Fulham are planning to appoint a "high-calibre manager" to succeed Roy Hodgson in the next fortnight with frontrunners Sven Goran Eriksson and Mark Hughes joined by surprise outside US World Cup coach Bob Bradley.
Following the success of Hodgson in taking Fulham to a Europa League final, owner Mohamed Al Fayed wants a manager with an established reputation in charge.
Next stop: Sven Goran Eriksson could be the next Fulham manager
Former England manager Eriksson is the leading contender and has a good personal relationship with Chief Executive Alistair Mackintosh from their time together at Manchester City.
Eriksson has made it clear he wants to return to the Premier League after a three-match stint as manager of Ivory Coast but he would have to accept a lower wage than he had at Eastlands and limited spending budget.
And although Hughes had last night still not been approached about the job, he has not been ruled out either with Fulham impressed by the way he guided Blackburn Rovers into Europe on a limited budget before succeeding Eriksson at City.
The outsider, American manager Bradley, is keen to embark on a club career in Europe and his advantage would be being able to bring in several members of the American World Cup team including his son Michael to line up alongside Clint Dempsey who is already at Craven Cottage.
Fulham are not rushing into an appointment with Hodgson having only departed on Thursday.
But they want a man in place before they arrive for a pre-season training camp in Sweden on July 19.
Hughes' decision to turn down a lucrative offer from Dubai club side Al Ahli last week means he is available for the Fulham job but Eriksson fits the profile enjoyed by Fayed.
Ironically, Fulham's Chief Executive Alistair Mackintosh resigned from the same job at Manchester City a week after Hughes was appointed in 2008 to replace Eriksson, and he is believed to be a fan of the Swede.
Although Eriksson would expect a larger transfer budget than Hughes, his arrival is more likely to allow popular No2 Ray Lewington to arrive at the club.
Another contender Alan Curbishley is believed to be pessimistic about his chances because of a chequered history with two of his former players Danny Murphy and Paul Konchesky who have an influential voice in the Craven Cottage dressing-room.
Curbishley fell out with Murphy at Charlton and later sold Konchesky to Fulham when he was manager at West Ham.
A senior source at Fulham confirmed last night: 'We plan to have a high-calibre man in place by the time our pre-season friendlies begin.'
poor sven, after england, no top clubs would want to hire him and he went on to manage mexico and ivory coast for a short period of time.
But I think he got sh!t lots of money for managing those clubs for short period of time.
i think he will come good for clubs' level football. dont know why but i've that confidence in him.
is he the type of manager that can work on a tight budget though?
he is a better manager than mclaren lar. this is in no doubt
Hes a money grabbing greedy b!tch
Originally posted by Y_Shun:But I think he got sh!t lots of money for managing those clubs for short period of time.
i think he holds the record for managing the most number of teams.
btw, how many cups or titles have he won so far?