Jari Litmanen could be signed by Fulham for remainder of Premiership season

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Finland's veteran midfielder and captain Jari Litmanen could have another name on the list of clubs he has represented within a few days.
      Litmanen flew to London at the beginning of the week and has been training with Fulham, with a possible view to joining the struggling Premiership club for the reminder of this season.
      Litmanen was tempted to make the trip to London by the recently-appointed Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, who just happens to be the same Hodgson who coached Finland's national side for two years until the end of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign last autumn.
     
Litmanen has agreed to train with Fulham until the end of this month, at which point player and club will re-assess the situation.
      Hodgson is hopeful that Litmanen's guile in midfield could help the West London club avoid the drop from the Premiership: they are currently mired in the relegation zone, and Hodgson is believed to have been given almost a blank cheque by billionaire club owner Mohammed al-Fayed (owner of the Harrods department store) in order to keep Premier League football at Craven Cottage.
      Litmanen had a run-out with the Fulham reserve squad on Tuesday. The club's first team were not in training as they travelled on Tuesday to Bristol for an FA Cup 3rd round replay against Bristol Rovers.
      The Finn is expected to join the League squad today, Wednesday.
     
His involvement with Fulham on a longer basis than a week or ten days of intensive training is likely to depend both on his own fitness and suitability for the club's needs as well as on Hodgson's other acquisitions.
      Litmanen has been recovering from a nasty achilles tendon injury, and has been out of contract for some months.
      The Fulham midfield has already been bolstered by the arrival of 24-year-old Dane Leon Andreasen from Werder Bremen on a three and a half year contract.
      On Tuesday evening it also emerged that Fulham have sought to strengthen their striking force by buying Daniel Cousin from Glasgow Rangers for a reported £3 million, and just a week ago Fulham paid £5 million for Watford's Marlon King, another striker.
      It has even been speculated that Hodgson might be interested in securing the services of yet another Finn - Tottenham Hotspur's Teemu Tainio.
      Tainio has been short of first-team outings with Spurs and might be keen to make a move to West London, although he may also fancy the idea of collecting a winner's medal in the League Cup. Tainio was on the field on Tuesday evening as Spurs crushed their North London arch-rivals Arsenal to book a place in the League Cup Final.
     
Fulham already have two Finnish internationals on their books, in the shape of regular goalkeeper Antti Niemi and striker Shefki Kuqi.
      Kuqi's position is rather difficult, in that he is on loan from Crystal Palace, and the arrival of two new forwards in the past few days is unlikely to improve his already limited chances of regular first-team appearances.
      The belief is he will be returning to Palace or finding a new home somewhere else.
     
Roy Hodgson has not had an easy time of it since he joined Fulham at the end of December.
      The club have suffered three consecutive league defeats, at home to Arsenal and Chelsea and away to West Ham, and Tuesday night's cup-tie against lowly Bristol Rovers also ended badly as the club were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties.
      At least the loss of a place in the Cup will allow the players to concentrate on finding a way out of their relegation woes: Fulham are currently languishing in 19th place, with only Derby County below them and with five points separating them from safety.
     
Hodgson believes that despite Litmanen's long recent lay-off, if he is fit he can still do the business.
      The 36-year-old Finnish captain has played for Ajax, Barcelona, and Liverpool during his career, and has received 110 caps for his country. He is generally regarded as the finest footballer the country has ever produced.
      Fulham seem to have quite a few Finnish connections: not only players and the manager, but indirectly in the ownership of the club. Mohammed al-Fayed's wife Heini (née Heini Wathén) is a former Miss Finland finalist.
     


Links:
  Jari Litmanen (Wikipedia)
  Fulham FC

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