Hodgson to bolster Cottagers squad

12 April 2009 09:30
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson says he will be dipping into the transfer market this summer in an attempt to maintain his side's renaissance.Hodgson wants to beef up his squad for next season and has already been linked with moves for Tottenham's Tom Huddlestone and Aron Gunnarsson of Coventry.The Cottagers, who narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League last term, are now on the brink of the European places with seven games remaining.Hodgson takes his side to Manchester City on Sunday looking to cement their place in the top half and stay on course to beat their highest ever finish - ninth in 2004.Their upturn in fortunes is all the more remarkable as Hodgson has one of the smallest squads in the league.The 61-year-old brought in the likes of Andrew Johnson, Bobby Zamora and Mark Schwarzer last summer and insists he needs further reinforcements to keep his side challenging at the right end of the table."Your ambitions should always be high," said Hodgson."Let's say we finish in the top half of the table this year, are we going to again?"That would be our goal, but I would hope during the summer months we make certain we have the squad of players capable of getting us there."With such a small group of players, we've been extremely fortunate with injuries and I don't think you could expect a similar group to go and do the same thing again. We would have to make some adjustments."Fulham head to Eastlands on the back of their surprise win over Manchester United and another encouraging display against Liverpool, who needed a last-gasp Yossi Benayoun goal to deny the Cottagers a point.But Hodgson knows his side will need a similar performance to get something from a City side who have won their last six home games in the league."Manchester City are a very good team offensively. They have some outstanding attacking players and outstanding individuals who can cause you a lot of problems," he added."They have scored a lot of goals in the league so although they haven't had the success of Manchester United or Liverpool this year they cause problems with the quality of their attacking play."What we will try to take into the game is the hard work, the discipline and defensive authority that we have shown in the last couple of games."We conceded a 93rd-minute goal against Liverpool but throughout the game we defended very well, and we must try to do the same again."I'm hoping if we can keep that level of performance up over the last seven games of the season it will help us maintain our position in the top half of the table."[LNB]

Source: Eurosport