Marco Silva knows that Sunday’s showdown with Manchester City will be as tough as ever, despite it not being as productive a season as usual for Pep Guardiola’s men.
This was the first campaign since 2016/17 in which City did not pick up a trophy, but they arrive at Craven Cottage as the best placed of all the sides still looking to secure Champions League football.
“Even if it's not a perfect season for them – and that’s not my words, all the City people, players and Pep, they mentioned that – they have certain characteristics that it’s not easy to play against,” Silva explained.
“One of them is, of course, they have the capacity to take the ball from you, and for longer periods they have the ball, and you have to be resilient and show the right organisation to control them well in some moments.
“They are playing for a Champions League spot – it’s not the end for them, but for us it's not an end as well.
“We reached 54 points for our football club, and we are going to fight and to enjoy the game, to embrace the challenge with our fans, of playing the last game of the season against a top side.”
Silva was also asked about the futures of his four out-of-contract players ahead of Sunday’s season finale.
The deals of Tom Cairney, Kenny Tete, Willian and Carlos Vinicius all currently expire next month, and our Head Coach confirmed that negotiations are ongoing with the former two, but that this may be the last we see of the Brazilian boys.
“You all know that between the football club, and Kenny and Tom Cairney, there have been discussions, conversations with their representatives, their agents, and all that stuff,” he explained. “Let’s hope we can have good news for us soon.
“About Carlos and Willian, it is going to be the last time that they are going to be involved. I'm going to have more conversations with Willian as well, but let's see what is going to be. But probably for both, it could be their last game with the Fulham shirt.
“The other two, completely different – we already started conversations some time ago, and let's hope we can have good news soon.”
When quizzed as to how promising those discussions have been, Silva replied: “I'm not in the conversations, as you’d expect, it's not for me to negotiate with the agents and all that stuff. I'm just waiting for the good news from the Club.”
