What does Garcia rejection mean for Fulham’s plans?

Fulham were hoping to sign Gonzalo Garcia from Real Madrid this summer in what would have been one of the deals of the transfer window.

Alvaro Arbeloa had made it clear he wanted Garcia to come to Craven Cottage and follow him from the Spanish capital, and at one stage this week it appeared that this would be exactly what happened.

That was of course, until Thursday, when it was revealed by the BBC that Fulham were pulling out of their interest in signing Garcia due to Jose Mourinho’s wishes to keep him at Real Madrid.

That is a crushing blow to Arbeloa, who had harboured a lot of hope in bringing Garcia, with whom he has an excellent relationship from both Real Madrid Castilla and the senior team, to Fulham to begin his life in the Premier League.

He still hopes to bring in at least one of his La Fabrica stars to Fulham, in the form of either Cesar Palacios or Thiago Pitarch, but whether either of those deals come to fruition or not very much remains to be seen.

Regarding Garcia, though, what does that mean from a Fulham perspective?

Well, the Cottagers of course, need to sign a centre forward this summer; that has not changed with the rejection of Garcia.

The position remains abundantly clear, having lost Raul Jimenez to Wolves.

So Arbeloa currently only has Rodrigo Muniz and Jonah Kusi-Asare to his name as the recognised centre forwards in the squad.

Muniz bagged just one goal all of last season, in the opening game against Brighton, while Kusi-Asare did not score in his seven appearances for the Cottagers.

Fulham have been linked to other strikers, Ricardo Pepi very nearly joined twice either side of the January transfer window but there was a disagreement regarding the timing of the first bid and then who would be responsible for him should he get injured the second time.

That ship appeals to have sailed now, and Pepi himself previously stated in an interview how difficult that was mentally to deal with not moving to Fulham after all.

There has been further interest in the likes of Troy Parrott, but in all honesty, Fulham missing out on Garcia puts them back to square one.

The club need a striker and Arbeloa wants someone he can trust to lead the line.

Without Garcia, it is difficult to see who exactly that could be.