The Gaffer is treating the break like pre-season and has taken the lads off to a training camp in Murcia. They'll also play a friendly against Indian Super League side ATK – who are managed by former England and Manchester United winger Steve Coppell – on Saturday. The fixture will kick-off at 12pm (local time) at the Pinatar Arena Football Centre. Obviously some are missing because of International duty but, importantly he's got virtually all of the currently available back lot to work with. Only Cyrus Christie and Tim Fosu-Mensah are missing. The latter surprises me since I understood he hadn't made the final cut for the Dutch squad, but there you are. Pity in a way that Bettinelli got his call up for England. The other two goalies are there though and this gives them time to 'bond'. Great to see youngsters Harvey Elliot and Tyrese Francois getting recognition, as has Matt O'Riley, which won't come as a surprise to any of us. Wonder if Matt will take on the McDonald role or the Cairney one (Tom's travelling but wouldn't expect him to be doing much) ? Or maybe Matt's gone to be our set piece specialist against the Indians? The travelling squad is: Floyd Ayité, Joe Bryan, Tom Cairney, Calum Chambers, Luca de la Torre, Harvey Elliott, Fabri, Tyrese Francois, Aboubakar Kamara, Maxime Le Marchand, Alfie Mawson, Denis Odoi, Matt O’Riley, Sergio Rico, Andre Schürrle, Luciano Vietto
Definitely great to see the youngsters involved. Elliot really impressed me in the U18s game I saw, and we all know about Matt 'one-of-our-own' O'Riley. Can anyone tell me a bit about Francois?
First a quick reminder that Harvey Elliot is 15 ... Fifteen ! He first played for the U18s when he was 14. Tyrese Francois is 18 and Australian, although his family have been living over here for a while. Not a big lad but can put himself about. He's what we'd call a 'box to box' midfielder. Pacy and reads the game well. Signed a 3 year contract with the Club when he turned 17. Played in all the U18 games last season until breaking through to the U23s about half way through the season. Ever present for them since. He also took part in our 1st team pre-season stuff and came off the bench in the friendly against Southampton. Here's a goal he scored for the U18s:
Fulham 1 ATK 0 Oh no, it was raining. Sounds like a good work out for the lads, with Floyd Ayite getting an hour before being replaced by our goal scorer Andre Schurrle. Interesting to see that Calum Chambers took the defensive midfield holding role. The team was: Fabri (Rico 46'); Odoi, Mawson, Le Marchand (Francois 61'), Bryan; De La Torre, Chambers, O'Riley; Vietto (Elliott 46'), Kamara, Ayité (Schürrle 61') Would have been nice if the Club report had said something about how the youngsters fared, but here's a link to it anyway - http://www.fulhamfc.com/first-team/2018_2019/friendly/atk
