Saturday Fulham Stuff - 21/12/24...

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Palmeiras Poised to Offer Fulham Two PSG-Linked Players for Andreas Pereira
Fulham could have the inside track to secure a sign of Palmeiras' rising star, Vitor Reis, as the Brazilian club have their eye on a player that the English club possesses.

In October, Football Insider reported that Liverpool had joined the race to Reis, with a focus on strengthening their central defense. The report also noted that Reis is eager to make the move to Europe and fulfill his dream of playing in the Champions League.

However, Palmeiras appears determined to keep him for now. ESPN Brazil added that Manchester United, Arsenal, and Paris Saint-Germain are also eyeing the defender.

With Reis under contract until December 2028 and a €100 million release clause, a transfer is unlikely in the immediate future. For now, top clubs are expected to keep an eye on Reis' progress throughout the season.

Fulham can secure two PSG-linked players from Palmeiras
Nosso Palestra reports that Palmeiras are considering offering Vitor Reis or Richard Ríos to Fulham in the negotiation for Andreas Pereira.

The Verdão have already reached an agreement with the midfielder and are now seeking to come to terms with the English club.

Fulham want around €30 million. To approach this value, Palmeiras are open to including players in the deal. The club's management believe both players are easily replaceable: Reis as a center-back, and Ríos could be replaced by Pereira himself.

Reis isn't the only player with links to PSG as Rios has only had his name in the rumor mill in connection to the Ligue 1 side. Antena 2 Deportes reported in August that PSG made a €20 million offer to the Brazilian club for the 24-year-old Colombian. Nonetheless, no transfer switch led to from this interest.



https://psgtalk.com/2024/12/palmeiras-offer-fulham-psg-linked-players-andreas-pereira/

[WhiteJC]

The next few months could be the biggest in Fulham's history

Since his arrival in the summer of 2021, Marco Silva has seen his stock rise from being a Premier League cast-off, after his controversial exits from Vicarage Road and Goodison Park, to being talked about for traditionally 'big jobs' across the Premier League and beyond.

From July 2021, Fulham has risen from being a club with a clear lack of tactical identity or transfer strategy to a side being labelled as a model for newly promoted sides to emulate, something that seemed completely out of the realms of possibility just four or five years ago.

He's a genius

It may stun some that full-time wrestling promoter and part-time Director of Football, Tony Khan, isn't the catalyst for this seismic change. The catalyst for such change goes by the name of Marco Silva.

From the day Silva walked in the door, the 47-year-old has reinstated some tactical ingenuity back into Motspur Park after a two-year hiatus courtesy of Scott Parker. I'm sure I don't need to remind you, but let's bask in some recent glory.

Fulham swashbuckled their way to the Championship title, scoring the most goals in second-tier history, which Silva then followed up with learning from his Serbian predecessor, Slavisa Jokanovic, adding an element of pragmatism to his style of play once Fulham reached the Premier League.

Put simply, Silva is a manager players want to play for. Tactically astute, a brilliant man manager, and a career revival specialist, the mere presence of Marco Silva in SW6 has seen Fulham become a destination for many players that maybe would have looked elsewhere if a less prestigious manager was at the helm, especially those of a Lusophone disposition.

Much was made about the losses of Mitrovic, Palhinha, and possibly Antonee Robinson in these coming months, but Silva has shown that he is more than capable of rolling with the punches, counteracting the aforementioned major losses with added forward fluidity, a unanimous change in ball-winning mentality in the middle of the park, and bending his system to the players at his disposal.

If Marco Silva is in charge, Fulham stands in good stead, both in the transfer window and on the pitch, but with Silva's current deal up in the summer of 2025/26, it's likely Silva will seek a new challenge in when his contract's up.

So, how do Fulham prepare for this?

Life after Silva

Once Silva moves on, the directorship of transfers will be placed back into the hands of Tony Khan, something that even the most staunch Khan supporter won't be enamoured with.

The Khans have to place the club as an attractive move for players long after Silva has gone, as relying on Silva's Portuguese-tongued contacts and ability to revive many footballing careers sets a dangerous precedent for what the club will do once the former Estoril boss has left the Cottage.

Fulham needs something to build, something to help set out a clear long-term plan.

Forget about the thought of obscure away days to Eastern Europe or continental Cottage nights; achieving a landmark Premier League season would allow Fulham to be recognised as an upwardly mobile club, with recent European pedigree being a statement of this.

A season of European football under Silva would allow Marco the opportunity to build on an already talented crop of players with a younger crop of Premier League-experienced players looking for a move up the table, accompanied by distinguished talents across Europe and South America, as players would be jumping at the chance of European football with a stable London Premier League outfit, setting the club up for a distant future of upper mid-table finishes alongside many an exhilarating cup run.

The time is now

As I stated in my last article, Raul and Rodrigo have both shown in parts that they will have purple patches throughout a season, and this may be good enough to see Fulham have a good latter half of the season, but the Cottagers don't need a good latter half of the season; they need a great latter half of the season.

Is January the ideal time to bring in a talismanic number nine? No, it's not, but when you never truly bring in a replacement for your club's best striker in the 21st century, I'm afraid, to win big, you have to spend big.

