Jean Michael Seri is desperate to stay with Fulham and insists the Whites will break their yo-yo pattern between the top flight and Championship by staying up next season.
The Ivorian international has shone since being reintegrated into the starting line-up by new manager Marco Silva last summer, making 31 appearances and creating six goals as Fulham clinched promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Seri told Capital Football that he is happy at Craven Cottage and looking forward to another taste of the top tier.
“We won’t go down next year, I believe we can do a lot of things. They have to wait for us, we are coming. The first year when I was here it didn’t go well and I was disappointed when I left on loan to Galatasaray. But I told them that this year I want to make club and fans proud of me, that’s why I stayed.
It wasn’t difficult because I said to myself that I had signed for four years. It would have been unacceptable to go like that without making something for our fans. I wanted to show that the club did the right thing to bring me here and I couldn’t leave like that. All I wanted was to stay and fight for the title.
And thanks [to] God the way I started, the manager gives me his confidence and I showed him what I can [do]. I knew I could help the team get promoted again so what I did I think was brilliant. And I hope that I will stay next season to play at least one year in the Premier League.
I enjoy working with Marco Silva. The way that we play, everyone enjoys it and this is great for the team who want to win something. The way we play, the way that Marco manages the team is nice. But it’s been tough because a lot of players are not playing like Josh [Onomah], Kenny [Tete] or [Nathaniel] Chalobah. There is a lot of players who deserve to play, this team has a lot of quality but unfortunately not everyone can play.
I think everybody in this team can play in the Premier League. This about the right confidence and mindset. If you have doubts about whether you can play in the Premier League, you will fail for sure. But with our manager, the way that we try to play and the plan it showed that we can surprise everybody. We have to show [it] because the quality is there. The only difference has to be the mentality this time but this time we will show everybody that we can do much better in the Premier League.
If he wants to stay, then make it happen. He’s our best central midfielder by far.
He is good but nowhere near as classy as Cairney when fit