Fulham coach Marco Silva's contract with the club will expire at the end of this season, and his future has become the focus of attention, especially when this young coach has great ambitions. Theathletic takes stock of Marco Silva's situation.
On a cold, damp and drizzly Saturday, Fulham finally got out of their sluggish state, but Silva's future is still shrouded in mystery. The club want to offer the Portuguese boss a new contract but he made no clear statement on that after Saturday's 1-0 win over Sunderland, saying only that he and the board were "constantly in communication". Instead, his attention was entirely focused on the team's performance. Even though the score was 1-0, Fulham dominated the game, taking 24 shots to their opponents' 4. In the end, Raul Jimenez scored in the 84th minute after receiving a pass from Chucueze who came on as a substitute.
Silva is satisfied with the team's rebound after losing to Everton before the international break, but he also realizes that a good performance in one game alone is not enough to explain the problem. Among the mid-table teams in the Premier League, Fulham seems to be the team least likely to achieve a class jump. Crystal Palace entered Europe this season by winning the FA Cup, while Bournemouth are playing exciting football under Illaura.
Fulham's rise after returning to the Premier League in 2022 has been rapid, but maintaining this momentum will be difficult, especially when the past two summer transfer windows have been relatively quiet. No Premier League team has signed fewer players through transfers this season. Fulham has only two new signings. They are 34-year-old backup goalkeeper Leconte and Brazilian winger Kevin. The latter joined for a record transfer fee on the September transfer window deadline. Silva expressed dissatisfaction with this transfer strategy, believing that the club was too passive and was particularly dissatisfied with the failure to find a replacement for midfielder Andreas Pereira.
It is a strange choice to spend almost all the budget on the introduction of Kevin. The 22-year-old winger has yet to prove himself, and Fulham already has many options in this position. Against Sunderland, Kevin showed some energy but lacked any real contribution. It wasn't until Chukwueze was replaced that Fulham saw a real breakthrough on the wing, and he finally assisted Jimenez to score the winning goal.
Silva singled out Jimenez's attitude as a role model for players like Kevin, who only participated in one training session after returning from the United States last Thursday. On the field, Fulham will mainly rely on the 34-year-old Jimenez to lead the front line during the busy Boxing Day period, because another striker Muniz is absent due to injury.
No matter how dissatisfied with the investment in the team, Fulham's most valuable asset is Silva, who is one of the most tactically astute coaches in the Premier League. Since promotion, Silva's results in the Premier League are: 52 points in the 2022-23 season, 47 points in the 2023-24 season, and 54 points last season. This kind of consistent performance is something Sunderland can only dream of, even as they take 19 points from 12 games in their first Premier League campaign since 2016-17.
For someone as ambitious as Silva, maintaining the status quo is not enough. Fulham need to match Silva's ambition, otherwise those restless steps will lead him to a club with more forward momentum.