Crystal Palace set to open Cooper talks as their comical search continues

So Crystal Palace are set to open talks for Steve Cooper now that they have been turned down by a second first choice manager they keep going to the man who is first choice but only first choice to the current first choice.  Or as he will soon be known as “the man who will do if we can’t find anyone else who is better”

It is difficult to know at the moment whether Cooper has spoken to Palace before and failed to impress (which has been suggested) or whether rumours of his talks are dreamt up by press, representatives, those with alleged inside knowledge or just a mixture of them all.

It has been said he is the first choice of Steve Parish but not the owners, or was that the other way around but either way we know that publicly they have been turned down by two high profile managers which tells you they are either a bit of a basket case club in their plans or they are looking to do things on the cheap.   Or maybe it could be a combination of both.

Today’s (and yesterday’s) papers report that they are now turning their attention back to Cooper and talks will start.   Although the papers (possibly even the same ones as we lose track) have said that they have held talks before so maybe they now want to offer Cooper less money or maybe even they want to convinced him that their public chasing of other managers was nothing more than wanting to put everyone off the real scent that was leading to Steve Cooper’s door.  A perfect crime.   Or anything but.

Cooper now appears to be back at the top of their list and is supposedly on the top of Fulham’s as well although neither seem to have made formal approaches to the club who you also assume have a list of their own should Cooper decide he wants to go.   Which almost everyone believes that he does want to do but is just waiting for someone to offer him the chance.  Allegedly.

Many of the sources close to the Palace insider who has the inside scoops on everything point back to Alan Nixon who, despite his large Twitter following, has more than a regular tendency to be as wide of the mark as anything you read on Twitter but this one does have mileage as it keeps coming to the surface and Palace are starting again to think about Cooper who is their third choice.  Or is it fourth or fifth if you include Lampard and Dyche.   And maybe even Ismael to make it sixth.

The only thing that is certain to this is that with every passing day we come a day nearer to the decision day where the announcement of Roy Hodgson’s replacement will be made.   You would assume it will certainly be ahead of the start of the season in August but with the farcical nature of this search then who knows.

My view though is a simple one, Palace is clearly not an attractive proposition to many managers and that tells a story in itself.  Largely around packages on offer (contrary to popular belief most managers don’t worry about transfer budgets, their own pockets will come first) and that is why they are looking down in the Championship at a manager with two years experience under his belt at club level.  Even two out of work managers have seen the opportunity on offer as not attractive enough to damage what are clearly good CVs.

The comical nature of this continues, when will it end?