Fulham head coach Marco Silva has hailed the contract extensions signed by his preferred central midfield pairing João Palhinha and Harrison Reed as ‘great news’.

The Portuguese international, who came close to joining Bayern Munich in the final hours of the German transfer window last month, has committed his future to the club he joined last summer – putting pen to paper on a deal that runs until at least 2028. Palhinha led the Premier League in terms of tackling in his first season in England and popped up with vital goals as Fulham finished tenth last term.

Silva told his press conference at Motspur Park this afternoon:

“It is great news for us as a football club. There has been a lot of noise during the last two months around our football club. We felt that was a good moment to take important decisions and to give the fans good feelings as well. It’s that why we work every single day.

Speaking specifically about Palhinha, the Fulham boss said:

“With João, it is not easy to have the quality to make the impact he did in the Premier League in his first season. He was [our player] and is and yesterday, put on the paper something that he wanted – that his family wanted as well. This is the most important thing. I don’t want to talk about the [transfer] market again. I don’t want to keep talking about the situation. I can ask who is the agent of Palhinha, if everything is true? I don’t want to talk about the market. I knew that first thing that when he signed a contract, some people start to talk about break clause and all this stuff, it is just for us to laugh a little bit. I like to laugh sometimes with this situation.”

Silva, who remodelled Reed into a more of a box-to-box midfielder after taking over from Scott Parker at Craven Cottage, heaped praise on the former Southampton midfielder.

“Harrison Reed has 150 appearances with our shirt, that speaks for itself. He’s an important guy in our dressing room”