Fulham head coach Marco Silva has given a wide-ranging interview to O Jogo this morning.

Silva’s return to his homeland with the Whites for their annual pre-season training camp on the Algarve has seen the popular Portuguese manager appear on Canal 11 and answer questions for a number of sports journalists.

Responding to a question about how stable the average coach feels these days, Silva says:

In recent years, things have been crazy in Portugal; the reality is that it’s been out of the box. In England, it’s different, but honestly, it’s very different from when I arrived. Coaches used to be much more resilient to negative results. With foreign investors, that British culture is starting to disappear, and coaches are less resilient. It’s not that I worry; I think about what’s behind those decisions. When you manage a club and hire a coach you think is right for the project, I don’t think everything changes in two months. There’s an analytical aspect, and it’s understanding the effect of these psychological blows after a season rather than immediately.

He plays down the prospect of qualifying for the Champions’ League with the Cottagers.

“I’m ambitious, but I’m not unrealistic. This year, the spots opened up for five, and ambition doesn’t stop us, but we can’t be unrealistic. With the budget, with the capacity for eight or 10 clubs in the Premier League, there’s not much room for that. Nottingham [Forest] were knocking on the door of this goal for a long time last season, and Leicester [City] were champions a while ago, but right now, I don’t see a team like that winning the title any time soon, because the power of [the top] three or four clubs is enormous. The Champions League isn’t our objective; the ambition right now is to do better than last season, and if we do that, we’ll be in seventh or eighth place and fighting for other goals, but it’s about trying to beat our points record.”

Silva also rules out an immediately return to coaching in Portugal.

“I don’t make any major long-term plans in that regard. There’s been that possibility throughout my career, but the goal is the Premier League. I could have returned already, no point saying where, but those opportunities didn’t happen because it wasn’t possible, and other times it was a personal decision. But in the short term, I’m focused on Fulham and then we’ll see what happens next season. If the opportunity arose? We’ll see. My coaching career has been based on reaching the Premier League and cementing something in that competition. Maybe I’ll be the third or fourth longest-serving manager in the league, and the goal is to stay focused on my club. I don’t know when it will happen, but I think it will eventually happen because of my nationality and my love for my country, also realizing the lack of competitiveness and that we could have already made strides, but we continue to have great coaches and three or four clubs above the others. Portugal isn’t in the top five European leagues, but we have quality clubs. I don’t have a club preference; it’s not something that’s on my radar.”