To this day Tony Khan thinks Fulham had a good transfer window in the summer of 2018. Which is sweet. The untrained eye might be tempted to regard the £100m spent on Jean Michaël Seri, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Alfie Mawson, Andre Schürrle and at least half a dozen others as one of the great spending failures of the modern Premier League era. Particularly when you consider what happened next: relegation with 26 points, three separate managers and a full-blown fistfight between Aleksandar Mitrovic and Aboubakar Kamara that apparently began during meditation in a team yoga session.
For Khan, the investment made in 2018 – which also included Mitrovic and Joe Bryan, who scored the winning goal in the 2020 playoff final – was a key reason Fulham were back in the Premier League two years later. “We spent on the future,” he said. “I am very happy with the players I bought.” Which encapsulates the dilemma for promoted clubs when it comes to navigating the market. How far do you go in trying to chase the dream? How much is too much? And to what extent are you preparing not merely for a tilt at the top tier but the likely relegation that follows?
