Guardian writers’ predicted position: 15th (NB: this is not necessarily John Brewin’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 13th
Prospects
In considering last season’s 13th-place finish, Marco Silva was keen to place it in “the context of what happened in the summer”. That was a pointed reference to Fulham losing Aleksandar Mitrovic to Saudi Arabian football on the final day of a transfer window as João Palhinha’s move to Bayern Munich was pulled at the 11th hour. A year on, the Portuguese midfielder has his move to Bavaria, and key central defenders Tosin Adarabioyo and Tim Ream have also departed. That means fresh turbulence to negotiate.
Palhinha had legitimate claims of being the best midfield anchorman in English football, once Rodri was set aside. Last season he was statistically the foremost tackler in Europe’s top five leagues. Just about any team would miss him, let alone a club where ambitions continue to be fixated on mid-table security, with European football – the Conference League perhaps – as an outside chance.
“I’m proud of the work we did together,” said a philosophical Silva of the dearly departed. “Now we have to move on.” Far easier said than done and fans expect the club’s sporting director, Tony Khan, son of the owner, Shahid Khan, to find the players to fill such major holes. There will be a significant reliance on Silva himself, the hope being that he can deliver something like the salvage job he did on Rodrigo Muniz in finding a replacement goalscorer for Mitrovic.
Adarabioyo, who has joined Chelsea on a free, was a popular player but may not be so sorely missed. Calvin Bassey improved as last season went on. The versatile Jorge Cuenca has been signed from Villarreal. Ream, after such sterling service, may be far more difficult to replace. The American was endemic of the collective spirit – a quality that transposed to fans – that made Fulham a comfortable mid-table team over the past two seasons, banishing a previous yo-yo status.
The manager
This time last year, it wasn’t only Mitrovic who was linked with a move to Saudi Arabia. In October Marco Silva eventually signed a three-year extension to remain at the club where he has most looked at home. He remains ambitious, eternally protective of his reputation, but he has set his goal as being to “sustain this club in the Premier League”. That may reflect a more realistic outlook from someone who hopped around. Last season his spell at Craven Cottage passed his first job – at Estoril – for the longest length of service. Silva requires his Fulham team to continue to reflect his own image – flinty, willing to take risks and the game to opponents – to achieve ambitions that seem outwardly modest but reflect the reality of the club’s situation.
Off-field picture
Last season Fulham supporters belied their wider, genteel image with the ferocity with which they demonstrated against Shahid Khan’s ticketing policy for Craven Cottage. They are only too keen to remind outsiders that not every season-ticket holder is a wealthy, upwardly mobile professional. Many were in danger of being priced out by rises of about 33% over two seasons. This season’s increase is more modest, with longtime loyalty being “rewarded” by lower rises. A reflection of the club’s relative financial health? Have the Khans listened to the protesters? The suspicion is an eventual, gradual drop in season-ticket sales so the club can benefit financially from charging one-off high premiums for tourists. Meanwhile, the key tenet of the Khan corporate reboot, the Riverside Stand, will have its full Sky Deck and fine-dining restaurant launched in December.
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Breakout star
Second time around for Ryan Sessegnon, Fulham’s former teen idol back older, wiser and the latest reminder the grass isn’t always greener at London’s bigger clubs. He bears the scars of five largely wasted years at Tottenham. He hoped to benefit from Mauricio Pochettino’s ability to hone talent but found himself unable to impress José Mourinho and Antonio Conte, neither possessing much interest in the flowering of youth. Injuries played their part, too, and after training with Crystal Palace, he opted for the prodigal route home. At 24 there is plenty of time left but several ghosts to bury for someone predicted to be an England starter by now. Antonee Robinson, at left-back, is one of Fulham’s best players so an attacking, left-side role looks more likely.
The A-lister
Silva and Fulham have earned reputations for providing a comfortable environment for talented players to revive their careers. Emile Smith Rowe, another 24-year-old, counts as something of a marquee addition at £34m, for all that he has barely played in his last two seasons at Arsenal. Mikel Arteta remained a confirmed fan of the player previously labelled the “Croydon De Bruyne”. Gunners fans fondly recall the role he fulfilled at the beginning of their current upturn. If Fulham get to see that player, they will have a graceful new hero, a playmaking talent to remind fans of Danny Murphy and Dimitar Berbatov from previous, fondly recalled Premier League eras. Too much to expect? Players such as Willian, Andreas Pereira, Raúl Jiménez and Tom Cairney have revived their careers under Silva’s care.
What they did this summer
Team USA’s Robinson and Ream were part of a dreadful Copa América host nation squad. Pereira played his first, if disappointing, major tournament for Brazil. Of the four Fulham players who headed to the Euros, two are no longer with the club: Palhinha and the Czech reserve keeper Marek Rodak. Sasa Lukic played all three matches with Serbia but failed to get out of England’s group. Timothy Castagne, part of Belgium’s underwhelming Euros, had another sorry summer. Who had the most fun? Almost certainly Luc de Fougerolles, an 18-year-old defender with one first-team Fulham appearance who got to play in the Copa third-place match for Canada.
