Fulham are in advanced talks to appoint former Real Madrid and Spain defender Alvaro Arbeloa as their new manager, following the departure of Marco Silva. It is fair to say this one has caught a few people off guard, and you can forgive Fulham fans for doing a double take when they saw the name pop up.
Arbeloa had a decent playing career, winning just about everything there is to win at Real Madrid, and he has been working within the Spanish football setup since hanging up his boots. He managed the Spanish under-23 side for a period, so he is not completely without experience in the dugout. That said, stepping into the Premier League as a head coach with relatively little top-level management experience is a significant jump, and nobody should pretend otherwise.
Marco Silva did a genuinely solid job at Fulham. He kept them up after promotion, developed some good young players, and had them playing tidy football for long stretches. Replacing him was always going to be a tough ask, and Fulham's decision to go with Arbeloa rather than a more proven name is the kind of call that could look either inspired or baffling depending on how the next eighteen months go.
The Arbeloa connection to the Spanish football world and his relationships within the game could help with recruitment, which matters a lot for a club of Fulham's size. If he can bring in the right players and has good people around him, there is no reason this cannot work. Premier League history is littered with managers who surprised people on both ends of the scale.
From a purely neutral standpoint, Fulham are a well-run club with a clear identity and a good owner in Shahid Khan, so they tend to get the benefit of the doubt. But this appointment will need to hit the ground running because the Premier League waits for nobody, and Fulham cannot afford a slow start trying to bed in an inexperienced manager.
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