Opinion: Fulham must avoid the mistakes of the past to maintain Premier League survival

An emphatic 7-0 demolition of play-off chasing Luton Town was the perfect performance to set the tone for a celebratory night in Craven Cottage.

But the achievement isn’t as fun as it sounds in the context of two relegations from two previous attempts to establish the side in the top flight.

The club’s director of football Tony Khan has addressed this problem in a recent interview with The Athletic, where he claimed: “I don’t want Fulham to be a yo-yo club, I just want us to be a yo club.”

However, while his penchant for big name signings may work in other industries in football it has left the Cottagers high and dry.

In the unscripted world of football, the Fulham hierarchy have struggled to establish an identity on the pitch, or a vision for what the team is supposed to look like.

This has led to disjointed thinking, hasty managerial decisions and over-expensive signings left on the bench.

The likes of Jean Michael Seri, Andre Zambo Anguissa and Alfie Mawson arrived in 2018 to much fanfare but completely failed to deliver any kind of excitement on the pitch.

When the team was inevitably relegated that season, the team did well to rally and earn promotion again straight away.

However, the same mistakes were made in 2020, with big name players like Joachim Andersen, Anthony Knockaert and Mario Lemina arriving.

Another relegation ensued, without even much of a fight as the team slumped to a meagre 28 points.

With Silva now at the helm, and a more convincing Championship campaign which gained promotion, the hope will be that there is a much more solid foundation to the team this time round.

That makes it even more important that the transfer committee don’t fall into the same trappings as previous summers.

The team as it