Fulham defender Tim Ream revealed that Marco Silva’s creation of a special bond between his coaching staff and the players at Craven Cottage has been a key ingredient in the club’s success.

The Portuguese head coach guided the Whites to the Championship title in his first season in SW6 and followed that with a top ten finish in the Premier League – making a mockery of the predictions that suggested Fulham would struggle again in the top flight. Ream, an ever present in the league, until he fractured his arm against Manchester City last month told the Athletic:

“Silva’s big message [was] we need to go and just play. Play the way we are. Play brave. Yes, there are going to be losses. Yes, there are going to be times when we don’t play well. And in those moments, those are the times that we have to really stick together. And we’ve done that.

He cares deeply about all the players and I don’t just mean about how they’re feeling physically on the training pitch. He has conversations with everybody, with individual players, asking how they’re doing, how their families and kids are, what’s going on at home.

Him connecting individually with players has been a really big key to bringing us back and having this feeling of real togetherness and real positivity. Instead of having that negative, down feeling that we had going into pre-season last year in the Championship. As a manager, you have to have that trust and connection with the players if you want them to — to use the cliche — run through a brick wall, and do everything they possibly can for you. That has been very evident since he came in.”