By any reckoning, Marco Silva is a contender for Manager of the Season – but there are two records that make his happy marriage with Fulham a surprising one.
At Craven Cottage, he is in the midst of the longest spell of his managerial career.
This is a coach once berated by a terrace full of plastic snakes after leaving Watford, and who faced a barrage of abuse before ending a torrid spell at Everton.
At 174 matches, 1,366 days and almost four years, it is also the longest tenure of any Fulham manager since Chris Coleman, who left in April 2007.
The annual Premier League gong for his achievements is unlikely, given Nuno Espirito Santo’s miraculous vault towards the Champions League and Arne Slot’s imminent crowning glory.
The fact remains that Fulham are 90 minutes away from a Wembley semi-final and sit two points off the top six, not three years after Silva lifted them out of the Championship.
Which leads to the question, which is never far away, of what comes next, and who will be in place to oversee it?
There has been no approach yet from Tottenham Hotspur despite suggestions Silva is a candidate to replace Ange Postecoglou.
Silva’s current deal, signed in 2023, expires in 2026.
The i Paper understands his existing contract contains a release clause for coquettish rivals making eyes at the Portuguese, though reports it is in the region of £7.5m are wide of the mark.
Shahid Khan has managed to keep hold of him once, batting away interest from Saudi Arabia, even a staggering £40m offer from Al-Hilal not tempting him to the Pro League.
Instead, Silva has built something Fulham have not had in 20 years, through the highs of promotions, cup runs and a Europa League final – a genuine five-year plan.
There is quiet optimism behind closed doors that for once, they have stumbled upon a love affair that will run and run.
It is only natural that fans should catastrophise this.
The fear is that it will all live or die this summer on the size of its chequebook.
Silva has made plain his desire for another full-back and right-winger.
That a Willian playing on his lesser side was the only January reinforcement – despite injuries to Harry Wilson, Kenny Tete and Reiss Nelson – left Silva reiterating that “the club can take steps forward quicker if we don’t sell players”.
Yet he has also made his existing ones better, while weathering the departures in his tenure of Joao Palhinha, Tosin Adarabioyo, Aleksandar Mitrovic – who, unlike his former boss, found the allure of the Gulf too potent to turn down.
Mitrovic has been succeeded by a resurgent Raul Jimenez, whose dry spell was in turn mitigated by the emergence of Rodrigo Muniz.
Jimenez, following that 10 months without a goal, is now enjoying his best season both since his head injury and post-Wolves.
Sasa Lukic and Sander Berge have effectively combined to replace Palhinha, though there is an argument that beyond those two, there is still a greater balance to be struck when Andreas Pereira is in the deeper role.
The knock-on effect is fine-tuning Emile Smith Rowe’s contribution at No 10.
Few are willing to write off Smith Rowe precisely because of what his manager has done to transform the careers of those around him, not least Calvin Bassey and Antonee Robinson.
If the latter registers another assist before May, this season alone he will have matched the tally for his entire Fulham career.
Silva has taken players in black and white and catapulted them into the technicolour age.
Partly, that is through necessity, but the conditions under which he is operating are not entirely new.
The January of 2023 was the only winter window under Silva in which Fulham have made more than one signing.
At the same time, his tenure has seen record investment: Smith Rowe (£34m), Joachim Andersen (£30m), Alex Iwobi (£22m), Palhinha (£20m), Berge (£25m), Bassey (£19m).
The prospect of their head coach committing to a new deal is just as important to Fulham’s abiding health as any one of those individuals.
Once it was impossible to know what a long-term Silva project looked like, because we had never seen one.
There was no possibility of building anything at the Hull City of 2017, and there is certainly no such thing as a veteran Watford manager under the Pozzos.
Those close to his situation at Everton felt he was unfortunate that his tenure should have coincided with an (almost) uniquely chaotic time in the club’s history.
In the midst of an FA Cup run that is opening up beautifully for the non-traditional Big Six, there is not a sense that Silva has taken Fulham as far as he can, but rather that they are on the cusp of something special together.
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