Fulham believe they can retain the services of Scott Parker’s loan stars if they succeed in avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
A report in the Sun suggests that the club are confident of concluding permanent deals for all of the seven players who are currently on loan at Craven Cottage. Fulham hold options to trigger permanent deals on four of their loanees – goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, defender Ola Aina, Anfield matchwinner Mario Lemina and striker Josh Maja, who arrived in January.
The deals for Fulham’s three other loanees – Joachim Andersen, Ademola Lookman and Ruben Loftus-Cheek – do not have options to buy written into them. Lyon were willing to consider a permanent sale for Andersen last summer and the Danish defender, who has worn the captain’s armband in the absence of Tom Cairney this season, has already spoken of his interest in joining the Whites on a permanent basis. Fulham have been quoted a fee of around £15m to purchase Lookman from RB Leipzig, whilst Parker spoke earlier this month of eagerness to sign Loftus-Cheek, whose future at Chelsea remains unclear.
To buy everyone, it’ll cost £100,000,000. Cheap at half the price, but then will owners fork that out after Riverside development. Plus there FFP to worry about. Maybe we can extend loans again for a few with signing guarantees?
Areola £8m – an absolute steal and should be done the day we secure our safety (if we do), Aina £10m – A good price for a versatile defender who has been improving throughout the season, Lemina £5m – an absolute bargain for a Premier League quality midfielder and has definitely made the midfield role his own, Maja £9m – Jury is still out on him but he’s young, knows where the back of the net is and doesn’t need many chances to cause opposition teams trouble.
To get those 4 players in for a combined £32m would be a bargain and a great way to start the summer transfer window.
Signing Andersen should be our number one priority outside of making our options permanent. Pay whatever it costs to keep him at the club, even if it’s £30m+
I really hope we can keep all of our loan players especially Andersen Lookman and Ariola if we do i think we will have a great team next season if we stay up and I am now confident we will.COYW.
Parker has done a terrific job of taking fringe players from other clubs and turn them into a cohesive, motivated and recently successful unit.
As much as I’d like to keep them all in case of PL survival, I would also not underestimate Scotty’s ability to do this again should we not be able to keep them all. In spite of all the big numbers involved, football is ultimately a people business and he seems rather good at that!
Let’s focus on staying up 1st,then talk about signing these players