..and the change Khan got was for the worse

SLAVISA JOKANOVIC was a dead man walking for more than a week before the axe finally fell.

But the seeds of his Fulham exit were sown in the summer.

When Cottagers owner Shahid Khan finally loosened the pursestrings and splashed out more than £100m on new signings, he expected results.

Just 12 games later his side are bottom of the table after losing six in a row – and Khan has seen enough.

Sometimes it is not how much you spend but who you buy – and why – that counts.

Jokanovic had spent most of his Fulham career complaining of a lack of signings and a lack of say in the club’s transfer policy.

But when the money started flowing, he ended up with players he did not want and holes in his squad he still believed needed filling.

As a result, he made 33 line-up changes in those 12 games, never once settling on his best team.

He also watched the dressing room unity he had worked so hard to build during last season’s triumphant promotion season via the Championship play-offs disintegrate.

The irony for Fulham is they have replaced their Tinkerman with the coach who coined the phrase for chopping and changing too much during his days at Chelsea.

Battle

But Claudio Ranieri faces an uphill battle to turn things around as Fulham have one of the worst Premier League records for any club at this stage of the season.

The Italian has a squad divided between players who played a big part in promotion but are not getting much of a look-in now and new signings who have failed to impress.

Fulham badly miss full-backs Matt Targett, who returned to Southampton from his loan spell at Craven Cottage last season, and Ryan Fredericks, who was sold to West Ham.

Replacements Joe Bryan and Tim Fosu-Mensah have not been up to scratch, while £27m midfielder Jean Michael Seri has struggled to justify his price tag at times.

Strangest of all, though, was the decision to bring in two goalkeepers – Fabri and Sergio Rico – to compete with Marcus Bettinelli, despite the latter being deemed worthy of an England call-up.

All three have started league games this season, only adding to the unsettled nature of the team.

Jokanovic had also lobbied hard for a ball-playing defensive midfielder, but the man he ended up with – Andre Anguissa from Marseille – has looked anything but a £22m player.

Matters came to a head when Jokanovic pointed the finger at his players after the defeat at Huddersfield 10 days ago.

The Serb, who had already admitted watching back clips of his