Crystal Palace turning towards manager who would rather have West Ham job

After sacking Patrick Vieira earlier this week, Crystal Palace have an urgent job on their hands in replacing him quickly, with one of their potential targets seemingly waiting around for the West Ham vacancy.

The Frenchman fell on his sword at Selhurst Park after not being able to motivate his side to get a single win from their games in 2023, their last victory coming on the final day of 2022 according to WhoScored.

It’s a brave move from Steve Parish and his fellow Palace directors, though if they’re able to secure Vieira’s replacement quickly, with 12 games still left to play, the south London outfit have a fighting chance of staying in the English top-flight.

They do need to start getting points on the board as, although their current 12th position would normally be seen as relatively comfortable, at present they’re only five points ahead of basement club, Southampton.

To that end, an experienced head to lead the team to safety would be ideal, and it’s with that in mind that, according to London World, Rafael Benitez remains a candidate for the position. Indeed FourFourTwo note that the bookmakers have him as the favourite at this point.

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However, Daily Mail suggested in February that the Spaniard was on standby to see if David Moyes will be relieved of his duties at the London Stadium, and in which case he would take the job at the Hammers.

With that in mind, Palace should surely strike Benitez’s name from their list.