Marco Silva has agreed to take over from Scott Parker and become the new Fulham manager in principle, according to the Athletic.

The Portuguese manager has been keen to return to English football and held extensive discussions with Fulham to ensure that the club’s priorities matched his own. Silva has already held three English jobs having narrowly failed to keep Hull City in the top flight after winning eight of his 22 league games in charge. He moved onto Watford, where his strong start was disrupted by interest from Everton. Having taken five points from ten games, he was dismissed – with the Hornets hitting out at Everton’s destabilising interest.

Silva, now 43, took the Everton job in 2018 guiding the Toffees to an eighth place finish in his first season in charge but he was sacked in December 2019 after a 5-2 finish left the club in eighteenth place and in danger of relegation. Silva hasn’t held a job since and has never worked in the Championship.

He did guide Estoril to promotion from the Portugese second tier in 2012, won the Portuguese Cup with Sporting four years later and led Olympiakos to the Greek title in 2015. Silva’s assistant during his spell at Goodison Park was the former Fulham winger Luis Boa Morte, which could lead to a return to Craven Cottage for one of the club’s cult heroes.

Reports from Portugal claim that Silva has been offered an initial two-year contract to succeed Parker, with an optional additional year extension clause.