Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan ‘would be surprised’ if Steve Cooper left Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest to take over from Roy Hodgson at Selhurst Park.
Reports linking Steve Cooper with the Crystal Palace job, Jordan suggests, may be a classic case of putting two and two together and getting five.
The Eagles have admired the former England U17 boss from afar for a while now. As far back as 2021, when Cooper was still at the helm of Swansea City, The Standard reported that he had been considered to replace Hodgson when the veteran tactician’s first spell at Selhurst Park came to an end.
And, with a now-76-year-old Hodgson likely to ride off into the sunset again sooner rather than later, it has not taken long for Cooper’s name to reappear in the gossip columns.
As far as Jordan is concerned, however, reports linking Cooper with Crystal Palace are as overblown as the suggestions that Cooper should be worried for his job at Nottingham Forest.
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“There’s not a long wrong at Forest. The problem they’ve got is that they are drawing too many games. In their last ten, they’ve lost four games. They’ve beaten Aston Villa,” Jordan argues, speaking on talkSPORT (28 November 11am).
“So this idea that Cooper is in jeopardy, I would imagine, is a construct of the media.”
Forest have won only one of their last nine Premier League games. But, as Jordan points out, it is only a couple of weeks since they cruised past a Villa side now entrenched in the top four. Dropping points late on against West Ham and Luton Town, there remains a feeling that Forest are not altogether too far away from establishing themselves as a solid, mid-table top-flight outfit.
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“I always find this very curious,” Jordan adds. “Once upon a time, Cooper was mentioned as someone that (current Crystal Palace chairman) Steve Parish likes. Didn’t employ him but quite liked him. So that is now the link to Palace.
“I would suggest that making the link to another football club because once upon a time they expressed an interest is a leap. No journalist knows what Steve Parish is thinking when Roy Hodgson is in situ.
“I would be surprised. This time last year, we were talking about the knives being out for Steve Cooper. And then he got a new contract!”
According to reports, Lille boss Paulo Fonseca is another potential Hodgson successor in South London. Fonseca has accumulated nine trophies in an impressive coaching career.
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