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London - Marco Silva's short tenure as Everton manager will likely come to an end later on Thursday with Sky reporting he is in crunch talks with owner Farhad Moshiri.
The 42-year-old Portuguese, who was only appointed in May 2018, is expected to be told by Moshiri that his time at Goodison Park is over.
Silva is set to join Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham), Unai Emery (Arsenal) and Quique Sanchez Flores (Watford) in an extraordinary glut of managerial sackings in the past fortnight.
The former Hull and Watford handler had been given a reprieve after a loss to Norwich but the 5-2 hammering in the Merseyside derby against Liverpool on Wednesday may have sealed his fate. That was Everton's eighth defeat from their last 11 games.
Not only was he the first Everton manager since Howard Kendall in 1982 to concede five goals to their bitter city rivals but they find themselves in the bottom three after playing a minimum of 15 games for the first time since April 1999 (32 matches).
Silva whilst never the most cheerful or emotional figure on the touchline cut a dejected figure during the match at Anfield.
"I am not the right person to talk about this situation," he told the BBC after the game.
"You are asking me and I don't have the answer."
Potential successors are thin on the ground with veteran David Moyes touted as a likely temporary stop-gap.
The 56-year-old Scot earned his managerial top flight spurs at Everton, but has had a chequered career since.
Fired both by Manchester United - following Alex Ferguson was hard enough an act and no one else has succeeded in turning them into title challengers since he retired - and Real Sociedad he has hardly sparkled at either Sunderland or West Ham.
For Moshiri Silva's failure represents a blow to him as well as he had fought long and hard to procure his services.
Indeed Everton got themselves into trouble when they went after Silva in October 2017 when he was still in charge of Watford.
Silva - who is the fourth manager of Moshiri's spell at the club - had been given money to spend.
Brazilian Richarlison - who played for him at Watford - and Colombian centre-back Yerry Mina came in at a combined cost of over 60 million.
A small consolation for Silva perhaps is that at least his transfer picks have met with the board's endorsement.
Richarlison signed a new contract on Tuesday and Everton are reported by the Daily Mail desperately keen to persuade another of his signings French left-back Lucas Digne to agree a new improved contract.
Digne signed for just over 18 million in July 2018 but such have been his performances the club believe he is worth 70 million and are wary of bids from their rivals.
Whether that gives Silva any comfort as he likely drives off to an uncertain future is a moot point.
