Jokanovic warns ‘I am not Santa Claus’ as he prepares to axe stars

Slavisa Jokanovic believes there is no room for sentimentality as he prepares to be ruthless towards his Fulham players who won promotion to the Premier League.

The manager said “memory does not exist” in football after the club ended a spectacular transfer window by signing five more players on Thursday’s deadline day.

Fulham, who face Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage today, are the first newly-promoted side to spend more than £100million on transfers in the summer window. Jokanovic hopes the 12 new additions will provide competition for those who gained promotion by defeating Aston Villa in May’s play-off final.

Asked how he would keep all of his players happy, Jokanovic said: “I am not Santa Claus. I do not need to make anyone happy. I try to make it hard and great competition between my players.”

Of those who were so successful in the second half of last season, Jokanovic said: “We’re professional in this business and they must know it is not easy. It will be hard for all the players to have an opportunity to be a Premier League player.

“I need for them to compete daily to be ready for a harder competition at the end of the week. It is not a question of enjoying, to be a professional player is about hard work. It is not a question of who is a new player. In football, memory does not exist.

“After this game people will tell us whether we played well or not against Crystal Palace. They are not going to be thinking about the game we won against Villa.

“This is not a sentimental man. I want to be professional and at the end I am here for working hard and to try to take the right decisions and not to make mistakes. If I start to be sentimental this is probably when we’ll have more space for mistakes.”

Despite the outlay on players, Fulham are defensively stretched. Central defenders Tim Ream and Alfie Mawson are injured and Denis Odoi is suspended after he was sent off in the play-off final. Jokanovic could, therefore, field an untested centre-back pairing of Calum Chambers, who has joined on loan from Arsenal, and Maxime Le Marchand, who signed from Nice.

“I always want more, more and more [players],” Jokanovic said. “For my position, it’s normal. All the coaches need more options.”

He insisted, however, that the club’s priority would be to remain in the division. “It is important to show ambition and desire to stay up,” he said. “That is our first target.”