Who Will be Palace's Next Manager?

Roy Hodgson has done a solid job since taking the reins at Crystal Palace back in 2017 after the Frank De Boer ‘Ajax revolution’ lasted just 77 days at Selhurst Park. The former England manager guided the club to safety in his first season, and the Eagles have not been in any real relegation trouble since. Despite this, it looks likely after nearly four years in charge, Crystal Palace will part ways with the 73-year-old at the end of the season who is likely to retire.

We take a look at the 4 frontrunners to replace Roy Hodgson, and what they could bring to Crystal Palace.

The recently sacked Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is the current favourite to take the helm at Selhurst Park. The 42-year-old who incidentally played for Hodgson on England duty lost his dream job at Stamford Bridge last week and will be looking to rebuild his reputation as one of the countries brightest coaches.

Crystal Palace could be the perfect destination for Lampard to regain his managerial confidence. Palace are an established Premier League team with a solid base of experienced players. To go with this, they also have the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze at their disposal, who are attacking players that any manager would like to work with.

Not only is the Palace job ideal for Lampard, a man also who is bringing up a young family locally. It may not take too much to win over the Selhurst Park faithful over. Much of the fanbase have grown frustrated with the quality of football under Hodgson. If Lampard could transform the way this Palace team by sustaining positive results by playing easy on the eye football, then he could have a potentially very good job on his hands. It would also reinforce any doubt of him being a Premier League quality manager.

Lampard to become manager of the Eagles at the end of the season is priced at 5/2.

Eddie Howe might just be the standout candidate for Palace fans on this list. Renowned for playing positive attacking football, the former Bournemouth man could be the man to really develop Palace into the attractive team the Palace faithful want.

As previously mentioned, the likes of Eze and Zaha are amongst the most talented players in the Premier League on their day and this is in a largely negative set up. The potential damage these two could do if they were to be unleashed under an attacking philosophy like Eddie Howe’s could be a mouth-watering combination for any Palace fan to get excited about.

However, the relegation last season with Bournemouth might be a blot on Howe’s largely impressive record, but it must be considered that he had quite the injury crisis that ultimately plunged them into the relegation zone during the 2019/20 campaign.

Regardless of this, what Hodgson’s Palace side have been over recent seasons is notoriously solid. If Howe can implement his attacking credentials to a solid foundation, then Palace and Howe really could be a match made in heaven.

The former Bournemouth manager is priced at 7/2 to succeed Hodgson at Selhurst Park.

Sean Dyche may not be perceived as an exciting proposition compared to the previously mentioned managers despite doing a remarkable job year on year at Burnley, this is ultimately due to similarities in style with the current Eagles boss. The Palace faithful would likely view the potential of Dyche becoming manager as much of the same, rather than a step in a different direction.

It must be made clear that there is nothing wrong with Palace fans wanting a change in style, especially with them having a breadth of exciting players that could thrive further under a different direction and manager with an attacking philosophy.

What the 49-year-old would offer though is security, as you know exactly what you are going to get with the Burnley man, a strong defence with a workmanlike attitude across the squad. But football fans, in general, want more than this, they want to be excited and see their football club take risks, which is likely to rule out Dyche being on many of the fans wish list.

Despite these points, Dyche may not see the Palace job as much of a step up in his career either. With a new investor in place at Turf Moor in the form of Alan Pace, there may be cause for renewed optimism and financial ambition which could result in the Burnley manager quashing any incentives to leave.

Dyche has the odds of 3/1 to take over from Hodgson at the end of the season.

Despite being one of the best defenders of his generation, John Terry is a complete unknown when it comes to management. There is no knowing what his ideas are, or the style of play he would imbed, but this was same with the likes of Mikel Arteta, Steven Gerrard, or Terry’s close friend Frank Lampard when they went into management.

All the former Chelsea captains coaching experience has come at Aston Villa where he works under Dean Smith, and alongside Craig Shakespeare and Richard O’Kelly. If anything can be drawn from Terry’s playing career, it is that he would be a strong motivator and someone that is well liked by the dressing room.

Even though Terry has no former managerial experience he has played under the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho, whether he has inherited any of their tactical knowledge is another matter. There have been plenty of examples over the years of great players failing as managers. This being said, Terry has made it no secret that he wants to step into management and might just be a dark horse for the job.

Terry is priced at 9/1 become Palace manager at the end of the season.