Marco Silva has revealed that he wanted to sign Chelsea striker Armando Broja as Aleksandar Mitrovic’s replacement in the summer.
The Fulham head coach stressed that the Albanian international’s spell at Craven Cottage has been ‘difficult’ for all concerned, with the 22 year-old – a player Silva stress he still values highly – eclipsed by the sensational form of Rodrigo Muniz, who has scored eight goals since the start of February.
Silva told the Evening Standard:
“It’s been difficult for him and it’s been difficult for me as well. I was the main one responsible for him being at this football club. I pushed really hard for him to be here. I have to say that, last summer, I tried to sign him when we sold Mitrovic. He’s a player I really appreciate. He has all the abilities to play at the highest level.
Last few games we’ve had everybody available. Issa Diop, for example, has been a starting eleven player so many times this season and the last three games was out of the squad list as well. No one speaks about that because he’s not a Chelsea player. It’s been tougher for Armando, with all his ambition to play. When you go for a loan in the last days of the market, you expect the player to come and have an impact. But when you have a striker scoring goals the way he [Muniz] has been scoring, it is not giving chances for the others. I will not talk about the future of Armando. He’s not our own player and it doesn’t depend only on us.”
The Fulham boss believes competition between Broja, Muniz and a fit-again Raul Jimenez is delivering real benefits to his squad.
“It’s competition between the three. I start with one striker, another on the bench. In football, everything happens so quickly. We have two great examples even in his position: Raul was 16 months without a goal. And Rodrigo, in two months, all the questions are about him.”
