Fulham’s Return to the Premier League: Can It Go Better This Time Around?

Fulham have once again won a place in the next Premier League, having finally toiled enough to gain automatic promotion at a canter. The club and its fans are celebrating, the weary lot of them happy to even have got that far. But those good feelings can only go so far if Fulham look to be slipping back into old habits.

If your faith in Fulham is still unshaken, take a look at this guide on how to bet on football to get involved with this nail-biting situation. Maybe the club will rally and make it as a top-tier team.

But there will be a lot of effort needed to improve the team before they make it that far. We’re breaking down what is needed to make sure that Fulham make it to the top of the Premier League table.

What is the history?          

Fulham has always had a problem with Norwich City, playing what can only be described as a game of musical chairs. Time and time again Fulham are overtaken by Norwich, making for an on and off cycle per season, and usually resulting in a trophy, then none the next year, then another the next year.

But Fulham isn’t Norwich, and if they know what they’re doing they can ride the momentum of this win right to the finish line. Norwich has been in a rut of performance that sometimes delivers and sometimes doesn’t, whereas Fulham has been going through quite the shakeup to get where they are now, and maybe it will be enough to maintain top-tier Premiership status.

Silva seems promising

Fulham’s current place in the Premier League is largely attributed to one man: the team’s manager Marco Silva. Silva might not be the white knight here to bring Fulham out of the mud, his results are middling and sometimes disappointing, but there are noticeable results. He’s considered a vast improvement on Scott Parker and Slavisa Jokanovic, who delivered a pathetic 17%- and 8%-win rate respectively, compared to Silva’s 62%, having only been appointed in July of last year.

If Silva can just keep doing whatever it is that he’s doing – perhaps improving more – then hopefully Fulham can make it to the top tier Premier League teams, playing amongst the best.

Don’t lose the momentum

Part of improving from the past is to learn from your mistakes. There are clearly areas for Fulham to improve upon, so it’s important that they address them before the launch of the Premier League. With the promotion to the Premier League automatically secured without play-offs, Fulham are already at a great advantage over the competing teams. They should work to keep that momentum going by using the time to solve current problems. Like…

Surround your MVP

Aleksander Mitrovic is by far the best player on the Fulham team, and Silva (and the fans) know that. But asking for the Serbian striker to carry the entire team on his back is asking too much of any one player.

It’s clear Mitrovic is thriving under Silva’s management, since Mitrovic has broken Ivan Toney’s scoring record in the Championship with 33 league goals of the season, plus another seven goals, breaking the 40-goal barrier.

But if the team is going to thrive as much as Mitrovic, Fulham is going to have to solve its recruitment problem. They have been relying on loanee players which has returned mixed results. Like anyone else on payday, they splurged in the 2018/19 season, spending £100 million on 12 players, and soon realized they were skint for the foreseeable future.

Well, the future is here. Maybe Fulham should take another look at the market and see what players they can afford to aid Mitrovic in the long run.