Yesterday, a fair few Fulham fans cast doubt on the idea that Dickson Etuhu might be attracting interest from some of our Premier League rivals. They thought it might be an April fool, which I think was a little harsh on our Nigerian midfielder.
It is fair to say that Etuhu wasn’t exactly flavour of the month when we picked him up from Sunderland in January. They wondered – with some justification – why a player who hadn’t been able to get into a struggling side would do any better with us. But the doubters have had to eat their words after Dickson’s made such an improvement after a slow start.
He’s been impressive once he got his full fitness back and adapted to our way of playing. He seems to know his limitations and concentrates on breaking up the play and redistributing the ball. The beauty of having Etuhu in the midfield – and, despite my view at the time, Dacourt hasn’t been an upgrade on Dickson – is that it frees up Murphy, who was much quieter alongside Bullard, to make an impact further up the pitch.
It’s not entirely inconceivable that clubs might be keen on Etuhu, although the proposed fee of £3m understandably raised eyebrows. David Moyes has managed Etuhu before at Preston so is aware of his quality and probably will be looking to improve his squad with European football on the horizon at Goodison Park next season. Rich made a decent point on TIFF yesterday as well, which is that Etuhu would suit Martin O’Neill’s plan at Aston Villa. Given that Villa are likely to be looking for a replacement for Gareth Barry should they fail to reach the Champions’ League this season, they could be in the market for another defensive midfielder.
Whether any comes of this reported interest, is something we’ll have to wait to find out.
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