Fulham are exploring the possibility of bringing João Palhina back to Craven Cottage after the Portuguese midfielder’s annus horribilis at Bayern Munich.
The German giants are willing to consider cutting their losses on the former Sporting defensive midfielder, who they bought for £46m last July. Palhinha made just 24 appearances – having suffered with a succession of injuries and suspensions – as Bayern won the Bundesliga this season and the Bavarian club are willing to listen to offers for the 29 year-old worth around £25m.
The Whites would be able to meet Bayern’s asking price but look to negotiate a more attractive deal for themselves and Palhinha is believed to be intrigued by a potential return to SW6, where he shone in two superb seasons in the Premier League. Marco Silva retains a good relationship with the Portuguese international, who is keen to secure first-team football as he hopes to remain in Roberto Martinez’s plans for next summer’s World Cup.
Fulham are reportedly ahead of Manchester United, who have tried and failed to sign the midfielder before, in the race to sign him with the Red Devils believed to consider reshaping their forward line more of a priority this summer. Palhinha has indicated he would like to see out his Bayern contract before returning to play in Portugal, but he will not want to be missing out on regular football if it puts his participation in the World Cup at risk.
Not sure this is a good move, he was fantastic in first season with us but felt he didn’t hold so well second season must depend on prise been injured a lot seem to reed that a lot with players were after, and seems to been 29 for a very long time. Feel we need some young blood
I would love to see the big man return and what a headache it would be for Marco if truth be known he may have been the difference in us getting European football plus a striker to wingers and back up goalie imagine Palinha and Berge with Lukic maybe in the ten role I hope this happens but knowing the Khans it won’t
Bring him back asap.
Always quality for Fulham .
Says who more rubbish rumors .Thats all you see to do on this site is copy other articles
You’re still here reading it, Kevin.
This site’s been breaking Fulham stories for years. They have most of the major transfers before anyone else.
This is a ‘news’ aggregation site. By definition, it takes stuff from other sites on the Web. That’s why it always shows the source.
what about Carvalho – coming back
JP sitting in front of the back four, allowing Sander and Sasa to get forward in a 4-1-2-3?
I’ll have some of that.
Do. Not. Want.
This is not the direction that the club have been building towards. Palhinha was NOT good at maintaining possession or progressing the ball up the field – for FFC or for Bayern. His disruptive tackling worked very well when we were new to the PL and weren’t gonna have much of the ball, but the current way we’re playing requires better passing and not as much destruction.
Joao was great for us a couple seasons back, but he simply no longer fits. Thanks for the memories.
I loved watching him play for those 2 seasons. My heart says get him back but my head says no because of how Sasa has stepped from his shadow. We don’t need 2 people playing that role, we need a creative, energetic young midfielder.