West Ham United have been linked with Ryan Fredericks and Tom Cairney.
Fulham are back in the Premier League after a four-year absence following their 1-0 play-off final win over Aston Villa on Saturday evening.
The Cottagers saw off Derby County in the semi-finals of the Championship play-offs and made the short trip to Wembley Stadium for Saturday’s final, with Slavisa Jokanovic hoping to see off Villa.
The only goal of the game came in the first half, as Ryan Sessegnon’s superbly-weighted through ball picked out Tom Cairney, and the midfielder swept home a fine finish to open the scoring.
The game wasn’t without incident from there though; Jack Grealish was superb for Villa but could have been sent off for a rash foul on Cairney, before Denis Odoi was red-carded for a second bookable offence.
Fulham held on with 10 men though and return to the top flight, which may just boost their hopes of keeping a number of star players, including Cairney, Sessegnon and Ryan Fredericks.
Fulham were always in a strong position to charge huge fees for Cairney and Sessegnon anyway, and now even more so, but they are also now well-poised to hand a new deal to out-of-contract Fredericks this summer.
Just days before Saturday’s final, the London Evening Standard reported that new West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini is keen to land Fredericks and Cairney, but the 1-0 win over Villa may just end those hopes.
Hammers fans took to Twitter after the final whistle to suggest that West Ham now stand no chance of landing Cairney and only a slim shot at securing Fredericks, though some feel they are no great loss and that Pellegrini needs to be targeting better players this summer anyway.
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