Crystal Palace Look For Silva Lining

Tuesday bought around a couple of pieces of managerial news in the Premier League, one it must be said came as no real surprise while the other certainly caught everyone in the world of Football off guard. We are now in the silly season of personnel changes and the managerial merry go round is very much in full swing.

David Moyes obviously did not have the stomach for battle when it comes to trying to get Sunderland back into the top flight at the first time of asking as he resigned from the Stadium Of Light, but the shock news was just hours later when Sam Allardyce resigns from Crystal Palace and then formally retired from management.

It was an amicable split between Allardyce and Palace although club chairman Steve Parrish will undoubtedly be disappointed that the former one time England boss did not want to stay on and try to build on the impressive job he did at Selhurst Park.

Allardyce did have the chance to at least raise his stock after the debacle with England but from that point forward he was only ever going to be appointed as a firefighter for whichever Premier League club needed rescuing from the perils of relegation.

And it was apparent that Allardyce no longer wanted to be seen as that kind of manager, keeping Palace would have bought temporary relief but there is no doubting the crushing disappointment that losing the England job in such trivial circumstances would bring.

With Allardyce now off for a well earned rest the question is obviously who will take over the Selhurst Park hotseat, one name that is in the frame is Marco Silva from Hull. He came into this league something of an unknown quantity but now he is very much a hot topic.

He could not keep Hull up but a huge amount of credit must go to him for being able to salvage their season as when he took over at the start of the year they looked nothing short of a lost cause. The way he managed to turn the club around in a short space of time was impressive but he must be wondering how they did not stay up this season.

Two crucial defeats at the worst time of the season where ultimately Hull’s undoing, with just three weeks remaining Hull were in command of their own destiny but a derailing defeat at home to Sunderland was then coupled by a crushing defeat to Palace and that defeat in the South London was the hammer blow which sent them down.

The way they lost those two matches showed that they were masters of their own downfall and now not only do they have to plan for life in the EFL Championship but they also have a massive struggle to convince Marco Silva to stay on at the KCOM Stadium.

Marco Silva’s contract will soon expire meaning he is obviously free to move to any other club, he will now have a long list of suitors both here and abroad and you do have to wonder if Hull can match the lofty ambitions of the former Olympiakos manager.

To lose their much heralded man in charge will be bad enough but to not stand a penny in compensation will just be that more gut wrenching for everyone connected with Hull. The only way they can get Silva to sign a new contract is if they pull on his heart strings.

Unfortunately though as much as Silva and Hull have fallen in love with each other during the past few months it seems as if in this scenario there will be no room for sentiment and the 39 year old will have the pick of a number clubs looking to acquire his services.

Palace will have to act quickly if they are to install him as their new manager what with Watford monitoring the situation with keen interest after they sacked Walter Mazzari last week while Southampton may well decide to twist and say Au Revoir to Claude Puel after just one season in charge.

Looking at the Crystal Palace squad then they are arguably just a couple of signings away from being a top 10 side, especially when you saw how congested the middle pack of teams were this season, with 6 points separating Southampton in 8th and Watford in 17th.

Eventually Sam Allardyce led his side to a relatively comfortable 14th in the table and were just a couple of wins away from finishing in 8th, so the makings of the squad to kick on next season is definitely there they just need to install the right man to take the reigns from Allardyce.

Whether that man is Silva remains to be seen, not because he may not be up to the task in hand but because Palace are going to be just one of many admirers who would like to install him as their new manager for next season. The battle lines have now been drawn.