Martin Jol hopeful on Mark Schwarzer deal

Fulham manager Martin Jol remains hopeful that goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer will sign a new deal at the club.

The Australian is out of contract at Craven Cottage in the summer, and has threatened to leave the Cottagers should he not be guaranteed to be their first-choice stopper.

While he hopes that the 40-year-old will extend his stay at the club, Jol believes that Schwarzer should want to fight for his place.

"We hope to find a solution with Mark," Jol told ESPN. "If we cannot find a solution, we need to get a very, very good goalkeeper because you need to be very, very good to be better than, or the same, as him.

"We offered him a new contract, the only thing is he wanted to be guaranteed to be the number one.

"You can go on the market and find a useless goalkeeper, but you want a good goalkeeper and if you find a good goalkeeper you have to fight for your place, but we will sit down with him and try to find a solution."

Schwarzer joined Fulham in 2008.