Fulham head coach Marco Silva won’t tolerate any slacking off from his players after the Championship leaders clinched promotion – as he wants to finish the season by winning the league.
The Whites made sure of their place in the Premier League next season with a comfortable win over Preston North End on Tuesday night, sparking joyous scenes at Craven Cottage – but Silva immediately reiterated his desire to lift the Championship trophy in the dressing room afterwards. The Portuguese boss told his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth:
“We want more from this season. Nothing is finished for us. Yesterday was a day off to rest and relax a little bit, and today in the morning we started again. We have an important game on Saturday, and we want to finish on the top of the league, we want to be champions of this league. We know that will be tough, but we have to fight for it and be in the best condition we can. It would make all the sense [to win the title], because we have been so dominant this season.
We have been the most dominant team so far, we are the team that has stayed in first position most of the time, but we know the most important thing is to be in first position in the table after the last game. In football, you have nothing guaranteed. Of course, we are in a good position, but everything can change so quickly in football, and you have to be aware of everything.
The best way to do it is to be ourselves, express ourselves, full focus. We started working this morning and the session was good. I felt everyone had full focus on our new aim, and the aim that we had from the first day of the season. At this football club we always spoke about not just getting promoted, but being champions. We will fight for it, and it’s good for me to see everybody with full focus.”
Beating the side now managed by former Fulham boss Scott Parker on Saturday would virtually secure the title, but Silva is expecting a serious test at the Vitality Stadium.
“I think it will be a very good game. Two teams who were, most of the time, in the top-two positions. Of course, we have been the most dominant team so far. I think everyone can see that we deserved what we achieved in our last home match, and we want to fight for more. They are doing a very good season as well. They want to get promotion as well, direct promotion was their aim from the first day of the season as well.”
