A four-year stint in Scotland ended with Trebor Mahtal leading an exciting young Queen’s Park team to their first domestic title in 194 years of existence. That left Mahtal with just eight more letters to tick off in his Alphabet Challenge: C, D, F, G, H, I, K and X.
Upon resigning from Hampden Park, only two clubs with jobs beginning with those letters had vacancies, but a couple more popped up over the next week. For reasons unknown, it took a month for any clubs to make a move. But a relegated German side eventually did and swiftly made him an offer that he delayed. A struggling big club in Bulgaria and mid-table Serie A and Premier League sides soon offered interviews, along with his former club Valencia. Mahtal rejected the Italian return and wasn’t keen on heading back to Germany as Hamburg had appalling infrastructure. So that gave him a choice between an in debut CSKA Sofia or heading back to England with Fulham. And he decided to chase the cash by bagging £50k a week in England.
Who Are Fulham FC?
Fulham Football Club is a professional club based in Fulham, in west London. The club is the oldest in London, having been founded in 1879 – that’s 182 years ago – by worshippers at the Church of England on Star Road in West Kensington. The church still stands with a plaque commemorating the foundation. The club won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and the West London League in 1893 before moving to Craven Cottage in 1896. It turned professional in 1898 and adopted its famous white and black kits five years later, having initially played in red and white.
Prior to this save, Fulham had never won a major trophy, but changed that by winning the Conference League in 2054 and the Europa League in 2057. But it’s still never won a domestic trophy. Fulham have been in the Premier League all bar three seasons during this save, and have spent the last 26 years in the top tier. They finished as high as 5th in 2059 only to suffer a big dropoff to finish 10th and 16th in the last two seasons.
Fulham now play at the imaginatively named Fulham Stadium, a 42,125-capacity ground that replaced Craven Cottage in 2048. That’s supported by a great infrastructure of 20 youth recruitment, 19 youth facilities and youth coaching and 17 training facilities. However, the club was struggling financially, with £379k in the bank but £11m available to spend and £300k over its £1.8m weekly wage bill.
That was swiftly sorted by 12 players earning a combined £700k per week leaving at the end of their contracts. Mahtal was immediately hit by several players being upset about not reaching the Champions League, which made his life very easy. He swiftly sold a few older players for a total of £64m, saving an additional £500k a week in wages, a winger with ideas above his station for £8m and an ageing goalkeeper to European champions Fiorentina for up to £84m. The flipside of that was Mahtal now had a first team squad of 10 players, eight of which were teenagers! And, ludicrously, he was only receiving only 15% of transfer revenue.
The best player remaining at Fulham is 24-year-old Slovakian winger Lubos Szabo, along with full back Ben Kramer, former Liverpool midfielder Gianluca Cabrera and centre backs Diogo Portela and Edmund Boateng. They also had a few promising youngsters led by attackers Arnold Kitenge and Charlie Rabbetts. Mahtal bolstered the squad by returning to Queen’s Park to snap up promising centre back Slavomir Toth for £8m, then signing striker Alperen Barutcu for £15m from Frankfurt, and midfielder Tom Lynard for £9m from Nordsjælland. He later added much-needed goalkeeper Laurens Bruins, who was far worse than the scouts suggested, for £7m from Utrecht and loaned in 6ft 5in striker Wilmar Torres from Newcastle.
The few players available seemed to suit the 4-5-1 that Mahtal had used successfully at Queen’s Park, but he wasn’t overly convinced by it in the long run. In fact, he was a little worried by the severe lack of depth in the squad and just hoped they could do enough to survive in this first season before more cash began to flow.
A Tricky Start At Mahtal’s Third English Club
The bookies didn’t fancy Fulham’s chances, tipping them to finish 17th with title odds of 750/1. Liverpool are 6/4 favourites ahead of Newcastle (12/5), Villa (9/1), Man City, Arsenal and Man United (20/1) and Chelsea and Everton (25/1). However, the Fulham board wanted a mid-table finish, which could be interesting.
