No drastic changes says boss Parker as Fulham head back to the Premier League
Scott Parker has vowed Fulham will learn lessons from their mistakes last time in the Premier League and will not make drastic changes.
Left-back Joe Bryan was the surprise hero at Wembley on Tuesday with the first brace of his career sending the Whites back to the top flight with a 2-1 extra-time victory over local rivals Brentford. It is the second time in three years Fulham have won the Sky Bet Championship play-off final, but they endured a torrid most recent season in the Premier League.
Despite spending more than £100 million on eight permanent signings plus five highprofile loans ahead of the 201819 campaign, the Craven Cottage club shipped 81 goals and finished 19th.
“You can’t build teams with drastic changes and drastic swings of players, you can’t do that,” Parker said.
“This team have been around myself for the best part of 15 months and they’ve improved, improved and improved. A lot more improvement needs to be done, for sure, but I am happy with where we are.
“We are going into the biggest league there is and we will need to add, but for sure no drastic changes.”
“There were some clear errors made last time and we will learn from that and need to. We are going into the best league in the world, the best players and best teams and it is a brutal league.
SCOTT PARKER “A lot more improvement needs to be done but I am happy with where we are”
“Irealisethechallengeahead. I don’t want to think about it at the moment because I want to enjoy what we have done so far, but we all understand and will learn from those mistakes.
“What we are trying to build and ingrain in these players and in this football club is core foundations and those core foundations get you far in life.”
Wembley hero Bryan, who joined the club two years ago ahead of their return to the top flight, is confident they are better equipped this time.
“Last time we went up, there wasn’t the right mentality in the squad,” Bryan told TALKSPORT.
“There were people here who were just happy to be there in the Premier League and not graft, but this time we have a really good, young, hungry squad and a good, young, hungry manager.”