Can Fulham afford to gamble on our new striker?
This squad needs someone who can deliver from day one.
I’ll happily admit it. I miss Aleksandar Mitrovic.. a lot.
The way he departed in 2023 may have left a sour taste, but in three years, that bitterness has more than disappeared in my eyes. Louis Saha was a more complete player, but no Fulham striker before and definitely since has given me as much joy as that big Serbian bulldozer.
This article is not an ode to Mitro, even though I would happily write that, but a plea to Fulham to actually replace him properly. It’s incredible how we have managed to achieve relative success for three consecutive seasons without him:
2023-24 - The purple patch season. After a shaky start, Jimenez eventually scoring a glut of goals and then Armando Broja’s loan knocked some unlikely life into Rodrigo Muniz who went on his own purple patch.
2024-25 - The super-sub season. Jimenez and Muniz interchanged as starter and sub and between them they scored 20 goals. A real “replace him in the aggregate” combination.
2025-26 - The Harry Wilson season. An injury-plagued Rodrigo Muniz scores on the opening day, but doesn’t score again. Jimenez chips in with important goals, but much of the burden falls on Harry Wilson, who scores belter after belter.
I fear though that this run of luck is very much over, not least because we’ve lost Raul Jimenez, whose role in each of those three seasons was indispensable.
We all hoped that Rodrigo Muniz would have stepped up by now. In fairness, that’s still possible, but last season was the season to prove that he could be the “main man” and while of course injuries were to blame, would you 100% trust him alone to score the goals that keep us safe?
And yes, that’s not exaggeration. I think that in our current state, relegation is a serious possibility. There are concerns all over the pitch, but without a proper number nine, I feel like we are heading straight for a relegation battle.
We have exciting wingers and attacking midfielders, but not having a player that you can rely on to score is always bad news. Look at Wolves last season without Matheus Cunha or Nottingham Forest for the majority of the season without Chris Wood.
Of course, I do understand that we will sign a centre-forward of some description, my worry is about whether we actually try to land a knock-out punch with this transfer.
The biggest rumours of course surround Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Garcia. The 22-year-old Spaniard was linked with us the day after Arbeloa was appointed and has been the on-off saga of the summer so far. The Athletic said it was happening, Nizaar Kinsella said that it wasn’t and now the latest seems to be that it could be back on, with Fulham reportedly preparing a big bid.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that Garcia is a really exciting player, but I feel like this is another giant gamble from Fulham. His early promise is certainly exciting, he was Real Madrid’s top scorer at the Club World Cup last summer and he scored six goals in 1127 minutes last season (basically a record of one in two), including a highly impressive ‘perfect’ hat-trick against Real Betis.
My fear here is the same that I have with Àlvaro Arbeloa himself; we do not have the proof that Garcia can be reliable for a team in Fulham’s position. Can we be sure that he will score the 12+ goals we need over a 38 game season?
Asking a player to go from occasional appearances at the world’s biggest football club to fighting in the trenches of Premier League mid-table week-in and week-out is quite a big ask. Garcia screams the kind of player that would need a season to ‘get acclimatised’ to the Premier League and English football, I worry that Fulham cannot afford that.
From a squad management level, where would signing Garcia leave Rodrigo Muniz? We all still think of the Brazilian as a young up-and-coming prospect, but he’s now 25 years old. If we sign Garcia, three years his junior, it surely shuts off Muniz’s pathway? Either that, or the highly touted Spaniard will be leaving the world’s biggest football club to sit on the bench at Craven Cottage, neither feels tenable.
My opinion is that Fulham need to go out and sign a centre-forward that can make an instant impact - one that has experience of scoring goals in a top European league.
A week ago we were tentatively linked to Folarin Balogun, and whilst there seems to be a queue of Premier League clubs vying for his signature, I feel like Fulham need to muscle their way in here. It would be a lot of money, but Balogun is the kind of player who guarantees you not just safety, but a comfortable mid-table finish, which I’m sure we’d all settle for right now.
Of course, Balogun isn’t the only player that would work. Dusan Vlahovic and to a lesser extent Ricardo Pepi also feel much more proven. I know that Garcia’s ceiling is probably higher than all three players and it would be a shame to miss out on that, but having a player with a high ceiling is no use to us if we can’t stay up next season.
Totally agree,. With a new, unproven manager, we don't need to be doubling down on that with new, unproven players in key positions, we're not big or stable enough for that level of risk. But of course, this is Tony 'I thought Marco would stay when it was blindingly obvious to the rest of the universe for months that he was likely to leave, and I never bothered with a plan B' Khan we are talking about. Shambles.
I keep hoping the Muniz will come good but there he was again against Norwich in the friendly, nowhere near the cross from Kevin, stuck flat footed on the edge of the 6 yard box. He is a likeable character for sure, but he does not seem to have that killer instinct to get himself to where the ball will be. I am not sure any of your options, Sammy, will work as none of them have Premier League experience of being in the trenches for a mid-table club, so on balance if Arbaloa wants Garcia I think that's a gamble worth taking.