Portugese Marcos Silva is a cross between Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino and Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez, according to a prominent journalist.
Telegraph chief football correspondent Jason Burt made the assessment about Silva on his personal Twitter account after the newspaper reported that he is in advanced talks to become the new boss of Watford.
Silva is said to be the firm favourite to take over at Vicarage Road from the sacked Walter Mazzarri and he could be announced as early as next week.
Burt claimed he has had great feedback from his sources about the 39-year-old, who quit as Hull manager earlier this week after failing to prevent them being relegated.
“Told he’s a cross between Benitez [and] Pochettino,” wrote Burt of the man who has the qualities of Newcastle’s Champions League-winning boss and Spurs’ highly rated manager, who steered the club to second place in this season’s Premier League on a budget dwarfed by his side’s rivals.
Personally think Marco Silva will be a fantastic appointment by Watford if it goes through. Told he’s a cross between Benitez/Pochettino
— Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) May 26, 2017
Silva has a sound reputation built at Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos, and was widely praised for transforming the fortunes of Hull after replacing Mike Phelan in January.
The Portuguese won six of his 18 league games in charge but gave Hull a fighting chance of survival when they seemed doomed to go down and the club spoke warmly of him after his exit this week.
Silva is a manager in demand as the Telegraph report that he held talks with Porto a few days ago and also has interest from Crystal Palace.