The final whistle blew on 2nd May 2022 at Craven Cottage and Fulham were confirmed as winners of the Championship.
The West London side had defeated Luton Town 7-0 and had returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
This was the fifth consecutive season that Fulham had either been promoted to, or relegated from, the Premier League, and many outsiders assumed that the Cottagers’ time in the top division of English football would be brief once again.
Recounting that period, Russ Goldman, host of the Cottage Talk podcast said: “The label ‘yo-yo club’ hurt but the label fit because they kept going up and down.
“It was partially to do with investment and who they had as their manager, they could not find the right combination.”
Despite these glum predictions Fulham did survive and fast forward three seasons they are an established Premier League team, set for a top-half finish and possibly European football.
The Fulham yo-yo shows no sign of dropping any time soon.
For Goldman, a lot of the credit goes to manager Marco Silva, who has been in post since July 2021.
He said: “Silva is the game changer, Silva has changed everything.
“So many players have improved underneath him, he’s the key to all Fulham’s success right now”.
The statistics back up Russ’s view, as Marco Silva has more points per game than any other Fulham manager in the Premier League.
Fulham’s yo-yo era began in 2018/19 under Slavisa Jokanovic and it is clear to see the difference between the amount of points he was winning with the Cottagers in the top division, compared to what Silva has done.
The only Fulham manager close to Silva in regards to Premier League points per game is Mark Hughes, and he was only in charge at Craven Cottage for one season.
Silva is currently the seventh longest serving manager in the top four divisions of English football, as his reign approaches the four year mark.
The Portuguese boss had failed to set the world alight at Hull City, Watford or Everton and so there were questions regarding whether he was the man to finally keep Fulham up.
He had a relegation on his copybook already after Hull City’s demotion in 2017/18 and had left Everton 18th in the Premier League when he was handed his P45 in late 2019.
Alex Irons, audio descriptive commentator for visually impaired fans at Fulham FC, was originally sceptical about the appointment.
He said: “As a Fulham fan, I didn’t know if he’s going to be worth, If he’s going to be good enough.”
As you can see, Silva has personally improved his Premier League record, improving on his win percentage from his period at Everton by 2% and decreasing his loss percentage from 43% to 40%.
At Fulham, he has solidified his reputation as a good Premier League manager who improves teams and players alike.
Irons added: “He’s been fantastic. He’s reshaped that team from top to bottom, taking Fulham from being a quote ‘yo-yo club’ to a team that finishes in the top half.”
On the pitch Silva has fostered a much greater outlay when it comes to goals in the Premier League.
In their previous unsuccessful seasons in 2018/19 and 2020/21 respectively, Fulham were twice the second worst team in the division for finding the back of the net.
Since returning in 2022 they have been scoring on a much more consistent basis and currently are the 13th highest scorers in the Premier League for 2024/25.
The key player when they first returned to the Premier League was undoubtedly Aleksandar Mitrović, who finished the 2022/23 season with 14 goals from 24 games, with the sixth highest goals per game ratio in the league.
Goldman was one of many Fulham fans concerned when the Serbian completed his big money move to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2023.
He said: “That summer was chaos. I was very nervous that if he left it would all fall apart because he was the main driving force at that time. Silva had built everything around Mitro.”
However, Fulham pressed forward through this setback and began sharing the goals out.
As you can see, many more players are contributing higher returns this season as opposed to Mitrovic’s last season in 2022/23.
Goldman said: “The one thing I’ve learnt throughout this whole thing is that this team is not built around one player, it’s about the sum of the parts.
“What has been a joy to watch is that you can’t just focus on one player, it’s made up by individuals to a unit.”
As a team they are scoring an average of 1.47 goals per game for this current season, dwarfing the 0.89 goals per game of 2018/19.
Irons stressed the importance of Silva’s work in making players better.
He said: “He’s a great man manager. He’ll bring players in that have been discarded at other clubs.
“Players that you look at and go, they might be upper Championship, lower Premier League players and he’s turned them into fantastic players.”
It’s important to look at the financial factors too when it comes to measuring success and Fulham buck the trend when it comes to the assumption that spending more equals more success.
Their largest outlay came in the 2018/19 season where they spent €116.5 million on acquiring players, yet this could only achieve a 19th place finish in the table.
Of this time, Goldman said: “There were so many of these players that they spent a tonne of money on, and it wasn’t the right mix of players.
“At the time the manager wasn’t ready to be a manager in the Premier League.
“When you’re a club like Fulham and you lay out that kind of money and you don’t hit on players, you’re screwed.”
Irons was also critical of the transfer policy in previous Premier League seasons.
He said: “It was like a higgledy piggledy scramble together, make the most of the season. Go down, pick up the parachute payment, try again next season.
“They were building a squad and not building a team.”
In their more successful seasons of 2022/23 and 2023/24 the club spent €76.1 million and €73.2 million, leading to 10th and 13th place finishes respectively.
Raul Jimenez arrived at the club in the summer of 2023 costing just €6.4 million yet he has played a part in every Premier League game this season and scored 17 goals in his almost two seasons with Fulham.
Their transfer expenditure for 2024/25 has crept back up towards 2018/19 levels with the club spending more than €90 million.
However due to the sales of João Palhinha and Jay Stansfield for almost €70 million combined, the club are eighth best in the league for net spending.
Goldman stressed the importance of the right kind of players over big transfer fees.
He said: “The players Silva brought in are a little bit older, but they have that experience in the Premier League and it’s paid off big time.
“They brought in Joachim Anderson, they brought in Sander Berge, that’s what he’s looking for. He’s looking for players that can step right in and play within his system.”
Irons praised owner Shahid Khan on his recent actions in the transfer market.
He said: “They’ve learned from their experiences, and they brought in a manager which they can trust, and who will do things relatively on the cheap.”
When it comes to this season, it’s been quite intense for Fulham fans.
Goldman said: “Rollercoaster doesn’t give justice to rollercoasters, it’s been up and down, there’s been so many peaks and valleys in this.”
Irons concurred, lamenting on what could have been.
He said: “It’s been a brilliant season in the respect that we’ve had massive wins against the clubs above us, but then, not being able to beat Ipswich and not being able to beat Southampton at home really levels that out.”
Despite the topsy turvy year, Fulham have a very real chance of qualifying for their first European campaign in 12 years.
It is likely to be a Europa League campaign or a maiden Europa Conference League campaign if things go their way, although there are a lot of moving parts.
No matter what, 2024/25 will end with Fulham in the Premier League and that’s something all Cottagers can enjoy.
Irons said: “The yo-yo has thankfully been put away in a drawer and hopefully is never seen ever again.”
Statistics sourced from Transfermarkt and FBref and are correct as of April 28th 2025
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