Wrong Choice Roy? Three Managers Who Crystal Palace Could Have Appointed Instead Of Roy Hodgson
With four defeats in four Premier League games, Frank de Boer was a man on the wire and Crystal Palace weren’t willing to wait around anymore as the Dutchman has gotten the sack within 77 days of his appointment. It is once again a deja vu moment for the Dutchman as he had suffered the same fate with Inter Milan in the past.
While fate decided to play an ugly game with Frank de Boer, Palace are on the verge creating their own personal deja vu moment by hiring former England head coach, Roy Hodgson. The English manager has a dark past of failures and his appointment has come as a big surprise for the fans and pundits.
Although there isn’t much anyone can do about Palace’s new hiring, there is no harm in taking a look at three other managers who could have replaced Frank de Boer as the head coach of Crystal Palace FC. Maybe, they would have been a better choice than Hodgson?
Claude Puel
The former Monaco FC head coach could have been the ideal person to replace Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace. With plenty of Premier League experience under his belt, thanks to his brief stint as the Southampton manager, the Frenchman could have brought Palace back from the dead, given his impressive CV. The 56-year-old is known for getting results with good players, and with the heavy weight players already in the Palace squad, success would have been guaranteed under the management of Claude Puel.
David Moyes
The Scotsman has a rich history in the Premier League having managed clubs like Everton, Manchester United and Sunderland in the past. Moyes has a way of making things work even with the smallest budgets but Palace aren’t exactly in a situation like that. With the likes of Benteke, Zaha, Sakho and Townsend in the team, Crystal Palace are a really strong unit on the paper.
Despite having some quality players, the Eagles are finding it difficult to test their capabilities to full extent on the pitch. Moyes might have be the man to help the Palace team to find themselves and work together as a unit. With a really good squad like Crystal Palace, Moyes, maybe, would have done wonders for the London club this season.
Ryan Giggs
For some unknown reason to football fans, Ryan Giggs is yet to take up a full-time job as a manager despite him being keen to take up a role. In the past, Giggs took up the role as Manchester United’s head coach in 2013 after David Moyes was sacked 10 months into his career as the Red Devils manager. The 42-year-old was in charge of the final four games of the season of which there were 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat.
With former player turned managers like Zinedine Zidane finding success at big European clubs like Real Madrid, there was every chance of Giggs being successful at Crystal Palace, but it would be fair to say that it would have been a gamble. Gambles do pay off sometimes, don’t they? Anyway, this is yet another case of ‘what could have been’.