The Tanner Report/What’s not to like?

Fulham have begun their season more than satisfactorily.

Now second in the Championship, a new starlet in Fabio Carvalho and a new coach who has us playing with more tempo, an owner who has enough wealth to withstand all the worst financial consequences of Covid.

We also have a squad with depth. What’s not to like?

A measure of how well we are doing is the number of pessimistic calls I get. After our  first game when we drew with Middlesbrough I had several, after the next two wins none at all.

Of course there are problem areas.

Alex Mitrovic has committed 2 violent challenges for which he was lucky to avoid a red card; our new keeper Paolo Gazzaniga’s positional sense looks dodgy; Anguissa wants a move.

We totally dominated 75% of the matches against Middlesbrough and Millwall only to be hanging on at the end. We therefore need to convert dominance into goals and learn how to close a game out.

In  the middle term we must break out of the yo-yo cycle of consecutive promotion and relegation  seasons.

The new owner has invested heavily in the new Riverside stand but must know he will only fill it if we are in the Premier. The corporates want to take clients to the Manchester clubs, not Millwall, to the visit of Chelsea, not Coventry,

There is nothing like an emerging star talent and we have one in Carvalho.

I thought at first we had nicked him from Benfica’s academy but no, he was spotted in Balham.

Another Fulham player came from Balham and went to make a name for himself – Jimmy Hill.

Young Fabio – only 18 – made one and scored one at Millwall.

He scored in the 5-1 destruction of Huddersfield. Now we have to hang onto him. A move now to a big Premier  club where he languishes in the reserves is bad for him but the player, agent and family don’t always see it that way.

Two of our best academy graduates in recent years – Patrick Roberts went to Manchester City and Ryan Sessegnon to Spurs – and their careers stalled.

17 year old Harvey Elliot went to Liverpool but does not get much game time.

The media are already commenting that it took £120m to assemble Fulham and only £6m Millwall.

However Balham, where Carvalho was discovered for nothing, is nearer Millwall than Fulham.