Antonee Robinson will be playing Premier League Football this season.
Fulham announced the signing of the U.S. Men’s National Team defender from Wigan Athletic. Robinson joined for an undisclosed fee, signing a multi-year contract with the London club, which runs until June 2024.
Scott Parker’s side fought off several other suitors for the 22-year-old left back after jumping into the race late for his services. Robinson will join fellow Americans Tim Ream and Marlon Fossey at Fulham, whom gained promotion back to the EPL this summer.
“I am made up to be a Fulham player,” Robinson said. “I was really excited to get down here and get everything signed. When the lads get back in here, I can’t wait to get going. I heard a few days ago that Scott Parker was interested in me and wanted to speak to me personally. We had a zoom call and he was really keen to get the deal done and for me to be a Fulham player.”
“Fulham play a really nice style of football and I can see myself fitting in perfectly. As soon as I heard of the ambitions of the Club it was an easy decision for me.”
Sheffield United was in the lead to acquire Robinson this summer, but Fulham snatched him away from the Blades after reportedly wanting defensive help this summer. AC Milan, Leicester City, West Ham United, Everton, and West Bromwich Albion also were linked with Robinson this year.
Robinson was one of the Wigan Athletic’s top performers this season, despite the club suffering relegation to League One. He made 39 combined appearances for the Latics, scoring one goal and adding one assist. He was also named to the EFL Championship Team of the Week on several occasions.
“I’m pleased to announce that Antonee Robinson has joined Fulham Football Club on a multiyear contract agreement. Antonee is a great young addition to our squad for our return to the Premier League,” Fulham co-owner Tony Khan said.
“He works hard and is known for being an excellent teammate with a great attitude, and he’s been a valued contributor everywhere he’s played in recent years, in the Championship and with the U.S. men’s national team as well. Come On Fulham!”
Robinson has earned seven caps with the USMNT to date and will begin his league season on the weekend of Sept. 12th.
I’m a little shocked that he chose Fulham, but hope that it works out.
If nothing else it could bolster his opportunities with the USMNT since he’ll now be a teammate of Ream who we all know Gregg is a proponent of. At the very least it’ll be harder for Gregg to ignore him since they play for the same team.
Personally I don’t rate Ream at either LB or LCB at the international level. But since Gregg does and will likely continue to call him into the 23 it should improve Robinson’s opportunities.
Kind of surprised this got done before Chilwell’s transfer got done because Joe Bryan Fulham’s promotion hero is thought to be the replacement for Leicester.
Heard Leeds were looking at Bryan as well. Sounds like Robinson’s wages will be considerably higher than Bryan’s (who is also fairly high on their wage sheet). Hard to see them keeping both, given their needs elsewhere.
Will the club become FulhAmerica again? Would be nice given the history, the venue, and the coach.
as a long term FFC fan who watched them play in lower divisions and saw Eddie Lewis’ first game in the uniform, i wish the fans stuck around in between fanboy periods. it’s a cool stadium on the thames, it’s a team in london you can go watch without rooting for the overdogs, and they have been generally good to americans. i wish people got off the big club obsession — which is kind of like rooting for the patriots or yankees — looked at what teams actually play and like americans, and immersed a little in the culture.
I think if TV had been better when FulhAmerica was in full play fans would have stuck around. The contract problems with Hyndman probably knocked off a few more.
my response would be that if, say, you took dempsey’s side on his stomp fit transfer request, or sided with hyndman after he turned down a few contract extension offers, and burned your white jersey you just bought, that you’re a fan of the player and not a fan of the team. this is precisely where i draw the line on fanboys washing in and out. and i say this as a pretty big dempsey fan. but he wanted out whether fulham wanted to sell him or not. that was basically fulham got made the bad guy for trying to tell a player No on a transfer request. to be real, they papered that one over and he even came back on loan before seattle. given how spurs went i’d be curious if he thought the way that played out was all that wise. he was going to be a mcbride like god based on that juve game and years of productive service.
Does that mean Tim Ream is in trouble?
