The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Former Hull, Watford and Everton boss Marco Silva is close to being appointed Benfica manager. The Portuguese, who was in charge at Fulham. leaves The Cottagers after five years and with the West London a re-established Premier League side.

Before his appointment five years ago, Fulham were a team often ridiculed, you could say, for their lack of consistency. Since the appointment of the 48-year-old, The Cottagers won the Championship title, scoring over 100 goals in that title-winning campaign.

Formerly manager of Estoril, Marco Silva, wherever he has been, has been notorious for getting his sides to play an attractive brand of football. Several clubs have been linked with the 48-year-old Silva in the past.

West London rivals Chelsea did have him on their shortlist for their vacancy, but ultimately appointed former Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso. With all respect to Fulham, they weren’t going to be able to hold on to their manager forever.

Due to his excellent work in the West of the capital, a ‘bigger club’ would always come calling. Many would question whether Benfica is that bigger club? For us English fans, looking in from the outside, we would say no, but they did lure The Special One, Jose Mourinho, into a second spell at The Stadium of Light.

What is often overlooked amid the recent dominance of Sporting Lisbon and Porto is that Benfica are the most successful team in the history of the Portuguese Primeira Liga with 38 titles.

The lure of being able to say he was the man who disrupted the dominance of the other two sides does have its appeal. With Rui Costa as president, the structure is familiar to him, as it was the same structure 12 years ago at Estoril.

Marco Silva won’t mind too much, but in certain media quarters, Ruben Amorim would always get the top job at Benfica if Jose ever left the club. Now, The veteran coach has; the Benfica board have gone for Premier League-proven Marco Silva.

Is this the right appointment? Only time will tell.

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