Fulham favour two candidates ‘in particular’ to replace Silva

Fulham have two candidates “in particular” whom they want to succeed Marco Silva, according to the club’s vice-chairman and director of football operations, Tony Khan.

Silva spent five years at Fulham, guiding them back into the Premier League following their relegation in 2020-21.

He then made them a Premier League mainstay, while also achieving the club’s record points tally in the competition in 2024-25 (54).

However, he opted to leave the club when his contract ran out at the end of the campaign, making the switch to his home country and Benfica.

Alvaro Arbeloa, who left Real Madrid at the end of the campaign and has since been replaced by Jose Mourinho, who was at Benfica, is supposedly the favourite to step into the Craven Cottage dugout.

Frank Lampard, who led Coventry City back to the top-flight by finishing top of the Championship, is also being linked to the vacancy.

And Khan, who had expected Silva to stay, hinted that Fulham are closing in on a new boss.

“The expectation here for a while was that Marco [Silva] was going to stay,” he told FFCtv.

Our Vice Chairman and Director of Football Operations Tony Khan has offered his reflections on the 2025/26 season and provided an update on the search for a new Head Coach.

Watch now on FFCtv.

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) June 17, 2026

“It’s been less than two weeks now that we found out Marco changed his mind and really had indicated he wanted to stay and was planning to, but we obviously understand why.

“There have been a lot of names mentioned, and it is interesting because it is going very well and there has been a few great conversations in particular.

“We have got a few people that the board are talking to that are very exciting and interesting candidates.

“There have been people who we have been linked to, where it says they were the frontrunner or that there was conversations, that were people we have never talked to or never even had a conversation about.

“There are two in particular who have had multiple meetings with the board and who we really like, but we are open to more conversations and talking to more people. We are working on that process right now.”