It has been a rather angsty start to the 2024/25 season and the summer transfer window. But has the perceived slow start to our transfer business been different from past seasons? In the last two seasons, we have seen our two best players, in Aleksandar Mitrović and João Palhinha, leave SW6 for pastures new. So let’s do some historical Fulham transfer ‘idiot’s maths’ as compiled by our resident idiot, Boney. If we are to look back over the transfer windows of Marco Silva’s tenure, when have we done business? And what have our numbers for players joining Fulham been like over this period?
Note: We will just be looking at first-team additions to the squad
2021/22 Season
Marco was appointed on 1 July 2021
- July Transfers
- Paulo Gazzaniga – 24th July
- Harry Wilson – 24th July
- August Transfers
- Rodrigo Muniz – 20th August
- Nathaniel Chalobah – 31st August
- Domingos Quina (Loan) – 31st August
- January Window
- Neco Williams (Loan) – 1st February
21/22 Total Summer Signings – 5 (6 total for the season)
2022/2023 Season
- July Transfers
- João Palhinha – 4th July
- Andreas Pereira – 11th July
- Manor Solomon (Loan) – 25th July
- Kevin Mbabu – 27th July
- August Transfers
- Bernd Leno – 2nd August
- Shane ‘The King’ Duffy (Perm 31st Jan) – 5th August
- Issa Diop – 10th August
- September Transfer
- Carlos Vinícius – 1st September
- Willian – 1st September
- Dan James (Loan) 1st September
- Layvin Kurzawa (Load) 1st September
- January Window
- Saša Lukić – 31st January
- Cédric Soares (Loan) – 1st Februray
22/23 Total Summer Signings – 11 (13 total for the season)
2023/2024 Season
- July Transfers
- Raúl Jiménez – 25th July
- Calvin Bassey – 28th July
- August Transfers
- Adama Traoré – 12th August
- Timothy Castagne – 29th August
- Steven Benda – 30th August
- September Transfers
- Alex Iwobi – 2nd September
- Fodé Ballo-Touré (Loan) – 2nd September
- January Window
- Armando Broja (Loan) – 1st February
23/24 Total Summer Signings – 7 (8 total for the season)
So, what does the ‘idiot maths’ tell us? Should the above patterns be followed by our gracious Wrestling Overlord, it is generally too early in July for Fulham to make a signing. With that in mind, we could likely see our first signing or two over the next week, based on the last three seasons.
August (and when the window runs into September) tends to see more transfer action by Fulham. This could be due to a number of reasons, such as a review of the squad through pre-season, etc. But the running joke of Tony Khan getting overly excited for deadline day doesn’t really pan out during Silva’s tenure (much to my surprise/annoyance). We have signed eight players on the summer deadline over three seasons, and of those eight, you could argue that only three (Willian, Carlos Vinícius and Alex Iwobi) were starting XI players. The rest were squad players and half of those were loan signings.
Over the last three seasons, the summer transfer window has seen us sign 23 players for an average of just over 7 players per window, either permanent or loan. January is quieter for TK as the weather is much nicer in Flordia at that time of year, and the Jags are usually on holiday, too, so why put the effort in? In January, Fulham signed an average of just over 1 player over the last three seasons.
5 players signed in this window?
So, based on the above and counting the Palhinha sale fee, we could expect 5-7 players before Friday, August 30th. Personally, I think we will see 5 additions before any extra outgoing players (given the rumours that a handful of our squad have been targeted by other clubs) would be realistic
Should we be getting all pent up and counting the days without signings? I don’t think so. Based on the above, I think we will see our business start over the last week of July, followed by a flurry in August around the start of the season.
While I would have loved a repeat of the 22/23 season with TK pulling his finger out early, I think the board will follow their usual pattern, and we will see August as the busy month. That does mean we have to get through the pre-season relatively unscathed to keep our not-too-shabby, if threadbare, starting XI intact for the opening run of games against Manchester United, Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
Make a cuppa. The fun is about to begin. I did say this was idiot’s maths, right?
