Fulham news: Khan says candidates to succeed Silva 'both bring a lot of positives'

Fulham owner Tony Khan says "it is an exciting and important summer for the football club" as he looks to appoint a successor to Marco Silva.

Earlier in June, BBC Sport reported Fulham were in advanced talks with 43-year-old Spaniard Alvaro Arbeloa over the post, while Coventry City boss Frank Lampard has also been linked.

The Cottagers are also known to have held talks with Kieran McKenna, who has since Ipswich Town following their promotion to the Premier League, saying he wanted a break to spend time with his family.

After five years in charge, Silva had been offered a new three-year deal, but decided to leave to replace Jose Mourinho as Benfica boss.

"It's been a lot of learning and a great experience, and certainly the best results have been in the past several years when working with Marco Silva, who did a great job at the football club," Khan told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast.

"He left very recently and we're in the process right now of identifying the next person to come in and coach the team.

"I have so much respect for Marco. He left on a very high note after four seasons of achieving exactly what we wanted, which was building to be stable and getting those results. In the past four years in the Premier League, we finished 10th, 13th, 11th and 11th.

"We had very consistent results, which I think showed how far we had come after finishing 20th in the Championship 10 years ago.

"We are speaking very closely to two candidates who both bring a lot of positives to the football club. It is a really important process at a really important time."