Marco Silva sacked by Everton with club targeting Vitor Pereira as replacement

• Why Everton's problems go beyond the manager

• Silva has to be Everton's last expensive mistake

Vitor Pereira has emerged as Everton’s first-choice to become their new manager following the sacking of Marco Silva. The highly-regarded 51-year-old is keen to move to the Premier League and is believed to also be on Arsenal’s radar having previously been considered by Chelsea.

Pereira is currently the coach of Chinese club Shanghai SIPG who have offered him a new three-year deal but he is set to turn that down. The Portuguese has also been asked whether he would like to become the coach of Chinese national team but Telegraph Sport understands that he is willing to talk to Everton.

Pereira is currently one of the highest-paid managers in world football earning €23million a year but clearly will not receive anywhere near that salary at Everton. He is also a serial winner having won league titles in Portugal, back-to-back titles with Porto, in Greece with Olympiakos and in China where he guided Shanghai SIPG to their first ever league title. Pereira has also coached in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Pereira was interviewed by Everton before the appointment of Roberto Martinez in 2013 but did not get the job at that time partly because he did not have a grasp of English. But he now speaks the language fluently.

Whether the Everton fans will be enthused by the prospect of another Portuguese coach - and one with no Premier League experience - after Silva remains to be seen. There is still backing within the Everton board for David Moyes to return to the club he managed for 11 years, before he left for Manchester United to be replaced by Martinez, but his chances of taking over have undoubtedly reduced. Moyes, with the former player Tim Cahill as his assistant, was the clear favourite at one stage on Thursday although Everton supporters have not backed his appointment.

Silva was sacked after a tortuous day in which he was kept waiting 10 hours at the club’s training ground to learn his inevitable fate. Duncan Ferguson has been put in temporary charge for Saturday’s Premier League game at home to Chelsea. The former striker will take the team on a game-by-game basis until a permanent appointment is made with the Scot having been the only member of the coaching staff retained by Silva, at the club’s behest, when he succeeded Sam Allardyce 18 months ago.

Silva’s coaching team leaves with him with the former Hull City and Watford manager dismissed after a series of talks that started with a conference call involving majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and director football Marcel Brands.

It followed the shattering 5-2 Merseyside derby defeat away to Liverpool with the expectation that Silva would be sacked soon after arriving at the club’s Finch Farm training ground around 9am.

Instead it is understood that Brands fought to retain Silva for at least one more game arguing that he was fundamentally a good coach and had been hampered by injuries and bad luck and could still turn things around.

There has been a great deal of sympathy for Silva who is a popular figure within the club. Such was the strength of Brands’ argument that Moshiri, who had stayed in London and missed the Anfield game, travelled up to Merseyside by train.

Moshiri arrived at the training ground at around 2.20pm, shortly after finance director Sasha Ryazantsev. They were joined by other directors and another round of talks took place, while Silva awaited his fate, including asking the players to remain behind after their afternoon recovery session so they could be spoken to by Moshiri.

Finally Telegraph Sport revealed at 7pm that Silva had been dismissed with confirmation coming from Everton minutes later which included a brief acknowledgement to Silva “for his service over the past 18 months”. The statement added that Ferguson was in “temporary charge” and the appointment of a “new permanent manager” would be made “as swiftly as possible”.

It means Everton are searching for their fourth permanent manager since Martinez was sacked in May 2016 with more questions being asked about Moshiri’s ownership and the direction the club is going in under him, Brands and chairman Bill Kenwright despite spending heavily in the transfer market.

It has felt like a question of when, rather than if, Silva would be sacked for some time. He came close to losing his job after the terrible 2-0 home defeat to Norwich City with the Everton board convening after that game and Silva spoken to but the 42-year-old was given a stay of execution.

The defeat to Leicester last weekend again led to another series of talks but, once more, Silva carried on to Wednesday’s derby where the manner of the poor performance as much as the defeat has done for him. In the end Silva, who took charge in May 2018, won 24 and lost 24 of his 60 games in charge. Everton have 14 points from 15 games but, conversely, are only three points behind 12^th-placed Bournemouth and it is felt that one win could make a significant difference.

After Saturday’s game Everton face Manchester United a week on Sunday which may give a replacement more time to get in place and work with the players. Following that there is the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Leicester City before facing Arsenal ahead of the hectic festive schedule.