Marco Silva spent Tuesday in his native Portugal holding talks with Porto and is understood to have reached an agreement to become the club’s new manager.
The Hull City head coach is scheduled to return to meet the club’s owners, the Allam family, on Wednesday but it seems he will be bidding them farewell before joining Porto later this week.
It was expected those impending discussions with Hull would conclude with Silva ending his five-month tenure in charge of the relegated club. The 39-year-old signed only a short-term contract when he succeeded Mike Phelan at the KCom Stadium in January but that agreement contained a clause which facilitated the potential triggering of a one-year extension. Although Silva has enjoyed a strong relationship with Ehab Allam, Hull’s vice-chairman and the man effectively in charge of the club, the coach who nearly rescued the team from relegation did not want to drop into the Championship.
The former Estoril, Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos manager had indicated he would prefer to remain in the Premier League. If he was always a little cool about Watford’s interest in hiring him as Walter Mazzarri’s replacement, Southampton looked a more enticing prospect for the man dubbed “the new José Mourinho”.
Saints are still to part with Claude Puel and there are suggestions Silva may not be at the top of their list if they were to replace the Frenchman. Moreover, Porto have the added attraction of being able to offer Champions League football.
Aware the man they tried to recruit when he left Sporting in 2015 was effectively out of contract at Hull and attracting considerable attention in England, Porto sacked Nuno Espírito Santo on Monday night. He had survived only one season, with a second-placed finish in the Primeira Liga deemed an insufficient return.
Silva displayed similar hard-headedness last Sunday after Hull supporters constantly sang his name, appealing for him to stay on, throughout the season’s closing fixture, a 7-1 defeat to Tottenham. “I need to think and see what is the best solution, not only for the club, but for me as a coach and for my career,” he said. “It was amazing for me and, if I just looked at the connection between me and the fans, of course it would be impossible to say no. But I have to look at other things as well. I am sure that next Wednesday we will decide.”
Having worked with Steve Bruce, Phelan and Silva in the space of a single year, Allam, who has suggested his family intend to fund a promotion challenge next season, must recruit yet another new manager. With five of Silva’s January signings having arrived on loan and other players also set to leave, the next one faces a major rebuilding job.
Ahmed Elmohamady, the Hull right-back and wing-back, looks set for a reunion with Bruce at Aston Villa. The Egypt international played under Bruce at Hull and Sunderland.
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