Forget Oliver Glasner - Crystal Palace's ideal next manager has been staring them in the face the whole time

It's happening again, Roy. You either retire a hero, or you live long enough to see your belongings bundled into a black bin liner as Pete the Eagle drags you out of Selhurst Park in a Full Nelson lock. For a second time.

If fresh claims are to be trusted, Crystal Palace are planning to relieve Roy Hodgson of his duties at the club. In some respects, you can understand why. At the time of writing, the Eagles are 15th in the Premier League table, just five points clear of danger with 14 matches left to play. They have won just three matches since the beginning of October, and by just about any metric, they are in a world of trouble.

A change in the dugout feels, therefore, inevitable, but the man that Palace look set to bring in could raise a few eyebrows. According to various reports, the Eagles have held positive talks with Austrian manager Oliver Glasner, who is currently out of work, but most recently spent two years at the helm of Eintracht Frankfurt, where he won a Europa League title in 2022. In previous stints, he has been employed by German outfit VfL Wolfsburg and LASK, in his home country.

Assuming an agreement can be reached between Palace and Glasner - and at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that negotiations are going anything but swimmingly - then he will be the man tasked with, firstly, dragging an ailing dressing room towards the relative comfort of mid-table obscurity, and secondly, building on that survival in seasons to come.

If it works, it could be a wonderful appointment. Deep down inside, on some level, every football fan wants their club to stumble across the next great sneaker-wearing continental turbo nerd who can take their fortunes on a magic spreadsheet ride. But things don't always pan out that way. For every Jurgen Klopp, there are a dozen Jan Siewerts, and given the precariousness of Palace's current predicament, even the slightest misstep could end in disaster.

It is for that reason, as regressive and simplistic as it may sound, that you find yourself asking whether they would have been better of opting for somebody who knows the Premier League a little better, and who has tangible experience when it comes to guiding a squad through the gnashing jaws of a relegation dogfight. Somebody like Steve Cooper.

The former Nottingham Forest manager is still available following his departure from the City Ground in December, and to many, he would have been the obvious choice to replace Hodgson in SE25. Evidently, Palace have their justifications for overlooking him, and to that end, supporters and casual observers alike will have to respect them.

But given all that he achieved with Forest, and given the fact that a considerable portion of their fanbase would quite happily have stuck by him even as things got tough this season, you do have to wonder whether the plainest option might also have been the safest. Cooper is a proven entity, a leader who has shown that he has what it takes to ease a fairly unfancied squad away from the perilous drop. Glasner, by comparison, is a bigger gamble, no matter which way you look at it.

Nothing is concrete, of course, but assuming Palace do appoint the Austrian in the coming days, here's hoping it is a risk that pays off.