Fulham boss Marco Silva is ready to rejuvenate Raúl Jiménez and again insisted that the Mexican international is not Aleksandar Mitrovic’s replacement at Craven Cottage.
The former Wolves forward will start the London derby against Brentford tomorrow after Mitrovic aggravated an ankle injury having come off the bench at Everton last weekend. Silva insisted that Jimenez, who signed for Fulham in a £5.5m deal last month, could enjoy a resurgence in SW6 similar to that of Willian, who was a revelation after arriving on a free transfer last September.
The Fulham head coach reiterated his faith in the veteran striker, who hasn’t scored in 24 Premier League appearances after hitting the post shortly before being substituted at Goodison Park, saying:
“We are here to help him like we have been helping our players these last two seasons. What we did with them, I think we can do the same with Raul. Our idea is to do the same. He has very good skills to help us, and to provide different things for us than the other strikers.
No one said to me ‘ OK, prepare because Mitro is already sold’. We have to be ready as a club. It’s the consequence of the season that we had. If you did something great, create a very good group of players, it is a consequence. I don’t have all the numbers but probably the club is receiving more offers than ever, and I’m talking about really [big] offers and offers in numbers that probably the club in the last few seasons didn’t expect to have.”
