Mladen Petric is certainly not Fulham’s only capture of the summer so far – he is perhaps the best though. Also coming in through the doors at Craven Cottage is Colombian international Hugo Rodallega, formerly of Premier League rivals Wigan, German defender Sascha Riether on loan from Koln and George Williams from MK Dons. Rodallega is yet to feature in Fulham’s preseason, whilst Riether started Fulham’s last friendly – the 4-0 win over Nice, and Williams is one for the future, joining Fulham at just 16 years of age.
The busier set of Fulham transfers have been outwards, with seven players leaving adding to the January departure of Bobby Zamora. Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu have both joined relegated Blackburn Rovers, Andrew Johnson has teamed up with Zamora at QPR and Bjorn Helge Riise was released, among Fulham’s most poignant outgoings.
Most promising for Fulham fans is Jol’s assessment of the summer post-match at Nice: “We are getting there but there is still three weeks to go and it’s very encouraging,” said the Dutchman, “It was Nice’s final game before they started the league and we looked the better team. But there are always little things that can make us better. We’ve got Trotta coming through, and then next week Rodallega can join us, and Clint Dempsey can join us, and then we’ll be making big steps.”
Prediction
“The transfer window is open until August 31 – its no secret that I would like to play Champions League one day in my career.”
That comment is perhaps more daunting than Jol’s was encouraging, though. It came from the mouth of Fulham’s top goal-scorer last season Clint Dempsey. With the American, Jol’s side has every hope of a top-half finish. Without him, despite him missing much of Fulham’s preseason preparations, Fulham will be hard-pushed to finish in the top ten.
Fulham claim Dempsey missed the Switzerland-based training camp for fitness reasons: “Clint and Hugo Rodallega are both staying in London to work on their fitness at the training ground,” clarified a Fulham spokesperson, “Neither were scheduled to feature in the weekend friendly against Nice which is the reason neither travelled.”
Faced with the opposing claim that Dempsey sat out of the camp in order to see through a move elsewhere, Fulham stated that, “We are not to prepared to comment on any further speculation.”
Simply put, Fulham wont achieve their predicted 10th place finish without Dempsey: their four top scorers from last season would all be gone; four of their five most prolific scorers at the club would have left since January, leaving just Simon Davies as their most prolific scorer, who only featured six times last season; and their two most experienced players would have both departed this summer – Dempsey and Murphy. Their current Player of the Season, who has won the past two awards, has Fulham’s top-half credentials hinging on his decision. If he does go, their impressive home record may be their saving grace.
Prediction: 10th
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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