VIRGIL VAN MIKE
Hector ready to be big name in Prem
IF Ollie Watkins and Brentford are going to reach the Premier League next season then they’re going to have to find a way past ‘Virgil van Mike’.
That’s the nickname Fulham fans have given Michael Hector, the central defensive colossus who has helped them keep 12 cleans sheets in his 24 games since January.
Hector agreed to join Fulham from Chelsea last summer but the paperwork wasn’t quite lodged in time and, although he was granted permission to train with the Cottagers, he had to wait until the mid-winter transfer window for the move to be ratified.
We’ll never know if his presence in the first half of the season would have helped them win the extra three points that would have seen Fulham finish above second-placed West Brom and gone up automatically.
But Fulham will be a Premier League side again at the first attempt following last season’s relegation if they can beat Thomas Frank’s Bees at Wembley on Tuesday in the £170million Championship play-off final.
Hector said: “The nickname is a bit of banter with the fans. They have just been happy with my performances since I came in.
“Virgil has got to be one of the best centre-halves in the world, so to be linked with that kind of player is great.
“Obviously, I’m my own player, but it’s clearly a positive, it’s nice.” Hector is definitely his own man – and reaching the Premier League would seem a just reward for the 28-year-old, who has put in the miles, working his socks off to try to get there.
He started at Reading and spent six years there, making 54 Royals appearances, around loan spells with 11 different clubs.
Eyebrows were raised in 2015 when Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea signed him, although he was immediately sent back on loan to Reading and had three further loans, with Eintracht Frankfurt, Hull and Sheffield Wednesday before leaving Stamford Bridge for Fulham without having made a single first-team appearance for the Blues.
Hector was a boyhood Chelsea fan, and now he is desperate to face his old club in the league next season.
He said: “I would love to play against Chelsea. I signed there and it wasn’t to be but I’ve found a home now at Fulham and I can’t wait for us to play in games like that, hopefully next season.
“I’ve not played in the Premier League before, I’ve been close, so it’s a dream. I’ve grown up striving to play in matches like that and now we’re 90 minutes away from being there.”