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Steve Marlet |
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If the Andy Johnson deal does go through at a total of £13m he will become The Cottagers' most expensive player.
An event which will cause Fulham fans concern following what happened with the current record holder.
Fulham's record signing was the French striker Steve Marlet who joined the newly promoted club in 2001 from Lyon as Mohamed Al Fayed spent £11.5m in pursuit of his dream of making Fulham "the Manchester United of the south".
But the record signing struggled, labouring to six league goals in 25 games during his first season.
Al Fayed became convinced his manager, Jean Tigana, had been involved in taking backhanders in exchange for negotiating inflated fees.
It all ended rather badly: Tigana was sacked in 2003, Fayed lost £3m when a judge threw out his claims and Marlet saw out his £40,000-a-week contract, which Fulham continued to pay, on loan at Marseilles.
Marlet then moved to Wolfsburg in 2005/06, scoring one goal in 21 games, and then on to FC Lorient in 2006/07 where he scored one goal in 22 games.
The "striker", at 34 years of age, is looking for a new club and was last heard of doing some media work in France during Euro 2008.