Securing our academy grads means nothing unless we play them

Josh King and Luc de Fougerolles inking new deals is all well and good until they spend the season on the bench.

Fulham have done it. They’ve managed to secure a top academy grad prospect to a long-term pro deal.

Well, they’ve secured two. The news that Josh King has committed his future to the club comes just days after his U21 teammate Luc de Fougerolles did the same.

Both are fantastic moves and ones that go some way to shedding our reputation as a soft touch when it comes to holding onto our coveted youngsters. Not least because these are the second pro deals the pair have signed since coming of age.

But these moves are hollow if we don’t start using these starlets.

Thankfully, it looks like Marco is ready to do just that.

Assurances

There’s no way that Josh King – wanted by several top clubs, we’re led to believe – would put pen to paper on any deal if he didn’t see a clear path to the first XI. I’m not talking token places in matchday squads here and there, I mean playing an impactful role in the way the 2025/26 season shakes out.

Jack Collins mentioned on the Thursday Club this week that he can see Andreas Pereira moving on as a consequence of this deal. I agree 100%. Andreas is a Marco guy, we know that, but the arrival of ESR forced Silva into making some difficult decisions last term, and ones that he didn’t always get right. Pereira in the eight was a net negative across 38 games, and the constant rumours of his discontent and hankering for a move make me think that this is all she wrote for the Brazilian.

That then carves out a spot for Josh as our second-choice 10. But, as we see with Silva, that offers an opportunity to rotate in and out with ESR based on merit and opposition. Make 10 or more starts across this season and I think King will be pleased with that progression.

Opportunities

It’s important to note that though he is slightly older and hasn’t received the same level of fanfare and attention as the more forward-playing King, Luc de Fougerolles is just as exciting a prospect from a Fulham point of view.

Despite not getting a run in the first-team, de Fougerolles has managed to carve out a first XI place for Canada, coming of age this summer during the Gold Cup. That’s not easy to do. Signing a new, longer-term deal will have been something he agonised over – just look how long it took to get over the line.

He'll have received the same assurances as King, and his summer for Canada shows he’s more than ready to turn those assurances into opportunities. We’ve seen that Jorge Cuenca looks set to depart this summer – and I fully expect his place to go to LdF.

Cuenca only started eight league games last term, such was the form of player-of-the-season Calvin Bassey, and £30m man Joachim Andersen. But we’ve seen the latter is liable to dip in performance over the course of the campaign – and isn’t shy of a red card or two.

Then there’s Issa Diop. We’d be loathe to lose him this summer; when he comes into the side he’s a different player to the one we saw when he signed in 2022. But if we’re truly looking to build for the future, then Luc must be ahead of him in the pecking order. I’m sure he didn’t sign up to be fourth out of four centre-backs, and neither should he be.

Exciting

Look, I moaned about our lack of transfer activity earlier this week – and those complaints were and are totally valid – but if we’re looking for positives so far this summer, then it’s these two deals.

Clubs at the absolute highest level blend astute transfer activity with progressing their best academy products, and for as much as Motspur Park is lauded among ‘real football people’ as the home to an elite academy we’ve not reaped the rewards of it nearly enough. We know that.

The reasons behind that are a mix of the lack of boardroom backbone and the coaching staff willing to create meaningful career paths. But these positive steps, followed by successful seasons for both King and LdF, could convince the next crop of promising youngsters (led by in-demand Seth Ridgeon) that Fulham FC’s use to their career doesn’t end at their academy graduation.

Marco’s famously not one for blooding youth willy nilly – but when he does, it works. Perhaps that just means his standards are higher than we even realise. Perhaps that means these two really are the cream of the crop.

Come May, we will know the answer.