Fulham head coach Marco Silva says he still believes in the success of his Fulham project as the club prepares for another tilt at the Premier League despite a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Benfica in Faro last night and the slowness of the Whites’ summer transfer business.
In a wide-ranging interview with Mais Futebol, the Fulham boss struck an upbeat tone immediately after last season’s Champions League quarter finalists had eased to victory in the final fixture of the Algarve Trophy.
“I am very happy to have guided Fulham back to the Premier League. I believe that we have the confidence of the owner and the fans through the players. I am quite pleased with what I have seen so far. We are not there yet and we still have some key areas [of the team] missing.
“But we will continue on our pathway and I believe that with hard work, attitude and application we will get there. We will have to adapt a little from last season now that we are in the Premier League. But not so much that we stop enjoying our football, as I saw last time Fulham were promoted.
“Our first objective has to be survival, but we can play in lots of different ways to secure the win. I want us to keep playing in a positive way. We have to make the most of all of the games ahead of us”.
Fulham finish their pre-season tour of Portugal with a friendly against Estoril – Silva’s final club as a player and first as a manager – on Sunday evening.
I hope he has not been mugged off by the Khans. What is the informed thinking about Neco not being signed?
Marco Silva did quote before Neco Williams signed for Forest . That he didn’t think he was ready to play in back four in Premiership . Forest play with back five
Still need back up (and new experienced players ) for CB , both full backs, goalkeeper and a decent goal scoring forward to support Mitro. If not I can see us struggling again this season. We need to get these players in sooner rather than later to integrate into the style that Silva wants to play. Recruitment ,DO NOT LEAVE IT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE !!!
Tony Khan needs to address our manager’s needs -he knows what he is talking about. The price of another relegation at the end of this season would far outway the few million quid differences in valuations of the players we need. Diop would come in here with an ‘I’ll show you’ attitude towards Thames Ironworks (him and Tosin: The Twin Towers?) and if a new goalkeeper is what he wants… (I personally like Marek, and think he should have a chance with a decent defence in front of him, but I’m not the manager). We’re getting sick of this half-arsed Texas Holdem attitude – either get your cheque book out or stick to wrestling on your side of the pond. I love what is happening in the midfield so far, but we cannot have a ‘we’ll score more goals than you’ just yet.
Totally agree Glen another £20million spent today to bridge the gap between offer and required on several of our targets will more than be repaid if Silva really thinks these targets can keeps us in the Premier League
What is it about the restrictions of ffp that people find hard to grasp?
Look… if you earn £100 per week you can’t afford to throw money around like your neighbour who earns a 1000. The Khans are silly rich but they have to work within the ffp peramiters. They have no choice.
Agree Terry but there are ways and means over that, take Man City for instance Eithihad get naming rights to stadium and Man City get millions of extra income. Barcelona are virtually bankrupt but they still seem to able to buy multi-million pond players with astronomical wages. Find a way Mr Khan or we will all be supporting a Championship side this time next year.
Time is against and us as usual , Tony Khan’s way is to wait and wait, then panic buy when it’s too late on the final hour of the final day of the window, with five matches wasted and potentially 15 points lost.
How on earth could Fulham let Nico Williams
a tried and tested attacking full back slip through their hands. Their excuse the price was too high. In today’s Mickey Mouse transfer fees £17 mil. doesn’t seem an awful lot to me. I hope we don’t live to regret it.
I could not agree more with Anthony regarding Nico Williams. We mess around in the typical Tony Khan manner whilst others act. Notts Forest have in my opinion got a great buy in Williams and in today’s market 17 million is not a great outlay for a player of his class. Here we go again!