Five potential Marco Silva replacements

Who's next in the hot seat?

Now we’ve dried our eyes and taken down the posters, on our bedroom walls, it’s time to turn our attention to the future.

Who will be in the dugout at Craven Cottage next season?

Shahid Khan said that the club will appoint a new Head Coach in “a timely but deliberate manner”. Timely is an interesting word. It does not necessarily mean quickly.

A lot has been said about this regime’s track record when it comes to appointing managers, but after five years of sustained success, we’re an attractive proposition to anyone. And there are a lot of options out there - some with clubs, and plenty without.

Look, I know you’ll say “Where’s Amorim and Slot? We’ve been linked with them!”. Let me stop ya right there. That is club media briefing 101. “This is the calibre of coach we’re after - but we want you.” So with that in mind, let’s have a look at five of the most realistic possibilities.

1. Kieran McKenna

He’s the bookies’ favourite and the man cited in most reports as high on Khan’s wishlist.

He came to prominence after two successive promotions with Ipswich Town, taking them from League One back to the Premier League after 25 years away. Their return was a short one, finishing with just 22 points having spent north of £100m.

However, McKenna has brought the Tractor Boys back up at the first attempt, and they look better equipped to mount a survival challenge this time around.

McKenna would be my choice; he plays a style of football we enjoy and that suits the core of our squad, plus he’s good at developing young players. Change is tough, so mitigating that with similarities in coaching philosophy is important. Just look at when clubs try to push things too far, too fast - Spurs going from Big Ange to Thomas Frank (more of those two later).

2. Ange Postecoglu

If you want entertainment, but your fingernails bitten to the quick, Ange-ball is the answer.

We all know how committed he is to his footballing idealogy. Aggressive, front-foot football. He says he wants his teams to play like the European sides he used to stay up watching with his father. He wants to be entertained. That’s all we all want, right?

Well, that and a level of success. Postecoglu has shown he can deliver that, both in Scotland and in England. But south of the border, the line between success and failure is more blurred, and he’s fallen foul of that.

Like Ange-ball, this one’s risky, but the pay-off could be huge.

3. Thomas Frank

Here comes the first of two divisive ideas.

Frank ground out success at Brentford by valuing efficiency over aesthetics. We saw when he replaced Postecoglu at Spurs that they’re like oil and water. So on that basis, even over the fact he’s ex-Bees, I just don’t feel like this one would work.

There’s also the question of how he’d slot into the club’s structure. Tony Khan loves data - it’s his domain. How would he react to the Dane coming in and wanting control over the analytics that were so key to his success elsewhere?

I for one am not interested in a battle of the nerds. Next.

4. Frank Lampard

Who really wants this? I mean really?

I am convinced that Lampard will become manager of Fulham at some point in my life, simply because I can’t abide the idea.

The pros? Frank has shown he can nurture youth. Look at players like Mason Mount and Reece James when he was at Chelsea. He even helped a young Harry Wilson at Derby, who’s gone on record to say how much he owes him.

But tactically, he’s behind many of the managers on this list, and for all his successes - Champions League qualification with Chelsea, promotion with Coventry - he has just as many dubious tenures (Everton and his second stint at Chelsea as caretaker).

So, on balance, it’s a no from me, Clive.

5. Liam Rosenior

If Liam was still at Strasbourg, we’d all be quite pleased with him as an option. Football managers have egos - it’s what makes them successful. Rosenior is no different. He - like dozens before him - thought that he could change the basked case that is Chelsea. He was, of course, wrong.

But he’s got something. He has an eye for spotting and developing young talent, something we’ve been crying out for more of, and he’s tactically astute. But his style of football isn’t as attacking as I think we’d like at the Cottage, so I’m hoping that this one is without legs.