Rich has a post up over at CCN suggesting that we don’t see many teams built and staying together in modern football these days. His list is a bleak assessment of the prospect of Roy Hodgson putting together a side at Fulham any time soon. But, taking a little more long-term view, you could see the seeds of this future Fulham line-up being sown in the next few months:

Stockdale

Marsh-Brown —– Hughes —– Hangeland —— Shorey

Duff ———- Dikgacoi ——– Brown ———- Dempsey

A. Johnson ————- Zamora

Not bad, eh?

Aaron Hughes has already made 111 appearances for Fulham, whilst Hangeland’s ten shy of bringing up his ton. As Rich says it would be nice for them to carry on together for a few more years. Say, we didn’t hang onto Nicky Shorey for whatever reason, and you could play another centurion in Paul Konchesky at left back.

The interesting one for me is Wayne Brown in central midfield. Touted by a few as a possible long-term replacement for current captain Danny Murphy, Brown’s currently out on loan at Bristol Rovers and he’ll have to work hard to get into the central midfield picture given all the quality we have in that area now. If that was a sentimental pick, there’s plenty of experience on the flanks in Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey (Fulham’s longest serving player in the current squad has notched up 122 appearances for the Whites).

If any of Marcello Trotta, Richard Peniket or Danny Hoesen progress to match their talent then we could have an Academy scholar partnering Bobby up front in due course too.