The FFC Rumour Mill: Pushing hard for Kevin and Silva voices frustration
Jack Stroudley goes through all the latest transfer gossip in SW6 this week.
The season starts on Saturday as we travel to the sunny South Coast to take on Brighton & Hove Albion. While it promises to be a jolly good outing, the usual excitement that surrounds a new season has a slight shadow over it due to the lack of activity in the transfer window.
Fulham will more than likely go into that opener at the AmEx with a back-up keeper as our only signing. Fans are understandably frustrated, but there has been a few murmurings this week to get our teeth into.
Incomings
The biggest news of last week came on Wednesday night when Fabrizio Romano reported that Fulham have had a €30m bid rejected for Shakhtar Donetsk winger Kevin with add-ons which take the deal close to €40m. The 22-year-old Brazilian also has interest from Napoli, with Romano reporting late on Sunday that second bid has been rejected for the 22-year-old with a proposal worth €37m plus add-ons while Shakhtar insist on €50m total package for Kevin.
Do I know much about Kevin? No. But on a quick research he’s the type of exciting winger that Fulham could do with to raise the ceiling of the squad. There’s been suggestions that this is all a smoke-screen to push for deals on Reiss Nelson and Samuel Chukwueze, and while time will tell on that, it’s evident that Fulham have money to spend and my word spending that much on a winger would excite the fans.
Prior to the Kevin rumour there were rumblings among the fanbase that Fulham didn’t have the financial muscle to spend this window due to PSR and other financial restraints, but the report from Romano as well as this one from Santi Aouna certainly challenges that. Fulham have previously had a €30m bid rejected earlier this winger for PSV forward Ricardo Pepi.
Pepi is a name that was mentioned quite a bit earlier in the window but nothing ever materialised (until this came out). Santi Aouna is a reliable source so I’d take this as true, maybe this is one we’ll go back to if there was a potential departure of Rodrigo Muniz.
Outgoings
Marco Silva’s discontent about our lack of transfer activity is growing, with The Sun reporting that he’s frustrated. According to paper, the board’s position is that we have a good squad and the focus is more on keeping that intact rather than spending with a reluctance to add to the wage bill unless necessary.
Silva spoke on his feelings after the Frankfurt game. “Some positions are really short and we have to add players, yes or yes until the end of the market because it’s not what we expect in this moment of the season to don’t have at least one, tow, or three players we needed for the beginning of the season.
“We expected much more activity from ourselves in terms of recruitment, players in. Unfortunately, they are not here. The worst thing we can have now is more injuries. Jedi had the small surgery, it will take a little bit more time for him to be ready.”
Atalanta are the newest club to hold a serious interest in Rodrigo Muniz according to top tier journalist Gianluca Di Marzio with the Italian side travelling to London to try and push for a deal. Fulham have insisted that Rodrigo Muniz is not for sale but Atalanta have opened talks. This Muniz saga keeps and will keep rumbling on until a new deal is agreed. Just tie him down - it’s a simple as that, Fulham. We cannot afford to lose a key player like Muniz at this stage of the window with the lack of recruitment we have currently done.
Well it’s now the week of the Premier League and Fulham still have failed to improve the squad. The last week has shown that we have money in the bank and Silva’s growing frustrations means that surely we will do some business now. I’d be very surprised if next week’s article doesn’t have a few exciting rumours.