Gonzalo Garcia to Fulham OFF - Reports

Fulham’s dream this summer appears to have come to a crushing halt.

Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Garcia was Alvaro Arbeloa’s number one target after his appointment as Los Blancos boss and there were reports earlier this week that Fulham were making inroads about signing him.

But today there have been multiple reports to suggest that Jose Mourinho, now back at Real Madrid for his second stint in charge of the Spanish giants, is keen to keep Garcia.

As a result of that change in stance from Mourinho, Fulham have subsequently pulled out of their interest in signing Garcia.

It is a big blow to their summer hopes of bringing in the Spanish forward, who rose to prominence at the Club World Cup last year where he won the Golden Boot as Real Madrid reached the semi-finals.

But his future in the Spanish capital was unclear once Arbeloa, who had coached him throughout his time at Real Madrid Castilla and then when he took over from Xabi Alonso in the senior team, departed in the summer.

That uncertainty gave Arbeloa and Fulham hope that there was a chance they could make one of the signings of the summer by bringing the one-cap Spaniard to Craven Cottage this summer.

Now though, it is a case of back to the drawing board for Fulham.

The club are in fairly desperate need of a new centre forward and right winger, having seen Raul Jimenez and Harry Wilson both leave this summer on free transfers, joining Leeds and Wolves respectively.

Those departures scored 19 goals for Fulham last year in the Premier League  and the club are after players who can fill that void.

Who Fulham move to now that Garcia is off the table will be interesting.

They have had offers twice rebuffed for Ricardo Pepi from PSV Eindhoven and the second deal came to a fairly tense conclusion with neither side willing to identify who would be responsible for the USA forward if he got injured.

Then there have been links to Republic of Ireland hero Troy Parrott and a return to the Premier League after leaving Tottenham to join AZ Alkmaar.

Folarin Balogun is also looking for a move to the Premier League, although Fulham have not been linked to the Monaco forward.

There are options out there, but Fulham need to act quite fast here, with Rodrigo Muniz currently the only senior striker in the squad after Jimenez’s departure and 18-year-old Jonah Kusi-Asare signed on a pernanent deal from Bayern Munich.