We founded this website way back when in the summer of 2003 because Nick the Swede and I were frustrated at the lack of Fulham coverage in the newspapers and the broadcast channels. Fulham had surprised everyone by surviving for a season or two in the Premiership as it was called then, but to take the title of that old TOOFIF section ‘Near enough is good enough’ most mentions the Whites got in the press were either wrong or focused on why our best players belonged at bigger clubs.

We used to have a regular column introducing the ‘Silly Season’ and one of my favourite features from yesteryear tackled the problems with believing Sky sources in the days before Sky Sports News sacked all their journalists in favour of influencers and content creators.

Now, there are plenty of places to get your Fulham fix but the problem keeps getting worse. Fans have set up their plenty of their own platforms whilst populating the forums that still keep the erudite discussion going on non-matchdays. Simon Peach, who started his career as PA’s Fulham correspondent, now writes about Manchester United and England. We have a myriad of podcasts, but The Athletic, which promised an in-depth look at every top flight team no longer pretends to care about Craven Cottage. It’s now just another subscription you forget you once were silly enough to pay for.

Somewhere along the way Fulham fanatics lost Peter Rutzler to the Times, where he can regularly be found filing column inches about the sanctioned side Rodrigo Muniz beat on Boxing Day. Rutzler, as reassuring reliable as they come, rarely gets to write about what’s on Marco Silva’s mind but there are some interesting snippets in his latest column below the minutiae of Mykhailo Mydryk’s drug ban – starting with confirmation of that massive Leeds bid for Muniz being turned down.

Fulham have rejected a £32million bid from Leeds United for striker Rodrigo Muniz.

Muniz has entered the final year of his contract at Fulham, albeit the club have an option to extend by a further year, and is a key target for Leeds. The west London club are reluctant to lose the Brazilian forward, who signed in 2021 from Flamengo for a fee in the region of £7million, and they are interested in signing another forward themselves this summer, in addition to a right back, a No8 midfielder and a winger. They hold an interest in the right back Raoul Bellanova, of Atalanta.

Rutzler’s reports are unfailingly accurate. This one adds credence to Dean Jones’ assertion last week that the Fulham hierarchy are ready to follow up last summer’s serious spending on the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Sander Berge with at least ‘four big signings’. Another striker makes sense as the Silva surely can’t get away with mixing and matching Muniz and Jimenez for another nine months. The right back option indicates that Kenny Tete won’t be staying in SW6. I’m not sure what a number eight actually means, but could it signal that Tom Cairney is currently mulling over where he’ll be playing come in August?

There’s no doubt that the engine room needs some revitalising – particularly as neither Sander Berge nor Sasa Lukic are holding midfielders and, if, as expected, Harrison Reed moves on this summer then Silva is short on a different profile of engine room energiser who isn’t called Josh King. The winger will add the cover that Fulham thought Reiss Nelson would provide before his unfortunate injury, but it is an expansive shopping list in an expensive market. The biggest problem that continually reoccurs under this ownership is how let we leave our summer signings. A succession of Fulham head coaches have held the ‘I haven’t got enough players’ press conference at the start of the season – so let’s hope against hope this summer is different.

By the way, the closest think we’ve got to a Fulham beat reporter – as the Athletic used to call it – is Jack Kelly, who learned his trade via the legendary Hayters’ stable. If you aren’t subscribing to Jack’s Patreon, you’re missing out. He’ll be on the Algarve again in a couple of weeks – and as a Fulham season ticket holder for years, he’s following in the finest of fearless Fullbrook footsteps. I don’t think you’ll regret parting with a few pennies to get Jack’s updates from every press conference, either.