Fulham’s best and worst summer deadline day signings

Deadline day is the holy grail to so many. We all dream of an Ornstein exclusive or Fabrizio ‘here we go’ notification about our club. We’re all desperate for that one last piece of the puzzle to join the club to set us up for the season. We’re all dying to see if finally Dwight Gayle joins the club. Here, George Rossiter looks at the best and worst of Fulham’s summer deadline day business from the 21^st century…

The best

5. Dimitar Berbatov

Not many players have filled me with as much excitement as when Berbatov joined from Manchester United in the summer of 2012. At 31 years old at the time, the Bulgarian icon was probably past his prime years, but still showed why he had had such a prestigious career for club and country. His 19 goals across two seasons in black and white gave multiple glimpses of his quality, alongside iconic celebrations and out of this world first touches. In terms of outright footballing ability, rarely in my lifetime have I seen better for the Whites.

4. Tosin Adarabioyo

Admittedly Tosin is a sore subject at the time of writing following his free transfer to the other side of South West London this summer, but the facts are that, following his move to Fulham in 2020, Tosin was a solid performer and offered phenomenal value for money. The centre-back’s move was completed in October that year, with the transfer window pushed back due to the pandemic, and across the next four seasons he would prove to be a key member of Fulham’s backline, forming a formidable partnership with Tim Ream as Fulham went from strength to strength under Marco Silva.

3. Harrison Reed

One of the most universally liked Fulham players of the modern era, the ‘Ginger Iniesta’ initially joined on loan from Southampton on the summer deadline day of 2019. His evolution as a player in that half a decade has seen him come close to an England call-up and add a more attacking aspect to his game under the guidance of Silva especially. Rarely dropping less than a 7/10, Reed is always a reliable force in the midfield, covering every blade of grass every time he steps out in the black and white.

2. Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Bobby joined on the same day as Harrison Reed in 2019, also originally on a loan deal. Like Harrison Reed, ‘BDR’ has been one of Fulham’s most reliable players of recent times, particularly due to his incredible versatility and professionalism. The man had played in every outfield position for the club other than centre back before departing this summer for Leicester City. The Jamaican international scored a host of important goals for the club, including in the run in to Championship promotions or in huge Premier League victories such as the one against Arsenal last season.

1. Danny Murphy

Arguably one of the most influential players in the history of our football club, Danny Murphy joined on the summer deadline day of 2007. Within 10 months, he was scoring the goal at Fratton Park that secured our safety in the Premier League, little would he have known at that time that he was two years away from captaining the side in a major European final. His leadership role in his five years at the club was invaluable, as was his penalty taking abilities and outright quality on the ball, all attributes that had earnt the midfielder nine England caps earlier on in his career. Considering Murphy was effectively signed on a free transfer following the club taking over his Tottenham contract, he represents arguably the best value-for-money signing in modern Fulham history.

The worst

5. Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa

Talking of value for money… that’s what brings Anguissa into the conversation for this article, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Evidently, Anguissa is not one of the worst five deadline day signings to play for the club, the man oozed class when he felt like showing it, and as has been since in Italy as he won the Scudetto with Napoli. However, for the incredibly high fee paid for the Cameroon international in the crazy summer of 2018, Anguissa represents a really poor deadline day signing, and ultimately just leaves fans wondering what could have been had Zambo showed his incredible ability more often at Craven Cottage.

4. Julian Gray

Maybe this is quite harsh, but when researching summer deadline day moves in the 21st century, this feels like one of the weirdest and ultimately one of the worst. Gray was an average at best winger in his late 20s playing for Championship side Coventry when the club signed him on the 2008 summer deadline, initially on loan. Despite only making one substitute appearance, the club made the deal permanent in February. Gray made no further appearances and was released just months later. A deal that seems in hindsight like a complete waste of everybody’s time.

3. Domingos Quina

This is another strange one. When Quina signed on loan at the end of the 2021 summer window, it came out of the blue. Everyone was seemingly aware of Nathaniel Chalobah’s move from Watford (another who wasn’t far off this list), but a double announcement including the signing Quina felt like a rushed opportunity with no thought behind it. Quina’s debut against Blackpool was a borderline disaster and the Guinea-Bissau born midfielder only featured once more in the Championship for the club.

2. Jordan Graham

There was so much to love in the promotion winning season of 2017/18 under Slavisa Jokanovic, but watching Jordan Graham was not one of those things that we enjoyed too much. Graham had a reputation as being quite a tricky winger for the level, with decent previous experience with the likes of Ipswich and Wolves. Graham simply never showed that in his limited opportunities at Craven Cottage, with his spell ultimately summed up by a turgid performance at the Stadium of Light as Fulham fell to defeat to Sunderland prior to our incredible unbeaten run in 2018, a run which Graham played barely any part in, understandably.

1. Steve Marlet

Similarly to Anguissa at the start of this ranking, Marlet isn’t on this list particularly due to his footballing ability like Graham, Gray and Quina may have been. Marlet’s deadline day move in 2001 made him Fulham’s record signing, a record that stood for seven years after the club paid north of £11m to sign the striker from Lyon.

While his 11 goals across four years at the club aren’t a great look, that is not the full story in the slightest. Marlet’s performances were so poor that Mohamed Al-Fayed decided to take Jean Tigana, the manager that signed Marlet, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for the money spent on Marlet at the time, an issue exaggerated by Tigana’s ties to Marlet’s former club Lyon and the player himself, previously representing Marlet as his agent. Al-Fayed claimed that the high transfer fee allowed Tigana to take a cut of the money himself and that the poor performances showed the player to be nowhere near worth the money spent on him. While those charges were dropped, the whole mess and the money spent on a player who never shined for the club make him Fulham’s worst summer deadline day move this century.