Hands off our Silva
EVERTON have been told to forget about poaching Watford boss Marco Silva.
The Hornets issued a hands-off warning after the managerless Toffees made an approach on Monday.
Watford immediately rejected the unwanted enquiry for their boss insisting publicly yesterday that Silva is staying put at Vicarage Road. “We will not countenance an approach for our manager, either from Everton or indeed any other club, be it in the Premier League or abroad,” said a club spokesman.
Despite that strong
stance, Silva is believed to still be interested in speaking to Everton about succeeding Ronald Koeman at Goodison Park.
The former Sporting Lisbon boss only arrived at Vicarage Road in the summer after failing to keep Hull in the top flight.
But he has impressed by leading the Hornets to ninth in the table after 11 games.
Silva is close friends with Manchester United supremo Jose Mourinho and has ambitions of following his pal to the top.
Everton are now assessing their options and are considering whether it is worth stepping up their pursuit of Silva.
They told Watford they would be prepared to pay around £8.5m to release their manager from his two-year contract.
The Merseyside club may have to consider other choices.
But they will face a battle to convince Sam Allardyce to take over until the end of the season.
They could instead hand current caretaker boss David Unsworth more time.
Unsworth took charge of four games before the international break, winning just one of them.
Sean Dyche was the early favourite for the job but Everton have so far not made an approach to speak to the Burnley chief.