Fulham vice-chairman and director of football operations Tony Khan has urged fans not to believe everything they read or hear regarding the vacant manager’s job at Craven Cottage with some sources reporting Blues boss Kieran McKenna is close to be appointed as the successor to Marco Silva, who recently departed West London for Benfica.

TalkSPORT claimed this morning that McKenna is increasingly likely to join the Cottagers, who were said to be ready to pay the £8 million compensation fee understood to be due should the Northern Irishman, who has two years left on his contract, move on from Portman Road.

Elsewhere, Italian journalist Nicolò Schira has reported that McKenna is Fulham’s main target and has been offered a contract which runs to the summer of 2029, while the Blues boss remains the bookies’ favourite for the job, as he has been since Silva’s exit a week ago.

However, TWTD sources have played down the reports, we understand there has been no approach, and Khan, speaking in a live interview with Jack Kelly, a journalist who covers Fulham, pointed out that former boss Silva was never linked by the media or tipped by bookmakers when he got the job in 2021.

“In that year, [he was] not the person that the pundits or the odds-makers or anybody really had on our radar,” he recalled.

“But he was the one person I was always locked in on, which probably tells you how much to value some of the media when they report the rumours and say, ’this person’s close to the job or this person’s close to the job.

“There was nobody linking Marco to our job. There was no odds-makers posting odds on Marco and he was the one person I always locked in on.

“So now, when you see all these people connected, take a grain of salt now over this past week when you see somebody’s connected this way or somebody’s very close.

“We’ve been having good conversations and it’s a huge change, it’s a massive change.”

Khan, who is also the president and CEO of All Elite Wrestling, admits that Fulham had expected Silva, who was out of contract, to agree a new deal when he met with them a week ago. Instead, he told them he was returning to Portugal to take over at Benfica.

Since then, he says they have begun discussions regarding the former Watford, Everton and Hull City boss’s replacement.

“It all hit us kind of quickly and we have been having these conversations and meetings now in the past week,” Khan said.

“I’ve seen a lot of people linked to it that we haven’t talked to, I’ve seen some that we have and everything in between.

“But, I would say, don’t believe everything you hear, don’t believe everything you read in these cases, but we are having the meetings and talking about the future of the club and are looking for a new leader now.”

Quizzed further on whether McKenna, former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim and ex-Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino are targets and how long the process might take, he added: “Well, I can’t say with certainty how long it’ll take, but we are working on it and we have been every day for the past week.

“We have had a lot of meetings internally and also talked to candidates, and we’re going to continue with this process.

“It is, frankly, a wider net than five years ago. I’ll be totally honest, it was a one-man show five years ago. I had one name and it was Marco and I did one interview and it was Marco, and we really hit it off, I think.

“So, I have a much wider net and a lot more people this time and I think it’s a very different search.”

Photo: Action Images via Reuters