As Crystal Palace and West Brom hover, will Cooper stay or is temptation too much

On the face of it Steve Cooper’s stock could not be much higher at the moment.   An England Under-17 World cup winning manager, two seasons in league management have resulted in two play off campaigns in the toughest of all leagues.  And those two campaigns have been done of the back of cost cutting and a global pandemic ripping apart income streams.

It is little wonder then that there are clubs monitoring the Steve Cooper situation very closely.  He was linked with Sheffield United, he is supposed to be at the top of Crystal Palace’s list and West Brom are also reported to be considering a move for Cooper.

One of those opportunities may have sailed but the other two will give Cooper a budget that he simply will not get at the Swans and the chance to work with players that are, frankly, better than anything Swansea have given him.

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There were reports in yesterday’s papers that the compensation claim for Cooper would be as high as £4.5m.  As with most things written by Alan Nixon that comes with some poetic licence although there will of course be compensation for a management team under contract.  That isn’t news, that is just a business practice.

The question is whether Cooper will feel the time is right to make the move.  As per his Talksport interview on Saturday (Cooper’s Talksport comment was a Crystal Palace hint?) he did seem to be suggesting that his time at Swansea was up as he started to almost talk about us being in the past tense.

For me there will be little doubt that if either the Eagles or the Baggies come calling Cooper will be wanting to talk and then it comes down to personal terms and personal terms only.   Both clubs will be aware of the cost of prising Cooper and his team away from the Liberty so it will come down to whether they can satisfy the drive of a manager who is hugely ambitious to succeed in the game.

From a personal point of view I do not believe that Steve Cooper will be here next season.  He has built his stock and earned his reputation.  Whatever we think about his style of play and tactics he has steered us into back to back play off campaigns on the backdrop of losing our best players in both his summers here, the lack of income and the decimation of our parachute payments.  If he stays I do not believe we are equipped to challenge at the top again next season and that could well be in his mind.

Crystal Palace remains the place where the smart money is being placed but don’t rule out West Brom despite their recent relegation.  They will have taken note of Cooper’s ability to compete at the top end of this division and with their resources he could be the man they turn to to get them back to the promised land.

It will be an interesting few weeks now the dust has started to settle on Saturday’s defeat and I would guess both club and manager want this particular situation closed off as soon as possible.  Maybe even as early as this week.