Since Kit Symons took over as Fulham manager in late 2014 it is fair the say the results on the pitch have been far from consistent, but currently sitting tenth in the table they’ve given themselves a platform to have a mid-season push for the play-offs.
When Symons took the reins of caretaker manager Fulham were a club in disarray, after one draw and seven losses in their first season away from the Premier League since 2001, Felix Magath was sacked and the fans called for the appointment of Kit after an impressive five wins in his first nine games. However the honeymoon period would come to a premature end, and after a poor set of results throughout the year meant Fulham who were one of the pre-season favourites for promotion, managed to avoid relegation by a measly five places.
Fast forward six months and Fulham are a totally different animal, with some astute summer signings and the transition of former youth players into first team regulars, they now look like the most complete side Fulham have had since dropping into the second tier. Fulham have currently scored eight goals in two games and are unbeaten in five, leaving the players and fans looking up the table rather than down. The summer transfer window saw the usual Fulham strategy of splashing out on one big signing change completely, Fulham turned their attentions to clubs in the Championship, signing five players experienced at this level who all had an impressive previous season in the form of Richard Stearman from Wolves, Jamie O’Hara from Blackpool, Tim Ream from Bolton, Thomas Cairney from Blackburn and Ben Pringle from Rotherham. With two of these players coming in on free transfers and the other 3 costing in the region of one to three million pounds, Fulham’s squad became a far more dangerous prospect without Chairman Shahid Khan having to break the bank.
Despite all the new faces at Craven Cottage the top performers at the club so far this season have been players who were already on the books. Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele had only played together a handful of times before this season but an early injury to McCormack’s strike partner at former club Leeds and now at Fulham Matt Smith, meant the under 20 France international would get his chance to prove himself and its fair to say that he has grabbed it with both hands. Dembele has averaged a goal every 135 minutes this season with eight in sixteen appearances, whilst Fulham’s club player of the year last season McCormack has notched 9 goals in 17 games with both men also laying on 2 assists.
With the full back pair of Richards and Husband and the experienced Lonergan in goal Fulham have the ability to go toe to toe with any Championship team as shown by the recent draw away to Middlebrough and 4 goal second half blitz of then second placed Reading. Kit Symons has a squad capable of challenging for a Play Off place and if McCormack can stay on the top of his game and Fulham can keep hold of 19 year old hotshot Dembele in January, they have a decent chance of staying in the upper regions of the table.
Despite the good run in form for Fulham, Symons’ managerial record shows that they lose as many games as they win and this record isn’t good enough for one of the top spots in the league, consistency is the next step Fulham need to conquer to stand a chance of promotion and a return to their former home the Premier League.