Marco Silva stated in the summer that PSR wouldn't be an issue; Fulham has the cash to take a gamble in January. If Fulham strikes hot with a goalscoring centre-forward, that vein of form could be all you need to get you over the line in big games towards the back end of the season, when chances are limited and goalscoring nous is needed, something Fulham is currently devoid of.

Ricardo Pepi at PSV, Richarlison at Tottenham, and Santiago Gimenez at Feyenoord all present options that would fit the bill of an aerially threatening yet robust Silva system for prices up to the £30m mark.

A pretty penny, but a penny no doubt worth it if Fulham are back in Basel next autumn.

The big sides that are usually accustomed to European finishes are flailing. Fulham have just overcome a gauntlet of Tottenham, Brighton, Arsenal, and Liverpool unbeaten and still sit in eighth, a potentially European spot.

The Whites come out of Boxing Day with some winnable fixtures, and if the Whites can build upon some good results leading up to Christmas against teams around and above them, this Fulham team, alongside a new number nine, may smell the blood it needs to mount a European charge come May, instead of putting on the sombreros once survival is secured.

Buckle up

No matter where Fulham sit in late May, a special season is in store on the banks of the Thames, and this has to be enjoyed, because a season like this seemed like this would have seemed a pipe dream not so long ago, but if Fulham want to truly instate themselves as a progressive Premier League outfit, 24/25 is where they stake their claim to return European nights to Craven Cottage.

I'm not suggesting Fulham are about to cement their place among Europe's elite for years to come; no, we all know that would be unrealistic, but for life after Silva, having a season of European nights in the books once again would help attract a different calibre of player to Motspur Park, and the fact that Fulham have lost seventeen points from winning positions, enough to be six points clear atop the Premier League table, suggests that anything is possible.

So buckle up, folks; the second half of 24/25 may be the biggest second half to a season Fulham ever have...



https://www.fulhamish.co.uk/post/2024-12-21-the-next-few-months-could-be-the-biggest-in-fulhams-history/

[WhiteJC]

Southampton V Fulham The Preview
Saints travel to West London on Sunday to take on Fulham in a state of limbo, it is expected that Ivan Juric will have been announced as the new manager at St Mary's but it is unlikely he will take over sole charge of the team for this game.

As it stands on Saturday morning it seems likely that Simon Rusk will be in charge for his second game as interim manager, however it could be that Ivan Juric does play some part in the pre match preparations.

But assuming that it will be Rusk selecting the side, although we can assume from Wednesday night's game that he will not rock the boat too much and that he will stick to the tried and perhaps trusted.

One player who is likely to be in the side who missed the game against Liverpool is Kyle Walker-Peters who was back in training after feeling tightness in his legs after the Spurs game the interim manager had this to say.

"Kyle trained today, he had a bit of tightness before the game against Liverpool and we opted to err on the side of caution on that one," Rusk clarified.

"It's good to see him back out there and I'm hopeful he's in contention for Sunday.

"We gave the players a day off after the Liverpool game so we've reconvened as a group today, I'm still waiting for the fall out of the training session today to see exactly where we're at with that.

"We're hopeful that we'll have one or two available that we didn't have the other day."

That will offer a fast paced attacking option on the right should Rusk use the same formation as he did against Liverpool.

Rusk though was a little more coy about who will be in goal, although he confirmed that Aaron Ramsdale is back in training, he would not confirm that he was ready to play against Fulham.

"Aaron Ramsdale's been back involved, he's definitely not far away but whether he's involved and available is probably still a conversation."

But whoever is fit and injured, Saints can go into this game with a lot more hope than they went into the game against Spurs, although ultimately it was a defeat against Liverpool, they played as if a weight had been taken off their shoulders, yes they started a little shakily, but that was to be expected after the car crash start to the Premier League season, but they grew into the game as it went on and you could see the confidence returning.

Fulham are having a good season so far, sitting in 8th with 24 points, but they have faltered a little of late, there last 5 games have seen them win only once, with 3 draws and a defeat in the other 4 games.

That defeat came against Wolves, so it shows that they are not impregnable and Saints will be hoping to match Wolves and get the 3 points.

We go into the Xmas period rock bottom, knowing that even if our relegation rivals were to lose all 3 of the games over the festive period and we were to win all 3 of ours, then we would still be in the bottom 3, that is the gravity of the situation and the task facing the new manager.

It is a forlorn hope, at least at the moment and by the turn of the year it could be an impossible one, but in the meantime we can play without fear, we have nothing to lose and sometimes that can be an advantage, we just have to keep plugging away.

One thing that we can hope for is that we will not play in the same way as we did under Russell Martin where he stubbornly made his players stick to his full on possession football game without any lessening of it, leaving them no leeway to play according to the situation, our strikers have failed because they had been constantly making runs, only to see the ball constantly recycled backwards or sideways, Cameron Archer for one will be a player who will benefit from seeing more balls played forward for him to run onto.

Ivan Duric has a reputation for building defensively solid teams that are physically intense and tough to break down aligned with a pressing style, this is more Pochettino than Guardiola whom Russell martin seemed determined to emulate at any cost.

So the trip to Craven Cottage marks the start of a new era, you would think that even if he is not in the dug out then Duric will chat to Simon Rusk and the players and communicate his way of doing things going forward.

So as I have said the start of a new era, but in 3 games time we will know whether we have a chance of staying up or we are just planning for next season in the Championship.




https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/63499/