Josh Onomah is determined to prove a point to Tottenham after making his Fulham debut in Tuesday night’s 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton.
Onomah joined the Championship club on transfer deadline day as part of the £25million deal that took Ryan Sessegnon to Spurs.
The 22-year-old midfielder made 32 appearances for his boyhood club and represented England at every level from Under-16 to U-21, but his progress stalled under Mauricio Pochettino and he spent the past two seasons on loan at Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday.
“I believe I’ve got a point to prove and I’ve been given a lifeline here at Fulham,” Onomah said, after playing 90 minutes of the 1-0 defeat at Craven Cottage. “I’ve just got to prove to everyone what I can do. I’ll do my talking to the pitch and see what happens.
“Every boy’s dream is to play in the Premier League and, yeah, that’s my dream too, but sometimes you have to take a step back and build to get to the top.
“I had a difficult pre-season at Tottenham, but I always had faith the deal would get done. I was happy to move on deadline day and I’m happy to get started.
“The last couple of years have been stop-start. I had a decent loan at Villa but last year [at Wednesday] I had a couple of injuries that set me back. I’ve got a fresh start now.”
Part of the attraction of joining Fulham for Onomah was the chance to work again with former Spurs U-18 coaches Matt Wells and Scott Parker — now the Cottagers’ first-team coach and manager, respectively.
“I know Matt Wells and the gaffer really well,” he said. “I’ve worked with them and I trust them, so I was looking forward to joining them.”
(Evening Standard)
