Tom Cairney revealed a lot about the ins and outs of the Fulham dressing room when he spoke on the Sky Sports EFL Podcast.

The Cottagers have won both of their matches since Cairney made his long awaited return from injury and have pushed themselves back into the automatic promotion places as a result.

When asked by Jonathan Oakes who Fulham's most clever player is, Cairney said:

"Dennis Odoi because he can speak about 19 languages. He helps a lot of the French, Belgian (players), I think he knows Spanish as well so he's amazing."

Probably a slight exaggeration on the ballpark figure of how many languages Odoi knows but that is a great insight into the Fulham dressing room with such a diverse group of players.

Jean Michael Seri returned to the club this summer, with Domingos Quina and Rodrigo Muniz arriving with foreign backgrounds. Odoi's ability to integrate them back into the squad in pre-season and to help build relationships on the pitch could be crucial in creating squad harmony and cohesion.

Kenny Tete made his return from injury from the bench to replace Odoi in Saturday's 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest and the coming weeks will show us where Marco Silva ranks the pair of them in vying for the right back berth.

The Verdict

 

 

Odoi has been a good servant for the club amidst some topsy-turvy years since signing from Lokeren in the summer of 2016. The Cottagers are always busy in the transfer window and this summer was no different, Odoi's role off the pitch gives his place in the squad a lot more importance and should pay dividends as the season progresses.

Seri in particular has been very impressive back with the Cottagers in the first quarter of the season, and Odoi's role helping him with the language barrier could have been the difference between the Ivorian staying for the Championship promotion race or heading back out on loan for another season.