Marco Silva has urged the Fulham hierarchy to ‘do things differently’ and tie down the club’s brightest talents to long-term contracts.
The Cottagers’ head coach wants his club to learn the lessons of losing talented teenager Fabio Carvalho to Liverpool for a fraction of his true value last summer after the latest promising graduate from Fulham’s category one academy was allowed to enter the final year of his contract. The Whites have also seen Harvey Elliott and Matt O’Riley leave Motspur Park to shine in continental campaign competition in recent years – but Silva is hopeful the current crop of talent will follow the example of highly-rated midfielder Luke Harris in committing their future to the Whites.
Silva told his press conference earlier this afternoon:
“We don’t like it when important players for us go into the last year of their contracts. We have some examples in this football club that we don’t want to repeat, like Fabio Carvalho from last season. It is our obligation to do some things differently because we have to retain talent inside this football club. Sometimes it can be difficult with young players from the academy who show the quality to grow and it can be hard to keep them.
Fabio was in the last year of his contract and we tried everything to keep him at the club. But at the beginning of the season it was clear that Luke Harris is a talent who is going to play a long time in our shirt. He is on a different contract now but we have to be aware of this situation not just with the young lads but also the senior players.”
Fulham have opened talks with Bobby Decordova-Reid, Tosin Adarabioyo and Antonee Robinson and are confident of keeping all three players at Craven Cottage after they each played important roles in helping Silva’s side comfortably avoid being involved in the battle against relegation that was predicted at the start of the season.
