Go for it Jokanovic – Completing this £8m double deal could be fantastic business for Fulham

Jokanovic signing Chelsea duo Lucas Piazon and Tomas Kalas could be great for the club

According to reports, Chelsea’s Lucas Piazon and Tomas Kalas are close to joining newly-promoted Premier League outfit Fulham in a £8m double deal.

The pair, who both spent the past two seasons on loan at Craven Cottage, played a vital part in Fulham’s Premier League promotion through play-offs. Both Kalas and Piazon failed to make their mark at Stamford Bridge, with the former making just two league appearances in his eight years at the club and the latter only one in a seven-season spell.

However, Kalas and Piazon were the pillars of Fulham in the 2017/18 campaign, making a combined 61 appearances in all competitions for the Cottagers. And Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic has wasted little in showing his desire to make the duo’s deals permanent ahead of the new season.

Jokanovic faces a massive summer transfer window in which he has to sort out his squad before the start of the 2018/19 campaign. He should build a team durable enough to sustain in the Premier League and compete at the highest level. In that case, Jokanovic moving towards making deals permanent for Kalas and Piazon augurs well for the west London club.

Kalas was one of the first names on the team sheet week for Fulham week in and week out last term. He was an indispensable figure until he got injured in March. Kalas’ injury saw Denis Odoi deputise as Fulham went on an unbeaten run. That made Jokanovic continue with the same winning team and Kalas never won his spot back in the starting XI.

As far as Piazon is concerned, he became a fan-favourite in his two-year spell at Fulham. The Brazilian contributed with plenty of goals and assists in Fulham’s 2017/18 campaign and succeeded in taking his game to another level under Jokanovic. After a myriad of loan spells, Piazon finally found some stability at Craven Cottage and became a vital cog of the team’s engine this past season.

It is crucial for Jokanovic to retain players he worked with at Fulham this season. Piazon and Kalas were instrumental in helping the Cottagers earn promotion back to the Premier League, and it is logical for Jokanovic for wanting to sign them on a permanent basis this summer.

Fulham must splash good amount of money to reinforce their current squad if they want to retain their Premier League status beyond the upcoming season. But after four years in the Championship, the Cottagers need to shell pennies wisely and shrewdly in the summer.