Craven Cottage star says Marco Silva’s men must lay down a marker in their opening Championship clash against Middlesbrough
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Prutton assesses West Brom, Fulham and Sheff Utd’s chances of success
Tosin Adarabioyo says anything less than promotion will be deemed a failure at Fulham this season.
The Cottagers suffered relegation to the Championship in May but are looking to bounce straight back to the Premier League, just as they did two campaigns ago.
And ahead of a tough first game against Middlesbrough today, in what will be new boss Marco Silva’s first game in charge, the 23-year-old and his pals are looking to lay down a marker.
He said: “We’re going into the season for one thing and that’s to get back to the Premier League.
“So anything short of that is definitely a failure.
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“From day one of pre-season, relegation was behind us — obviously, we can’t dwell on that for too long.
“It was a disappointment but we’re all just focused on this season.
“We obviously have a different manager so it’s different ways of playing, different systems, and we’re all just getting used to that, getting used to the demands of the new manager and hopefully it all goes well.
“I’m feeling good, feeling ready to go and looking forward to the start against Middlesbrough.
“It’s definitely the chance to lay down a marker, it’s the first game of the season and every single team in the league is going to be wanting to win their first game. So it’s going to be a tough one.”
Adarabioyo was one of the few Fulham players who could hold his head high at the end of last season after performing well individually.
And while there wasn’t one top-flight striker he wanted to single out as having given him a seriously difficult game, there certainly was one team.
He added: “It was the Premier League so there were obviously a lot of top strikers we came up against.
“But Manchester City was one of our toughest games, that was one of the only games I felt we weren’t really in.”
Fulham’s meetings with City were big games for Adarabioyo given the fact he came through the ranks there before leaving for Craven Cottage last October.
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And they also pitted him against a player from whom he learned so much.
Adarabioyo said: “Vincent Kompany had a good influence on me, obviously he had an amazing career and was one of the best centre-halves who has played in the Premier League.
“So I did take some things from him and I was lucky enough to be able to learn from him and see how he works.
“I probably learned the most from John Stones, though, he’s a top centre-half and I tried to watch him a lot.
“The decisions he makes on the pitch, his playing style, how he sees the game… I was able to learn a fair bit from him watching him.”
If Fulham are to play against Stones and Co again next season they will need Aleksandar Mitrovic to pick up where he left off in tier two.
Adarabioyo added: “Everybody knows what Mitro is about, especially in the Championship, he gets an incredible amount of goals.”
