With a 3-0 win over Preston North End on April 19, Championship leaders Fulham have mathematically wrapped up a top two spot in the Championship. With that, the Cottagers become the first of three clubs to officially secure promotion to the Premier League next season.
Two weeks later, Fulham emphatically clinched the Championship crown with a 7-0 walloping of Luton Town. The Whites are on top of England's second tier, returning to the top flight for the third time in the last five years. They hope it will go differently this time around.
It has been a season to remember for manager Marco Silva and Fulham, scoring an insane amount of goals in the chase for a Premier League place.
Still, there are plenty of questions about how the formula used in the second Dallas Cowboys Pants tier will work in the unforgiving top flight, and whether Fulham should risk a summer reset in order to mold itself for a long-term stay in the Premier League. Having yo-yo'd for four years running, it will take a spot-on summer from the Fulham front office and a helmsman's charge from Marco Silva to keep the Whites up.
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Fulham FC Championship promotion
Fulham flew to the top of the Championship table Roger Staubach Jerseys early in the 2021-22 season and remained there pretty much wire to wire. A slight dip in late September saw the club drop to fifth place, but it quickly recovered and was top by late November, never again relinquishing its lead.
Here's a rundown of how the club has pushed for promotion this season.
Aleksandar Mitrovic record-breaking season
The biggest story of Fulham's season is the goalscoring record, with an astonishing +67 goal differential on the back of 106 goals scored through 45 matches played to this point. That is on pace to set the single-season Championship goals record set at 108 by Manchester City in 2002-03.
At the forefront of that goalscoring outburst is Serbian international Aleksandar Mitrovic, who has had a roller-coaster career. Arriving from Newcastle in January of 2018, Mitrovic has been unstoppable this season in the Championship.
With now 43 goals acro s 43 league matches, Mitrovic has smashed the Championship single-season goalscoring record of 31 (since 2004 rebrand) set just last year by Brentford's Ivan Toney. Most recently, he has also broken an even bigger mark: the modern era second-tier record (since World War Two) of 42 goals in a 46-game league season, set by Guy Whittingham of Portsmouth in 1992-93.
The manager and his staff have changed the way we train," in late February. "They have changed a lot of details, I would say. Not just for me, but as a team. We feel fitter. I feel fitter than I was before, more fit than ever in my life. I dont know if thats the Championship or something, but I feel really good."
Still, there are questions about Mitrovic's long-term viability as the club heads to the Premier League next season. Mitrovic has an incredible 78 goals in 101 Championship matches since joining Fulham, but just 14 goals in 64 Premier League matches with the club, including a paltry three goals in 27 matches during Fulham's 2020-21 relegation campaign. Mitrovic must prove his target man style can indeed translate to the English top flight.
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Marco Silva tactics Ezekiel Elliott Hoodies Sweatshirts Getty Images
Fulham made an emotional managerial change after relegation from the Premier League, parting ways with fan favorite Scott Parker and hiring former Everton and Watford bo s Marco Silva. It was a risky move, as Parker was far from the only reason for Fulham's relegation and Silva had not worked since a disastrous Everton spell that ended in 2019.
The move has proven a smashing succe s. Silva managed to take Parker's vision of Fulham as a po se sion team which never truly came to fruition in the Premier League and mold it into a reality in the Championship. Fulham held an average of 60.6 percent po se sion through the Championship season, completing Emmitt Smith Jerseys a stunning 457 pa ses per game. That's not quite Man City levels (68 percent po se sion and 618 pa ses per game), but it's still an accurate reflection of what Fulham has become under Silva.
His preferred 4-2-3-1 formation got the best out of Aleksandar Mitrovic up front and Fabio Carvalho as a No. 10, with Nathaniel Chalobah and Harrison Reed holding down the middle of the pitch. It also saw the resurgence of club captain Tom Cairney, who looked washed in the relegation campaign.
Fabio Carvalho transfer saga
It wasn't all sunshine and roses this season for Fulham despite the table-topping performance, and the high-flying act may well have cost the Whites a talented young player.
Fabio Carvalho, a 19-year-old Fulham youth product, made his profe sional debut late in last season's Premier League season, and this season has transformed into a critical component of Fulham's dangerous attack.
He has also outsmarted Fulham's front office. The youngster, knowing he's a wanted man and courted by many top English clubs, refused to sign a new contract at Fulham, and his current deal expires this summer.
Liverpool has long been the most aggre sive for his signature, nearly signing him in the winter (he had even completed a medical before time ran out on Deadline Day), and according to a host of he will officially sign for the Reds on a free transfer once this season is over.
Liverpool will reportedly pay Fulham $6.5 million for Carvalho plus a 20 percent sell-on fee, despite the club's ability to sign him on a free transfer, mostly because the Troy Aikman Jerseys Reds would still have to pay Fulham a fee determined by a tribunal due to the Premier League's rules about signing young academy products, so it was just easier for the clubs to come to an agreement.
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How much is promotion worth?
This is difficult to calculate to an exact level, because the TV Emmitt Smith T Shirts broadcast revenue is not shared on an exactly even basis, but the consensus is real it's worth a LOT.
According to the done by Deloitte in 2021, when factoring in parachute payments incurred over a number of years following po sible relegation, promotion to the Premier League last season as much as $240 million in an absolute worst-case scenario situation (the club finishes bottom of the league, falling back to the Championship after one season).
According to a release by , Norwich City, who finished bottom of the Premier League in the 2019-20 season, still received around $120 million just that season alone, and that came before the new and lucrative Premier League broadcast deal signed, which will net the 20th-place finisher at least $143 million according to . Then, tack on parachute payments for relegated clubs, which the Deloitte study tabs at around $63 million for first-year relegated clubs, and the amount skyrockets even further.
Fulham past Premier League promotions Getty Images
After rele