If Fulham’s performance in the Championship last year was not quite a fairytale, it was certainly a good yarn. A team that had struggled to clear its head after failing in the play-offs the previous year put together a run of form unmatched anywhere in the country, going 23 games unbeaten, before winning the first play-off fixtures in the club’s history to regain a place in the Premier League. As of Saturday, however, that story is forgotten.
Perhaps that is an exaggeration. An enormous photograph of the Fulham team emerging on to the Wembley pitch in May hangs on the wall of the media room at the club’s Motspur Park training complex. But for Slavisa Jokanovic, what is done is done.
Any sentiment about recent achievements, however grand they may have been, would be a weakness. And if that means the Fulham manager ends up denying those players who helped him get to the promised land the chance to experience it, then so be it.
Fulham spent upwards of £100m in the summer transfer window, an outlay surpassed only by Liverpool and Chelsea. To say this is not typical of the side who, in Jokanovic’s words, are “last into the division” would be an understatement. The club have a recruit for every position in the team and have made some of the most eye-catching deals in Europe – from the coveted midfielder Jean Michaël Seri to the German international and former Chelsea star André Schürrle. These players have not come to west London to sit on the bench.
“We are living in this modern life, it’s full of pressure and we are professionals,” said Jokanovic of the challenge now facing his squad. “The players must know it’s not easy. It will be hard for all of them to have an opportunity to be a Premier League player. It’s not a question of who is a new player but in football memory does not exist. This is not a sentimental man. I want to be professional and at the end I am here to work hard, to try to take the right decisions and not to make mistakes. If I start to be sentimental, this is when we will have more space for making mistakes.”
Jokanovic speaks from experience, of course. The Serb himself has never managed in the division, having been denied the opportunity after leading Watford to promotion in 2015. He immediately moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv and helped them qualify for the Champions League but was back in England by Christmas, at Fulham. After first steering the club clear of relegation he built a side that is both steely and attractive on the eye. As his remarks make clear, despite the money spent Jokanovic is not taking the challenge that awaits his team lightly.
“Our first target has to be to stay up,” he said. “We are talking about money but sometimes money is important and sometimes it is not. We can compare ourselves with Spurs, they have made no investment but they have a Premier League team that is done. We were third in the Championship. We arrived here last. It’s important for our side to show ambition. We also have to be clever, to modify some things. We are going to play against different levels of quality, of pace and of power. We don’t have to change much but we need to be intelligent. We need to grow up.”
Fulham’s first fixture back in the top flight pits them against Crystal Palace and a manager who is a legend at the club, Roy Hodgson. Jokanovic was effusive in his praise of Hodgson’s side and wished his opposite number well – “after this game”.
“Last season they started with a problem but after Hodgson arrived they started to play very well and finished the season in a high level, playing really good football,” Jokanovic said. “They definitely have more experience than us at this level. They have danger in the offensive side, with [Christian] Benteke, [Wilfried] Zaha and [Andros] Townsend. But on the other side we must take care about Luka Milivojevic, too, who is the heart of the team. Many things depend on this guy. We’ve made the analysis of this team and I hope we are ready.”
After the summer they have had many will feel Fulham should exceed their previous expectations this season. If Jokanovic believes he is now likely to be held to higher standards, he certainly does not seem intimidated by the prospect. He may not be a sentimental man but he is certainly a determined one.
