IN an exclusive interview granted to 90 MINUTES newspaper from his club's pre-season tour in Australia, Blacks Stars ace, John Paintsil, says he and his team-mates are not leaving any stone unturned as they prepare for the upcoming season. Fulham have already played Gold Coast United, Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory on their Australian pre-season tour. The 28yr-old right-full back says he can't wait for the season to begin;“Starting the season on a high is something that I am seriously working on,” he said. “This season will see us play in the Europa League so we are quite expectant of how things will turn out. We hope to show the other teams that last season's performance was no fluke. Now, any team that would be playing Fulham would want to win to prove a point,” he added.

With Real Madrid prising Cristiano Ronaldo away in a mind-boggling transfer fee of £80m, most clubs now fancy their chances of winning the Premier League and the Fulham star shares the same opinion that the title race will be more than just two teams vying for the crown. “The battle for the topmost prize is going to be difficult in the coming season and it's going to be especially tough for us after raising the stakes so high last season. However, we are determined to improve on the standings of last season to prove a point and take Europe by storm.” Asked whether Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid has taken the shine off the English Premiership, Paintsil replied: “No, I don't think so.” The former West Ham United player played 78 minutes for Fulham in their 3-0 win over Melbourne Victory with Paintsil as usual giving a solid performance at the right side of defence.