Questions are being asked about whether Roy Hodgson is the right man to keep Fulham in the Barclays Premier League after Slaven Bilic, the Croatia manager, was spotted in the directors’ box at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Hodgson replaced Lawrie Sanchez as the manager of the struggling club three weeks ago, but Fulham have lost three league matches in a row since his appointment and his team’s spineless performance in the 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal on Saturday has fuelled rumours that Bilic could become the club’s fourth manager in a year if results do not improve.

Bilic was in England last weekend to check on Croatia players such as Eduardo da Silva, the Arsenal striker, and Vedran Corluka, the Manchester City defender, before this summer’s European Championship finals, but tongues started wagging after he was spotted sitting one seat away from Mohamed Al Fayed, the Fulham chairman. Fayed has invested more than £150 million since he bought the club ten years ago and he is not the kind of man who will allow his team to go down without a fight.

Despite spending more than £25 million last summer, only Derby County are keeping Fulham off the bottom of the Premier League and Fayed’s team have won only four out of 40 league matches in the past year.

Hodgson has been given about £10 million to spend this month, but it remains to be seen how Fayed will react if Fulham are knocked out of the FA Cup by Bristol Rovers this evening and if they fail to pick up any points from their next three league matches – away to Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough and at home to Aston Villa.

Hodgson’s recruitment drive is beginning to yield results, with Brede Hangeland arriving for £2.5 million from FC Copenhagen last week, although the Norway defender will not make his debut away to Rovers because he is waiting for international clearance. Negotiations for Marlon King, the Watford forward, are ongoing, while Eddie Johnson, the United States striker, has a work permit hearing tomorrow. Cho Jae Jin, the South Korea striker, has arrived at the club for a trial.