Louis Saha: Marco Silva should stay at Fulham – winning a trophy there is a possibility

Former Fulham striker Louis Saha does not believe that Marco Silva has maxed out the potential of the west London club and that they can win major silverware.

The Portuguese is the seventh longest-serving boss in England’s top four divisions.

Silva has been in charge since July 2021 and led the Whites to the Championship title in his first campaign at the helm.

Since then the 47-year-old has comfortably consolidated Fulham in the Premier League and they also reached the EFL Cup semi-final last season, losing narrowly over two legs against Liverpool.

Silva, whose deal at Craven Cottage runs until 2026, has been linked with Tottenham and also a switch to Saudi side Al-Hilal.

Fulham have been in the hunt for European football next season but their top-seven hopes have been hit by losses to Chelsea, Aston Villa and Everton.

Former France international Saha, who scored 63 goals in 142 matches for the Whites before being sold to Manchester United in 2003, is adamant Silva can still achieve more in west London. Speaking on behalf of Mega Dice, he said: “He’s done brilliantly, but Fulham can still go up one or two rungs on the ladder.

“I really think that this club is amazing. They have understood how to stay in the Premier League, to maintain this type of quality all the season. They’ve not had any long stretches of under-performance.

“They give everyone a tough match, and Silva is the master of that success. They have the capacity to reach and play in Europe, maybe win some trophies. That’s what I want to see from them, and Marco is the man for that.

“I’d be happy to see him stay and take them all the way to a trophy.

“Fulham are an ambitious team who want to go further, and they shouldn’t be thinking of any ceiling on their performance. They could even recruit better players in the summer to kick on.

Fulham have missed Rodrigo Muniz. The Brazilian might not feature again this season due to an achilles injury suffered towards the end of last month.

The 24-year-old, believed to be the subject of interest from West Ham United in January, has scored eight goals in 31 Premier League appearances.
Muniz was signed from Flamengo on a five-year contract in August 2021.

Saha said: “Fulham need to improve their consistency even more, and they need to turn losses into draws, and draws into wins. They need to learn to win ugly, and get 15 more points from the season. The style of play is great, but they can go even better.

“That’s what Rodrigo Muniz can do to improve himself, and help his team. He needs to score important goals.

“He has great players alongside him, they have two good strikers (Muniz and Raul Jimenez). If they are both scoring 20 a season, things would be amazing.”