On the bench: How we're looking today: 📋#MUNFUL pic.twitter.com/ilhVdfpyg3— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 24, 2024
Ream’s starting spot done? He was subbed vs Villa and his replacement scored in big win against United. Well, medium win these days but without Paulinho it was a good performance. (I didn’t see the game.)
Ream spent some time out of the starting lineup earlier this year too. I think he will sit out a bit but probably come back in before the season is over.
Ream's 36. Fulham better have a solid post-Ream plan in place. (And a post-Willian plan too, although both have looked pretty spry. Maybe FFC is slipping vampire blood in the gatorade bottles.)
His competitor CBs are all flawed. Bassey and Tosin had some horrible passing efforts and giveaways on Sunday against Manchester United. They then brought a third CB (Diop) and promptly conceded a leveler to United before Iwobi steered home. When Ream's not in there they can play a higher line, which is good for Silva's style. And it frees Robinson up a bit more as well. The problem is the CBs give the ball away a lot more when he's not in. So it's a trade off. I think you'll see him get minutes throughout the run-in. If Fulham were in a relegation dog-fight or in competition for Europe he probably would be playing more. Since they're comfortably mid-table, following the cup knock out, I expect them to rotate a fair amount and work on future-oriented lineups. Ream's under contract until summer 2025 now as well, so clearly the club values the leadership side.
Tim and Thierry. 🫂A message from a legend via @sportingnews. pic.twitter.com/StS5TsxIpV— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) March 5, 2024
It'll be interesting to see how they line up against Wolves. On one hand, Fulham are in fine form right now and Silva won't want to rock the boat. Beating Man U? 3-0 against Brighton? On the other hand, I think Silva knows he has 3-4 playable center-backs and can make week-to-week matchup decisions. He can lean towards Ream against less open-playing, less offensive opposition where Ream's elite passing can help them pick other teams apart. I'm speculating we'll see Tim start about 1/3 of the remaining matches this season.
I rocked a man-bun (modeled on the samurai top-knot I saw in old Kurosawa movies) way back in the late 90s, long before it was a (somewhat) accepted hairstyle for men. That's right. Way ahead of my time.
Cross-posting to bump the Ream thread, even though the post includes the dreaded 'for for' ... Fulham have 9 matches left, and they're in no danger of relegation. Please throw Ream a bone (or two) as the season winds down. Many thanks!
Tosin is out of contract this summer I think (unless he resigned a FFC deal in the last little bit that I missed.) If they are trying to talk him into staying, they pretty much got to play him. He and Bassey have been FFC's best CD combo, to my eye, tho I've only seen them together a few times. FFC have been lucky/smart that they have 4 very decent CDs (and it seems like they've all played pretty similar minutes between one or two always unavailable due to injuries, international call ups etc.) If Tosin is gone for sure, maybe FFC lean on Diop and Calvin with Ream filling in when needed. I'll go see what the latest on Tosin's contract is. Haven't seen anything in a while. (EDIT: the reports are FFC is "preparing" to offer Tosin a big contract, but big names are - unsurprisingly - also reported to be circling. Milan, ManU, Pool... etc. etc. I'd guess until they lose Tosin for sure, he's playing. And Bassey is his most likely partner. I did learn that Diop is the sexiest EPL footballer, so he's got that going for him. If Ream lost the man-bun, I think he'd be in the running for the Dad-bod crowd.)
Tosin signed an extension in January 2023, but only until this summer. He's 27 in September, so summer is his last chance for a big-club move. If he has an offer from a Top 6 side, he's not going to sign anything Fulham put on the table unless they offer crazy money and even then . . . Oh, and Fulham don't like to spend funny money. Not these days. Most likely scenario IMO: Tosin leaves in the summer and Fulham will play him as much as possible in the meantime. His replacement will arrive rather late in the window because, with Tim around, they won't need to rush. He's the footballing equivalent of Old Faithful who can step up in case they can't get a deal over the line or the guy doesn't settle quickly. It's not difficult to envisage him seeing out his contract and retiring at Fulham in 2025, after completing 10 full seasons there. When you consider that they signed him for a trifling €1.70m, he has to be one of the best value-for-money signings this century.
It's not that they don't like spending funny money. They are hamstrung by FFP being one of the smallest revenue teams in the Prem with having spent so much time in the championship recently. Khan spends as much as he can IMO. They've done a good job of keeping talent when clubs have come in for their players.
I’m guessing he’ll at least try and play through 2026 with the aim of making the World Cup team. Not saying he will but feels like he’ll at least try to.
Not in the squad today: The Fulham™️.#WHUFUL pic.twitter.com/RuFNByNnLK— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) April 14, 2024
Looks to me that they clinched staying up. With 5 games to play they are 16+ points clear of NF (#16) and LT (#17). All have played 33 games. Of course it was obvious that they would stay up, but knowing it is official is nice to know.