When Fulham manager Scott Parker cried tears upon the full-time whistle at Wembley Stadium last August having guided the club back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, questions were already being asked of the former England midfielder’s abilities to make the most of this Premier League season.
An admirable performance as caretaker manager had already been in vain as the Cottagers were relegated after just one season back in the big league, after a combination of previous promotion charge Slavisa Jokanovic and former Premier League winner Claudio Ranieri had both failed to inspire Fulham to a second straight season in the top flight.
Two years later and with another R by their name in the standings with games to spare, Fulham could perform only admirably and in vain once more. Given the playing staff at the manager’s disposal this time around, it is a much more bitter pill to swallow.
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The previous relegation saw the side littered with players, and particularly a defence, clearly not up to Premier League standard, as well as a mish-mash of managers in the hot seat with little joined-up thinking between appointments.
Upon their instant return to the top flight, Fulham sought to address each of these. While questions were asked of Parker’s suitability to the role so early in his managerial career and having largely performed under par despite promotion in 2019/20, the former England midfielder was seen as the right man to guide Fulham to Premier League stability. He was not.
They also addressed that sub-par defensive unit, upgrading a defence largely consisting of Denis Odoi, Tim Ream, Maxime le Marchand and Cyrus Christie to a loanee in Joachim Anderson – linked now with a £30million move to Tottenham – as well as former Manchester City defender Tosin Adorabiayo, Ola Aina on a temporary switch from Torino and one of Europe’s finest shot-stoppers in Alphonse Areola. Quite literally The A-Team, yet the Cottagers failed in their mission to consolidate in the Premier League once more.
Quite simply, it is a waste of a good team put together too late. It is a waste of great resources squandered by average management, and most of all, it is a crying shame that much of it will be disbanded ahead of another season back in the second tier of English football.
Much like their fellow relegated counterparts West Bromwich Albion, an exciting, energetic, potentially rather excellent Premier League side was put together frustratingly too late. Whereas with the Baggies, the boing was already halfway back down to the Championship by the time they had signed more-than-okay Okay Yokuslu, England international Ainsley Maitland-Niles and the surely Watford-bound Mbaye Diagne, Fulham put together their band of nearly merry men throughout the first month of the campaign.
Indeed, half of Fulham’s ‘summer’ signings were made after the first game of the campaign, a 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal. It may have been a close season like no other due to the Covid-caused delay, but one can’t help but wonder what a better prepared Fulham side could have done in this division.
We already knew that Andersen would be making a fleeting exit back to Lyon before joining a club more of the European Super League variety, but there are far too many Premier League quality players in this set-up that even the most ardent neutral cannot help but wonder ‘what if?’.
If those feelings were rife after the first six games of the season – which brought with them a solitary point away at basement club Sheffield United – then they were in full flow by the time the winter window came to a conclusion, with one of its final deals being Sunderland ‘Til I Die star Josh Maja signing on loan from Bordeaux, affording Parker the opportunity to rotate with the largely misfiring and certainly overworked Aleksandar Mitrovic. But like almost everything else in the player recruitment stakes, it was too little, too late.
Two goals in seven games showed that given a full season, the young striker could have helped fire Fulham to safety.
It might be naïve to suggest that a club that has not been above 17th all season could feasibly have managed to finish anywhere above the dotted line, but had the team been assembled over the scrambled period between their play-off final victory over Brentford on August 4 and the opening Premier League match five weeks later, they could have given themselves one hell of a chance.
It is harsh to throw all the blame at a recruitment team, coaching staff and owner for failing to assemble this squad in that 35-day break between seasons, but entirely regrettable that this campaign has played out as déjà vu to their last fleeting appearance at this level despite sharing a host of differences.
So many questions and what ifs make for a much more frustrating narrative than the seasons endured by Sheffield United and, to a lesser extent, West Brom.
Two years ago, a poor squad was unable to be saved by a combination of the manager that got them there, a Premier League winner and a fan favourite from his time as a player. This time around, that same idol has had the requisite players at his disposal but without the required skills to make the parts add up to a convincing whole.
And now, those parts will be destined to roam elsewhere, while Fulham prepare for another season in the Championship, aiming for another immediate return to the top flight with the remains of the Premier League carcass barely intact.
Parker produced tears of joy and relief in early August at Wembley. Less than a year later, another Fulham relegation is a crying shame.
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