• Silva managed in his native Portugal before spell with Olympiakos • Hull expected to confirm Silva as manager on initial six-month deal

Marco Silva is close to being appointed Hull City’s new manager on an initial six-month contract and should be in the home dugout for the FA Cup third-round tie against Swansea City at the KCom Stadium on Saturday.

Considering the 39-year-old former Estoril, Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos coach has no experience of English football, speaks limited English and will inherit a largely British squad, he represents a considerable gamble on the part of the Premier League’s bottom club.

Silva, though, is immediately available, having left Olympiakos for personal reasons after securing the Greek title last season. Barring any unforeseen last-minute hitches, he and is set to accept the twin challenges of attempting to ensure Hull avoid relegation and endeavouring to beat Manchester United in their impending EFL Cup semi-final.

The man who got Hull there, Mike Phelan, was sacked on Tuesday night in the wake of a wretched run of one win in 18 Premier League games but by then the club’s owners, the Allam family, had already approached his successor whose appointment is expected to be confirmed on Thursday.

Before his sole campaign in Athens, Silva – whose contract will be extended if all goes to plan and who is provisionally scheduled to address the media on Friday – worked exclusively in his native Portugal, leading Estoril into the country’s top flight and then Europe before a short sojourn with Sporting Lisbon.

Hull and Mike Phelan part company with Gary Rowett favourite for the job Read more

Despite winning the Portuguese Cup with Sporting in 2015, he was sacked shortly afterwards, apparently for failing to wear the club suit in the technical area. Now it appears Silva – believed to be the only candidate the Allams have spoken to – will very shortly find himself being measured up for a Hull suit.

The team’s fans have planned to stage protests against the Allams’ stewardship on Saturday but the presence of a new head coach in the home dugout could deflect attention from their grievances.

Silva’s first key test will be a home game on Saturday week against Bournemouth, who defeated Hull 6-1 in October, in Phelan’s first match after being given the position on a permanent basis.

Although Steve Bruce’s successor retained the support of the dressing room and many fans, the team had won only once in the Premier League since he formally accepted the role almost three months ago. Despite being widely regarded as having done a decent job in an almost impossible context, he is believed to have upset Ehab Allam, Hull’s vice-chairman who runs the club on a day to day basis, by emphasising that relegation is all but inevitable without considerable investment in the squad during the transfer window this month.

It is thought the board hope that Silva – represented by the influential Portuguese agent Carlos Goncalves and his ProEleven agency – will use his contacts to attract some of the continent’s brightest hidden gems players to Yorkshire, quite possibly making use of the loan market.

Ehab Allam said on Wednesday that he anticipated signings being made. “I maintain the belief that the current squad, with two or three key additions during the current transfer window, is good enough to survive in this division,” he told the club’s website. “I acknowledge that our position in the table will make recruitment more challenging, however all of our efforts are now focused on enhancing the existing squad with Premier League survival our priority.”

He thanked Phelan for his work but said the sacking had been necessary to give Hull “the best possible chance of retaining Premier League status” and added pointedly that “a significant investment [was] made in the signing of six new players” last summer.

With the Allams engaged in continuing – but so far unsuccessful – attempts to sell Hull, they are not thought to be overly keen on spending heavily in order to restock a slender, injury-hit squad but will need to re-equip their backroom after Phelan’s support staff of Neil McDonald, Bobby Mimms and Stan Ternent were all released on Wednesday. The sole survivor is Tony Pennock, the former academy head and, most recently, first-team coach.