Marco Silva says Fulham “have to aim for something more” next season, but played down talk of European football.
Fulham finished 10th as a newly-promoted side under Silva’s watch last term and will finish between 12th and 14th this term after their final game of the season at Luton on Sunday.
Silva is a highly ambitious manager and is targeting European qualification with Fulham in the medium-term, but he has explained the need to be “realistic” about what his team can achieve next season, quoting some of the clubs he feels are in with a better shout of making Europe than the Cottagers.
“I am the manager of this football club and improvements will be there, I’m 100 per cent sure”, he said when previewing the next campaign. “But I don’t like to just use words. After, you have to have the actions. Not everything is in my hands.
“All the managers and clubs want the same improvements, and you have to see actions. I told the board that stuff. We have to prepare ourselves completely differently [for next season].
“The plan is already there, and let’s see what we’ll be capable to do. I’m not saying our ambition depends on how much we spend, because it’s not just that. It’s going to depend on many, many things that are not just in my hands.”
Asked about Europe specifically, Silva said: “I would prefer to talk about that in the future, not now, because it would probably not be the truth and wouldn’t be realistic. Looking at the club overall, of course there have to be improvements. We have to aim for something more.
“When you talk about European competitions, if you look at this country right now, you have the top six, you have two clubs that are really close to the top six.
“One of them played Champions League football last season — Newcastle — and Aston Villa is going to play Champions League [next season]. I’ve already put eight clubs there, and I can put more if you want.
“[Ambition] is dependent on the ambition we show in the market, our capacity to convince players to come to our club. Many, many things. For it to be very competitive in this league depends on many factors.
“We have to be really professional. To fight for something that right now is not realistic, we have to do the things almost perfectly over the next two or three months.”
Fulham have not played European football since finishing third in the group stages of the 2011/12 Europa League under Martin Jol.
