Fulham were widely tipped for relegation following promotion, but Marco Silva has built a team capable of holding its own at a higher level...
. After all, that’s exactly what happened the last two times they had been promoted. But as November draws close with the Premier League still looking in a slightly unusual shape, it seems as though a lot of us got it wrong with Fulham.
Fulham have flourished since Silva took control of the team, with some smart operation in the transfer market. The club’s summer transfer activity looks truly excellent. Bernd Leno is a solid and experienced goalkeeper who has thrived from being a first choice again; Andreas Pereira has benefited from making the opposite journey as he looks rejuvenated away from Manchester United.
It feels as though Silva is becoming the manager that Hull City, Watford and Everton all wanted in the first place but never really saw, though perhaps he was always destined to fail at all three. Relegation under the Allam family was always likely at Hull, while Watford’s volatility in the managerial market has both pre and post-dated Silva’s spell at Vicarage Road and Everton pursued him doggedly and then didn’t seem to know what to do with him once they’d finally got him there.