Martin Jol insisted Fulham do not need to spend their way out of trouble in January after another bad result sucked his side closer to the relegation zone. This defeat by Swansea extended the Cottagers' miserable run to one win in 12 and left them four points above the bottom three.
Fulham look in need of reinforcements but, though Jol will try to dip into the transfer market when the window reopens on Tuesday, he is confident the return of injured players will be the real catalyst for a revival. Bryan Ruiz, in his first start for six weeks, showed with a man-of-the-match performance on Saturday how much Fulham had missed him.
And Jol hopes the imminent recovery of Mahamadou Diarra, Mladen Petric and Damien Duff will have the same effect. "If players come back from injury, I think that will freshen up the squad as well," said Jol, who admitted the trio were unlikely to return for Tuesday's trip to West Bromwich Albion. "If we can do something in the market, we will try to do that. But it's not easy. You know as well as I do that clubs will wait and wait until you have to pay the maximum price and we will not do that."