Tom Cairney has told Sky Sports that he wants to keep playing for Fulham as long as possible.

The Scottish midfielder, now 33, is contracted at Craven Cottage until next summer but feels he could contribute to the Whites for much longer.

“I’m thinking much longer than that. I think football has changed, the way people look after themselves, players seem to be playing a lot longer. I watched the Euros and you saw Pepe was playing at 41. It’s insane some people are doing that now. James Milner is an amazing example. There’s many, many more. I watched the Euros and you saw Pepe was playing at 41. It’s insane some people are doing that now. James Milner is an amazing example. There’s many, many more. My personal point of view was much of last season, when I played, I was really happy and I’m going to keep contributing.”

Cairney, who has passed 300 games for the Whites, believes Marco Silva’s side are back where they belong in the top flight and wants to build of two years of encouraging progress.

“I always said when I was in the Championship with Fulham that I wanted to be a part of a Fulham squad that became an established Premier League team again. Like I’m not saying we’re established, but we’ve been back two years and it’s been very enjoyable. I don’t think we got off to the best of starts last year, we lost [Aleksandar] Mitrovic in the summer. But as the season got on, we got stronger, the squad got stronger and it was an enjoyable season. When you’ve been a little bit up and down, sometimes in the league just securing yourself again would be amazing.”

The playmaker says Fulham travel to Old Trafford tonight in good heart – after last season’s success at the Theatre of Dreams – and insists that while they respect Manchester United, there is no fear.

“I think everyone watches the opening game of the Premier League on telly. It’s a huge game. We had an amazing day out at Old Trafford last season. I think we’ve really played well against Manchester United over the last couple of years under Marco. We had the famous FA Cup game where there was quite a lot of drama. It’s always been an entertaining game against United. Listen, any player loves going to Old Trafford, it’s a huge, huge club. We’ve enjoyed our time there and hopefully there’s another one.

“We won’t fear going there. We’ll respect them, of course. I think they’re going to get off to a good start. But we’ll go there like we always do – Marco will set us up and he never goes to be too defensive. We’ll go there and try to score and win the game. It’ll be a good game.”