Fulham: Premier League 2013/14 preview

Martin Jol has a huge task at hand

Major transfers IN: Maarten Stekelenburg – £4.7 Million- Roma; Sasha Riether – £1.2 million- Cologne; Fernando Amorebieta – Free – Athletic Bilbao; Derek Boateng – Free – Dnipro

Major Transfers OUT: Mark Schwarzer- Free – Chelsea; Simon Davies – Released; Mladen Petric- Released

Martin Jol has a big job on his hands to keep Fulham in the Premier League for their 12th consecutive year and their comfortable mid table finishes of the past 5 years may be a thing of the past if their second half of the season form was anything to go by, along with uninspiring transfers.

Fulham started last season well and it was their early season form which saw them finish (what seemed like) comfortably mid-table but most of their points were gained in the first half of the season and in a good spell over Easter, before a really terrible run of form towards the end of the season saw them briefly flirt with relegation, which made Fulham’s season somewhat of a rollercoaster.

Their form dipped terribly after periods of strong form, so much so that Fulham’s season can be broken down into 4 distinct stages: First 11 matches, only 3 losses. Next 9 matches, only 1 win. Next 10 games heralded 5 wins before a terrible end of season run of 4 points in their last 8 games.

This kind of roller coaster form makes it hard to analyse what kind of season the Cottagers will have but with teams who finished around them strengthening more impressively, Fulham may be left behind some of their bottom half of the table rivals.