Fulham have confirmed that Maxime Le Marchand will remain at Craven Cottage this summer.

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That's according to a statement posted on the club's official website in which the Cottagers confirmed that they have exercised their option to extend the centre-back's current deal for a further season, keeping him at the club until at least the end of the 2021/22 campaign.

Fans will be furious

Considering how infrequently Le Marchand has featured for Fulham since joining the club in a £3.6m deal from Nice back in the summer of 2018, the news that the club have further extended the defender's deal comes as something of a surprise and could well infuriate fans of the west London club.

Over his three years with the Cottagers so far, the £1.44m-rated man has made just 48 appearances in all competitions, scoring no goals and providing one assist along the way.

Last season, the centre-back featured just twice in the Premier League for Scott Parker's side, failing to help his team keep a clean sheet, as well as averaging a mere one tackle and 1.5 interceptions per game. These metrics saw the £24,000-per-week 31-year-old earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.75, ranking him as Fulham's 12th-worst performer in the English top flight.

Indeed, it became clear that Parker had no use for the player - whom Tony Khan dubbed a "valuable" asset - back in February, when the manager allowed Le Marchand to leave the club on a temporary basis to join Royal Antwerp for the remainder of the season.

As such, exactly why Fulham have extended the defender's contract this summer is anyone's guess, but considering his hefty weekly wage and significant lack of appearances for the club, the Cottagers' decision is not likely to be one which goes down very well with too many of their supporters.

In other news: Parker heading for grave Fulham transfer mistake over "unbelievable" £8k-p/w dynamo