Cottage POV

It’s been a little while. When I say little while, I avoided the somewhat “toxic” or “extreme” environment that came with the undeserved loss to Manchester United at Craven Cottage. I’m not sure I can really add anything that was said, some Fulham players are being scapegoated a tad and I don’t really like that, more so when I just don’t see the reasoning for it. Alas, Fulham followed up that disappointing loss with an impressive 2-1 win at Newcastle where a pretty lacklustre first half was flipped into a dominant Fulham performance where they attacked and controlled with purpose and not the “lack of objectiveness” Silva mentioned post-match. Raul, like Leicester away, went largely anonymous and unhelpful in the first half to a starring half hour in the second before Rodrigo Muniz won it from the bench.

Silva’s South American strikers have been a point of conversation as we entered the January transfer window, as we know, Fulham didn’t recruit one in this window, understandably given the difficulty of what January can be; but I’m not sure any of us expected our sole bit of business would be the return of Willian until the end of the season. The way I feel about Willian would be different had he not chosen to leave twice already, after his first season, Fulham gave him the platform to perform back at the highest level and he rewarded us with flirting with others before committing again just a month before the start of the season. In that flirtatious period, he was spending a lot of time with the Marinakis, owners of Nottingham Forest and Olympiakos, the latter of which he subsequently signed for the end of last season. Willian has been a fine servant for the club, his first season superior to the second but it’s always felt like he wanted more the moment he arrived. Was he simply going into his 3rd committed year as a Fulham player? It’s completely different.

It also draws the conversations built by how the club is managed, the owners and CEO have been increasing ticket prices to an extortionate extent where they’re treating it as a premium product. If you want us to charge like a premium product, you have to be worthy of it. The danger here is the Premier League sells, London sells, people will come to the capital and will want to take in the Premier League. Fuck, I’m going to Seville this weekend and it seems rude to visit the city and not take in a football game so I’ll be scouting Lamine Yamal for a potential transfer to Fulham. I kid of course but you stomach the price of the ticket as a part of the experience you’re going to have as a tourist. I do feel somewhat of a hypocrite for doing what I criticise Fulham for though my trips to Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach have led to lifelong fandom where I will return and continue to sink money into the club. It’d be interesting to see how much of that is the case for Fulham.

Alas, none of that was the point. As we move into an era of PSR being more thought of than ever, it is important to note that from July, Fulham’s 3 year rolling period will remove 21/22 (Championship winning season), meaning allowed losses increase to the full £105m plus the removal of 21/22 also sees a removal of a £57m loss from the reporting period. Another addition, Aleksandar Mitrovic’s sale will be noted in the P/L sheet, that plus extra home games from the cup run and an increased shirt sponsorship should = a massive reduction in losses for the 3 year period. Then to future plan, 24/25 will have an added amortisation of £16m for the signings of Emile Smith Rowe, Joachim Andersen, Sander Berge and Jorge Cuenca whilst profit of an estimated £45m will come largely from the sales of Joao Palhinha and Jay Stansfield plus whatever the club gained from the 20% sell on clause we had on Fabio Carvalho.

In short, Fulham are in a fantastic place financially; at least for PSR. The Riverside Stand will begin full service which will help, it is unknown how long Fulham’s sponsorship deal with SBOTOP is set to be though it is allegedly worth £10m a season; a note that next season (25/26) will be the last season Premier League clubs will adorn front of shirt gambling sponsors (though expect to see them move to the sleeves/shorts/back of shirts). European football would help attract alternative or larger sponsorships, whilst extra match days and tv revenue would help. Ultimately, continued Premier League football is most vital with the majority of Fulham’s revenue from broadcasting (for reference, in Fulham’s 22/23 actuals, £144.5m of the total £182.3m generated revenue came from broadcasting).

All that aside, Fulham are set for the rest of the season. Willian arrives to supplement the wide areas in the absence of Reiss Nelson and Harry Wilson, whilst Alex Iwobi is looking a little tired from so much football on either side of the pitch (plus a central midfield stint against Brighton). No right back arrival sees Timothy Castagne the sole senior option whilst Kenny Tete is out and whilst Devan Tanton is around to fill in if required, I feel like a return to the 3 at the back and an Alex Iwobi stint at right wing back is more likely in a pinch.

You hope the club are already working on the summer window, with Willian a bandage in the wide areas, Reiss Nelson is another not a Fulham player next season (though I’m sure we’d all welcome discussions to make that happen). Kenny Tete and Tom Cairney have contracts expire this summer, though I imagine TC is fairly simple, Fulham need to find a solution at right back alongside Timothy Castagne. The contracts of Adama Traore, Raul jimenez and Carlos Vinicius all expire this summer though the club hold an option to extend on all 3. We are in a position where to upgrade the squad, it’ll likely take a significant chunk of money and this summer is one I expect to see the club break their transfer record a couple of times again and hopefully continue to get younger adding to the arrivals of Emile Smith Rowe, Jorge Cuenca and Ryan Sessegnon in 2024.

Hopefully the end of the season will be a positive one for Fulham, FA Cup action coming this weekend, European football within sight and another year in the Premier League secured. The team continues to progress in one way or another year on year, and I’m looking forward to seeing Marco Silva continue what he’s building.

This was another post without much direction, I wanted to get something out there in the aftermath of January, two strange games and before my trip away so I’ll miss the Wigan game. As always, hope you enjoyed, one day I’ll plot this stuff out a bit better. Up the Fulham.