The tempting 260-goal striker signing Fulham must resist completing this summer transfer window

For a little while last season, Fulham started to look like a team that could contend for a European place. They fell away down the home stretch, sadly, losing three of their last four matches, but there were definite signs of life under manager Marco Silva. Now, those green shoots need to be nurtured in the transfer market.

It’s no great shock, then, to see them getting ready to bid for a striker, one with 260 professional goals to his name whose record in top-level football persuaded Inter Milan to sign him last summer – but is Mehdi Taremi really the right man to elevate Fulham’s attack next season?

Why Fulham have ‘ignited’ their interest in Mehdi Taremi

A new report from Italian outlet Calciomercato builds on prior stories in claiming that the Cottagers have “concretely ignited” a bid for Taremi, an interesting blend of cliches which perhaps suffers in the translation. An Iran legend who has scored 55 goals for his country and a further 205 at club level with Inter, Porto and others, Taremi’s track record is unquestionably impressive, and Fulham certainly need a proven goalscorer.

Every team in the top half of the Premier League table outscored Fulham last season, and between the age of Raúl Jiménez and uncertainty over the future of the inconsistent Rodrigo Muniz – who is reportedly a target for Leeds United - an out-and-out goalscorer seems like a pretty sensible priority.

Taremi, who surpassed 20 goals in all competitions in four consecutive seasons in Portugal between 2019/20 and 2022/23, is unquestionably a goalscorer with proven pedigree, but also a player with plenty of other qualities under his belt.

Both a capable playmaker who generates far more chances than most central strikers do and a fiercely competitive part of any high press, Taremi forces turnovers in impressive numbers when pressuring defenders and uses the ball better than many forwards when he can’t find a clear route to goal for himself. 41 assists in four seasons at Porto tells its own story.

All very promising – but should Fulham be wary of the extent to which he struggled in Inter, and which has rendered him surplus to requirements at the San Siro just a year after he joined on a free transfer?

Taremi’s decline suggests that Fulham should look elsewhere

Taremi hasn’t had the happiest time at Inter, managing just three goals (alongside seven assists) in 42 appearances – just 18 of which were starts. That includes just one strike in Serie A from 3.5xG’s worth of chances. While his play-making qualities seem largely undiminished – on average, he helped to supply 3.25 shooting chances for team-mates every 90 minutes, certainly more than most centre-forwards – his struggles in front of goal raise red flags.

Plenty of fine forwards have endured a bad season at the wrong club, of course. The problem is that there is evidence of decline predating a difficult spell with Inter – and given that Taremi will be 33 by the start of next season, that suggests that his career is heading in the wrong direction.

After passing 20 goals for four consecutive seasons with Rio Ave and Porto, Taremi managed just six in the Primeira Liga in 2023/24 as his form appeared to decline, and he even lost his status as a nailed-on starter as the season wore on. Porto weren’t as said to lose him on a free at the end of his contract as Inter might have thought.

His difficulties transforming chances into goals isn’t entirely new. His six goals in 2023/24 came from 7.9xG having matched or exceeded his ‘expected’ tally every previous year he’d played in Portugal – but equally worryingly, he simply wasn’t getting into good positions as often as he once had. His xG per 90 minutes decline by almost a third from 2022/23 to 2023/24, and further still in 2024/25. One year with an indifferent statistical analysis can happen to any player, but two in a row for a player in their thirties at different clubs feels rather terminal.

To be a hit at Fulham, he would have to turn around two consecutive campaigns of decline. His link-up play is impeccable, his work rate impressive and his past pedigree beyond reasonable doubt, but the Taremi that Fulham would be signing now seems to be a far cry from the striker that terrorised the Portuguese league.

The reports don’t yet mention how much Fulham would be paying to Taremi off Inter’s hands, and perhaps there is a price point at which his experience is worth investing in, and at which it’s reasonable to gamble that he can get into double figures one last time.

Ultimately, however, Fulham are a team that need goals to take a step forward and, perhaps, could stand to get a little younger this summer. Taremi seems a little unlikely to meet the first requirement and certainly won’t help with the latter. This may be a deal that the Cottagers should permit to pass them by.