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Fulham’s decision to permanently offload this 14-goal star is absolutely justified and here is why

Fulham’s decision to offload Floyd Ayite permanently looks justified

As confirmed via Fulham’s official website, winger Floyd Ayite has departed Fulham to join Turkish top-flight side Gençlerbirliği S.K, thus bringing the curtains down on his three-year spell at Craven Cottage. 

Ayite made his move to West London back in the summer of 2016 after scoring 17 goals in 67 appearances for French Ligue 1 side Bastia and his stint at Craven Cottage proved to be quite a fruitful one as well. 

A tally of 14 goals and 11 assists in 84 appearances across all competitions might not flatter that much on paper but Ayite was one of the architects of the club’s promotion-winning campaign in the Championship in 2017-18. 

However, the Togo international found himself on the fringes of the first-team in the Premier League last season and largely appeared as a substitute, scoring once in 16 appearances as the Cottagers failed to beat the drop and went straight back down to the Championship. 

Despite Fulham making a promising start to their life back in the second-tier, Ayite struggled to mount a significant challenge for a regular starting role under Scott Parker, with the manager favouring loan signings Anthony Knockaert and Ivan Cavaleiro to complement Aleksandar Mitrovic up top. 

The 30-year-old’s solitary appearance in the Championship this term came as a late substitute in Fulham’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of newly-promoted Barnsley in the opening game of the season. 

The versatile winger was omitted from the matchday squads more often than not in the opening month of the season before a move to get him off the books permanently was finalised on deadline day, with the 30-year-old completing a switch to Turkey.

To put things into perspective, it was pretty evident from Parker’s team selection thus far in the Championship that Floyd Ayite was way down the pecking order at Craven Cottage and Fulham’s decision to part ways with the Togo international shouldn’t come as a big shock to the fans. 

Indeed, Ayite was one of the mainstays of Fulham’s attack when he first arrived at the club but things weren’t quite the same for him in West London over the past twelve months or so. 

However, the writing was on the wall for the veteran after he failed to make much of an impression in the Premier League, despite all his years of experience in Ligue 1, and the Cottagers’ decision to move him on should allow them to focus on the development of some of the youngster players at the club. 

Furthermore, with Knockaert and Cavaleiro making a good start to the season and Parker preferring the likes of Aboubakar Kamara and Bobby Reid as substitutes, Ayite’s chances of playing regualarly looked very slim, to be honest. 

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All in all, the 30-year-old’s time at Craven Cottage was not the worst but certainly not one that the fans would like to remember for too long in the years to come.