Phelan will take charge of Hull at weekend but Tigers retain interest in Wales boss Coleman

The 53-year-old has been in temporary charge of the Tigers since Steve Bruce’s shock departure 18 days ago following a disagreement over transfer policy.

Phelan is believed to have met vice chairman Ehab Allam, who has been leading the search for a new manager, yesterday afternoon on his return from Hull’s pre-season trip to Austria.

A number of topics were discussed, including the club’s acute need to bring in new players, and Phelan was asked to take charge of Saturday lunchtime’s televised home clash with the Foxes.

Popular with the players, the former Manchester United midfielder has agreed to stay in place and a positive result or performance could strengthen his chances of landing the job permanently.

Hull do, though, remain interested in Chris Coleman despite the Football Association of Wales last week rejecting an approach from the East Riding club to speak to the man who led his country to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Sources have indicated the former defender is also still keen on the KCOM Stadium role, but that he does not intend to walk out on Wales if no permission is forthcoming from the governing body over talks.

Gianfranco Zola, who along with new Belgium manager Roberto Martinez had spoken to the club about replacing Bruce, is not believed to still be in the running due to wanting to bring in a sizeable number of his own backroom staff. Regardless of who does get the Hull job on a permanent basis, the club’s owners are keen to retain many of the existing back-up team.

Along with what has proved to be a protracted search for a new manager, the Tigers are badly in need of new faces to bolster a squad that is down to the bare bones.

As it stands, Phelan will go into that Foxes clash with just 13 senior players available – and two of those are goalkeepers, Edin Jakupovic and Dusan Kuciak.

In last Saturday’s final warm-up game – a 2-1 defeat to Torino – midfielder Jake Livermore had to again slot in at centre-half.

Hull are yet to make a signing this summer other than Wimbledon rookie goalkeeper Will Mannion, but a list of transfer targets has been drawn up by Phelan, chief scout Stan Ternent and Dean Hughes, the club’s head of performance analysis.

The hope is that two or three of these may come to fruition before the weekend, though the current uncertainty over the position of manager may yet hold these discussions up further.

Agreeing to join a club without a permanent manager and whose ownership may yet change in the coming couple of months would be a risk for any player.

One man who hopes Phelan gets the job is Gary Neville, his former Old Trafford team-mate.

“He has wanted to do it for many, many years and he has wanted to take that top job,” said Neville about Phelan.

“Now is a good opportunity for him. He knows the players well, he is not going into a club he has to get used to and that is a massive positive for him. Now is the perfect time for him to go on his own.”