very good. You would imagine Muriqi would be much cheaper than McBurnie this summer as well, so factoring that in- I definitely wouldn't turn my nose up were we to sign Muriqi this summer despite my preference of McBurnie.

Outs
Before diving into the players who are contracted to Fulham beyond the end of the Newcastle game, it goes without saying that we're saying goodbye to Sergio Rico, Havard Nordtveit, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Calum Chambers, Andre Schurrle, Luciano Vietto, Lazar Markovic and Ryan Babel.

The only two I'd have a genuine interest in keeping are Chambers and Babel, and in Chambers' case he won't want to drop down to the Championship and we most likely couldn't afford him even if he did.

With Babel, I wish we could keep him- but I fully understand why we won't. Euro 2020 is most likely Babel's last chance of going to a major tournament. As such, he'll want to stay in a visible league to stay in Ronald Koeman's thoughts given he's competing with the likes of Quincy Promes and Steven Bergwijn. It seems Babel's going back to Turkey and is signing for Galatasaray. Which is fair enough in my book, it's a league he knows, and if Galatasaray win the Turkish League (currently 1st on goal difference) they'll be going straight into the Group Stage of the Champions League which again helps him in-terms of visibility.

Right then, let's move on to the players who could hypothetically be here next season.

Jean-Michael Seri
To give an idea of just how out the door Seri is, I'm 99% certain he wasn't even at the ground for the Newcastle game on Sunday. Given he's 5ft 6 he is very easy to miss, but I'm almost certain he wasn't there for the "lap of honour" after the game. I don't mind that though, especially with AFCON this summer I'd rather have Seri leave early than have him hanging around Motspur Park with no intentions of playing in the Championship in late July.

In Seri's defence, I don't believe he's a bad player. He just wasn't the right signing for us. Seri to me is the perfect example of the phrase "would've been better in a better team". Because Seri did have sporadic moments in the season where we saw the player that Xavi said had "Barcelona DNA", but through a combination of us being generally woeful (Seri included) and Seri being played so deep he couldn't really affect the game in the final third it just wasn't to be.

I don't think anyone really knows how much Seri cost us because of the way the deal with him and Le Marchand was structured, but I'd be disappointed if we didn't get 20 million for him- which is a massive amount for us in an FFP context.

Ryan Sessegnon
I think from a sentimental perspective, Sessegnon is the one who'll hurt the most when he's sold this summer. I've personally expected Sessegnon to be sold this summer since August last year, even if we did stay up. For the simple fact that while all of the other players key to our promotion signed new deals, Sessegnon's signature was always absent. It's also why I don't think Jokanovic would've been in charge with us next season in the hypothetical world where we didn't sack him, because even with his contract up this summer he was putting off signing a new deal.

I've seen a lot of criticism of Sessegnon this season, and it is true that he's had a very hard time of it. I pretty much expected it though, it's unfair to expect an 18 year old to go into their first ever year of top flight football and instantly rip the league up. Especially in a team as bad as we were.

For Sessegnon's development he needs to stay in the Premier League and just keep slogging away and improving playing at the top level. As I mentioned earlier, all signs point to Sessegnon going to Spurs- and I think that's the best move he can make at this stage of his career. Especially as Pochettino plays a three-at-the-back at times, he could find a home as an attacking left Wing-Back as he's rotated throughout the season. My hope is that we can get someone on loan as part of the deal, whether that be Juan Foyth as mentioned earlier or someone like Georges-Kevin Nkoudou if we wanted to go like-for-like.

Aleksandar Mitrovic
However unlikely it is, I do genuinely think there's a small chance of Mitrovic staying this summer. Mitrovic is pretty much the last player we can blame for how our season's unfolded, but with that said he's scored in three games since the end of November. That's not all his fault, because especially under Ranieri he was starved of service in quite a few games- but it's a fact. Especially towards the end of the season Mitrovic was missing easy chances as well, and that might have made a few Premier League teams think twice about spending the 30+ million we'll be asking for him.

I do think we'll sell Mitrovic this summer, and it's hard to be angry with him wanting consistent Premier League football when he's in the prime of his career.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa
Of all the potential outgoings this summer, Zambo is the only one where I'm genuinely not sure if they'll be staying or not. I'm working on the assumption that we'll be selling the three names above, and that should bring in at least 75-80 million and that in turn will put us into a position where we don't "have" to sell anyone else this summer.

As such, I'm not really sure what we have to gain by taking a loss on Zambo. We've seen glimpses of the player he can be, but not nearly enough to where we can expect to get anything close to what we spent on him. I think in Zambo's case it just comes down to how much the Khans dig in on keeping him, and how much Zambo and his agent agitate for a move. I personally really want us to keep him and think he can be a big player for us, but if he ends up refusing to train, play etc. then there's not much point.

Alfie Mawson
It's worth mentioning Mawson, just because I can see there being some interest in him. Particularly in my mind I can see Sheffield United being interested in him given he's pretty much the ideal central Centre-Back for a three given how comfortable he is on the ball and playing with both feet. With that said, I highly doubt he's sold this summer. Primarily because I can't see anyone putting in an offer that will make us want to sell him given he's spent about two-thirds of this season injured and he has back-to-back relegations on his CV now.

