Farewell, but not goodbye.
That’s the situation facing Fulham this summer when it comes to the transfer of one of our players.
According to a report from Keith Downie at Sky Sports, Marcus Bettinelli is set to complete a loan move to Championship side Middlesbrough. With Marek Rodak taking over as number one last season, and the club seemingly looking to bring in another stopper, whether it be Mattia Perin or Alphonse Areola, it seems the writing is on the wall for Bettinelli’s time at the club.
I spoke a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of Bettinelli leaving, and with all that being said, I am much happier with it being a loan than I am a permanent deal, because it does show a little bit of long-term planning.
Is Bettinelli still good enough for Fulham?
Yes
No
Should we get relegated this season (which is and always will be a possibility, regardless of if you think we’re doing ‘good business’), and we see another frenzy of players exiting the club like we did when we were last relegated (I’m talking the likes of Jean-Michel Seri and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa), we’re going to need those good quality Championship players to add to the squad.
And in my mind Bettinelli is certainly one of them, as his statistics from the 2017-18 season would testify.
So if we were to find ourselves going into that season with either Rodak and Bettinelli as our number one and two respectively (assuming Rodak hasn’t impressed enough people to stay in the division, ala Aaron Ramsdale), or if we have sold Rodak and have to bring in Bettinelli as our number one again, at least we know that we have some quality to fall back on rather than having to scramble to find someone else.
So whilst we may be losing him now, that doesn’t mean we’re going to totally lose him further down the line.