Why Fulham Over QPR Would Be The Ideal Destination For This 20-year Old Ligue 1 Midfielder

Why Fulham Over QPR Would Be The Ideal Destination For Christopher NKunku

According to reports in Europe, West London Championship clubs Fulham and Queens Park Rangers are both interested in trying to lure Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Christopher N’Kunku during the January transfer window.

Despite the club’s huge profile and newly found status – the favourites to win the Champions League, the 20-year-old NKunku is struggling for game time and has apparently told the Ligue 1 club that he wishes to leave in the next transfer window, alerting the two playoff hopefuls in England.

NKunku was born near Paris and supported PSG as a youngster and has represented his country at under-16, under-19 and under-20 levels. Despite his talent, he has found himself down the pecking order due to the influx of top expensive talent brought in by the club’s owners, such as Mbappe and Neymar.

To his great credit, the young midfielder appears not to relish the thought of sitting on the bench over playing in the reserves every week and wishes to come to England in order to enhance his ability and move his career forward.

He does have some top league experience, playing 8 times in Ligue 1 last season and even playing some minutes in the Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk back in December 2015.  He has slipped backwards in the queue at the Parc des Princes though and is looking for a way out.

The English Championship has become increasingly desirable of late, helped in no small way by Newcastle United and Rafa Benitez’s participation last season before some fine signings by Wolverhampton Wanderers this time around.

Both Fulham and QPR could arguably give NKunka a good leg up in the game, though one clearly has a better chance of reaching the playoffs than the other. Fulham are that side of course, especially now that Slavisa Jokanovic has gone back to a 4-2-3-1, playing Ryan Sessegnon as a part of the three supporting attackers.

The only issue would once again be the competition for places, with Fulham likely to want to show a strength in telling the young man that he cannot walk straight into the team with the likes of Norwood, McDonald and Johansen all vying for the same role.

With that in mind, the player may well think to himself: “why would I sit on the bench in Fulham when I can sit on the bench in Paris”?

However, any subterfuge aside, it’s clear that he would enhance their promotion possibilities and in return, he gets to play every week and feel truly valued.