The window is closed and once again in true Fulham fashion it went way beyond the deadline. At 12:30am the club announced the loan signing of 31 year old right back Cedric Soares and on the face of it a lot of fans were confused and dumfounded as to why the whites added the experienced full back on wages believed to be close to 100k a week.

Firstly Cedric was one of the first names that Marco Silva went after in this window from day one after narrowly missing out on his compatriot in the summer, Marco knows Cedric from their time together at Sporting Lisbon and has only glowing references of the Portugal international. The Fulham boss believes that Cedric’s versatility and leadership on the field will be key to helping the whites fulfil their objectives this season.

While many Fulham fans are skeptical of the club signing Cedric as they don’t believe he will oust the excellent Kenny Tete in the right back position, the Portuguese has different qualities that the Dutchman lacks at times. Cedric will give Fulham a different type of attacking option from the full back area, he loves to cross the ball both from the by line and from deep, he likes to overlap on the wings offering a good attacking option. Yes he isn’t as good defensively as Kenny Tete I mean who is? but in games where Fulham will feel they can be in the ascendancy a defensive minded full back may not be necessary and in those games Cedric could come in for a more attack minded set up.

Cedric has 13 assists and 3 assists in 158 Premier league games which on the face of it doesn’t seem great numbers but Cedric was an integral part in his days at Southampton and also has 34 apps for his country scoring 1 goal and getting 1 assist as well which great pedigree and experience that Fulham can use.

The full backs versatility will be a great asset to Marco Silva and as he can play either right back or left back and has also on occasion played on the wing so he offers Fulham a variety of options.

He is on a high wage believed to be close to 100k according to some reports but Fulham were very clever in how they have covered that wage. On Deadline day Fulham mutually terminated the contract of Josh Onomah and allowed Nathaniel Chalobah to leave the club on a permanent deal to WBA with the later believed to be on around 60k a week which the club could reinvest that wage in covering Cedric’s wage. Breaking down the deal Fulham pay around 1.8m in the 6 months that he is with Fulham, 1.8m for a proven Premier league full International is brilliant work by Marco Silva, Alistair Mackintosh and Tony Khan who really seem to have turned the corner collectively when it comes to the recruitment at the club.

Overall I believe that with Marco’s knowledge and high praise of his countryman that Cedric will turn out to be a key part of Fulham both achieving their goals this season and potentially even bettering them.

Who knows maybe we will see Fulham make the loan move permanent in the summer window.