Marco Silva said that Fulham qualifying for Europe would mean ‘everything’ but warned that the club must first achieve the goal. Fulham currently sit in 10th, level on points with eighth-placed Chelsea.
Marco Silva said it would mean ‘everything’ for Fulham to qualify for Europe but was not getting ahead of himself.
Fulham drew level with Chelsea on 48 points with a much-needed win over Aston Villa on Saturday, with the Blues sitting eighth and currently occupying the final European spot.
The 1-0 win, courtesy of a goal from Ryan Sessegnon at Craven Cottage on Saturday, was the first since March 21, after a disappointing return from the international break, in which they failed to score against either Liverpool or Brentford.
But, with the mid-table pack of Premier League sides failing to find any consistency this season, one solitary win has given Fulham every chance of a return to Europe for the first time since 2012.
Now they have four remaining matches to finish the job off, and Silva revealed just how much making Europe would mean to Fulham.
He told TNT Sports: “As you expect, it means everything.
“When you make these people [fans] proud of what we have been doing, it is everything that you want as a manager if you are leading a football club, you have to make the people proud.
“What we have been doing, last season we did break the points record of the football club and straight away I set another target for the football club, which is to break it again and we are in this fight.
“We are six points from the total we had last season, this season we are in another fight for the European places and we are going to fight.
“What we can promise is not about results but about attitude, commitment, quality, because it is important within our identity as a team to play well, to have a good quality in our game just in that way to win football matches.
“It would mean many, many things but first we have to achieve it.”
Fulham return to action against Arsenal on May 2 in what is a hugely daunting fixture.
The Gunners are chasing Premier League glory, while Fulham last scored an away goal in a 3-1 win over Sunderland on February 22.
The positive for Fulham is that their home form has been so good, they have picked up 2/3rds of their points at Craven Cottage and they host Bournemouth, who themselves are unbeaten since January 3, on May 9.
After that, two hugely winnable matches, against Wolves and Newcastle, follow.
Fulham have the players and the manager to achieve something special, but as Silva says, they must now do it.