Following Tuesday’s procession to promotion against Preston, there’s a jaunt to the coast to see Scott Parker again. Aside from all of the fervour associated with locking horns with the former Fulham manager, Bournemouth remain the closest rivals in the fight for the Championship title. Marco Silva has made clear that lifting the trophy is his major objective and there will no easing off towards the end of the season. Whilst Parker will likely be just another opposition manager to the Portuguese head coach, there will be a bit more feeling involved for Fulham’s fanbase and several members of this superb side.
Parker’s protracted departure from Craven Cottage in the summer left a bitter taste in the mouth. The suspicion still lingers that he engineered his exit from SW6 over a longer period of time and, with the benefit of hindsight, the squad he had for the vast majority of last season should have made a better fist of staying in the Premier League. Every manager makes their mistakes but Parker’s were baffling in the extreme – and the PR puffery that seems to accompany his every move was guaranteed to grate once he had moved on to one of Fulham’s direct competitors.
Plenty of Fulham’s finest performers this season will feel like they have a point to prove to Parker at the Vitality Stadium tomorrow. The Cherries boss might offer pre-match congratulations to Aleksandar Mitrovic in today’s pre-match press conference but his praise of the Serbian striker’s extraordinary goalscoring exploits is caveated by the inclusion of ‘at this level’. Leaving Mitrovic to languish on the sidelines whilst Ivan Cavaleiro continually failed to come close to hitting to the target with Fulham badly needing goals to stay up looked like managerial malpractice at the time, never mind in retrospect.
Then there are others who hardly got near the pitch. Jean Michael Seri has enjoyed one hell of a redemption season having been valued by Silva – and subsequently serenaded by the fanbase to his evident joy – and Tim Ream, a key character in the dressing room, has stepped in to shine alongside Tosin Adarabioyo. Neeksens Kebano, packed off to Middlesbrough on loan, hardly had a sniff in the top flight and looks like an entirely different player this term. The biggest transformation has been in Fulham’s mentality: from being set up to prevent the opposition from scoring, the Whites set out to attack from the outset – and the results have been glorious.
The Parker sub-plot remains intriguing to those of us who sat through two and a half of years of the life being strangled out of what might have been a very good side, but it counts for little in the grand scheme of things. Bournemouth remain likely to join Fulham in the top flight and automatic promotion would have been what the Cherries had in mind when they tempted Parker towards Sandbanks last summer. They have been miserly in defence, conceding just 35 goals in 41 games, and hold a seven-point advantage over Nottingham Forest, despite Steve Cooper’s side finishing strongly. Then there’s Dominic Solanke, whose ‘physical numbers’ make him the outstanding forward in the division according to his current head coach, who has 26 goals to his name.
In truth, Bournemouth have a stack full of talent to pick from – particularly after Parker strengthened significantly at the close of the January transfer window. They will miss Jordan Zemura, Kieffer Moore and Junior Stanislas tomorrow but can count on the likes of Jaydan Anthony, Jamal Lowe and Ryan Christie to supply Solanke. Philip Billing should return to central midfield – and whatever the final comparison of Parker’s starting eleven, it should represent a serious test. Fulham were outwitted by a brilliantly worked training ground move at Craven Cottage earlier in the season before Tosin Adarabioyo’s fine header earned a late point. Silva – and the supporters – will be seeking more tomorrow.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Rodak; Williams, Bryan, Adarabioyo, Ream; Reed, Cairney; Wilson, Kebano, Carvalho; Mitrovic. Subs: Gazzaniga, A. Robinson, Hector, Chalobah, Seri, Decordova-Reid, Muniz.
