Quique Sánchez Flores has emerged as Stoke City’s preferred choice to replace Mark Hughes. The Espanyol manager is expected to make a decision on his future within the next 24 hours and did nothing to dispel the idea he is seriously considering returning to the Premier League after refusing to discuss his position in the wake of last night’s Copa del Rey victory over Levante.

Although Martin O’Neill remains under consideration for the post and has held talks with Stoke officials, Flores is seen as a longer-term solution to a managerial search that became more problematic from the moment Gary Rowett pledged his future to Derby County.

It is understood that John Coates, Stoke’s vice-chairman, and Tony Scholes, the chief executive, travelled to Barcelona on Wednesday to meet Flores and outline their vision for the club.

Flores, however, was coy when quizzed by reporters 24 hours later about whether he was planning to take over at Stoke. “I do not talk about me,” he said after Espanyol won 2-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate to reach the Copa del Rey quarter-finals.

Pressed on whether he was committed to the project at Espanyol, where he was appointed on a three-year contract in the summer of 2016, Flores replied: “The commitment to my profession is very clear to me, for more than 30 years when I started playing, that is unavoidable.

“I am very grateful to Espanyol. At some point I felt that we did not advance at the promised speed, but that is not because Espanyol have not wanted to, but because they have not been able to. They have given me the tools they have been able to, we are in happy times, to enjoy, to laugh in the dressing room – I think we are in the right dynamic.”

The big question for Flores, who guided Watford to a 13th-placed finish in the Premier League and an FA Cup semi-final only to be sacked at the end of that 2015-16 season, is whether he is willing to walk out on Espanyol in the middle of a campaign. Stoke expect an answer from Flores quickly on that front.

The alternative for the Midlands club is O’Neill. Although still in charge of the Republic of Ireland, the 65-year-old has yet to put pen to paper on the new contract that was verbally agreed in November, just prior to the Denmark defeat that ended any hopes of qualifying for the World Cup finals.

Vastly experienced, the former Celtic, Leicester and Sunderland manager is highly regarded by Peter Coates, the Stoke chairman, and has a proven track record in the Premier League. Stoke could do without the uncertainty carrying on much longer. They face Manchester United on Monday and although they always accepted there was a possibility that Hughes’s replacement would not be in the dugout for that trip to Old Trafford – it is understood the players have been told that Eddie Niedzwiecki will almost certainly be in charge in a caretaker capacity for that match – Stoke’s hierarchy would ideally like to have appointed a new manager by then.