Mahtal’s return to England didn’t start well as they lost 2-0 at Fulham and lost debutant Moyano to a broken ankle. Australian striker Steve Bent earned Mahtal a winning home debut against Birmingham before he celebrated his 1,700th match in management with a narrow 1-0 defeat at former club Man United. And a tricky start continued with defeats to Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea. That left them bottom of the league heading into an international break, but Torres and Alperen’s first goals earned a 2-1 win over Forest and Lynard’s first goal secured the same result against Leicester.
They struggled away early in the season, but Torres nicked a 1-0 at Burnley and late Portela and Szabo goals earned a deserved draw at surprise strugglers Man City. That lifted them into midtable in mid-December, before struggling to a 1-1 at 18th-place Brentford, a Cabrera screamer edged a 2-1 at home to 19th-place Middlesbrough and Rabbetts’ first senior goal nicked a 1-0 over Palace. And Fulham headed into the new year sitting in a fairly respectable 13th place, 5 points ahead of City in 14th and 12 points above the dropzone.
League Struggles Pushed Aside In Cup Run
Fulham navigated an easy Carabao Cup run to defeat Ipswich, Portsmouth and Luton, then beat Championship side Cambridge 2-0 to reach the semis. An intriguing semi-final lineup contained three teams that had never previously won the competition, as Fulham took on Everton while holders Villa faced Brighton. A tense game at Everton saw the hosts win the first leg 1-0, before a 1-1 draw at Fulham Stadium ensured Everton deservedly progressed. There was less success in the FA Cup as they exited 3-1 to Villa in the fourth round.
Mahtal Reunites With Cormack
The Fulham board thankfully boosted the transfer budget to £70m in December. And it should be no surprise who Mahtal immediately targeted, returning to Queen’s Park to sign superstar winger James Cormack, who was still only 18, for up to £26m. He also signed a much-needed right back Gonzalo Maciel for £12.5m from River, and decided to switch to a 4-2-3-1 with Cormack learning to play higher up the field and Szabo moving out to the left.
The new right-hand side of Maciel and Cormack were thrown straight into debuts at Birmingham on the same day they signed, and they struggled before a late Szabo strike earned a point. And the switch to 4-2-3-1 started well as Alperen scored both goals at home to Luton. Cormack endeared himself to the Fulham support as his first goal in English football earned a 1-1 at home to rivals Chelsea in early February. And Cabrera’s winner against 17th-place Wolves, which ended a five-game winless streak, realistically ended any outside relegation concerns.
The new tactical approach got Fulham firing as Alperen scored both at home to Brighton and the opener in a 2-1 at Norwich, taking them to four successive victories and into the top half of the table. The Turk then bagged a hat trick in an uncharacteristic 5-1 thumping of bottom-side Burnley before pushing Liverpool close in a 2-1 defeat at Anfield and Cabrera, adapting to a deeper role, laid on two goals in a 3-2 win over rivals Brentford.
That helped Fulham come home in a really solid 9th place on 56 points after 16 wins, 8 draws and 14 defeats, scoring 56 and conceding 54. They actually finished 4 points clear of holders Man City, whose ageing side plummeted to a lowly 10th place, and only 3 points off European qualification. And the promising Alperen was 8th top scorer in the league with 17 in 35.
Promising Return To England
Fulham had made a solid and better-than-expected start to life with Mahtal. He’d been firmly expecting a bit of a relegation battle with the starting squad, but just about squeaked into mid-table with a pretty threadbare squad. Alperen led the way with 21 goals and 7 assists in 43 games followed by Szabo with 10 goals and 10 assists. Cabrera impressed with 9 assists and 5 goals, Lynard chipped in with 7 assists and 5 goals and Cormack had a slow start but eventually racked up 5 goals and 4 assists.
Mahtal was pretty sure there’d be plenty of change over the summer, as he’d have more of the finances he’d amassed last summer coming his way. And he really needed to strengthen the squad to compete with England’s best teams.
Could Mahtal bolster his squad over the summer of 2062? Join us on Monday to find out!
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