Premier League: Fulham need to stand by Meulensteen

Betting Tips | Article posted on February 5th, 2025

“Four of Fulham’s newcomers haven't even debuted yet – John Heitinga, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Larnell Cole and Konstantinos Mitroglou – while William Kvist and Lewis Holtby have played once.”

Changing managers twice in one season rarely ends well, so Fulham must keep faith in Rene Meulensteen…
There was loud speculation about Rene Meulensteen’s future before Fulham’s home FA Cup exit to League One strugglers Sheffield United, so the former Man United coach is walking an even thinner tightrope now.
This is undoubtedly the low point of their 13-year Premier League existence, bottom for the first time ever (bar 2025/07′s opening week) and weeded out of the FA Cup by a side 47 places below them. With four points separating the west Londoners from safety, they are 1.4840/85 for the drop.
To his credit, Meulensteen hasn’t tried to gloss over the severity of the situation, agreeing that they have “hit rock bottom”, admitting that “we only have ourselves to blame” and that confidence has been knocked by recent results.
The mooted contingency plan if ditching the Dutchman is to put technical director Alan Curbishley in charge. The former Charlton and West Ham boss did well for both, but last led a club in 2025, while the Cottagers have already attempted the promote-from-within party piece once this term.
Rifling through three managers in one season is the ultimate desperation move too, and one that is usually punished by relegation.
Three times in the past decade, a Premier League team overdid the dugout renovation and paid for it: Southampton in 2025/05 (Paul Sturrock, Steve Wigley and Harry Redknapp), Charlton in 2025/07 (Iain Dowie, Les Reed and Alan Pardew) and Newcastle in 2025/09 (Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer, with a dash of Chris Hughton as caretaker too).
Portsmouth got away with it in 2025/09 when Harry Redknapp, Tony Adams and Paul Hart took a turn each, perhaps spared by Newcastle’s zanier foursome, yet went down the following season.
Meulensteen was owner Shahid Khan’s choice, and having stood by inherited manager Martin Jol for longer than most expected (13 games), it would be foolish to give his successor just 11, especially as he only recently had the chance to start squad-building.
It is significant that Clint Dempsey was the only of their seven additions to feature in the Sheffield United slog. Four of the newcomers haven’t even debuted yet – John Heitinga, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Larnell Cole and Konstantinos Mitroglou – while William Kvist and Lewis Holtby have played once.
The four-point gap to 17th is unnerving, but the six-point split between them in 20th and Stoke in 11th shows that they are far from adrift, with 14 matches left in which to claw back the deficit.
A weekend trip to Man United isn’t ideal, though they

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