The Championship is not enough for Jokanovic’s Fulham ambitions

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The manager at the Cottage, Slavisa Jokanovic, would like a decade of success at Fulham, so what could possibly go wrong for him?

Every manager needs to have a positive vision of where they want to take their club and Fulham’s manager has not been holding back on how settled he feels at SW6. In an interview with the Evening Standard earlier this year he said: “If I’m successful, I could be here for 10-years!”

You might ponder what success would mean for a club of Fulham’s stature now as they have been stuck in the Championship since 2014. They certainly got fans jumping out of their seats by coming the closest yet to reaching the Premier League last season, before Reading ended their promotion hopes in the play-offs in May.

Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic

Jokanovic clearly feels that he only needs to make a few additions to get the club further up the table into the play-off positions, but does one season to build on make success that much easier? A 10-year stay would need something quite remarkable to be delivered by Jokanovic.

Jokanovic’s first big test will be to hold on to his star players who did so well in 2016-17. They include midfielder Tom Cairney, 20, who has already been the subject of a £20 million bid from Newcastle United, according to the Sun.

An offer from Gent for Dennis Odoi was also turned down by Fulham in June, as SkySports reports.

Kevin McDonald has also been linked with a possible move to Celtic and Nottingham Forest had also shown some interest, according to GetWestLondon.

He has also found the buying market challenging having seen a bid for Braga’s attacker Rui Fonte rejected by Antonio Salvador, SC Braga’s president. Rui Fonte, 27, will not be leaving the Portuguese side this summer Fulham have been told, as reported in Ojogo.

A good moment for Fulham fans though this summer was to hear that England U21 star Cauley Woodrow has signed a one-year extension, the club’s website reported. The striker scored five goals last season when out on loan at Burton Albion and could well be seen as strong enough to play for the Cottagers up front next season, now that Chris Martin has ended his loan at Fulham.

“The plan for me is to hopefully break into the Fulham team and play more regularly than I have done in the past and really push on,” Woodrow told the Burton Mail.

Fulham’s Cauley Woodrow and Rotherham’s Farrend Rawson in action

Still, Fulham have to build on last season and Jokanovic will know that young players at the club may find it hard to break through if the team is again going to make a promotion bid. If Jokanovic can get the balance right though, winning the Championship could be the start of his 10-year association that he so wants with the Cottagers.