After months of struggle, Fulham finally have something to celebrate with Garcia deal

Fulham have finally landed the deal to sign Gonzalo Garcia from Real Madrid for a club record fee of €70 million.

After what has felt like a long period of negotiating, they have finally managed to convince Real Madrid to part ways with the young striker and as a result, bring to an end a period of worry and stress for Fulham fans around the world.

The Cottagers have had a very difficult summer transfer window up until this point.

It all began when Marco Silva left the club after five years to join Benfica despite Fulham offering a contract that would have made him the third highest paid manager in the Premier League.

Then came the news that Raul Jimenez was not going to get a new contract, and he has now rejoined Wolves.

And then of course, there was the departure of Harry Wilson, who, despite being offered a new deal, has opted to leave Fulham and join Leeds this summer.

That means that Fulham lost their manager, star player and top scorer and their striker all in one fell swoop and for zero compensation.

Then, of course there was who they replaced Silva with.

And the failures to bring in several managers, including Arne Slot, Ruben Amorim, Kieran McKenna and Thomas Frank, which left Fulham in a position where it seemed everyone was rejecting them.

The rumours then moved to Alvaro Arbeloa, and with the Spaniard came the links to several Real Madrid young talents.

One of those new talents was Garcia.

Arbeloa very quickly identified him with the Fulham board as the number one target, and it quickly became apparent that a deal to sign Garcia, whilst it would be expensive, it would be possible.

Fulham had had difficulties all summer in terms of negotiating, whether that be retaining Silva, Jimenez or Wilson, or in trying to secure new talent both in a managerial and playing sense.

And just last week it appeared that their plans to get Garcia over to Craven Cottage were going to come up short when Jose Mourinho planned to keep him after impressing in preseason.

With Fulham putting everything into Garcia and Arbeloa so keen on the Spanish forward, it left Fulham in a position of difficulty with regards to who they would sign up front.

This week, though, when a deal was apparently back on the table, the Cottagers have acted quickly, efficiently and with a rare streak of ruthlessness in order to bring Garcia to the club.

And with that comes a massive record spend, but more importantly for them have finally got their man, and they have finally succeeded in negotiating in probably the hardest possible circumstances.

Now Garcia can join the club, Arbeloa can plan properly going forward and hopefully, from Fulham's perspective, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of players joining this summer.

It's not been an easy summer so far, but could this be the start or something very special?