Crystal Palace have considered candidates including Graham Potter for their manager’s job but are still expected to persuade Roy Hodgson to stay on despite the 75-year-old’s reservations about continuing for another season.
Hodgson steered Palace to safety by earning five victories from eight games after replacing Patrick Vieira in March and has held talks with the chairman, Steve Parish, over a one-year contract that would extend the former England coach’s record as the league’s oldest manager.
Parish is also believed to have discussed several other contenders for the post including Potter, who was sacked by Chelsea at the start of April, Nottingham Forest’s Steve Cooper and Brendan Rodgers, who has since rejoined Celtic.
Hodgson, who turns 76 three days before Palace travel to Sheffield United for their opening fixture, remains the frontrunner. Any deal would include retaining Ray Lewington, his long-term ally, as first-team coach and his assistant Paddy McCarthy, the former Palace captain who took charge of the loss to Arsenal in March after Vieira was sacked as a result of a winless start to 2023. McCarthy is highly rated by the Palace hierarchy and seen as a potential future manager having begun his coaching career with the club’s under-18s after retiring from playing in 2016.
Last week Eberechi Eze paid tribute to Hodgson’s “insane wisdom” and credited him for his England call-up, which brought the 25-year-old a first cap as a substitute in Malta.
Palace are keen to build on their improvement under Hodgson despite uncertainty over the future of Wilfried Zaha, whose contract expires at the end of the month.
Zaha is yet to decide whether to sign a new four-year deal worth £200,000 a week having received a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia. Palace are expected to demand at least £50m for Marc Guéhi, the England defender who has attracted interest from Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham among others.
