Exclusive: Fulham boss Marco Silva reveals 'most difficult moment' in English football came during Hull tenure

Marco Silva has revealed his "most difficult moment" in the Premier League came just 17 days into the start of his near seven-year managerial stint in England.

Silva, after spells with Hull, Watford and Everton, is now at his fourth top-flight club, Fulham, where he has delivered creditable results to date, with a promotion from the Championship in 2021/22 and a 10th-place Premier League finish last term.

But - as he revealed to TNT Sports - his start to life in England was laced with sadness.

He said: "From a personal point of view, the most difficult moment that I have had so far in England was the moment when Chelsea played against Hull City, the moment with Ryan Mason.

"He was my player at Hull. That is a personal thing, it was a really tough moment for everyone that loves football."

The moment Silva is referring to saw Mason suffer a serious injury from a clash of heads with Gary Cahill when Hull visited Chelsea in the Premier League on January 22, 2017.

Mason's skull was fractured and he underwent surgery involving the insertion of 14 metal plates, with a year-long rehabilitation programme following.

Regrettably for Mason, the Hull midfielder - who made one appearance for England against Italy in 2015, assisting Andros Townsend's equaliser in a 1-1 draw - was forced to retire from football in 2018, following specialist medical advice on the risks relating to his injury.

Silva's Hull were relegated from the Premier League that season, and the Portuguese added that meeting fans' expectations has been an overall, wider aspect of management he has found challenging.

He said: "At the end, we are in this sport to deliver to the fans what they expect. That is the main thing in football because they are the most important thing in all the clubs.

"The fanbase, the support, the moments that you enjoy with them, the good results and lots of enjoyable moments between the players and the fans as well.

"And the toughest moments are always those moments when you can't deliver what the fans expect in terms of results. I know that they look always for the results, sometimes they don't look behind the result much more because they are passionate with their football clubs, they love their football clubs.

"Always the most difficult moments in football is when you don't deliver for the fans what they expect from you."

In a sign of Silva's longevity in English football, at Hull he managed the likes of now Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire, Liverpool's Scotland skipper Andy Robertson and West Ham and England forward Jarrod Bowen, the latter one of the top scorers in the Premier League this term.

Those three players were relative unknowns at that time, but - like them - Silva is hungry to achieve the most he can from his career, as he addressed last summer's speculation over his future.

He said: "I'm still young but it's been a long time [since 2017]. Four clubs already - if you ask me I would probably like not to have changed so many clubs in that time, but it's part of the business.

"But it's good to see that [my] relationship is very good with almost all of them [his former players]. It's nice to see when you have the first contact with some players and if the connection is so good like it was with the three you have mentioned [Maguire, Robertson and Bowen], but I can mention probably more than 50-100 players.

"When you are with them of course it's good to see them and I wish always the best for them, like I know that most of them wish for me as well.

"And for me of course what they have been showing, [how] they have been developing themselves is the demand that I put on myself and my staff as well.

"Every single day we have to try to be better, every single day we have to try to improve to be more prepared for this competition [the Premier League].

"It's seven years here because I wanted to be here, my ambition was to be here. Last season I had some offers to not be here and I tried to be here, two years ago the same.

"At the end it's where I want to be, to challenge myself in the best competition in the world, the most difficult one. Every single game is a really challenging one with the best players in the world around as well.

"This league demands so much from you that you have to be better every single week and every single day. That's what I want for me and my staff."

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