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No sooner had the Premier League season ended and Crystal Palace were celebrating another season in the top flight then they were rocked by the shock news that Sam Allardyce had decided to leave the club and retire from football with immediate effect.
That meant that Steve Parrish was tasked with once again having to find another man to take over the Selhurst Park hotseat, a seat that is seemingly getting warmer and warmer with each year as the next incumbent would be the eigth manager in just seven years.
A turnover that frequent means the club can only really tread water, the constant process of starting again under a new manager means progress and more importantly laying foundations are concepts that are almost impossible to implement.
The short termism means that the sole objective can only really be survival something that have managed in each season since returning to the top level of English football back in 2013. So the question that needs to be asked is just where do Palace go from here and who is the man to move the club forward.
The club have already been recently foiled in their bid to acquire the services of Marco Silva as Watford named the former Hull boss as their new manager on a 2 year deal, that was undoubtedly a set back and it has also meant a change of tact from club chairman Steve Parish.
With the failure to land Silva there were other names on the table such as former England manager Roy Hodgson and the recently sacked Bayer Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt but it is felt by Palace that they do not necessarily have to name a replacement just yet and are now averting their eyes to another Premier League boss.
That being Sean Dyche of Burnley, a move that perhaps fans of the South London club would not have envisaged but one that could allow the club to finally build a platform over the next couple of years and establish themselves as a top 1o club.
Dyche has now had two season of top flight experience with Burnley, the first saw the Turf Moor outfit go down at the first time of asking but after bouncing straight back up from the Championship last season the Lancashire club finished a very creditable 16th this time around.
And it is the job that Dyche would have done on smaller resources than that of their Premier League counterparts which has drawn interest from the likes of Crystal Palace. Should they want to take their interest further than it is going to take a £1m compensation fee to free him for his current managerial role.
Dyche has already had a managerial stint down south after being in charge of Watford, under the tutelage of the 45 year old they finished the 2011–12 season in 11th place, the club’s best finish for four years, but a change in club ownership led to his dismissal at the end of the season.
And with that in mind he will perhaps feel he has unfinished business in that part of the country, not only that but by moving to a London club he will get more focus and with that perhaps more credit that he at times feels he does not get at Burnley.
To keep Burnley up this season is clearly testament to the impressive work he has done but there could well be a feeling that in performing that task he has taken the club as far as he possibly can. With that in mind, the vacancy at Selhurst Park could well prove to be an attractive one.
For Crystal Palace this is an appointment where they can afford to take their time on as ultimately it is one that they need to get right, top flight survival should never be sniffed at but if you really want to go places then you need a manager who is going to see his ideas through to fruition.
Look at Sunderland they kept their head just above water for a number of years but their approach of quickfire managerial turnover finally got the better of them this season and that is a situation that the Eagles will certainly not want to be in.
If Crystal Palace do end up pinning their hopes on Sean Dyche then it would be considered to be a very shrewd move, this is a young manager who knows the division inside out and together they could end up being a perfect fit for each other.