Fabri
I personally think Fabri had a pretty raw deal. He's never played in the Premier League before, he plays two games (one being Spurs away), behind an absolutely shambolic defence, makes an absolute boat load of saves and then he's never seen again.

The main criticism of Fabri was that he never really commanded his area, and that comes with confidence as much as anything else which you can understand his lack of given who was playing in front of him. I do think Fabri could be our #1 next season, and I personally think he's better than Bettinelli. With that all said, we can't keep Fabri and Bettinelli this summer, Bettinelli only signed a new deal in October and he has tenure with the club. It doesn't take a genius to work out which one of the two will be moving on this summer.

Cyrus Christie
I genuinely believe Christie could do a job for us in the Championship next season. However, I think Christie's now in the position Jazz Richards was in after Brentford away a couple of years ago where his position with the fans has gotten to the point where he can't carry on in a Fulham shirt. There's genuine groans whenever he gets the ball, and the ironic cheers I heard when he got taken off on Sunday tell the whole story. He got so much abuse after Palace away that he ended up deactivating his Twitter account for the best part of three months (and as of writing this blog he's deactivated it again).

I do think there will be takers for Christie this summer though, and I'd look at getting around 2 million for him which would essentially fund his replacement if we looked at Sangare or Sacko. Alternatively, we could use Christie as part of a deal for someone else. Specifically in my mind we could offer Christie plus money for Oli McBurnie- because I can see Swansea cashing in on Connor Roberts this summer leaving them needing a Right-Back.

Aboubakar Kamara
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but to see some people on Twitter talk about wanting Kamara back next season genuinely baffles me. He has pace, and that's pretty much it. We can find someone with pace pretty much anywhere, and none of those players will have been arrested at Motspur Park.

It's not just the incidents with Mitrovic and the one that got him arrested, I can also remember an interview with Cairney where he mentioned in a joking way that Kamara's always late to training. He just seems to be very unprofessional/immature, and he's not good enough to get away with it. While I will of course back him if he's lining up in a Fulham shirt next season, I just think he's burned his bridges with us too badly to make a return.

Rui Fonte
I'm genuinely not opposed to keeping Fonte next season. As I've already talked about, the dressing room balance has to be right next season- and Fonte showed in our promotion season that he's a very team-oriented, unselfish personality.

Especially if some of the stuff I've seen rumoured about Matt O'Riley and his agent are true, I'd look at using Fonte as Cairney's back-up in the #10 role next season.

Ibrahima Cisse
Ranieri clearly saw something in Cisse seeing as he was involved in some of his matchday squads and even got a start at the Emirates. So if Parker fancied him and wanted him involved in the sort of "4th" defensive-midfielder role I talked about with Andreas Geipl earlier then fair play.

I just can't see it though, and with his contract up in 2020 (albeit with a 1 year option) we should just cut our losses and try and get as much as we possibly can for him this summer.

Stefan Johansen
Talking of 1 year options, the news came out on Sunday that we'd activated the extensions in Kebano, Ayite, Odoi and Johansen's deals so they don't leave us on a free this summer. In the first three cases I think they'll be squad players for us next season and have been kept around because of their experience in the Championship as much as anything else.

In Johansen's case however, I think we've activated the option in his deal to sell him. Personally I can't see Johansen wanting to stay next season, for the same reason I didn't suggest signing Kalas and Piazon earlier. We effectively said to the three of them last summer that we'll let them do all of the hard work and the Burton Albion away on a Tuesday night games, and then when we reach the "promised land" we'll bin them off straight away in favour of more "trendy" players.

Especially in Johansen's case, considering Seri was literally the first player we signed- after we'd already tried to sign Thomas Delaney before that. I just can't see Johansen's mentality and commitment being right with us next season and with that in mind I'd look to move him on this summer. We should be looking to get 3-4 million for him though, because he is a very good Championship player- and it will be sad to see Johansen go given how big of a contribution he made to the two seasons prior to the Premier League one.

The Championship is going to be very tricky next season, the three relegated teams could all be challenging for the Top 6 next season in addition to three of the Play-Off teams and then Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday, Boro, Bristol City, Forest and Preston in particular could all have serious goes at the Top 6. And that's not even including the "surprise package" there always is in the Championship whether it's Millwall in our last season in the Championship or Norwich in the Championship season just gone. As such we need to get our business right this summer to stand a chance of going back up next season, and it's down to Tony Khan and Scott Parker to get that business done.

Thanks for reading as always, it's not the season anyone associated with Fulham hoped for of course- but I am still reasonably optimistic for next season. There was a level of naivety at every level of the club when we went down last time, but this time we're going down with our eyes wide open to what needs to be done to achieve promotion out of the Championship. At the very least we're not going to be signing Dino Fazlic, Adil Chihi and Mark Fotheringham level players this summer. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good summer where you can forget this season ever happened before we go again in August.