Football editor of the Daily Mail Ian Ladyman has published historical quotes from ‘a senior official’ at Fulham designed to show how relaxed the club remain about Marco Silva’s disenchantment with their recruitment.
Ladyman writes:
Fulham manager Marco Silva is unhappy with the fact his club haven’t signed the players he wants this summer and has said so. At boardroom level they will not stress too much.
Silva is a coach who continues to improve year on year but he has also a habit of pushing the boundaries and testing the patience of those he works for.
When he was linked with the Tottenham job last June, Mail Sport spoke to a senior official at the club who just laughed.
‘We are used to this with Marco,’ he said.
‘These stories come and go and strangely enough they usually start in Portugal.
‘But in the end they settle down and Marco stays here…on what is a very good contract indeed!’
This is the second time in the final month of the transfer window that Fulham have briefed against their own head coach. Presumably, there was no room in Ladyman’s copy to include the fact that Silva’s ‘very good contract’ expires next summer – and that he’s enhanced his reputation no end at Craven Cottage.
Fulham fans remember how long it took for the club’s board to replace Kit Symons when they sacked a club legend because he didn’t have the Whites close enough to the Championship play-off places. Based on that seven-week search that eventually secured Slavisa Jokanovic, you wouldn’t bet on the Motspur Park masterminds making the right choice to replace Silva, should he refuse to sign a new deal.