BIG SAM MAY WANT TO KEEP HIS PHONE ON

LUCIEN FAVRE is one of those names that used to be dropped by the same people who thought Turkey were going to win Euro 2020. He took Borussia Monchengladbach into the Champions League, then did the same with Nice in France. He won the German Cup with Borussia Dortmund. He is clearly a good coach. Lately, however, he does not get linked with Manchester United so much, or Arsenal. Monchengladbach were bottom when he left; Dortmund were outside the Champions League places and had just been beaten 5-1 by Stuttgart. Now Favre may be going to Crystal Palace. It would be a good appointment but an interesting one. Palace is the type of job that usually goes to a domestic coach.

A few bad results and it is firefighting time. Frank de Boer was their only foreign appointment since Attilio Lombardo in 1998 and he worked all of five games before panic set in and Roy Hodgson was summoned. Lombardo got seven games. Palace see Favre as a coach to take them to the next level. He has that pedigree. Even so, it might be an idea for Sam Allardyce to keep his phone on, just in case.