The twilight resurgence of Raúl Jiménez
Fulham and Marco Silva have revitalised Raúl Jiménez after horror head injury
The Twitter exodus continues apace and the question of what to do is an important but tricky one for football folk.
Lots of clubs, fan media and journalists have jumped from what used to be Twitter over to Bluesky and to all of them except Fabrizio Romano I say welcome aboard.
Very few of the professional football accounts on Bluesky belong to people and businesses who’ve dumped Twitter outright. There are certainly some who’ve made a stand and others who’ve just ditched Twitter because it’s a cesspit, but most are testing the waters.
I think that’s understandable. It was an easy decision for me to leave Twitter for Bluesky when the world’s most divorced dad took over it to sway an election but by that point my following – which was still north of 6,000 – didn’t deliver enough traffic to fill an Austin Mini.
It’s not like that for everyone. If you’re a journalist with a public profile and a big following, it’s part of your job. If you’re representing a football club then everything you know tells you to be where your fans are.
The prospect of a worldwide loony coup isn’t covered in marketing training.
You couldn’t pay me to have a personal Twitter account now and I was there in 2007. It didn’t exactly build my house but it was a big part of the career that did, and dumping it when I did has undeniably hurt my income. But Twitter is done – it was done years ago – so I have no regrets.
Well, I have one regret. But it’s out of my direct control. I’m the Head of Media for Coventry Sphinx Football Club, which means I’m the guy who decides if and when it’s time to speak to the board about Twitter.
And the situation there isn’t so simple. We’re not an activist left-wing club. There are no complete bastards but there are certainly people who I’d disagree with politically.
There are people who don’t care that Space Karen has retooled our primary communication channel as a cyberweapon. There are people who don’t think it has anything to do with football. There are people who don’t even know about it. They just want to know when we’re playing.
Drawing that line, calling time on that account, is much more complicated than just sticking a bullet in mine. But the day is approaching when either the club’s reputation or my sanity can’t withstand that shithole anymore.
So, all that being said, follow me and Coventry Sphinx on Bluesky I guess. Thanks.
Don’t miss this week’s Beefy Bites!
The twilight resurgence of Raúl Jiménez
It was an injury to make even the most hardened football supporter wince.
On a Sunday night at an empty Emirates Stadium, Arsenal had won a corner against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Willian took it, an out-swinger. Wolves striker Raúl Jiménez made the first contact to remove the ball from danger but his life was about to change.
Arsenal’s David Luiz arrived late for an aerial duel that never was. Jiménez was vulnerable. The collision was sickening. Jiménez was knocked unconscious, his skull fractured and a bleed on the brain causing concern for the medical professionals who treated him.
Football can feel like the most important thing in the world one minute and lurch into irrelevance the next.
Injuries like Jiménez’s in November 2020 tear down the polystyrene walls of sporting drama to leave only a 29-year-old man with a partner and a baby, his already short career threatened but barely significant when compared to the possibility that the damage could just as easily have been fatal.
Supporters were sorry not only about the pain Jiménez went through but the length and difficulty of his rehabilitation and the terrifying prospect of returning to the game in his thirties knowing that his head, still bearing surgery scars, would have to be put back in peril.
Jiménez was in form when he got injured in London. He usually is.
He returned within a year and moved to Fulham in the summer of 2023 with Wolves’ project becoming more about selling the family silver than the cheap acquisition of Portuguese clients of Jorge Mendes.
The Mexican was also represented by Gestifute and was constantly linked with a move away from Molineux even before his long lay-off. Fulham eventually got a bargain and Jiménez, now 33, is finally reclaiming his status as one of the Premier League’s most admired strikers.
Jiménez is a fair way down the scoring charts in 2024/25 but is riding high on his best ratio of goals per 90 minutes since he arrived in England. He’s scoring at a rate of 0.54 goals per 90 from a career-high expected goals per 90 (xG/90) of 0.49 so far this season.
He’s getting high-value chances in Marco Silva’s Fulham side and putting them away with the confidence and maturity that come with experience at the highest level. Jiménez is beautifully playing the role of reliable and polished elder statesman.
He’s a solid but not spectacular passer with a good eye for a through ball. His shot and goal creation rank below what might be expected but his purpose for Fulham plays to other strengths – specifically, defensive strengths.
Silva and Fulham rely on Jiménez to lead their press. They’re in the middle of the Premier League in terms of tackles in the attacking third but the Mexican striker is as good at winning the ball high up the pitch as almost anyone.
FBref indexes players against their positional rivals – forwards, in this case – across the top five European leagues as well as the Champions League and Europa League for the last 365 days. Jiménez is in the 97th percentile for tackles per 90 minutes and the 98th percentile for tackles plus interceptions per 90.
That’s always been part of his game to a degree but this season is tracking to be his best ever. Likewise, he’s in the 98th percentile of forwards for tackles in the attacking third – in other words, either pressing or counter-pressing – and his two seasons under Silva at Fulham are his best by that measure too.
Tom Cairney, Harrison Reid, Emile Smith Rowe and Kenny Tete are more prolific in trying and succeeding in winning the ball in attacking spots, but, as a centre forward, Jiménez is structurally important to Fulham’s game out of possession and into transition. He’s one of the best at it in his position.
Jiménez is a player who oozes quality and class. He’s big and physical without being a battering ram, always regarded as a goal-scoring threat by opposition supporters even if the actual tally doesn’t quite bear that out.
He plays with the exact abilities and relative weaknesses one might expect of a textbook modern striker who had his peak cut short by the kind of injury that can be recovered from in a year but lasts a lot longer than that in reality.
Jiménez’s twilight resurgence is emblematic of Fulham’s fine season, to which he’s contributing hugely. The Cottagers reached the November international break in seventh place in the Premier League on the back of two consecutive wins and unbeaten in three.
Silva is masterminding a revival of his own and has in the process turned Fulham – promoted under the Portuguese as recently as 2022 – into a legitimately very good Premier League outfit.
After bouncing from Hull City to Watford to Everton and back out again with mixed results, Silva has rebuilt his reputation and more. He’ll be in demand soon enough.
If Silva remains tied to Fulham for a few more years, he’ll eventually need to find a way to replace the leading edge of his attacking weaponry. The players around Jiménez have time on their side but the 33-year-old is out of contract in the summer. He’s on record as wanting to stay and it makes sense for both parties.
November 2020 might seem like a long time ago to most of us but tragedy knocked on Jiménez’s door and he sent it packing. Those memories must be fresh even now.
That he’s out there playing Premier League football at all is an underappreciated positive story, never mind the fact that he’s scoring goals in a terrific team and doing a better job without the ball than ever before.
That takes hard work and guts. Jiménez is obviously possessed of both and it’s hard not to root for that kind of player. That he’s fun to watch too is just the icing on the cake.
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Dessert
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