Marco Silva: ‘Me like Tigana? The job is not done yet’

By Alessandro Schiavone

Fulham manager Marco Silva played down comparisons with Jean Tigana, saying that the Cottagers are not yet promoted to the Premier League. The West Londoners are on the verge of a return to the top division boasting an 11-point advantage over second-placed Bournemouth with seven games to go. If they get the job done, it would be their third promotion in four years. However ex-Watford and Everton chief Silva would be the first since Frenchman Tigana in 2000/2001 to achieve straight promotion. On the last two occasions, under Slavisa Jokanovic and Scott Parker, the Cottagers only qualified via the play-offs, against Aston Villa in 2018 and Brentford two years later respectively. Speaking to Capital Football at The Riverside in Middlesbrough, Silva insisted that he doesn't want to get ahead of himself before promotion becomes mathematical. He said: "I don't want to talk about if, if, if.

"I prefer to keep working hard and to win football matches. "And when the moment comes and I hope it will come, we will do our best to achieve it [then] I can talk about the situation. "Of course we know that the last two times that Fulham got promoted was in the play-offs. From the first day we agreed about our aim, our goal. "The teams that get relegated must be the contenders to get promoted. "And of course the other clubs around like Boro or the clubs that got relegated two seasons before they have to take this responsibility as well. "From the first day we are talking that we want to get promoted, we will go for it and to be champion as well. I can't talk about what Tigana did in 2001 because we didn't achieve it [yet]. "This is not the moment for me to talk about it."