Fulham have tonight confirmed the signing of Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno for a fee that could rise to £8m.
The 30 year-old German international has signed a three year contract at Craven Cottage, with Fulham holding a year’s extension option. Leno made 125 appearances in four years with the Gunners but had dropped to third choice under Mikel Arteta and was desperate to secure regular first-team football ahead of the World Cup.
The former Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen custodian told FFCTV:
“It feels amazing to finally be here. I can’t wait to join the team, to train and play with the team. I’m relieved that everything is done. I’m just happy to be here. It took a little bit of time but in the end we made it, and that’s the most important thing.”
Progress although very belated. We look like we will face Liverpool with about 8 of the positions filled with capable players assuming they are fit and drilled. Wilson is a loss, Ream now a liability at this level and early paper talk suggests left back still a ?.
Additionally we are thin on the ground outside the core group of 16-18.
I feel after our two previous attempts at survival less confident of staying up but strangely more prepared for the inevitable! Sad really
What creature resembles our recruitment team ? Snail comes to mind. Now stop dilly dallying and get a decent CB please
I think we’ve shopped quite well considering the market and FFP restrictions. Would feel better with another CB and LB, but overall I think we’ve done OK so far. Lots more of top level experience on the squad now (CL, Prem,international). COYW!
With the current defence in front of him, we cannot fault Leno if he lets in goals. If we could sign two centre backs I feel we have an outside chance of staying up, however we have waited 3 months and nothing definite on the horizon .If you believe the rumours we have been in market for about 15 centre backs and signed none so do not hold your breath .
At Last it’s only taken about 2 months to sign this guy probably the best signing so far but let’s wait and see who he has playing in front of him if we had 2 or 3 of the CBS we have been hearing about then maybe if won’t be to bad our transfer negotiations have been a shambles let’s hope Liverpool have an off day on Saturday I was looking forward to this season in the Premiership but not now but in the words of Andy Dufresne from Shawshank “ Hope springs Eternal “
He’s finally here. So let’s be thankful for that!
Shame for Marek Rodak but, if he gets his head space right, he can learn a lot because Leno is a proven, quality keeper at the highest level.
Unfortunately, from what Rodak said earlier, I don’t think he is going to accept not playing for an entire season yet again. He was replaced by Areola for a season when IMO he was coming off a terrific promotion winning season where he was, arguably, our best player.
This time around, under Marco Silva, his form in our last season was hit and miss. He is an established international in his own right so I fully expect him to seek new pastures. From the team’s point of view, however, we have to say that there is no room for sentiment if we want to establish a permanent place in the Premiership.
From everything we have been hearing for months, Leno had agreed personal terms a long time ago. So what has it taken sooo long to finalise? If his rumoured 7 million pa salary is true -which I find hard to believe -I’m not surprised he was eager for this deal to get done.
Huge money for a goalkeeper. At Arsenal he was reputedly on 5.2 million pa.
Compare that to Marek Rodak’s salary of just 230k pa and it DOES make you wonder if Leno is worth so much more and why/how T.Khan could/would sanction such an onerous deal for a 30 year old -albeit the age when a keeper hits his prime.
The most interesting aspect of this deal to be revealed is the suggested structure of the transfer fee.
It seems to be similar to the Dele Alli to Everton agreement of last season where it is based on number of performances, Premiership survival for one season-then a second season and so on.
In other words-complicated and convoluted!
This, finally, explains why these deals are taking so long to come to fruition.
We are not in a position to agree full, upfront payments. We have to negotiate a structure that allows us to stay within FFP requirements. Moreover, we have to ensure that, if, God forbid, we were to plunge back down a division, maybe not this season but even NEXT season, we weren’t putting ourselves in a dire financial position.
Like it or not, this is the reality of our transfer situation and one that we have to accept.
I, personally, have been vociferous in my criticism of the way this window has been conducted but, right now, armed with this latest information, I am starting to realise just how difficult it must have been for our hierarchy to get selling clubs to accept our intricate terms.
You can bet that all of our dealings to date have been similarly negotiated.
We need 1/2 centre backs and are being linked to practically every available player right now. The problem is which of the clubs that they currently belong to will be willing to agree to our terms.
This also explains exactly why the club retracted their fee offer for Manor Solomon once FIFA made their contract ruling. We just could not afford to pay out 7 million if we didn’t need to because it was much needed elsewhere.
Knowing the need of our manager to get players in early, this would have placed even more pressure on Mssrs Mackintosh and Khan.
I’m pretty confident that we will see a new centre back -or two – arriving soon. It, obviously, won’t be as quick as we all desired but, when he/they do, finally, arrive, I’m sure it will be on financial terms that benefit Fulham FC.
For that, we should be grateful to T.Khan and co.
These contracts are written by lawyers who, if they had there way, would be arguing about the wording of a clause until the beginning of next season.
Leno is a Great signing.
COYW
Great Signing and According to Arsenal sources “a very good deal for Fulham” … Like many been very critical of slowness by TK but what has been done is indeed very solid and fits into Marco’s wish list … So maybe more like a Turtle than a snail. ! If Due to circumstances if its TR as central defender and Nk and BDR on the wings hope the Fans give them their full and vocal support on Saturday – rather than constant criticism … It can make all the difference ! COYW !!!
I m sorry to say that I have been seeing too much criticism on this page. The Khans have served our club well and are still getting us quality signings. Maybe not all work out but it surely is not for want of trying. Come on you Whites, i just wish for a good performance on Saturday, full of commitment. I will surely be at the Hammy End sooner or later this season, wishing you all the best from Malta
Great signing! Another one and we’ve got money for a bunch more. I am optimistic. I just listened to two PL season previews – both just assumed we are going down because they probably read some stories here and elsewhere and saw all the relentless moaning and doomsaying and fingerpointing. But, that’s OK and even good because it means we are being underestimated. We are going to surprise a lot of people and other teams. This is – a much improved – team that almost beat Man City at home in the FA cup last year. Silva is a great manager and this team will score goals (and not give that many particularly with Palinha and Reed patrolling the midfield). And most importantly, Mitro, people don’t know, will be a force. C’mon Fulham!
I don’t think I’ve heard any fans criticising the players we’ve bought. No doubt for us they’re good players for sure. But to suggest we’ve managed this transfer window well is bananas. We’ve done good business but nowhere near enough and nowhere near quick enough. We’re still short of, as a minimum, 2 CBs a LB and a striker. I’m optimistic we will eventually get them and that we will probably have enough time left to get going and stay up…but…Marco has been put in a very difficult position. In his words “anybody that knows anything about football knows…..” we are not ready and not yet competitive. With games against Wolves, Brentford and Brighton coming early we should have been ready. How can we still be arguing with West Ham over Diop’s fee. We should have worked out months ago if we had a similar valuation to them. The FFP rules haven’t changed so if we knew we needed complicated deals around the payments we should have checked them with target clubs months ago. I’m sorry I just don’t buy accepting a part time, second rate Director of Football. I want a full time one that is working in the best interests of the club 100% of his time. Is that too much to ask for a Premier league club? If TK doesn’t have that time then fine put someone in that does.
100% agree with you Dave!
This is a PL professional club, not the billionaire’s son videogame.
Put an experienced DOF who works 100% in it, who can take decisions and make market movements under the Khan’s limitations, but not having to call to USA before making any step.
To all those who applause all that TK does, just check how has been Jacksonville Jaguars doing in laste decade… The WORST franchise in USA sports, not my words, but professional rankings