New Era Awaits Fulham Family

As Shahid Khan prepares for his first taste of Premier League action as Fulham owner, what the billionaire makes of the legacy left behind by predecessor Mohammed Al Fayed is likely to shape the club’s immediate future on the pitch, in the transfer market and amongst the wider community.

So far the only investment has come through loaning mercurial playmaker Adel Taarabt from fellow West Londoners Queens Park Rangers, despite some bookies offering 25-1 odds that the Lilywhites would be this window’s biggest spenders following the Pakistan-born American businessman’s takeover last month.

It seems that the club’s latest benefactor is intent on building relations within the locality and trusting in youth development in order to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, in keeping with tradition at the capital’s oldest professional football institution yet perhaps out of sync with the demands of his manager, Martin Jol.

However, Dutchman Jol has already added experience to his squad by shrewdly inviting compatriot Maarten Stekelenburg, 30, to take up the number one shirt and ease concerns over the defection of previous incumbent Mark Schwarzer to local rivals Chelsea. The former Ajax goalkeeper, who has more than 50 Holland caps to his name, was quietly signed from AS Roma for a fee assumed to be £3m shortly after season’s end.

The spine of the side has been further strengthened by the introduction of centre-back Fernando Amorebieta on a free transfer from Athletic Bilbao, following a breakdown in communication over a contract extension with the Basque side. The Venezuelan international, 28, who was also called up once by Spain, will find common ground with a number of Cottagers as a fellow UEFA Europa League runner-up, from his role in Bilbao’s run to the final in 2011-12, and, after the departure of stalwart Chris Baird this summer, will hope to lighten the workload of Norwegian warhorse Brede Hangeland in leading the resistance.

Ahead of them, journeyman Ghanaian international midfielder Derek Boateng has been plucked, again for free, from Ukrainian side FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk to play the anchor role and apply his uncompromising style to the Premier League following short stints in Greece, Sweden, Israel, Germany and Spain before his brief spell in eastern Europe.

Fans at Craven Cottage will hope that these additions, plus the permanent signing of last year’s stand-out right-back Sascha Riether from Germany’s FC Köln to the tune of around £1m on the back of a successful loan period, will shore up a defence that shipped as many goals last term as rock-bottom QPR and inspire greater confidence in a side that finished just six places and seven points clear of the drop zone, admittedly without ever being truly troubled by fear of relegation.

In the wake of a season in which one of the team’s joint-second-top goal scorers has been released, while another was a mysterious figure that went by the initials ‘o.g.’, it would seem wise for the club to appropriate funds for the acquisition of a striker of the calibre and credentials required to settle a tight contest. In that vein, the club hopes to follow up last summer’s cut-price capture of Dimitar Berbatov with an attacker of similar stature and have allegedly returned to Roma with a view to taking enigmatic talisman Pablo Osvaldo to SW6.

Whether Argentine-born Osvaldo, who has been capped eight times by Italy and who plundered 17 goals in 26 Serie A games last season, would fit in with the family feel at the Cottage remains to be seen. The 27-year-old hitman apparently had separate fallings-out with team-mates Nicolas Burdisso and Erik Lamela last year alone and has been sent off nine times in the last six seasons for all manner of feistiness. He is, however, also renowned for having a range of finishes in his artillery and is thought to be an ideal partner for captain Berbatov due to his energy in and around the 18-yard area and off-the-ball intelligence.

More recent reports emanating from the club have put forward Aston Villa’s personification of a ‘come and get me’ plea, Darren Bent, as a more realistic alternative, although negotiations appeared to have faltered as Fulham are unwilling to meet the Villains’ £6m asking price for a player who, at 29, has little re-sale value. Londoner Bent may not be famed for his tracking back but would virtually guarantee goals and therefore much-needed assistance to the equally attack-minded Berbatov, as well as the respectively under-performing and inconsistent Hugo Rodallega and Bryan Ruiz, in the scoring stakes.

There is a certain unpredictability about the new season for Fulham followers. For every bustling Kerim Frei run to enjoy, there is a Steve Sidwell sideways pass to endure; with each improvised Alexander Kacaniklic effort comes Rodallega’s Row Z radar; always a 100% pre-season record in Costa Rica gives rise to a winless streak against Werder Bremen, Real Betis and Parma.

Injury to any of the club’s key attacking personnel could see Jol’s bid for survival - and perhaps revival to a state of better health - left dead in the water. He has secured the heart but must complete his side’s spinal surgery if he is not to become paralysed by the fate of the footballing gods and at the whim of the new owner, who will not take long to assess the situation and prescribe either a follow-up or a post-mortem.