Fulham will refuse to sell teenage sensation Fabio Carvalho this month, according to the Sun.
The in-form attacking midfielder is into the last six months of his Craven Cottage contract and has been linked with a move to Liverpool and West Ham in the last couple of days. But the Championship leaders have decided not to cash in on the 19 year-old in January – as they see him as integral to their promotion push and Marco Silva still hopes to convince him to commit his future to the Cottagers.
The Sun quotes a source as saying:
“Promotion back to the Premier League must be worth around £170 million to Fulham. No amount of money they could get for Fabio would be worth that if they sell him now.”
The England youth international, who scored on his first Premier League start last, has enjoyed an outstanding campaign under Silva as the Whites look to return to the top flight at the first time of asking. Carvalho has scored seven goals in sixteen appearances for Fulham this season, adding two assists.
If true, great. We don’t need money, we need him. And there is a slim chance he might stay if promoted.
Absolutely the right call. If the tabloids are right and a figure of £5m is what we might have got this month, then it makes sense to keep him for the promotion push and try to convince him to commit with Premier League football at Craven Cottage.
Nothing would please me more and he is worth far more than 5 million which is being touted. We have to tie our good youngsters to long contracts much earlier otherwise we will keep losing them for peanuts.
The long term issue here is the Clubs failure to tie down our youngsters to long term contracts whilst continuing to pay ridiculous salary to players like Knockhaert. The only person now likely to be able to persuade Carvalho is Silva proving we do get promoted. The best hope he does not sign a contract with another club before the end of the season