Ream plays CB for Fulham primarily, so I don’t think so. The bigger question is whether or not Fulham are moving on from the man who won them the promotion (or whether he is moving on from them). I think the fact that Scott Parker himself wanted Robinson is a strong sign that this is a good move for him, but as with any move he will have to hit the ground hard and earn his place in the starting 11.
Can’t wait for the repetitive deluge of comments about him being “athletic but not a defender or a soccer player” when they haven’t seen him play for at least 1 1/2 seasons. Anyone watching Wigan last season, or the English Championship, can see that Robinson was not only one of the best LBs in the league last season but has also vastly improved his game. He’s also still really young, so there’s no reason to believe he’s hit the ceiling on his growth yet either. I’m excited to see how he does.
i think there is an interesting wrinkle to your question, which is that regardless of what happens in club sometimes GB has deployed Ream wide. personally i think he kind of sucks inside or out, but an interesting question is does GB play him wide if robinson is the player off that team who actually does that. see where i am headed??? kind of like i started out a winger in a 352 in club, HS coach sees me on a day where we got pinned back, he plays me as a wingback, club coach sees that, turns me into a marking back. coaches to me can be influenced or imitate what you seem to be playing for another coach, and here maybe if robinson is the LB on the same team as ream GB quits thinking about Ream like a wide player. he probably should anyway, i think he’s just too slow like spector was, to play well wide. one of those things where he’s technically savvy enough to pull it off right until he’s too slow and you get burned. and to me defense is the type job where getting burned once or twice but good a game is a problem.
I’m pretty sure Ream has played more as a LCB then he has as a LB under Greg, and I can’t really blame Greg for playing Tim at LB the times he did when you consider what the options were. Do I think Antonee should have gotten more call ups, sure, but I’m also not mad that he didn’t. Antonee is on an upward trajectory seemingly and forming a partnership with Ream at Fulham will only prove to be a positive for the full USMNT in terms of positioning and familiarity
per transfermarkt Ream in 2019 played NT LB 9 times and CB 5 times. he was basically a LB for all of GC, he then moved mostly inside for the NL and Uruguay games. to be blunt, i thought mexico went after him inside. there’s a reason i am a fan of him at neither. to me backs need to be mobile. i think a lot of the passing soccer fans want a back who can pass in there. but to me when the chips are on the table and a good opponent across the way, you want someone who can mark and stay with someone. it’s like so many of the bad USA ideas, something that works for most of “gold cup” but not the final. except if you want to ever get back to being elite and beating mexico, you need ideas that work on through the final. and for the same reasons robinson and dest have no business out wide until they learn not to flinch when someone fakes. you don’t want to rely on ideas that work against cuba but not mexico. you want the ones that work against the best teams. people making “but that’s brazil” excuses don’t get it. you will remain worse than brazil or mexico as long as your lineup is full of players whose performance gets excused. you will beat them when you start an XI of people who prove they can cope at that level.
Ream is not in trouble because of the new signing. Ream is in trouble because Fulham is in the EPL again. I will likely be accused of stereotyping, but Ream is good for 1 to 2 bad decisions per game. At the EPL level that results in goals against.
Ream generally played as a center back (or half) at Fulham. Is Antonee an outside back? If so, I don’t see the two of them competing for playing time against one another.
Ream is a better passer than most give him credit for, and Fulham over the past few years (at least in the Championship). It has tried to be possession based and pass it out of the back. For Ream, familiarity will be better; so, hopefully Fulham will stick with the style of play that got the team promoted.
If so, maybe we see two Yanks Abroad on the defensive line for Fulham.
i don’t think he’s in FFC trouble, i am curious however if it ends his use out wide for GB at the Nats. the coach in monkey see monkey do tells himself but Robinson is the wide back at FFC. and that ends you playing wide under a certain type of cubbyholes type of coach.
Tim Ream hasn’t played LB for Fulham since Aug. of 2017. You want us to believe that Berhalter hasn’t noticed that but now that Robinson is playing there he’ll suddenly be aware.