Khan: Fulham were convinced Silva would stay
Fulham director of football Tony Khan says the club expected Marco Silva to stay and the Portuguese performed a U-turn.
In an exclusive interview, Khan – son of club owner Shahid Khan – admitted a statement had been prepared to announce that Silva had signed a new deal to stay on as Whites head coach.
But Silva, whose contract was expiring, instead left to take over at Benfica.
“I wrote a statement thinking Marco was going to be staying, which is definitely how we all felt on Tuesday (June 2) morning,” Khan revealed.
“That’s what I had worked very hard (on) and tried my best to make it possible for Marco to stay, for Marco to make that decision.
“It is accurate to say that on Tuesday we all thought Marco would be staying and we were all thrilled about it.
“I have written a statement and everything I said in that statement is still very much how I felt – just over the moon about Marco staying. But obviously, over the last week we’ve had to plan and move forward.
“It’s been a week, and certainly Tuesday morning, I believed, and my father and everyone at the club thought, that Marco would be staying and that’s what he had said going into Tuesday.”
In Silva’s last post-match press conference, following the final-day win against Newcastle, he insisted the annual lap of appreciation to salute the home fans did not feel like a farewell.
However, his departure was announced 10 days later.
“I had always told my father: ‘I think (we should do) everything we can do to keep Marco here’,” Khan said.
“He does an excellent job. I love working with him. The players love working with him and everyone at the club loves working with Marco.”
‘Inaccurate reports’
The focus is now on appointing a successor to Silva, who guided Fulham back to the Premier League and firmly re-established the club in the top flight during his five years at the helm.
The likes of Kieran McKenna, who has left Ipswich but insists he will take a break from football, ex-Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim and former Chelsea managers Mauricio Pochettino and Frank Lampard have been linked with the job, as has Alvaro Arbeloa, who recently had a spell as Real Madrid boss.
Various players have also been linked with possible moves to the club.
But Khan said: “I see reports and people go off the different sources they get and there’s probably times where the club and I should come out and talk more about what’s going on, because of other people, other sources, other parties, counterparties in transfers or negotiating with coaches or all kinds of transactions that happen in football.
“A lot of times I see things in football media that are partially true or largely true, sometimes completely true, and sometimes completely untrue – and everything in between. Around transfer season, around transfer windows, it’s amazing how many inaccurate reports there are.
“I can’t say with certainty how long it (appointing a new manager) will take, but we are working on it. We have been every day for the past week.
“We have had a lot of meetings internally and also talking to candidates. And we’re going to continue with this process.
“It is, frankly, a wider net than five years ago. It was, I’ll be totally honest, a one-man show five years ago. I had one name and it was Marco.
“So I have a much wider net and a lot more people this time. I think it’s a very different search.”
