Jokanovic vows to fight to the last
Fulham manager tells Jason Burt why he has given side an ‘aggressive’ edge ahead of play-offs
Slavisa Jokanovic is the romantic with the boxer’s instinct. A man who waxes lyrical about evocative, “traditional” football stadiums such as Craven Cottage and what they represent. “I am back in my childhood,” enthuses the Fulham head coach, who marvels that League One matches at AFC Wimbledon are so popular that he spent a week finding tickets for friends, and who talks of how it took just one training session to promote Ryan Sessegnon, then just 15, into the Fulham first team.
Jokanovic, though, also says he will not “kill myself ” trying to be a purist like Pep Guardiola. Good football, attacking football, means much to Jokanovic. But, above all, so does winning.
That is the “reality” of being a manager, he says. “I try and enjoy my job but the hardest thing is what is in front of us – I don’t know what opinion there will be of me on Saturday night,” the Serbian explains.
“I accept this kind of situation and I have dealt with it many times. I know that many times somebody is going to punish me, but I’ve never been ‘Ko-ed’. I’ve been on the floor many times but I will stand up and continue fighting.”
Tomorrow, Fulham kick off the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final against a Reading side managed by Jaap Stam, to earn the right to face either Huddersfield Town or Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley Stadium on May 29.
It will be a remarkable achievement for whoever makes it but, maybe, most of all, Fulham. Last season they finished 20th in the Championship and 19 players left including strikers Moussa Dembélé and Ross Mccormack with 42 goals between them.
“We started with a new team,” said Jokanovic, who arrived in December 2015 to find a club “depressed” after dropping down from the Premier League and struggling to cope. The Serb saved them from relegation and rebuilt.
“At the start of pre-season the situation was not clear,” Jokanovic says. Now there is clarity. “It’s not just about style,” he says. “It’s about mentality. They [the fans] are happy because we are aggressive and we show desire to win.”
The play-offs, nevertheless, were unexpected. “OK, it’s a bonus but if you believe our job is done by being in the top six without trying to play in a final or without trying to be a Premier League team that doesn’t make sense,” he says. “We are not finished with our job. Maybe our bonus can come in 20 days.”
Indeed, Fulham are the form team with the highest points return in 2017 and the division’s best stats on shots per game, possession, pass accuracy, goals in open play, fewest fouls committed, even fewest long balls played.
“I want to play this way but if I don’t have enough quality players then I have no choice but to do it differently,” Jokanovic explains. “I don’t [do it] to kill myself. I am not Guardiola. This guy he has killed many coaches who have tried to be like him. I don’t want to be a similar coach like him.
“I want to be myself and understand what happens around me and find the best way for my team. I have worked in the Champions League [with Maccabi Tel Aviv] and I don’t also play the same here as I did at Watford.”
Jokanovic took Watford to the Premier League in 2015, after becoming their fourth coach that season, but could not agree a new contract and left. But that job, and going to Fulham, was part of a fascination with England that started when the former midfielder joined Chelsea towards the end of his career, having spent his best years in Spain.
“I wasn’t especially fast or strong but I had a good mentality,” Jokanovic says. “I was a champion in different countries, I played in
Sat, May 29 (Wembley 3pm).
the World Cup, European Championships, I played many times for my country and I scored many goals and played more than 200 games in Spain.
“I know Chelsea supporters don’t have a very good opinion of me from that part of my football career but… I was in a secondary role.
“But I was very happy at the club, it’s massive and it was a fantastic time there and that period helped me decide that I would come back to England in my future and I found a job in Watford.”
Why? “I am not an English guy,” he says. “I am from a different part of the world and when people ask me about English football, my first sensation is about these places, the old stadium. Full crowds, noisy supporters, 40,000 people… these are my memories.
“Craven Cottage is a stadium that takes me back to my childhood. I like to watch League One and League Two. I had a big problem as some of my friends from Serbia wanted to go and watch Wimbledon against Oldham and I spent a week trying to find tickets. It was sold out! When they asked me for the tickets I was in trouble as I didn’t understand how it could be sold out in League One… it’s beyond explanation.
I did get the tickets though.”
So Fulham are “more traditional”, he says, than Chelsea: “Chelsea are modern, the highest level of the football in this country and we cannot compare. I am not going to sign any players for £90 million like they will.”
But he could sell one, in Sessegnon, for £50 million? “For him, yeah, £50 million is a realistic price,” Jokanovic says, laughing, of the left-back who is coveted throughout the Premier League and who only turns 17 next week. He explains his impact: “I don’t give this kid any presents. He deserves to be in the situation where he is.
“Many people are talking about him. He is naturally a strong man. His mind is really open. His capacity for learning is at the highest level. He’s a good professional kid. I remember when I was a player at 16, I was miles off his level.”
Getting Fulham to the Premier League would help fend off suitors – for player and manager. Jokanovic sees it only as the start.
“If we arrive there we need to be clear about staying there. It’s ambition. Push hard and that’s it,” he says.