West Ham United could look to bring Fulham boss Marco Silva into their ranks to negate their poor form in the Premier League, according to reports – with the Hammers potentially coughing up the fee needed to bring him to the London Stadium, after snubbing the opportunity to do so over the past 18 months.

The report by Claret and Hugh states that West Ham are ‘paying the price’ for penny-pinching in terms of their appointment of Graham Potter, due to the Hammers’ poor run of results in the Premier League and League Cup.

Report: West Ham See Fulham Boss Marco Silva as ‘Right Man for the Job’

However, Silva has now been touted as a potential replacement for the beleaguered Englishman, should the Hammers look to ring the changes in the coming weeks of the campaign. Silva, according to club sources from the report, has been billed as ‘the right man to take over West Ham’, whilst a suggestion that the Irons could be reluctant to pay his compensation clause was met with a response stating: ‘It’s not too much if he’s the right man’.

It’s thought that the ‘genius’ Portuguese boss has a buyout clause ranging from £8-10million in his Craven Cottage contract, and given that he was a leading candidate to replace both David Moyes and Julen Lopetegui, he will be up there again if Potter is axed thanks to his continuous good form with the Cottagers. Nuno Espirito Santo, recently axed by Nottingham Forest, and former boss Slaven Bilic have also been touted for moves to the London Stadium.

West Ham instead opted for free agents in Lopetegui and Potter, with both spells being largely underwhelming, and now the drawbacks of that have been laid bare. West Ham would need to pay Potter over £3million to terminate his contract, whilst they are still paying Lopetegui off for his £3.6million severance package, which doesn’t include payouts for his staff.

GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: Marco Silva has won 85 of his 191 games in charge of Fulham.

As well as a £1million buyout clause paid to Chelsea for Potter’s assistant, Kyle Macauley, it’s a lot of money for not just paying Silva’s buyout clause in the first place, and that could tempt them into a deal for the Fulham gaffer. Silva took the Cottagers from the Championship and into the Premier League, since recording finishes of 10th, 13th and 11th, with the club currently sat in eighth in the league table this time around.

However, despite a promising stint at Hull City and a decent tenure at Watford, his spell at Everton left a lot to be desired, though it seems as though he’s learned from his mistakes in the west end of the capital.