Midway through November, three months into the new Premier League season, we’ve finally had a managerial casualty.
Slaviša Jokanović has been replaced by Claudio Ranieri at Fulham, with the Italian entering his third spell as manager in England.
Having been out of a job since leaving Ligue 1 side Nantes as the end of last season, Ranieri’s greatest achievement remains guiding Leicester City to their first ever top-tier title, accomplishing the feat just a little over two years ago in the 2015/16 season.
Whilst the Cottagers shouldn’t be expecting the same to happen, they will hope The Tinkerman’s arrival in West London will inevitably push them off the bottom of the Premier League table and avoid relegation in their first season since moving back up from the Championship.
In the summer following promotion, Fulham spent extremely heavily in bringing in a whole new host of faces, but it’s apparent that cohesion is absent from this rag-tag bunch of high-profile signings. With their 2-0 loss to Liverpool last weekend, Fulham recorded the worst divisional record of conceding goals at this point of the season.
Fulham owner and purveyor of fantastic moustaches Shahid Khan will be wary of spending even more to boost the squad in January, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ranieri look towards some of his Foxes merry-men that he collaborated with to unprecedented success.
Wes Morgan
The only captain in Leicester’s history to lift the Premier League trophy, and a bonafide favourite of Ranieri, the Jamaican international would bring the stability and gravitas to the Fulham back-line bereft of leaders. His presence in the centre of defence may also bring the best out of summer signing Alfie Mawson.
Danny Simpson
Has made just one start and made the matchday squad just twice so far this season. Replacing the erratic Cyrus Christie at right-back in West London could be a sensible move for the 31-year-old Englishman after four years in the Midlands, should he continue to see himself out-of-favour.
Jamie Vardy
It couldn’t happen, could it? Unthinkable a few seasons ago, a reportedly tense relationship with manager Claude Puel, could see the Englishman leave the King Power in the near future. Per The Telegraph, though he has regained favour in recent weeks, tensions are said to be at a high since his dropping from a important game against West Ham, as well as his wife liking social media posts criticising the French manager.
At Fulham, the burden placed on the talented forward Aleksandar Mitrović is weighing heavily. Five goals in 12 appearances is an extremely respectable return, but the Serb has failed to live up to his scintillating start, coinciding with Fulham’s six straight losses by not hitting the back of the net.
Support couldn’t come better from Vardy, who will be 32-years-old in January and would no doubt love to be reunited with the manager with whom he achieved the impossible, and 'has, and always will have [his] complete respect'.
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