Crystal Palace are continuing to struggle in the Premier League this season, with Richard Keys suggesting Gareth Southgate could now be the solution to replace Oliver Glasner.
Southgate is available after stepping down as England manager after Euro 2024, which has inevitably led to plenty of speculation about his next job in recent weeks and months.
Palace looks like somewhere where we could soon see a vacancy after such an awful start to the 2024/25 campaign from Glasner.
The Austrian tactician made a great start to life at Selhurst Park last season but is now struggling badly, with the Eagles just two points above the relegation zone in 17th place in the Premier League table right now.
Palace have won just one league game in their opening ten, so if things don’t change quickly, there seems some logic in moving for someone like Southgate, who did an impressive job with England.
Gareth Southgate – a safe option for Crystal Palace?
“Palace stumble on. One minute you think they’ve sorted things out, then they slip up again. Gareth Safegate?” Richard Keys said of the Palace situation on his blog.
Southgate might not be the most inspiring candidate, with plenty of England fans critical of his team’s style of football at times, even if he did guide the Three Lions to two Euros finals.
However, Palace just need to ensure they survive in the top flight, so that kind of role could be ideal for Southgate to adopt a safety-first approach that suits his style and personality more.
Having said that, Southgate is also surely good enough to be a bit picky and might well feel tempted to stick it out a bit longer to see if something more tempting comes along.
Palace are a big club with a lot of good players, but they’re in a difficult situation at the moment and Southgate might not fancy a relegation battle when he could perhaps be in contention for a bigger job if one becomes available.
