Hull City have appointed Marco Silva as their manager on a deal until the end of the season. The 39-year-old replaces Mike Phelan, who was sacked as head coach on Tuesday with Hull bottom of the Premier League following a run of one win in 10 matches.
“Marco is a young coach who has impressed us with his philosophy and football style,” the club’s vice-chairman, Ehab Allam, said in a statement. “He has a great track record and we feel this is a bold and exciting appointment in our aim to retain the club’s Premier League status.
“Marco will be bringing in his own backroom team who have all played their part in his recent success. We are already working hard with Marco and his team to deliver some key additions to our squad during this transfer window.”
Silva has coached at Estoril, Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos, leading the former to Portugal’s top division, Sporting to the Portuguese cup in 2015 and the latter to the Greek title last season. He left Olympiakos for personal reasons shortly after and thus was immediately available to Hull.
🔶◾️ | Silva will be joined by Assistant Head Coach João Pedro Sousa, First Team Coach Gonçalo Pedro & Goalkeeping Coach Hugo Oliveira pic.twitter.com/LL9glHGB4S
— Hull City (@HullCity) January 5, 2017
The Portuguese coach has no experience of English football and speaks only limited English but he will have to quickly get to grips with the task of keeping Hull in the top flight. They are three points from safety and their next league game is against Bournemouth at the KCom Stadium on 14 January.
Before that are two cup ties – the visit of Swansea City in the FA Cup third round on Saturday and the EFL Cup semi-final first‑leg trip to Manchester United on Tuesday. Silva is expected to be in charge for both.
Steve Bruce quit as the manager of Hull last summer despite leading them back to the Premier League, having grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of investment. Phelan also expressed his frustration at the shortage of incoming players, while injuries to key squad members also hindered Hull’s progress.
The owner, Assem Allam, has presided over two promotions to the top flight and an FA Cup final appearance since rescuing the club from financial turmoil in 2010.
However, the Egyptian-born businessman put the club up for sale in 2014 after the FA rejected his bid to change their name to Hull Tigers, a move that was vehemently opposed by the majority of Hull’s supporters.
The Allam family have since come under increasing pressure from supporters, whose discontent with how the club was being run intensified following the departure of Bruce in July. The family announced they hoped to sell the club to a Chinese consortium in September but the deal broke down, while several other consortiums have been involved in takeover talks without anything being finalised.
