Back in January, Hull City sacked Mike Phelan and replaced him with Portuguese coach Marco Silva, a relatively unknown quantity in England despite his success with Olympiakos during the 2015-16 campaign.But the Tigers’ decision to replace a British coach with a foreign manager - a foreign manager many hadn’t heard of before, despite his achievements in Greece - didn’t go down well with the panel on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday.Outlining the fact that Silva had an impressive record thanks to his spells with Sporting Lisbon and Olympiakos, Soccer Saturday host Jeff Stelling was shot down by a perplexed Paul Merson.“I could win the league with Olympiakos,” the former Arsenal star responded. “They’ve won it 107 times and it’s only been going 106 years.”He continued: “The thing is, why does it always have to be a foreign manager?“What’s he know about the Premier League? What’s he know?”Phil Thompson then went further, claiming Silva’s appointment was ‘embarrassing’.“It’s totally astonishing that they have plumped for someone like this. It’s baffling. When there are a lot of people out there who know about the Premier League, about what’s required to dig in. He’s not got a clue,” the former Liverpool assistant manager added.“It’s just another slap in the face to British coaches and managers, and what they have done to make this appointment for six months is just embarrassing.”

Watch: Merson and Thompson rant about Silva

You can see the rant for yourselves here...

Silva has made Merson and Thompson look like dinosaurs

However, Silva has made Merson and Thompson both look like complete dinosaurs over the past few months.

Hull were bottom of the Premier League table when the 39-year-old took the reins at the KCOM Stadium and appeared doomed.

But now, with only seven matches of the season remaining, Hull currently sit 17th, having secured five victories from their last 11 matches.

Hull have sealed back-to-back wins over West Ham and Middlesbrough within the past week and have subsequently given themselves a real chance of staying in the division.

The Premier League table since Silva's arrival is incredible

There’s still work to do, of course, but the Premier League form table just outlines what a remarkable job Silva has done for the relegation-threatened side since his arrival.

Hull currently sit fourth in the form table, ahead of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United and only behind title-chasing duo Tottenham and Chelsea, plus Everton.

That is some achievement and we hope both Merson and Thompson are man enough to apologise to Silva at the end of the season if Hull stay up.