New Fulham boss Mark Hughes believes he “still has plenty of time” to bring in new faces as he bids to improve the Cottagers (Fulham 16/1 Premiership without Top 6).
The Welshman was unveiled as the new Fulham boss last week and watched from the stands as his side went down 1-0 in a friendly fixture against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Hughes will take charge of his first fixture in the Cottagers friendly tie against German outfit Werder Bremen on August 7, a week before they begin their Premier League campaign with a trip to Bolton’s Reebok Stadium (Bolton 6/5, draw 11/5, Fulham 15/8).
With just two weeks until the start of the season the former Blackburn and Manchester City boss will have to move quickly to secure new additions but Hughes insists he is relaxed over transfer dealings.
“Ideally, we would’ve liked to have been in place before the pre-season schedule was undertaken, but that wasn’t possible” conceded Hughes.
“We’ve got two weeks before the start of the season and we’ve still got another two weeks after that of the window to negotiate as well, so there’s still plenty of time.”
Hughes has been in the Fulham hot-seat for less than a week but the Cottagers boss has already been linked with a number of players, including Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland. All three played under Hughes at City, while both Santa Cruz and Bellamy have been signed twice by Hughes (for Blackburn and City) and Bellamy was also a part of Hughes’ Wales squad when he managed the Welsh team.
It is unclear whether or not there is any substance to the reports that Hughes is chasing the City trio, many managers are linked to players they have worked with in the past and often these stories amount to nothing but the Fulham boss has revealed he will be backed in the transfer market.
He added: “The Premier League is a very expensive league and you do need resources; you need funds to keep energising the team to enable it to continue.
“If you don’t add quality to a club and a group of players then you will stand still and people will overtake you.
“Maybe that was the reassurance that I needed when I had the discussions with Alistair (Mackintosh, chief executive).”
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